Figured out my cost savings

[davevassar]

It took me a little while, but check this out:

Last year, from September 2006 through March 2007, we burned through 900 gallons of oil. Average price was $2.37 per gallon, which means we spent $2155.70 on oil in a 7 month period.

This year's price for oil in my area is $3.19. So, if I was to burn the same amount of oil, I would spend $2871 for the same time period.

That was keeping my house at 69 degrees.

Here's what is awesome. With my Enviro Empress insert installed, I have spent a total of $320 on pellets since September, and it is now the end of December. Based on that, I'm predicting to go through 2.5 tons between now and March. At $240 per ton, that is $600, for a total of $920 to keep my house at an average temperature of 72 degrees vs 69 degrees.

I bought 100 gallons of oil in September for $265, and will buy another 100 gallons mid January, most likely for $319. So, in total to keep my house at a comfy and warm 72 degrees this Winter season, it will cost me $1504 versus $2871 and 69 degrees.

So I have one thing to say to the oil companies. Kiss my Enviro.

 

[abj1969]

lol.. thats awesome man..

 

[tinkabranc]

woohoo! sock it to em!

 

[deadeye316]

thats great. I am getting one installed in my house and my dads house jan 9th and i cant wait. Went with a enviro Omega and Evolution

 

[davevassar]

I think one of the biggest gains is the comfort. With burning that much oil before my stove, it was only 68-69 degrees in the house. Now with the stove, it stays about 72 degrees. It's nice to be able to come home from work and not have to wear a sweatshirt in the house during the winter!

 

[blanc12]

Its nice to be warm and not break the bank to do it. Also you have less of a carbon footprint thing so I am told.


does carbon have feet?

 

[petejung]

Dave -

That's a cool deal, man. $1300 is a LOT of money to save! Awesome!

The extra 3-4 degrees of warmth in the house is priceless, too. That'd be a hard number to figure out... But one would have to think that it'd be another $300-$500 of "added value".

How long have you had your pellet stove? Has it "paid for itself" yet, or is this the first year? If I saved $1300 the first year, my pdvc will have almost paid for itself (if I include the stove, pipes, pellets = $1900 investment so far)... But I'm not holding my breath yet. I've noticed some meager energy savings thus far, but we haven't gotten "cold enough" yet here in SW Ohio to really make a difference. January and February will be a different story, tho.

 

[davevassar]

This is the first year with the stove, so it hasn't paid for itself in terms of $, but, to me, being comfy and warm is priceless.

 

[petejung]

Dave - exactly! My wife is one of those types that is ALWAYS cold, no matter how warm the house is. We had the house at 65 last year, and this year it's 70-72, so you can imagine the difference this has made for her. And when she's happy, I'm happy... Priceless.

 

[pete324rocket]

hopefully this will fit in to this post and I will write this information before it leaves me - I just took our power bill from december and compared it with the usage from last year in kilowatt hours and then divided by the total heating days for each respective month to get a number. For last december 2006 I got 2.09 and this december 2007,I got 1.09...so I guess I cut the power bill in half taking in the consideration of the change in weather.Should also say that we use electric heat-and would have used a wood stove off and on in december of 2006 but only burning a cord of hardwood the whole season.We run the pellet stove constantly-installed one electronic thermostat for the electric heat in the kitchen and tightened up the house as much as possible-leakwise.Our power bill for december was 176 bucks including tax and water heater-our house is only 1400 sq feet. and we live in eastern Canada. pete

 

[Michael6268]

It took me a little while, but check this out:

Last year, from September 2006 through March 2007, we burned through 900 gallons of oil. Average price was $2.37 per gallon, which means we spent $2155.70 on oil in a 7 month period.

This year's price for oil in my area is $3.19. So, if I was to burn the same amount of oil, I would spend $2871 for the same time period.

That was keeping my house at 69 degrees.

Here's what is awesome. With my Enviro Empress insert installed, I have spent a total of $320 on pellets since September, and it is now the end of December. Based on that, I'm predicting to go through 2.5 tons between now and March. At $240 per ton, that is $600, for a total of $920 to keep my house at an average temperature of 72 degrees vs 69 degrees.

I bought 100 gallons of oil in September for $265, and will buy another 100 gallons mid January, most likely for $319. So, in total to keep my house at a comfy and warm 72 degrees this Winter season, it will cost me $1504 versus $2871 and 69 degrees.

So I have one thing to say to the oil companies. Kiss my Enviro.

Im a little confused. From what I see above essentially you eliminated 700 gals of oil usage due to the pellet stove. Based on the info above I came out to a rough estimate of 3.75 total tons of pellets used in place of the 700 gals of oil.

3.75 tons of pellets comes ut to 63,750,000 btus

700 gals of oil comes out to 91,000,000 btus

Thats a difference of 27,250,000 btus?

Given that "most" oil burning appliances are 80% efficient or better and "most" pellet stoves are below that, I dont see how one could be heating the same area to a "higher temperature" using over 27 million btus less?

 

[begreen]

The difference is often in the losses in the central heating system. Although the burner may be 80% efficient, by the time ductwork losses are accounted for the efficiency can drop to 40-50%. With an area heater, there are no losses outside of the original efficiency losses. The heat is right in the space.

FWIW, this is often an indication of the need for some serious sealing and insulation work to be done on the ductwork and basement wall, sill plates etc.

In our house we had a terribly designed propane furnace with long duct runs in the crawlspace. Rodents had taken almost all the insulation for their nests. Our annual heating bills went from around $3200, down to about $1200 by using a combo of a pellet stove and a small wood stove for heat. Now the house is on a proper foundation (no more rodent entry), the crawlspace is a completely insulated space, it never gets below about 60 degrees. All the ductwork is now completely insulated. The propane furnace is gone and we run on a heat pump + the woodstove. We're down to a maximum of about $60/month for heating with the heat pump and our wood is free for the past few years. I'm glad to be off fossils fuels.

 

[mkmh]

Given that "most" oil burning appliances are 80% efficient or better and "most" pellet stoves are below that, I dont see how one could be heating the same area to a "higher temperature" using over 27 million btus less?

Is it true that "most" pellet stoves run less than 80% efficiency? My Harman and my St Croix both run at an estimated 80-82% efficiency, and the Empress is listed at 80%.
I also don't know if it is fair to say that "most" oil burning appliances are 80% efficient. That may be true of the ones manufactured in the last few years, but I think that represents a smaller percentage of oil appliances in circulation. The oil burner I replaced last year was running at 50-55% efficiency.

 

[davevassar]

It took me a little while, but check this out:

Last year, from September 2006 through March 2007, we burned through 900 gallons of oil. Average price was $2.37 per gallon, which means we spent $2155.70 on oil in a 7 month period.

This year's price for oil in my area is $3.19. So, if I was to burn the same amount of oil, I would spend $2871 for the same time period.

That was keeping my house at 69 degrees.

Here's what is awesome. With my Enviro Empress insert installed, I have spent a total of $320 on pellets since September, and it is now the end of December. Based on that, I'm predicting to go through 2.5 tons between now and March. At $240 per ton, that is $600, for a total of $920 to keep my house at an average temperature of 72 degrees vs 69 degrees.

I bought 100 gallons of oil in September for $265, and will buy another 100 gallons mid January, most likely for $319. So, in total to keep my house at a comfy and warm 72 degrees this Winter season, it will cost me $1504 versus $2871 and 69 degrees.

So I have one thing to say to the oil companies. Kiss my Enviro.

Im a little confused. From what I see above essentially you eliminated 700 gals of oil usage due to the pellet stove. Based on the info above I came out to a rough estimate of 3.75 total tons of pellets used in place of the 700 gals of oil.

3.75 tons of pellets comes ut to 63,750,000 btus

700 gals of oil comes out to 91,000,000 btus

Thats a difference of 27,250,000 btus?

Given that "most" oil burning appliances are 80% efficient or better and "most" pellet stoves are below that, I dont see how one could be heating the same area to a "higher temperature" using over 27 million btus less?

The main area that we get the biggest bang for the buck is the living/great room. It's a huge room with 18ft ceilings. The house is an open floor plan for the kitchen breakfast area and great room. the Master Bedroom is behind where the stove is installed. Avg temp in the MB is still around 68-69 degrees, but for the most part, we only sleep in there, so a lower temp is ideal.

Upstairs tends to stay about 2 degrees warmer than downstairs. So it will average 74-75 degrees.

 

[x96mnn]

My Cost so far this year to heat a 2240SQFT home only with the two wood pellet stoves, no other source for heat is $324.00 tax in (we pay a lot of tax in Nova Scotia)

We have had cold weather since mid September, 5C to -20C and the home has stayed around 25C inside (had to open some windows when I did not turn down the stoves in time)

My Neighbor while heating a similar home has spent over $1000 on Oil so far this year

 

[pcampbell]

As someone pointed out to me, I think you need to be careful with efficiency ratings.

Who is saying 80%? AFUE is a DOE terminology and "in theory" you should be able to compare apples to apples other appliances with AFUE efficiency ratings.

But often you will find both AFUE and then there is "continous" efficiency. For example, from Enviro on a Westport gas stove:

"The efficiency rating of this appliance is a product thermal efficiency rating determined under continuous operating conditions and was determined independently of any installed system."

Now Harman gives more info: On the Clarity, steady state is 80.2%. AFUE is 71.6%