Should Have Ordered More Pellets

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vinny11950

Minister of Fire
May 17, 2010
1,793
Eastern Long Island, NY
This early cold weather is quickly using up my pellet stash.

I started the season with half a ton leftover from last year, and I ordered 3 more tons of Stove Chow (they are burning really hot again this year too :)) from HD in October. I should have ordered 4 tons.

So far, we have burned about 1.5 tons, which other years is enough to last to the end of December. November should have been half a bag a day, but it has been about 1 bag a day of burning. Didn't budget for that.

I am now buying bags whenever I see them, before the supply runs out. The local HD was already out of pellets last week.
 
We are within 10 bags of finishing our first 1.5 ton pallet of Cleanfire Pacific (softwood) pellets.
Got 4.5 tons more sitting wrapped & tarped. Waffling as to whether or not to rip into a second
pallet to get us thru to 2 Jan, when we're bailing & heading to warmer weather, or to buy 30-40
bags locally & leave the wrapping intact...We're burning roughly 2 bags a day non-stop, up here
in NY's Capital District...
 
I was in same boat. Got 3 Tons and started nightly burns in Sept. I got 2 more tons and now have about 3.6 tons sitting. I want to run out in March. Heat Pump (Trn X13) is cheaper than pellets. I wanted to work out bugs in new stove (May 2018) before I really needed it. Glad I did, loud buzz that took couple weeks to solve (Screws Impacting Distro Fan).
 
I usually burn about 1.5 ton a year. I had almost 1/2 ton leftover from last year.
I picked up one ton and will be picking up a second ton shortly.

Bill
 
I've got two tons of pellets. One of them is from about 6 years ago, that is still all wrapped and sealed. Picked up 10 bags at fleet and farm when they was on sale a few weeks ago. I burn a mix of corn and pellets as corn is cheaper to burn. Picked up 48 bushel of corn from farmer last month as that is what my trailer holds. Got it cleaned and unloaded. About Feb. I will get another 48 bushel, and will have some left over to start next year with like I did this year. I think last year I went thru 46 bags of pellets and about 86 bushel of corn. kap
 
I've got two tons of pellets. One of them is from about 6 years ago, that is still all wrapped and sealed. Picked up 10 bags at fleet and farm when they was on sale a few weeks ago. I burn a mix of corn and pellets as corn is cheaper to burn. Picked up 48 bushel of corn from farmer last month as that is what my trailer holds. Got it cleaned and unloaded. About Feb. I will get another 48 bushel, and will have some left over to start next year with like I did this year. I think last year I went thru 46 bags of pellets and about 86 bushel of corn. kap
Do u use a 50/50 mix ? I use a 75 pellets/25 corn. Tried 50/50 mix,it wanted to push my flame guard out of place all the time on my accentra.
 
Just received delivery of 12 tons of Cheat River from Lowes on Friday. They ran their Thanksgiving sale and ended up paying $187/ton. Crappy pellets but great value for the next 2 years.
 
Having the opposite issue lol... it just started yo get cold only been burning a few bags a week... but boy do I love seeing that gas bill 1/4 of previous years

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk
 
I've been burning 24/7 all November, that hasn't happened in the past. Definitely colder this season. I tried getting more Pro Pellets on Black Friday and both stores were out, instead they brought in some crap pellets that I refused. Always been able to get them that day in the years past. I count on that extra ton for safety sake in case of a hard winter, so I'll probably be picking up a ton of Magic Spark from the box store soon, at least they carried them last year. I'd rather pay full price for something good than a disount for something that burns like crap.
 
tlc1976 you do know that Magic Spark pellets are the same as Pro Pellets just in a different bag.
Ron
 
Do u use a 50/50 mix ? I use a 75 pellets/25 corn. Tried 50/50 mix,it wanted to push my flame guard out of place all the time on my accentra.
I do two scoops corn, to one scoop pellets. My Santa Fe won't ignite just corn, so I have to do a blend.
 
How do you store corn without rodents feasting???

Cheers,
- Jeff
 
I back my utility trailer into garage, and unload it with my kanburn cleaner mover. Sucks the corn out of the trailer, cleans it and then it gravity feeds into a barrel. When barrel is full, I have a ball valve on bottom I open,and a hose going into basement, into a wooden bin. I scoop it out of bin into buckets and fill garbage cans in basement. And if need be, I run a trap line in garage. Haven't seen a rodent in years tho. I used to have a gravity wagon I parked in driveway with a roof on it, but when corn hit 8 bucks a bushel, I figured I wouldn't be burning any more corn, so sold it. Utility trailer works fine tho and is multi- purpose. kap
 
I’ve been burning more here as well. Part of the reason is we are keeping the house warmer then in the past. The Vermont pellets are burning hotter, but faster. I predict I will run out and have to get more.
 
tlc1976 you do know that Magic Spark pellets are the same as Pro Pellets just in a different bag.
Ron

Yes that's why those are my next choice. I just prefer the local farm store rather than the box store, but not if the farm store doesn't carry what I want.
 
This early cold weather is quickly using up my pellet stash.

I started the season with half a ton leftover from last year, and I ordered 3 more tons of Stove Chow (they are burning really hot again this year too :)) from HD in October. I should have ordered 4 tons.

So far, we have burned about 1.5 tons, which other years is enough to last to the end of December. November should have been half a bag a day, but it has been about 1 bag a day of burning. Didn't budget for that.

I am now buying bags whenever I see them, before the supply runs out. The local HD was already out of pellets last week.


Locally, we've had over 2067 heating degree days since November 1st this year compared to 1270 last year for that date range. That ought to amount to more than 50% more pellets to yield the same heat for the period. No wonder those of us in the north east are flying through them compared to last year.

Hugh
 
As of Sunday, I had 117 bags left, plus 2 in the hopper.

The last 6 weeks were not as cold as expected so my pellet consumption has evened out. I may just make it to the end of the season with what I have left. But a little voice in the my head is warning me that March may be brutal.
 
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Figured I'd get some of my hospital bills paid first, then was out with the flu for a week. Now the box store is out of Magic Spark. Next weekend when I get time off work I'll try one other lead I've been given. They had them a couple weeks ago. 3 tons even leaves me no security blanket, I want another ton.
 
Just ordered a pallet this morning .
That makes 3 may be 1 more in March
good thing Ferguson's Energy delivers for free
 
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Free Delivery. Nice. I have to pay 45. Got 5 Tons and down to 2.5 tons. I will make the season with 1t left over more. Back to using Heat Pump in 30f+ days.
 
Just put my second ton up yesterday. Started with a little less than half ton from last year and had about 25 small (23# bags) left. Had my dealer set another ton of small bags aside for me just in case.
 
Just bought 10 bags to try at Menards. 3.78 per bag Minus 11% comes out to 168.50 a ton. They're American something or other. Not to concerned as my Harman burns them all so far without any complaining. That gives me a ton. I'll need another 40 bags I guess to make the season.
Ron
 
I am about half through 3 tons. Combination of Tractor supply and green supreme and I will start picking up 6 bags a week until I cant find anymore. That will get me through to May 1st.
 
HD will probably get plenty more pellets in, it's really still fairly early in the heating season. There was that problem was a few years ago when it got crazy cold March-April and all the stores had switched back over to spring merch. I started the season with 8 tons of pellets (oink oink), will probably come close to using everything if its like that again this year but probably not....