One ton of pellets are they

[johnnywarm]

Equal to a Cord of wood??


Thank you JW

 

[begreen]

No. A pound of pellets and a pound of good dry wood are roughly equivalent in heat value ~8500 btus. But a cord of very dry oak will weigh about 3500 lbs. vs the 2000 lbs of pellets. The pellet stove will burn more efficiently, maybe as much as 10-20% more, but not enough to come close to making up the difference.

 

[johnnywarm]

No. A pound of pellets and a pound of good dry wood are roughly equivalent in heat value ~8500 btus. But a cord of very dry oak will weigh about 3500 lbs. vs the 2000 lbs of pellets. The pellet stove will burn more efficiently, maybe as much as 10-20% more, but not enough to come close to making up the difference.

Thank you begreen

 

[johnnywarm]

Softwood 2-3,000 lb/cord 10-15,000,000 Btu/cord
Hardwood 4-5,000 lb/cord 18-24,000,000 Btu/cord
Sawdust - green 10-13 lb/cu ft 8-10,000,000 Btu/ton
Sawdust - kiln dry 8-10 lb/cu ft 14-18,000,000 Btu/ton
Chips - 45% moisture 10-30 lb/cu ft 7,600,000 Btu/ton
Hogged 10-30 lb/cu ft 16-20,000,000 Btu/ton
Bark 10-20 lb/cu ft 9-10,500,000 Btu/ton
Wood pellets - 10% moisture 40-50 lb/cu ft 16,000,000 Btu/ton
Hard Coal (anthracite) 13,000 Btu/lb 26,000,000 Btu/ton
Soft Coal (bituminous) 12,000 Btu/lb 24,000,000 Btu/ton
Rubber - pelletized 16,000 Btu/lb 32-34,000,000 Btu/ton
Plastic 18-20,000 Btu/lb
Corn - shelled 7,800-8,500 Btu/lb 15-17,000,000 Btu/ton
i also have have fuel cost calaculator link below as part of my signature
dont forget to vote for mme @ other link below.

Thank you. This has helped me alot. This is a great site for info on pellets.


Johnnywarm

 

[mtarbert]

Rubber - pelletized 16,000 Btu/lb 32-34,000,000 Btu/ton


Have I missed something? Is Rubber a viable heat source?
Mike

 

[carpniels]

Yeah,

What is up with the rubber???

Are you quoting some of those numbers because of the powerplants that have the option of using shredded tires for fuel? I read something about that for an upstate powerplant and shredding business, but they had some permit issues.

Carpniels

 

[DavidV]

I can't imagine how you could use tires for fuel. put aside all the polution concerns, how would you deal with all the gunk coming off the tires so it didn't clog up your system?

 

[johnnywarm]

Its interesting

 

[Metal]

That would be a great Halloween prank, throw an old tire into someone's OWB! Of course, it probably wouldn't smoke much worse than normal ; )

 

[moralleper]

a lot of concrete factories burn old tires that are pelletized for power and heat.

back to the question at hand. I used between 2 and 3 cords with burning wood in my old wood stove, and I only use 2 tons of pellets. I know the btu's do not add up but this is my real world experence.

 

[begreen]

There are lots of variables ml. You'd need to look at the stove efficiencies, fuel, blowers, the house (any insulation, caulking, weatherization changes) and the degree days for the winters involved. If I heated our house exclusively with pellets (when we had the stove) it would be about 4 tons. Our pellet stove did better than the woodstove (F3CB) in general because it was more efficient, much more centrally located, has a blower, and all along I have been tightening up the house. Finally, when we got a cord of less than perfectly seasoned wood, the pellet stove easilly outperformed the Jotul.

 

[hearthtools]

I look at is as 1 an 1/2 cord of hard wood = one ton of pellets for heating

but you can put 2 tons of pellets in the same space as a cord of wood.

 

[iceman]

There are lots of variables ml. You'd need to look at the stove efficiencies, fuel, blowers, the house (any insulation, caulking, weatherization changes) and the degree days for the winters involved. If I heated our house exclusively with pellets (when we had the stove) it would be about 4 tons. Our pellet stove did better than the woodstove (F3CB) in general because it was more efficient, much more centrally located, has a blower, and all along I have been tightening up the house. Finally, when we got a cord of less than perfectly seasoned wood, the pellet stove easilly outperformed the Jotul.

but now you just use the wood stove... is it still the same or the wood stove heats better

 

[Xena]

1 1/2 cord of hard wood = 1 ton of pellets

Some pellets I've purchased had that printed on the bags.

 

[johnnywarm]

I look at is as 1 an 1/2 cord of hard wood = one ton of pellets for heating

but you can put 2 tons of pellets in the same space as a cord of wood.

And here i thought it was the other way around.

 

[begreen]

It is the opposite. 1 ton of pellets = about 56% BTUs of a ton of hardwood

1 cord of hardwood = ~30,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 3500lbs)

1 ton of pellets = ~ 17,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 2000 lbs)

If the wood in the cord is higher moisture, it weighs more but gives off less btus, but the math is the same 8000btus x 4000lbs = 32,000,000 BTUs

Where the pellet stove narrows the gap is efficiency, but not enough for parity.

 

[johnnywarm]

It is the opposite. 1 ton of pellets = about 56% BTUs of a ton of hardwood

1 cord of hardwood = ~30,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 3500lbs)

1 ton of pellets = ~ 17,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 2000 lbs)

If the wood in the cord is higher moisture, it weighs more but gives off less btus, but the math is the same 8000btus x 4000lbs = 32,000,000 BTUs

Where the pellet stove narrows the gap is efficiency, but not enough for parity.

So its 3,000lb of pellets to a cord of hard wood---??

 

[Xena]

I copied the quote below from http://www.pelletheat.com/core/aboutPellets/
"One ton of wood pellets has the heat value of about one and a half cords of wood...."

9th line down in the bulleted list via the link above.

 

[GVA]

It is the opposite. 1 ton of pellets = about 56% BTUs of a ton of hardwood

1 cord of hardwood = ~30,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 3500lbs)

1 ton of pellets = ~ 17,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 2000 lbs)

If the wood in the cord is higher moisture, it weighs more but gives off less btus, but the math is the same 8000btus x 4000lbs = 32,000,000 BTUs

Where the pellet stove narrows the gap is efficiency, but not enough for parity.

So its 3,000lb of pellets to a cord of hard wood---??

It all depends on the type of hardwood....
Be Green I think 30,000,000 is a bit high for what 90% of the burners actually get unless its a fruitwood....
I would scale it back to 22-26 mil BTU for the avg Joe

 

[cbrodsky]

I copied the quote below from http://www.pelletheat.com/core/aboutPellets/
"One ton of wood pellets has the heat value of about one and a half cords of wood...."

9th line down in the bulleted list via the link above.

Wouldn't be the first compressed wood product with dubious performance claims not validated by independent testing...

It is well-accepted from numerous ag extension websites that a cord of seasoned hardwood has around 25 million BTUs and a ton of pellets has 16 million BTUs. (my guess is that to help make this claim, the pellet companies assume you are using softwood with much lower BTU values)

The debatable part is the efficiency in converting to heat. A pellet stove is around 80% efficient (a point that is fairly well accepted since they are computer-controlled). In which case that ton of pellets gives you about 12.8 million BTUs in your house.

Woodstove efficiency is hotly debated (ha ha ha) - a good stove should do at least 70%, so that cord of wood gives you about 25*0.7 = 17.5 million BTUs in your house.

Let's be pessimistic and say it's only 50% - then you get 25*0.5 = 12.5 million BTUs in your house. Even with this pessimistic view, I'm still saying a cord of wood is essentially equal to a ton of pellets.

Finally, suppose I just declare that woodstoves are 34% efficient because I hate woodburners. Now, if you had 1.5 cords: 1.5 cord * 25 MBtu/cord * 0.34 = 12.75 million BTUs in your house.

In summary, to make that claim on the pellet bag in the Northeast, where hardwood rules, I have to assume that pellet stoves are 80% efficient and woodstoves are 34% efficient. I don't think so... and neither do objective third parties.

-Colin

 

[begreen]

It is the opposite. 1 ton of pellets = about 56% BTUs of a ton of hardwood

1 cord of hardwood = ~30,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 3500lbs)

1 ton of pellets = ~ 17,000,000 BTUs (8500 btus x 2000 lbs)

If the wood in the cord is higher moisture, it weighs more but gives off less btus, but the math is the same 8000btus x 4000lbs = 32,000,000 BTUs

Where the pellet stove narrows the gap is efficiency, but not enough for parity.

So its 3,000lb of pellets to a cord of hard wood---??

It all depends on the type of hardwood....
Be Green I think 30,000,000 is a bit high for what 90% of the burners actually get unless its a fruitwood....
I would scale it back to 22-26 mil BTU for the avg Joe

Pellets are super dry. So a fair comparison would be kiln dried hardwood. That is why the higher figure. But if you drop down the btus for a moister hardwood, say 20%, it's going to weigh a lot more as a cord of wood, so it's really a wash. If you want 24,000,000 btus for a cord of wood weighing 4500 lbs, fine.