Heat with Pellets - Lower Electric Bills

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PelletFiend

Member
Dec 2, 2010
32
Eastern MA
So this was my second season heating with pellets, and we ran through about 4 tons this year. We ran the Empress FPI just about 24/7 this year.

So I was pretty surprised to see my electric bill summary of the winter season and saw that we used 511 KWH less than last year when we only burned 2 tons and ran the oil heat at night. We did not burn around the clock last year..... and other than that, our household is generally the same as last year as far as electric consumption by computers, and whatever.

The savings had to have come from the air handler not running for hours on end with its huge blower motor. Without the pellet stove, our heat would be on about 5+ hours a day but with the pellet stove on high, the oil heat would run maybe 20 minutes.

We would have saved about another 400 KWH if I didn't run roof heating cables for about 2 weeks straight to keep the ice dams at bay. Hey it was a tough winter!

So not bad; avoided 800+ gallons of oil and saved about 500 KWH

How about you folks?
 
My electric bill went down about $10/month since we started using our stove. The only difference I can see is that the oil burner motors are running much less. The stove motors are relatively tiny. I haven't compared actual KW Hours, but the cost hasn't changed, so the usage has gone down.
 
If we didn't have our stove and we used our electric baseboard heating our electric bill would be 250 more dollars a month during the winter months.
 
My oil furnace has a 1/2 hp motor for convection.
 
500 KWH where I live is only about $45 in the winter. Your real savings, of course, was the $3+/gallon dino fuel. You can check degree days with your electric company's website to compare this winter and the last one to see if they were comparable.

Hank Hill, that electric baseboard heat will kill you, as you know. :) A pellet stove versus that option is a no brainer.
 
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