Pellet Prices in Northern NY, WOW

[drizler]

Just popped by Wallyworld yesterday and couldn't believe the price of pellets. Energex premium for the lowly sum of $4.96 a bag. For that price you might as well just turn on the oil gas or burn your front porch. Just 2 years ago you could get them in Quebec with the nice exhacnge rate for $107 / ton. Proof positive that if you are going to buy pellets YOU WILL GET THEM ALL IN THE SUMMEER or else................

 

[carpniels]

Hey Driz,

I was just at the Ace hardware in Rome, NY (Mohawk valley) and they are selling Dry Creek pellets for $7.49 a bag. What are they smoking? Must be some of the smoke coming off of those pellets, because that is REAL expensive.

Carpniels

 

[Gibbonboy]

A local fuel oil/propane/garden center business has "Wood Pellets- $279/ton" on their big sign by the road. That's about twice the price for anthracite, which I believe has twice the BTU's/ton of pellets, making coal 25% of the price per BTU. You're right, might as well burn oil. When I first looked at buying a stove, I was going to go with pellets- then I figured out the cost, which at that time was fairly comparable to oil. Went with coal, now going to wood, only because disposal of coal ash/cinders is such a pain. You can't find a pellet stove around here, at any price, though. People snapped them up in August, I wonder how many of them can't find pellets now?

 

[cogger]

Just popped by Wallyworld yesterday and couldn't believe the price of pellets. Energex premium for the lowly sum of $4.96 a bag. For that price you might as well just turn on the oil gas or burn your front porch. Just 2 years ago you could get them in Quebec with the nice exhacnge rate for $107 / ton. Proof positive that if you are going to buy pellets YOU WILL GET THEM ALL IN THE SUMMEER or else................

That is high but still not bad in comparison with other merchants. I will try my local wallyworld to see the price. The local ma & pa hardware store here in town is $6.98 a bag. Nearby Aubachon Hardware is $279 ton or $6 per pag. I have yet to priced them at the Home Depot and most likely will not as I have resorted to using Bio Bricks in my VC Intrepid coalstove. Bio's are $279 ton here or $6 a bundle.

The higher cost of freight movement because of the hurricanes of 2005 contributes to most of this. Oh ya and share holder greed.

 

[cogger]

Hey Driz,

I was just at the Ace hardware in Rome, NY (Mohawk valley) and they are selling Dry Creek pellets for $7.49 a bag. What are they smoking? Must be some of the smoke coming off of those pellets, because that is REAL expensive.

Carpniels

In 96' the local Agway here was charging that! I $hit you not. While other merchants around where at $3.50

 

[Hammerjoe]

The situation is no better here in New Brunswick.

Right now they are $4.99Cad, I bought mine this last july for $4.29cad.

Its going up, when I bought my stove I expected a sharp increase in the price of electricity, (the company asked for an increase of 17%) and I calculated that with a reasonable increase yearly afterwards in the price of both pellets and electricity (3%/year), I would save enough to pay the stove in 5-7years.

Well, it turns out, the governement has decided to cap the increase of electricity to 8% and is also not charging the provincial tax (8%),so basically electricity only went up 6%.

The only positive side of all this is that the governement at the same time, also removed the provincial tax (8%) for all energy sources, but we can only claim it in November, but in the meantime there was an election and the oposition won, so right now I am not sure if that rebate is still on.

In the meantime pellets went from $3.79/bag in march when I bought them to $4.29 this july (altough there were places that were selling them at $5.25) to $4.99 currently which means an increase of 30%.

I paid 13% more in july and now they are 30% higher than this past march... I shudder to think what they will be next year.
And here I thought, pellets would be cheap because after all the wood industry is huge in New Brunswick and with the amount of waste that they produce, pellets would be relatively cheap...
Once again fooled by what looked like simple logic...

 

[Mike Wilson]

And they wonder why pellet heating can't take off and become more successful...

I can understand the industry getting hammered last year, they were caught by surprise... but this year they should have had their act together, and they don't. Yes, there's a new pellet mill or two, but these people should be cranking out pellets so that its a considerable savings over oil... and they're not. So the industry will suffer. The convenience and potential savings of a pellet stove dwindle pretty quickly when oil is under 2 bucks a gallon. I wanted to get a pellet stove in the house this year, but I'm not going to spend 3 grand on a stove and then have to pay 250/ton for fuel. I'll just get another oil delivery at 1.75/gallon and throw some wood in the Jotul... hell, there's 3 cord in the back, 175/cord, delivered.

-- Mike

 

[Gibbonboy]

Heating with pellets would be much more popular if Wallyworld sold the "Mr. Pellet" kit for $149.98 (no, not the rabbit, Mr. Pellet!). Until then producing pellets is a niche market with custom tooling, i.e. very expensive. I would have thought that there would be more capital floating for building plants this year, but maybe the margin is still too small to make it profitable. It's a "chicken or the egg" thing- perhaps if they figure out how to make fuel out of switchgrass, or make pellets with less into the processing, it will become both cheaper and more profitable. Also, the stoves being 3 grand doesn't help. 3 grand buys a real pretty woodstove these days.

 

[drizler]

Yup its true and for sure they are smoking crack. While in that store I saw they had a no name pellet stove for $1400. Thats a lot of coin for a no name stove with a small hopper. It also had a 4" pipe system which you know is gonna cost you bucks if you need any more than the standard pipe kit. Way better going to Lowes and getting an Englander which while cheap and a small hopper everyone rates as very reliable using off the shelf goodies and easy to maintain. The other thing I noticed was that the local Lowes dodn't have any Englander Corn Stoves. All those are is a corn burning verion of their pellet model. Again simple and no bells and whistles but solid and around $1400 I hear tell. Thats a far cry from the $2600 + tax Magnum ( last years local price) for the same stove I have.
Check out those pellet prices and its no wonder why I tell people just to mix corn in with the pellets and keep it clean as you can. For those prices you can afford to replace that P vent every year and still come out aheadl. I have been using P vent for pellets for 2 years ( allowed with my stove ) and there is still no sign of corrosion, just staining. Its still a deal.

 

[Roospike]

Wal-Mart Nebraska still $3.69 a bag premium hard wood pellets = $184.50 a ton.
2 local farm stores $210. a ton. PreHrd. wood.

 

[tundraSQ]

supply and demand ba-by...supply and demand. here in VT they are $259 a ton. Fuel oil is $2.89 a gallon. I will burn a ton a month, and last year I was going thru close to 400 gallons a month. So pellets still win.

 

[Xena]

Best I could find was $242 a ton at walmart.
I'm not buying any at that price.
Just filled the oil tank for 2.04 per gallon.
Have one ton of corn/pellet mix left over from
last year. Will run the stove on weekends only.

 

[Mike Wilson]

You guys are buying expensive oil... are you getting it through a service plan, or COD?
I loaded up last week for 175/gallon, but its COD.

-- Mike

 

[Xena]

You guys are buying expensive oil... are you getting it through a service plan, or COD?
I loaded up last week for 175/gallon, but its COD.

-- Mike

Prices are what they are in any given location.
Here are this weeks rates for my area:
http://www.newenglandoil.com/massachusetts/zone4.asp?x=0