December Pellet Usage

[AndrewChurchill]

For the month of December I'm averaging 115 pounds of pellets per day to heat a 2200 sq. ft. house, a 860 sq. ft apartment and DHW for units.

Based on the current oil price I am saving 45% by using wood pellets.

 

[Fred61]

That's with the Pellergy head on the Budurus boiler?

 

[AndrewChurchill]

Yes, with 500 gallons of storage.

 

[Danny9909]

For the month of December I'm averaging 115 pounds of pellets per day to heat a 2200 sq. ft. house, a 860 sq. ft apartment and DHW for units.

Based on the current oil price I am saving 45% by using wood pellets.

Have to like those savings

 

[AndrewChurchill]

Have to like those savings

Indeed!

 

[timberframe]

We do not have a pellet boiler yet, but we use two Quadrafire Sante Fe stoves to heat our home. We used 120 # a day in December to run the two stoves. that is keeping the house 74* and heating 3500 sq ft. But I miss using the radiant floor warmth.

 

[heaterman]

I have to think that you would cut that by 25% with a Windhager running your floors.

Have to add though that this winter has been tough so far. Lot's of people getting worried about LP gas use and wood piles disappearing quickly. Two of my boys have been out scrounging just in case winter hangs on as long as it did last spring.

 

[jebatty]

Have to add though that this winter has been tough so far.

Really? Low dropped to -29F Monday night, Tuesday high was -11F; right now it's -17F and still dropping with a high forecast of -4F; tonight a forecast low of -30F and staying below 0F on Thursday. This is our second really cold blast of the season, which we usually do not get in December. It will be interesting to see what January will bring. At least we're not into the -40's and -50's, both of which have happened in the last 20 years.

My wood supply is good since I always start the heating season with 2-3 full years of wood on hand. Kind of like an insurance policy against the cold. Others around here are having trouble finding seasoned firewood, and I suspect the "seasoned" wood if available only had some drying time during this past summer. Not what I would want to burn.

 

[Pat53]

Really? Low dropped to -29F Monday night, Tuesday high was -11F; right now it's -17F and still dropping with a high forecast of -4F; tonight a forecast low of -30F and staying below 0F on Thursday. This is our second really cold blast of the season, which we usually do not get in December. It will be interesting to see what January will bring. At least we're not into the -40's and -50's, both of which have happened in the last 20 years.

My wood supply is good since I always start the heating season with 2-3 full years of wood on hand. Kind of like an insurance policy against the cold. Others around here are having trouble finding seasoned firewood, and I suspect the "seasoned" wood if available only had some drying time during this past summer. Not what I would want to burn.

I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of people who run out of firewood this year. Around here there was a propane shortage last week. The local propane companies were basically out and the truck drivers who bring it in had been driving so much they were out of hours. The Governor had to waive the downtime requirements so they could keep bringing propane in.

I'm always amazed at how cold it gets in northern MN. It gets cold here too but nothing like you guys get. I had -10F this morning and it is only supposed to get to about 5F for a high today. Then next Monday another major arctic air mass is supposed to drop in, and this one will be colder still I guess. You just might see your -40F next week ! We only have about 8" of snow on the ground, but some places up north along the Lake Superior shoreline have had almost 200 inches of snow already ! If this weather continues for another month or so we could see Lake Superior freeze over. The last time it completely froze over was in 1979, but had become over 95% ice-covered in 2003, 1994, 95 and 96. Once the lake gets about 75% frozen the lake effect snow machine pretty much ends. I'm sure they're hoping for that up north right now. We had one of our coldest Decembers on record here I guess, about 9F below normal and January is starting off the same way. The Weather Channel had a video that showed the weather for January was supposed to become warmer than normal for the Midwest and south central US, but needless to say that forecast isn't looking too good right now ! Happy New Year and stay warm.

Pat

 

[jebatty]

Fortunately immediately before our first way below 0F cold snap we got 12" of snow, and about another 6" or so since. Very good insulation for the septic systems. Without the snow and with frozen septic systems, it would have been snit cold around here.

 

[maple1]

Much harder winter here too. Down to -26c tonight. On top of that, a couple of snow/freezing rain/almost rain events has everything absolutely loaded down with ice & snow - I don't have trees in my back yard, I have giant upside down ice cones. An absolute miracle we haven't lost any power here in the past 2 weeks - there are some not all that far away who are into their second week powerless. Running out of places to plow the snow to, and what's piled up now is almost solid ice.

 

[Fred61]

Just read a news article that said more than 20 chimneys that they are aware of were sheared off by the ice that accumulated in the Christmas storm in northern Vermont.

 

[brokenknee]

Fortunately immediately before our first way below 0F cold snap we got 12" of snow, and about another 6" or so since. Very good insulation for the septic systems. Without the snow and with frozen septic systems, it would have been snit cold around here.

Received an email today, septic froze at shop, I normally work in the field so it did not effect me. Someone should be there on Friday to thaw it out. Not sure what the plan is since it doesn't sound like it is going to warm up any time soon.

 

[DBNH22]

Really? Low dropped to -29F Monday night, Tuesday high was -11F; right now it's -17F and still dropping with a high forecast of -4F; tonight a forecast low of -30F and staying below 0F on Thursday. This is our second really cold blast of the season, which we usually do not get in December. It will be interesting to see what January will bring. At least we're not into the -40's and -50's, both of which have happened in the last 20 years.

My wood supply is good since I always start the heating season with 2-3 full years of wood on hand. Kind of like an insurance policy against the cold. Others around here are having trouble finding seasoned firewood, and I suspect the "seasoned" wood if available only had some drying time during this past summer. Not what I would want to burn.

I think we hit -8/-9 at one point during the night this past weekend in southern NH. Are the temperatures you're quoting factoring in the wind chill factor? I can only imagine what a -30 before you factor the wind chill in feels like. I've been reading and hearing about how cold it has been in the midwest, Minnesota in particular and how all of the schools in MN were closed. Sounds like you guys a re living in a frozen hell.

Here in NH we're in the middle of the state's largest independent oil company failing to make their deliveries. It's been all over the news for the past week. People have paid thousands of dollars in prebuy contracts and are now running out of oil because the company is not delivering on time. The company is making excuses about how cold it's been and their phone system is down etc etc etc but there's a lot of speculation going on that they're in financial trouble and getting ready to close up shop. NH doesn't have a law to protect consumers who signed prebuy contracts either. it's getting very ugly here.

 

[heaterman]

I think we hit -8/-9 at one point during the night this past weekend in southern NH. Are the temperatures you're quoting factoring in the wind chill factor? I can only imagine what a -30 before you factor the wind chill in feels like. I've been reading and hearing about how cold it has been in the midwest, Minnesota in particular and how all of the schools in MN were closed. Sounds like you guys a re living in a frozen hell.

Here in NH we're in the middle of the state's largest independent oil company failing to make their deliveries. It's been all over the news for the past week. People have paid thousands of dollars in prebuy contracts and are now running out of oil because the company is not delivering on time. The company is making excuses about how cold it's been and their phone system is down etc etc etc but there's a lot of speculation going on that they're in financial trouble and getting ready to close up shop. NH doesn't have a law to protect consumers who signed prebuy contracts either. it's getting very ugly here.

I heard about that on another little forum I visit that is made up of P&H industry people. There is a lot of concern there too for the same reasons you state. I think even in heavy fuel oil states, we are seeing the death throes of oil as a heating fuel. Good quality pellet boilers like yours, delivery and storage system that are correctly sized and set up are going to be one of the nails in the coffin.

 

[DBNH22]

I heard about that on another little forum I visit that is made up of P&H industry people. There is a lot of concern there too for the same reasons you state. I think even in heavy fuel oil states, we are seeing the death throes of oil as a heating fuel. Good quality pellet boilers like yours, delivery and storage system that are correctly sized and set up are going to be one of the nails in the coffin.

We had another, much smaller oil company go belly up a few years ago here in NH and many of their customers lost out. I'm certain that this is what's been in the forefront of people's minds regarding the current situation. The worst thing about it (for the oil company) is that the local news keeps showing videos of the company disrespecting customers who've come into their offices to complain. Even if this is just a minor issue that has been blown out of proportion the company is not doing themself any favors by the way the way that they've handled it. When a customer comes into your office to tell you that they're almost out of oil and that you missed the delivery you were supposed to make a week or two ago you might not want to argue with them in the parking lot where the state's largest news outlet has a camera and mic on you and the customer. The bad publicity could prove to be toxic for this company.

The state has acutally setup a hotline for customer of this company that are without oil and there are press releases coming out every few hours or so from the AG's office and the media.


In any event if it is indeed as as bad as some are speculating with regard to the financial situation of the company I doubt it will be much longer before the you know what hits the fan. On a personal note this is the very same company that I used for oil prior to purchasing the pellet boiler. there were a couple of years that I did the prebuy to save money. Reflecting upon that now makes it seem like not such a great idea. I hope that those who paid for the prebuy with this company get their oil as promised or their money back.