Glad I'm Burning Pellets

[MarkF48]

Ouch Really glad to be burning pellets after looking at current heating oil prices in Central MA. In Oct '21 I bought 150 gallons at $2.96/gal ($444). In Oct '20 bought 150 gallons at $1.64($246). The 150 gallons lasts me the whole heating season as it's only used at night to keep the house at around 52 deg after we go to bed and kicks on at 7am to bring the house up to 60 about the time I'm starting up the pellet stove.

 

[mtnbiker727]

If you have a coal stove and a pellet stove, why do you use oil at all?

Also, 52 degrees? Do you have a big old house?

 

[MarkF48]

If you have a coal stove and a pellet stove, why do you use oil at all?

Also, 52 degrees? Do you have a big old house?

The coal stove (opposite end of the house in the kitchen) is used if the outside temps get down around 10 F or less for several days in a row, other wise the pellet stove can carry the house pretty well with occasional wood in the coal stove to take the chill off. Using the oil (forced hot air) at night also gets some heat into the cellar where the water pipes are. At what I used to pay for oil, it was reasonable for convenience, but if this current price is sustained through the Fall I may rethink using oil.
The 52 deg at night is the first floor and the second floor where we sleep stays mostly around 60 deg. With an electric warming blanket it's comfy.
Yup, old two story farmhouse built around 1810. I've insulated it pretty well, but there's still leakage here and there.

 

[jackman]

$5.09/gallon for home heating fuel last week on Long Island, NY.

 

[Washed-Up]

Where I am it’s only propane and we’re using the P61 only this wi yet for obvious reasons

 

[ThePoncho]

I use LP for the furnace and am happy to have locked in nearly 2 years ago at $1.19. It expires in June so I'll have to make sure they come and fill the tank before then.
Once nice thing about having a small home is that the pellet stove takes care of the whole house nicely. The furnace won't come on until we head out on vacation for a couple of weeks at the end of this month.

 

[all night moe]

old two story farmhouse built around 1810. I've insulated it pretty well, but there's still leakage here and there.

Same hear, only this house is around the 1830s mark. One trick I'm planning for is the windows here that have pockets and weights. I'm going to remove the weights, and insulate the pockets. I'll put some brass cross bolt interior door locks, at the bottom corners of each window with corresponding holes in the casing for different opening heights. I can feel the draft creeping in through the windows.
33 windows here. Some are older and have wooden pegs for adjusting the opening height.

All in all, I love these old houses. I could do the replacement window thing but it would kill the character of this house. There's a guy not far from me who rebuilds the old windows for tighter seal and replaces any parts, window, sash, or casings that need be. Have to do some work on the storms too.....

 

[Tonyray]

Same hear, only this house is around the 1830s mark. One trick I'm planning for is the windows here that have pockets and weights. I'm going to remove the weights, and insulate the pockets. I'll put some brass cross bolt interior door locks, at the bottom corners of each window with corresponding holes in the casing for different opening heights. I can feel the draft creeping in through the windows.
33 windows here. Some are older and have wooden pegs for adjusting the opening height.

All in all, I love these old houses. I could do the replacement window thing but it would kill the character of this house. There's a guy not far from me who rebuilds the old windows for tighter seal and replaces any parts, window, sash, or casings that need be. Have to do some work on the storms too.....

Wow.. thought out 1900 house was old.. agree about the character of old houses. The warmth of mostly wood.. never got into the modern metal and glass styles. Impressive but cold in appearance. Did cheat and replaced 20 windows ( 2 story) with triple pane..

 

[tlc1976]

My house is from the mid 80s and pretty airtight but had some pretty considerable drafts I discovered during the below zero stretches this winter. Back door was drafting pretty good, stuffed a woven pants belt in the gap for now. Never use that door anyway. New seal when it gets warmer out. Some windows have loose latches, stuffed a penny in them to tighten them up for now. Front door needs a seal at the bottom too.

And the attics, I found some of the insulation coming down and a bucket from where the roof leaked before the previous owners replaced it. And the insulation that’s there is only R19. My area recommends R49 for attics. So that will be done this summer too.

This house is arranged very much like my old one. Open floor plan and half the upstairs is basically a loft. So it heats easily with the pellet stove in one corner blowing towards the back rooms and the upstairs. Also happens to be right by the entryway so hauling in bags and doing cleaning is easy. I’ve got the propane boiler set at 50f and thankfully never had to use it once I started with pellets, but I test it every year. I couldn’t afford to heat with propane at $1.70 a gallon. Now it’s like $2.50 something.

I like the character of the 80s houses. Mine is full of the honey oak which I love. And a real hardwood floor. I put up one of those 80s kitchen light boxes to add to the flavor.

 

[bogieb]

I use propane for DHW as well as my boiler (backup heat only). Average for the state is $4.06/gal. Since I use so little, my price is way higher than that. I'll probably need propane this spring since it's been almost a year since the last fill up.

 

[NewGuy132]

Also in central MA and a couple weeks ago we got our oil delivery and it was $4.39 a gallon. We run a wood burner and with the stove going we still run through 150 gallons or so a month. In calendar year 2021 we used just about 1000 gallons of heating oil. The stove was installed Nov 21 so I am hoping to reduce that number drastically this year.

 

[mtnbiker727]

The coal stove (opposite end of the house in the kitchen) is used if the outside temps get down around 10 F or less for several days in a row, other wise the pellet stove can carry the house pretty well with occasional wood in the coal stove to take the chill off. Using the oil (forced hot air) at night also gets some heat into the cellar where the water pipes are. At what I used to pay for oil, it was reasonable for convenience, but if this current price is sustained through the Fall I may rethink using oil.
The 52 deg at night is the first floor and the second floor where we sleep stays mostly around 60 deg. With an electric warming blanket it's comfy.
Yup, old two story farmhouse built around 1810. I've insulated it pretty well, but there's still leakage here and there.

If you load the pellet hopper at night, would it carry you through the night?

 

[mtnbiker727]

My neighbor owns this company: https://americasheat.com/ He makes the furnaces and boilers in his shop next to his house. I met him a few weeks ago and we talked boilers a little bit. He said primarily the people buying from him are farmers that burn corn. In my future home, I'd like to have one of his boilers in the basement and run heat in the floor throughout the house. He said you can put a sidearm on for domestic hot water too.

I like the idea of a pellet boiler vs. an oil boiler, for obvious reasons. With that 14 bushel hopper, I should be able to load it up once a week or so (of course depending on all the variables...)

The only problem is, I doubt a bank would give me a mortgage for a house with pellet heat. I know they won't if you only plan to have a wood stove. They figure it's harder for them to sell a house with only a wood stove if you default on your mortgage.

 

[MarkF48]

If you load the pellet hopper at night, would it carry you through the night?

The XXV with a full hopper will carry the stove through the night easily and I used to back down the stove temperature to do just that, but the cellar would get cold and I had some concern about the water pipes, so I use the oil fired hot air furnace which does warm the cellar. I got 150 gallons of oil back in Oct '21 and at a guess have used maybe 80 gallons of it.

 

[Tonyray]

The XXV with a full hopper will carry the stove through the night easily and I used to back down the stove temperature to do just that, but the cellar would get cold and I had some concern about the water pipes, so I use the oil fired hot air furnace which does warm the cellar. I got 150 gallons of oil back in Oct '21 and at a guess have used maybe 80 gallons of it.

When it gets real cold like teens with a nitetime north wind, i too need to keep basement heat pipes warm so, i run the Harman on stove or constant mode. Say 70 degrees. It stays pretty near spot on according to my wall thermostat. Then i set and run the oil furnace maybe 2 degrees above the stove set temp. 72 degrees. This way i know the furnace will kick on every hour or so thruout the nite for a few minutes while the harman is holding the house heat at 70.

 

[UpStateNY]

This year I burned 6 bags of pellets with locked inPropane rate of $1,76 a gallon. I was told that next year expect the price to increase by $0.70 to around $2.50 a gallon. Sooo It will be back to burning pellets for me.

 

[johneh]

This year I burned 6 bags of pellets with locked inPropane rate of $1,76 a gallon. I was told that next year expect the price to increase by $0.70 to around $2.50 a gallon. Sooo It will be back to burning pellets for me.

You burned 6 bags of pellets
Wish that's all I burned and if that were the case I
wouldn't bother with a pellet stove
so far this year I have burnt 162 bags
and counting

 

[Tonyray]

Almost 200 bags this year. 24/7 most times.

 

[stoveliker]

The XXV with a full hopper will carry the stove through the night easily and I used to back down the stove temperature to do just that, but the cellar would get cold and I had some concern about the water pipes, so I use the oil fired hot air furnace which does warm the cellar. I got 150 gallons of oil back in Oct '21 and at a guess have used maybe 80 gallons of it.

Would not at this oil price an electric pipe heater in appropriate places be cheaper than using oil to heat a *space*?

 

[MarkF48]

Would not at this oil price an electric pipe heater in appropriate places be cheaper than using oil to heat a *space*?

Along with the water pipes, my workshop is also in the cellar. Running the oil heat for a short while gets the workshop warm enough that I don't have to dress like I'm going outside. The amount of oil I've used this past Winter is minimal and cost is worth being able to putter in the cellar occasionally.

 

[UpStateNY]

You burned 6 bags of pellets
Wish that's all I burned and if that were the case I
wouldn't bother with a pellet stove
so far this year I have burnt 162 bags
and counting

From 2008 to 2018 I burned 3 tons of pellets each year. My Harman Advanced has long paid for itself and still going strong. Since 2018 I have been using propane at very good price that makes pellets not cost effective. next year I will be back to burning pellets.

 

[Tiggar61]

I jumped on the Home Depot 176.00 per ton for 3 or more ton . Bought 4 tons will be all set for next year.no way could I heat my house for 704.00 using oil !

 

[MattCorrow]

3500 Sq Ft house built in 1759 here... We burned about 600gals of oil last year, and 6 tons of pellets... When home depot overbought last year, we too got 176/ton (7 tons) for next year, oil is now $5.10/gallon, which is more than twice the price of pellets...

Every time we have a "project", we try to throw in a little insulation, but the outside walls were board and batton, 1.5 inches of wood, 1.5 inches of plaster, no air space to insulate... We've replaced all the windows, and sealed up as much as we can....

Seal & Peel caulking is our friend!

 

[mr meener]

This year I burned 6 bags of pellets with locked inPropane rate of $1,76 a gallon. I was told that next year expect the price to increase by $0.70 to around $2.50 a gallon. Sooo It will be back to burning pellets for me.

is this post from 2016? cause I am in upstate NY and they want $4.69 a gallon

 

[mr meener]

I jumped on the Home Depot 176.00 per ton for 3 or more ton . Bought 4 tons will be all set for next year.no way could I heat my house for 704.00 using oil !

the 2 home cheapos around me are 279 a ton. sometimes I wonder about some posts