I burned 580 gallons of oil, how much wood pallets I need?

[geek]

According to the oil company, from Aug.2007 thru May 2008 they delivered (I bougth) 580 gallons of oil in my 2-story 1,850 sq.ft. house in CT.

I know last winter wasn't that bad but think I spent that much or just around 600 gallons in the previous season. My house was built in 2001. In the winter I usually keep the temp. at 69 during the day and drop it to 66 or so late at night.

I'm still waiting my delivery for 3 tons of wood pellets I bought from a CT dealer.

Will 3 tons be just about right, can you give me some good "estimates"?

This past March I installed an Englander 25-PDV on the 1st floor and really hoping to heat both 1st and 2nd floor just fine.

Thanks

 

[SteveT]

There are going to be some variables that make a precise calculation difficult (such as efficiency of the oil burner and the efficiency of the pellet stove). Also you presumably will still use oil for the domestic hot water and that might account for 20-30% of your total use.

So look at it on a Btu replacement basis. When I did the estimate for my own purposes I assumed that my oil burner was 80% efficient and the stove was 76% efficient. I came up with a savings of 115 gallons of oil for every ton of pellets (or in my case BioBricks) burned. So you might have enough pellets on hand to save nearly 350 gallons.

 

[hoverfly]

One ton of pellets equals about 100 to 120 gallons of heating oil. Hard wood pellets have less BTU per pound then soft wood pellets.