The cost of wood pellets really looks good, compared to electric heating

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
PassionForFire&Water

PassionForFire&Water

Minister of Fire
Jan 14, 2011
725
Billerica, MA
www.caluweinc.com
I just received my electrical bill, and decided to crunch some numbers.

I do have a PV array, but last month i used more electricity
My bill was $141.56 for 418 kW ($74.70 for electric and $66.86 for delivery)

This turns out to be $0.339 per kWh
OR
$99.26 per 1,000,000 BTU _g_g_g_g_g
(1kW=3,412BTU or 1,000,000 / 3412 = 293 kW)

Wood pellets at $265/ton is $16.52 per 1,000,000 BTU (calculated with 8,000 BTU/Lb of wood pellets)
Wood pellets at $300/ton is $18.75 per 1,000,000 BTU
That is 5.3 to 6 to more expensive for electric heat (= air source heat pumps)
 
No, you are incorrect. The air source heat pump does not produce BTUs from kWhs, it moves BTUs using kWhs.
And it does so with an efficiency higher than 100 pct. I.e. 1 kWh used gives you 7000 to 10000 BTUs (for 200-300 pct efficiency; mine goes to above 400 pct efficiency).

That still leaves electric more expensive than pellets, but not by the amount you calculated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sloeffle
stoveliker said:
No, you are incorrect. The air source heat pump does not produce BTUs from kWhs, it moves BTUs using kWhs.
And it does so with an efficiency higher than 100 pct. I.e. 1 kWh used gives you 7000 to 10000 BTUs (for 200-300 pct efficiency; mine goes to above 400 pct efficiency).

That still leaves electric more expensive than pellets, but not by the amount you calculated.
Click to expand...
What I'm pointing out is that my electricity, cost me about 3 times more than, say in 2018 or 2019
While my cost for wood pellets stayed the same amount of energy.
So, it really does not matter if the air source heat pump is 200 or 400% effcient; I would be paying 3 times more to operate it.
 
I agree with that. My point was only you would not get 3412 BTU for 33.9 ct, but more than 10,000 with your air source heat pump. (I did note that in my last sentence.)
 
Yes , that's between 70 and 85 pct.
 
So, for a heat pump cop of 4 it's about $25 per million BTUs, and for pellets it's about $20 per million BTUs.
 
COP totally depends on the source temperature. Coastal areas, sure COP of 4 is achievable, inland in the northern states, good luck. Also keeping in mind the heat pump must output the most heat when operating at its lowest COP. I'd be surprised in my climate if I could average a COP over 2.5 for the winter. At that rate its better to just burn the natural gas in a furnace instead of the power plant.

Wood pellets are definitely a more cost effective form of heating in many places, and their use is gaining traction given the amount of pellet plants that have been built here over the last 15 years.
 
All true. I'm just making the point that the prices as listed per 1M BTU were not a correct comparison.
 
Right, efficiency is an important number but most people are also concerned with cost per million btu. Another consideration is that even though pellet fuel is cheaper per delivered btu there is an amount of effort involved with loading, cleaning, and listening to that thing drone on all the time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bholler
Plus the electric costs to run the pellet appliance, room fans, etc. Most people don't factor those in. They may be negligible, but they still add up.
 
Highbeam said:
Right, efficiency is an important number but most people are also concerned with cost per million btu. Another consideration is that even though pellet fuel is cheaper per delivered btu there is an amount of effort involved with loading, cleaning, and listening to that thing drone on all the time.
Click to expand...
Ah, but this is the boiler forum. My pellet boiler feeds itself from bulk pellets blown from truck into its bin. My pellet stove requires tending. Pellet boilers are spendy, even with state and federal subsidies for putting them in. But it was time to replace the ancient oil boiler and its rusted tank.
 
As with everything the devil is in the details. Pellet and electric prices vary wildly by region, this year in my neck of the woods pellets are $350 per ton, hydro is 9 cents per kWh. So even with plan old resistive baseboard heat the cost ends up the same. Heating oil is terrifying this year here.
 
Stove oil in the Yukon $1.915 plus $.1341 carbon tax=$2.0491+gst .102455=$2.151555 a liter with all tax's in.
One tank i filled came in at over $1800.00.That house in the cold months will consume close to 700 liters a month.
Single mom with 5 kids working her ass off to support her family and deadbeat partner
She will not afford the fuel,i already know that i will be waiting months after the fuel is delivered to get paid.
I am going to be forced to suspend deliveries this winter to people.
3 weeks of deliveries have added $85,000.00 to my receivable list,one week left which will put me over $100,000.00 delivered.This is all fuel that i have already paid for,it will be a couple weeks before any of it trickels back in.
Going to be a bad wither for a lot of folks
 
  • Wow
  • Like
Reactions: cumminstinkerer, Shank and stoveliker
@salecker it may be a little worse up there but not good here either, I am sure glad I have the wood boiler! now if I could just get the truck to run on wood, lol!
 
I've seen that, but not really a viable option, hauling the wood would take more energy than I could make
 
cumminstinkerer said:
@salecker it may be a little worse up there but not good here either, I am sure glad I have the wood boiler! now if I could just get the truck to run on wood, lol!
Click to expand...
With some modifications that is doable
My Dad and his freinds had a truck that used wood right after the war in Europe.It didn't have a lot of power,the gasification unit took up a lot of the space for hauling,but they could use it on wood.It was better than walking and much better then pushing wheelbarrows of stuffs
 
  • Like
Reactions: cumminstinkerer
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back