My quest for inexpensive heat.

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I've decided to buy all my pellets at once this year which means I have to store them in my shed which is about 150' feet away from the fill pipe.

This weekend I'm going to build a new rig that will hold 1000 pounds. I'll put it in my trailer, fill it in the shed and then use the tractor to tow it to the fill pipe and blow it in.

Ill post pics when I'm done.
 
Are you guys just unsatisfied with the price or quality of bulk pellets, or that there's no delivery there, or you feel you have more control over the filling, or what?

When will you guys be filling your bins? Would they pick up much humidity in there over the summer?

Since I'd be supplementing with wood, the 3 ton bag might suffice, but with pellets only it'd probably be, like, 6 tons or so.
Are you guys doing a mid-winter fill? I wonder if the bag could be filled from inside the basement, and have the exterior exhaust hose hooked up? That way, no outside work. Maybe more dust? Hmmmm.
 
Bulk delivery in my area is limited and it often takes over a month once I call them before they make the delivery. Also, they have a two ton minimum delivery. So if you have a 3 ton bin getting a delivery before I run out of fuel is tricky. Also, bulk pellets are $30 - $40 more per ton.

My new house has a 5 ton bin but even with that I still have to make a mid winter fill. There are manual fill ports on the bag bins but you will not be able to fill your bin much more than half way and it will be dusty doing it that way. I've never had a humidity issue but both my basements are dry.
 
I think if I do burn more, I could add another 3 ton bag.
My basement is dry, but still needs the dehumidifier to keep the cold pipes from dripping.

If scheduling is bad for you, it might be worse for me, presently.
If nothing else, blowing them in yourself gives you a choice, and maybe will keep bulk prices down, since there's not much competition.

The bag that I'll be using is floppy. My concept would be to replace the filler on the top with another temporary hose in the basement to the blower and blow out the exhaust outside. Still much dust?
 
I'm considering doing the same thing. I would run my second hose to the shop vac so that would capture any dust. My reasoning for doing this is I can only get about 4 tons of pellets into the bin using my leaf blower because back pressure increases as the pellet level rises.

I think if I do burn more, I could add another 3 ton bag.
My basement is dry, but still needs the dehumidifier to keep the cold pipes from dripping.

If scheduling is bad for you, it might be worse for me, presently.
If nothing else, blowing them in yourself gives you a choice, and maybe will keep bulk prices down, since there's not much competition.

The bag that I'll be using is floppy. My concept would be to replace the filler on the top with another temporary hose in the basement to the blower and blow out the exhaust outside. Still much dust?
 
Bulk delivery in my area is limited and it often takes over a month once I call them before they make the delivery. Also, they have a two ton minimum delivery. So if you have a 3 ton bin getting a delivery before I run out of fuel is tricky. Also, bulk pellets are $30 - $40 more per ton.
I had a bulk delivery by Sandri and they offer a discount for bulk pellets, I think it was $40 a bag, came out to $215 but then delivery charge, at the moment $30 for up to 30 miles. They did deliver to me, only bulk delivery in MA at the time, but the delivery was expensive, $255. I had 3.381 tons delivered so about $290 a ton delivered for New England pellets. I called them about a week before I wanted delivery because I wanted a specific day, this was in December 2013.
A thread for my delivery.. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...his-make-me-a-pellet-pig.119708/#post-1603104
 
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It was $300 per ton bulk or I could get a similar quality pellet locally for $265.
 
[quote="Markus38, post: 1697794, member: 26871"}
I plan on using my old oil boiler for DWH during the summer. Since I will not need a lot of heat in the summer the oil may be more efficient for the short blasts of heat. I also want to fire up the oil once a year to make sure everything is still working rather than waiting for an emergency to find out its dead.[/quote]
You should look at getting a HP for your hot water in the summer. I bought a Nyle Geyser RO and it really worked out well. Only 110v supply required which cools and dehumidifies our basement. This was used as the sole hot water source for a house with 5 adults. It is connected to an 80 gallon water tank which has an electric element which we have never used. Our oil boiler was ripped out when the Windhager was installed. http://water.nyle.com/residential/
 
Yes. $300 per ton delivered for Vermont softwoods. I could get Spruce Point for $265. Although, they have gone up to $282 now.
 
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