I have, over the course of the last 8 years in the wood pellet business, had occasion to speak with well over ten thousand different people regarding their pellets, our pellets, other people’s pellets and everybody’s pellets. Every day, literally EVERY day, I find myself engaged in some type of discussion about wood pellets and it never gets old. This is because every conversation, in some way , is different from the next. But the one comment that I hear consistently is…..”Man, if these pellets get any more expensive, I’m just going to burn oil!”…. And when I hear this, I just smile and nod, because experience tells me that this is much, much more often than not, just the customer’s way of venting; and here is why…..
Most people who own a pellet stove, probably bought their stove with a “cost savings analysis” being their primary motivator. And that is reasonable, seeing how people don’t mind dropping money on a night out, a great vacation or a new car, but people absolutely abhor the idea of spending money to heat their house. But what they didn’t realize is that they were entering into a passionate love affair, one where the installation of their new “appliance” would be sealed with the nuptials of a simple sales receipt and a local building permit.
Don’t believe me?....Well then explain to me why you are here on this forum….why exactly in the last year or two or three you have posted not just hundreds, but in some cases thousands of posts, either describing your love for the stove or satisfying your own personal desire to help someone achieve the same love that you enjoy. Show me anywhere in the vast internet, a site where passion runs as deeply and as wildly as it does here among a group sharing their love for the electric company or the heating oil industry.
I read posts here of people who hunt pellets, who study pellets, who diagram and chart Excel spread sheets of data and boast about their own ability do it all better than the rest. It is no longer for many of these people just a way to heat…it is a game….a hobby…and in some extreme cases a way of life. People who go from store to store, buying two bags here and two bags there, only to get them home and hold them, feel them and smell them, trying desperately to see the differences between them just so they can come back here and post their findings. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, does this with oil! In a couple of weeks, there is a group from this forum, who is going to Vermont to tour a mill and see first-hand how this stuff is made. It’s really cool; from the initial chipping, to the dust to the shrink wrap on the pallet and everything in-between. For those of you who go, it will be a wasted trip if you come back without holding those steamy-hot-fresh-off the-press pellets in your hand. See for yourselves who can hold them the longest!
Yeah, pellets are great. They are warm, cozy and right now, reasonably less expensive than oil. And although saving money may have lead you to initially buy your stove; I don’t believe that the money savings is what fuels the passion that is shared within this site. So tell us, at what point did you realize that your pellet stove was more than just another heating appliance?
Most people who own a pellet stove, probably bought their stove with a “cost savings analysis” being their primary motivator. And that is reasonable, seeing how people don’t mind dropping money on a night out, a great vacation or a new car, but people absolutely abhor the idea of spending money to heat their house. But what they didn’t realize is that they were entering into a passionate love affair, one where the installation of their new “appliance” would be sealed with the nuptials of a simple sales receipt and a local building permit.
Don’t believe me?....Well then explain to me why you are here on this forum….why exactly in the last year or two or three you have posted not just hundreds, but in some cases thousands of posts, either describing your love for the stove or satisfying your own personal desire to help someone achieve the same love that you enjoy. Show me anywhere in the vast internet, a site where passion runs as deeply and as wildly as it does here among a group sharing their love for the electric company or the heating oil industry.
I read posts here of people who hunt pellets, who study pellets, who diagram and chart Excel spread sheets of data and boast about their own ability do it all better than the rest. It is no longer for many of these people just a way to heat…it is a game….a hobby…and in some extreme cases a way of life. People who go from store to store, buying two bags here and two bags there, only to get them home and hold them, feel them and smell them, trying desperately to see the differences between them just so they can come back here and post their findings. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, does this with oil! In a couple of weeks, there is a group from this forum, who is going to Vermont to tour a mill and see first-hand how this stuff is made. It’s really cool; from the initial chipping, to the dust to the shrink wrap on the pallet and everything in-between. For those of you who go, it will be a wasted trip if you come back without holding those steamy-hot-fresh-off the-press pellets in your hand. See for yourselves who can hold them the longest!
Yeah, pellets are great. They are warm, cozy and right now, reasonably less expensive than oil. And although saving money may have lead you to initially buy your stove; I don’t believe that the money savings is what fuels the passion that is shared within this site. So tell us, at what point did you realize that your pellet stove was more than just another heating appliance?
I enjoy how your mind works. 
