Total tons of pellets used in a year.

[buildingmaint]

How many tons do other people use in their pellet stoves? I have a Breckwell Big E utility furness .I heat around 650 SQFT. I have my stove on a programmable stat. I only use pellets to heat my house. I run it on the 2lbs -1.5 lbs setting aka high low setting. I used 3 ton s last year. I bought 3.5 tons this year.I run the stove from OCT -AP.I paid $670. 00for 3.5 tons not delivered from local Agway. I live in NW PA. Is this about the average amount of pellets to be using in a year? I read on another thread that some one who lives in WY only uses 2-2.5 tons, but I didn't want to hi-jack the thread with my question.

 

[BrotherBart]

You use a 55,000 BTU heater for 650 square feet? The furnace is half the size of your house.

 

[fletchtb]

I have an Enviro Empress that I am using to heat my 2100 sq. ft. home.

The stove is running 24 hrs a day right now and am burning about 75-80lbs of pellets a day. I expect to go through the 5 tons I purchased this year. Next year I will get 6 tons.

The good news is I am not using any propane this year (less than 200 gallons so far) when I used over 1700 gallons of propane last year, and I am keeping my house much warmer.

 

[GVA]

I doubt that you will need all those pellets this year. It's a good year here in the northeast...
Most pellets are the same BTU value although If those are those ambiance pellets from agway you will notice a difference by switching to another brand, Those were the only pellets that I ever burned that just did not heat the house. IMHO

 

[elkimmeg]

You use a 55,000 BTU heater for 650 square feet? The furnace is half the size of your house.

I don't know your insulation or how tight your home is but If I do a heat Calc based upon New England weather where I live you sq footage spects out to needing 16,250 BTUS
and you are running a pellet stove 4 x that BTU output and wonder where the pellets arew going?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

i'll probably run 1.5 to 2 ton this season,( probably could get by with less easily but i experiment a lot at home), at most due to long warm fall/early winter. temps just now getting to where it gets run daily. i run lowest heat range 90% of the time and use about a bag every 24-30 hours. i have a waaod unit as well which i will likely use some when i feel like building a fire. but im in a smaller house 1200 sq ft. very well insulated and a lot of heat really isnt necessary any more since re-insulating. prior years before the insulation work was done i would run the woodstove literally 24-7 from november or earlier through march/april. burn 3-4 cords of wood. insulation is the key to efficiency. ive learned it from personal experience. this house is now tight and well insulated to the point i could heat it up to 70 degrees turn off the heat and keep it warm rubbing sticks together. made a believer outta me

 

[buildingmaint]

The pellets that I 'm using this year are called HAMER HOT ONES and SOUTHERN STATES CORP,both out of VA. What are ambiance pellets? If I were using 75-80 lbs a day I would need to buy 16000 lbs of pellets for a year. . The manufacturer does not recommend that you use the stove above the 2lbs per hour setting because it is to hard on the stove to go higher. My stat is set at 68 when I 'm there and 65 when I'm not.Some day I would like to run it on straight #3 to see hoe hot I could get it in my house ,but I always get thrifty{not cheap} and can't bring myself to do it ,worried I will run out of pellets before winter is over. I don't even run the pilot light on my natural gas furnace because it was costing me around $25-30 .00 just to run the pilot. My gas bills run around $19-25 a month .

 

[webbie]

Elk and others....

He said he is running at 1.5 to 2 lbs per hour. That is about 10-12 thousand BTU output. Makes sense.
To answer the question, that amount per year seems in the normal range for your use - almost full time from Oct-Apr.

You have to be careful about hearsay with Pellets....there are a lot of factors involved. Back when the first pellet craze came and went, we used to have some local dealerthat told people they would need 1-2 tons per year to heat their houses - totally! That was when I came up with the joke about "nuclear pellets". A BTU is a BTU is a BTU. Pellets are made of wood.

Given the normal "my fish was this big" and "I bowled a 250" tendency of mankind, you have to consider that once someone buys a pellet stove, they WANT it to heat the house on as few pellets as possible...AND, you will NEVER find anyone who exaggerates what they use. More likely, you will hear many "magic" tales. So, in short, you burn the amount of pellets you need to create the heat you want.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

You use a 55,000 BTU heater for 650 square feet? The furnace is half the size of your house.

I don't know your insulation or how tight your home is but If I do a heat Calc based upon New England weather where I live you sq footage spects out to needing 16,250 BTUS
and you are running a pellet stove 4 x that BTU output and wonder where the pellets arew going?

pellet stoves that are rated up to 55k btu , means that is max rating , personally i think thats a bit high , even for "input rating" figure that a good pellet will generally release 8500 btu per pound, that means the unit would have to feed 6.4 lbs per hour to achieve that rating for input value. to do that on the output side it wouold have to feed (basing on default output level of 78% efficiency) 8.3 lbs per hour. thats a crap load of pellets.

the unit on a low setting will likely put out 10 to 15k btu burning 1.5 to 2.25 lbs per hour math is easy if you know the efficiency rating and the output of the brand pellet you are using (8500 is essentially middle of the road average and im rounding off to whole numbers) 55k/8500=6.4 to figure output (using same pellets)8500 X .78=6330 55k/6330=8.3 now figuring that 6.4 X 6330 = 40512 that would be the actual output (or usable heat ) from the unit. the rest is exhausted outside. now if the unit has a higher rating these numbers will not be actual, but most times 78% rating is accepted as default when units get certified, this is the lowest efficiency rating allowed for epa cert. most pellet stoves will actually be a bit higher actually. some get up in the low 80's. and some pellets will actually release a few hundered btu pewr pound more or less. im just using the btu's for this unit and averages for fuel and efficiency ratings for this set of calculations.

my stove (ESW 25-pdvc) is 9500 to 31500 btu rated output figuring for 1.5 to 5 lbs /hr feed ratio @78% efficiency

 

[bige]

I have a big e and have almost used 2 tons up and I have 1 ton in reserve. I heat about 1600 square foot house. I've been very happy with my stove.

 

[jimkelt]

I doubt that you will need all those pellets this year. It's a good year here in the northeast...
Most pellets are the same BTU value although If those are those ambiance pellets from agway you will notice a difference by switching to another brand, Those were the only pellets that I ever burned that just did not heat the house. IMHO

I would have to say we have also heard that of LG. Most pellets in general are like comparing apples to apples, heatwise, we just look for consistency. We will use about eight to ten ton this year. Have a small stove heating a 400 sq. ft. (pathetically insulated) office, a boiler doing heat and hot water for ~3000 sq. ft., and a P68 cause I like it.

The simple 1 bag pellets = 2.5 gallons oil = 3.75 gallons propane helps most people figure how many pellets they might use. Although temperature plays a big part(but since you can't acurately guess what the temps next year will be the above works pretty well). This year I know I am using less fuel cause it's so warm out still!

 

[Xena]

I paid $670 for 3.5 tons not delivered from local Agway.
I live in NW PA. Is this about the average amount of pellets to be using in a year? I read on another thread
that some one who lives in WY only uses 2-2.5 tons..

Too many different variables to try and make any sort of comparison between
what you are using for pellets and what someone else is using.

 

[GVA]

I doubt that you will need all those pellets this year. It's a good year here in the northeast...
Most pellets are the same BTU value although If those are those ambiance pellets from agway you will notice a difference by switching to another brand, Those were the only pellets that I ever burned that just did not heat the house. IMHO

I would have to say we have also heard that of LG. Most pellets in general are like comparing apples to apples, heatwise, we just look for consistency. We will use about eight to ten ton this year. Have a small stove heating a 400 sq. ft. (pathetically insulated) office, a boiler doing heat and hot water for ~3000 sq. ft., and a P68 cause I like it.

The simple 1 bag pellets = 2.5 gallons oil = 3.75 gallons propane helps most people figure how many pellets they might use. Although temperature plays a big part(but since you can't acurately guess what the temps next year will be the above works pretty well). This year I know I am using less fuel cause it's so warm out still!

The granules LG never had a problem with those either.

 

[Shane]

I'm the one that posted about the 2 tons. In reality it was two pallets so it was almost 2.5 tons last year. I have a tendancy to forget that the pallets I buy are 60 bags not 50. Like I said though I've used about 2 pallets this current year (I have 15 bags left) I will go get the third pallet toward the end of this month and estimate I'll use around half of it by March when we quit heating regularly. So this year it will be 3 pallets or roughly 3.5 ton. I'm heating 1200sq.ft. house was constructed in 1982 and is fairly well insulated. I have an optimum floor plan for the stove as well. I burn Heartland pellets which are listed at 9200btu/lb. They're the highest btu/lb that I've ever been able to find, on top of the fact that they're the cheapest that I can find in my area. The stove is a Lopi Yankee I have it set on a normal 24v t'stat and it runs on/off mode on the high setting which burns about 5 lbs per hour of operation. When I first got the stove I ran it on low consistently, I used more pellets than running it in auto mode where it turns itself off when the t-stat is satisfied. Many people don't burn in auto modes or on/off modes because the units cycle and it decreases ignitor life. I'm not going to bother actually figuring it but with the 1.5lb per hour that I save when my stove isn't running unnecessarily I'm sure that'll add up to an ignitor by the time it burns out. I'm on my third year with it now.

 

[buildingmaint]

Shane thanks for your reply.My stove only has 5 settings and by the owners manual say that the most lbs per hour I can get out of it is 3.5 per hour ,and they don't recomend that becauuse it is hard on the equiptment.Any thing higher then 2 lbs per hour would brake the bank . If pellets keep going up it may be cheaper or a wash to go back to natural gas.

 

[tundraSQ]

Here in vermont i am heating a 2600sq ft house and using JUST a harmon xxv.(no oil at all) I will finish the 3rd ton around Feb 1. I have one ton left and will need to buy 2 more. "My" stove dealertold me I would burn 3 ton, so I ordered 4. I should have ordered six since I have 3 girls females in the house and this little baby works hard to keep the house at 70. On colder days a bag will last about 10 hours.

 

[webbie]

tundra, we are 1/3 of the way through winter and it has been one of the warmest in history.
I think you will definitely be into 7 tons plus - especially if you have no other backup at all.
Hopefully you are getting a decent price on the fuel.

 

[The Patriot]

I have 3 girls females in the house and this little baby works hard to keep the house at 70. On colder days a bag will last about 10 hours.

I feel you on the female thing. My wife kept complaining about the temperature in our bedroom upstairs to the point of actually saying "I hate the stove" (blasphemy, I know). The thermostat right outside the room (with the bedroom door left open all night) was usually between 68 and 72. Sure, the bedroom was probably a couple of degrees cooler, but what's wrong with sleeping under warm blankets in a 66 degree room?

I think I should shut off the stove, put her name on the oil bill, and let her pay it.

 

[webbie]

66 Degrees.....

We use Nat Gas in our Bedroom area (zoned hot air heat) and that would be a high overnight setting. It's usually about 62 or 63....and it's my wife that sets it. She thinks it's better to sleep colder than warmer....I somewhat agree, but usually have cold feet when I get into bed. Ideally, I would go to sleep at 70 and the thermostat would turn itself down one degree an hour until I woke up - that would work out perfect.

Well, today is a real test for the Pellet Stove in my shop- I fired it up and the shop has not had any heat for days! It doesn't help that I can see about 1/2" of gap under the garage door....

 

[The Patriot]

66 Degrees.....

We use Nat Gas in our Bedroom area (zoned hot air heat) and that would be a high overnight setting. It's usually about 62 or 63....and it's my wife that sets it. She thinks it's better to sleep colder than warmer....I somewhat agree, but usually have cold feet when I get into bed. Ideally, I would go to sleep at 70 and the thermostat would turn itself down one degree an hour until I woke up - that would work out perfect.

I agree with you, I'd rather try and keep the upstairs even cooler, but there's no way I'm getting away with that.

 

[PutnamJct]

We have a poorly insulated but well laid out (as fas as stove placement) 1400~ sq ft split level burning pellets only. At the current rate, I figure to go through 5 tons this season. Stove runs on a thermostat which I don't touch from Oct through May. House is 68-70 downstairs and 70 upstairs all the time. Have a little one and an always complaining about the cold wife. Plus 2 spoiled old pit bulls that look at me funny when the temp drops below 68.........

I had a half ton left from a late buy last year and bought 4 more last August. Will probably use them all up by May/June.

Have not turned on the FA oil furnace (except 1 weekend when we weren't home)

I actually keep a running list of how many bags I use each day in excel. When it's real cold I can use 2 bags in a 24 hour period, usually use 1.5 per day, less when it is over 40 outside.

 

[tundraSQ]

tundra, we are 1/3 of the way through winter and it has been one of the warmest in history.
I think you will definitely be into 7 tons plus - especially if you have no other backup at all.
Hopefully you are getting a decent price on the fuel.

decent price on fuel??? *LOL* Not hardly...I think the 4 ton cost me just shy of $1200 delivered...but last year I was on a twice monthly fill on the oil tank and that was running about $550 a month and the house was never warm. I looked today closer and I still have about 1/2 the third ton left. When its gone I will go grab another ton and then hopefully a last (6th) ton in the spring when 4 and 5 are gone. I do have a full tank of oil in reserve just in case...but my goal is not to turn it on...sort of justifies the whole thing in my mind.

 

[tundraSQ]

I have 3 girls females in the house and this little baby works hard to keep the house at 70. On colder days a bag will last about 10 hours.

I feel you on the female thing. My wife kept complaining about the temperature in our bedroom upstairs to the point of actually saying "I hate the stove" (blasphemy, I know). The thermostat right outside the room (with the bedroom door left open all night) was usually between 68 and 72. Sure, the bedroom was probably a couple of degrees cooler, but what's wrong with sleeping under warm blankets in a 66 degree room?

I think I should shut off the stove, put her name on the oil bill, and let her pay it.

I have put a themometer out for the girls when they complain its not warm enough....my house is generally around 68-70 and the same for the upstairs...not bad for one pellet stove.

And yes I will have no problems handing the bill for the next two tons of pellets over to the three of them and letting them know the company wants to be paid in 30 days...


its 5 degrees outside and i'm typing this in my t-shirt.

 

[restorer]

66 Degrees.....


Well, today is a real test for the Pellet Stove in my shop- I fired it up and the shop has not had any heat for days! It doesn't help that I can see about 1/2" of gap under the garage door....

Craig:
If that's an 8 ft. door you have a a 4 sf. openning. Pack that sucker with towels, blankets, rolled up newpapers, whatever. If you have a double wide door, it's almost like keeping the people door open.

I have a damaged sweep on the front door of the shop. When I'm inside I have a weighted roll packed against it. makes a 3-4 degree difference in the heat. Of course we're still in the teens during the day, except for today, we broke 30 degrees.

 

[Kenny1]

66 Degrees.....

We use Nat Gas in our Bedroom area (zoned hot air heat) and that would be a high overnight setting. It's usually about 62 or 63....and it's my wife that sets it. She thinks it's better to sleep colder than warmer....I somewhat agree, but usually have cold feet when I get into bed. Ideally, I would go to sleep at 70 and the thermostat would turn itself down one degree an hour until I woke up - that would work out perfect.

Well, today is a real test for the Pellet Stove in my shop- I fired it up and the shop has not had any heat for days! It doesn't help that I can see about 1/2" of gap under the garage door....

How were things in your shop today? That's a Baby Countryside right? Are you running corn or pellets now?

You may wanna put a draft stopper at the botom of that door ;-P

Hope you enjoy that stove.