My father in law just bought a new pellet stove and the dealer told him that he can burn hay pellets in there. Anyone ever do that? Just wondering if that's a cheaper option.
Here is a good article from Nova Scotia Canada on Hay pellets https://cleantechnica.com/2011/08/01/making-hay-heating-homes-clean-renewable-homegrown-cheaper-than-coal/
Interesting. If this took off farmers could make and sell the product right on the farm to local burners. This would take out a large portion of the trucking expense. At 24 tons a load and trucking it 125 miles from the plant to the store that's a large part of the cost of the pellets I buy. Ron
This is really cool. I have 20-25 acres that we really just give to a farmer to let him do whatever he wants with it. I'd love to rotate hay for home heat. Need to look into this more.
Makes sense. I'll burn anything to stay warm cheaper. Sounds like it is one guy now and one specific area though but I know hay grows like crazy around here. Mainly used for cattle.
Hay is great resource. Its the cost of making pellets out of it thats tough. I am in the process of aquiring a mill from michigan that goes on the pto of the tractor. I have 641 acres, 420 of it is hay. At about a hundred pounds per hour it will take all summer to make enough for the season for my son and I. Ill let everyone know how i make out when all the parts and pieces come together.
Well the mill is up and running. It makes great grass/hay pellets. And they burn pretty hot but the ash is grey and does not clean itself when new pellets drop in. Now what alot of folks dont know, is the moisture content has to be just right! The mill temp has to be just right! It is alot of work! To make your own pellets, and is “NOT” cost effective on a small scale! My mill is a pretty big one 200mm (8” die) and uses a 10hp 220vac single phase motor. So if your thinking about it and have the $$$ and time, it’s definitely doable! But im going back to buying my pellets lol. See ya soon JRemington!
IIrc switch grass was on the top of the heap for that type of pellet machine fodder . Was that a pellet pro unit? were you running the hay through a hammer mill first? IIRC about 8% moisture content was the magic #, were you adding a binder? unit needs to be a double reduction type for wood /sawdust pellets. Dug pretty deep into that a bunch of years ago- conclusion was what you stated above. Every so often I revisit the compressed block scenario. Unless you can make enough to supply yourself + double that for sale to off set costs its a nice hobby- kinda like selling fire wood business takes $2 to make $1 for good while before breaking even.
It is a pellet pro 200mm 10hp 220vac single phase. And i used a troybuilt chipper sheredder to reduce it down to a millable state. Moisture content was always between 7-12% no binders. I did try some veg oil on some grass clippings and that worked great but its an added cost to the allready not cost effective task. But im the type that i have to prove it to myself. Right or wrong. So a hobby it shall remain
They aren't mentioning all the ash that results from burning hay or grass pellets. We tried that a few times but you can't avoid the amount of ash tht is left over.
The ash from hay is considerably more, what i question is why the grass clippings were even worse. The ash would not break up and fly out like wood does. Strange
Grass clipping are all blade, no stem. You might say "low fiber". Anything green in color, hay, lawn clippings etc. is high in chlorophyll. I dont think chlorophyll burns very well. Maybe try some wheat straw which is mostly stem and little leaf, but no chlorophyll.
