Oil: 140,000 btu per gal, burn rate is .4 gal per hour = 56,000 btus, at $2/gal, = 80¢.
What would be the comparative cost for pellets?
What would be the comparative cost for pellets?
Pellet costs
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Bioburner
Moderator
Bioburner
Moderator
That would be easy to figure, $200 divided 2000 is a dime a pound and 7 lbs an hour would be 70 cents an hour
Bioburner
Moderator
It won't for any sustained period as the ESP will shut the feed down if the exhaust gets to hot. Harman p series are smart stoves so it will vary feed rates. Someone with DDM monitored while testing saw the increased feed rate on a similar setup
Bioburner
Moderator
depends also on the delivery of the heat and how much is loss in getting it to the area your trying to heat. Lot of older venting systems lose a lot of heat from the furnace to your preferred room. Sometimes the pellet stove being used in the room can beat a oil fired furnace as its delivering heat right there and not trying to shove it 40 50 feet and leaking it all the way.
When comparing the costs of different heating fuels, one must also take into account the efficiency of the product being burned. Since both wood pellets and fuel oil have about an 80% efficiency, it is a moot point, but for discussion sake, at $1.999 per gallon, the cost per million BTU of oil is $18.04, and at the cost of $236.62 per ton ($4.73 per bag) , the cost per million BTU of pellets is $18.04. This is all based on a formula I found last year, I just can't remember where.
Since the cheapest I have seen pellets so far this year has been $277.50/ton, and that was for low end pellets at Lowes...I'm burning oil until either the $/Gallon rises significantly, or pellets drop a whole lot in price.
Since the cheapest I have seen pellets so far this year has been $277.50/ton, and that was for low end pellets at Lowes...I'm burning oil until either the $/Gallon rises significantly, or pellets drop a whole lot in price.
Yes, I think this winter/year will be interesting to see what happens with pellets and oil
Tonyray
Minister of Fire
with Oil furnace/ baseboard heat, we get quick heat then cool down. rinse/lather repeat.
I prefer the pellet stove with continuous heat being fed into the house 24/7
prob cost more with pellets but cut out couple latte's a week and it will pay for the xtra cost over winter season. Not talking a ton of money difference..
Cool down? Oil furnace keeps a constant temp by cycling on/off. And zones restrict heat to certain areas. The pellet stove needs to keep running cause it produces fewer BTUs during the same time. Cost is cost.
Darren111
Member
Yes...an oil furnace cools down. Then when the thermostat calls for heat it fires up. Heats the furnace, the plenum, the duct work, then heats the rooms. Therfore, your house temperature does fluctuate quite a bit. As opposed to a pellet stove while continuing to burn keeps outputting the same amount of heat continuously without the need to heat the delivery system each time.
So, although the efficiency of each device may be the same, the efficiency of delivery systems is not. Maybe this should be considered when discussing efficiency. Just my 2 cents...
So, although the efficiency of each device may be the same, the efficiency of delivery systems is not. Maybe this should be considered when discussing efficiency. Just my 2 cents...
Well, like all things, it depends. I have a bioler, no ducts. I don't notice any changes in temp at all. Sure, there are some oil burners that are sub par; but I'm also sure there are pellet stoves that are too, house tends to get cold when your auger jams.
Darren111
Member
See now I thought the discussion was a bout efficiency, not something breaking or malfunctioning. And it takes how long to heat up your entire heating system from cold? That's a lot of water, piping and registers to heat up.
Regardless....boilers once heated up are probably one of the more efficient delivery systems. But the same applies. You may not "feel" a difference in room temp, but it's there just the same. Otherwise your oil fired boiler would never need to kick in and reheat however many gallons of water or water/glycol mix you have in your system. Reheat the piping and reheat the registers.
All the while, a pellet stove heats up a couple hundred pounds of steel in a few minutes and direct convects heat right into the room it's in.
Not to mention, when is any heating device at it's most inefficient. ...during start up. Most pellet stoves are started once every 6 or 7 days, how many times a day does an oil fired boiler, or oil fired hot air furnace start up.
All I'm trying to say is that there is more to being efficient than btu per hour...delivered of that heat to where you want it goes a long way to overall efficiency.
Regardless....boilers once heated up are probably one of the more efficient delivery systems. But the same applies. You may not "feel" a difference in room temp, but it's there just the same. Otherwise your oil fired boiler would never need to kick in and reheat however many gallons of water or water/glycol mix you have in your system. Reheat the piping and reheat the registers.
All the while, a pellet stove heats up a couple hundred pounds of steel in a few minutes and direct convects heat right into the room it's in.
Not to mention, when is any heating device at it's most inefficient. ...during start up. Most pellet stoves are started once every 6 or 7 days, how many times a day does an oil fired boiler, or oil fired hot air furnace start up.
All I'm trying to say is that there is more to being efficient than btu per hour...delivered of that heat to where you want it goes a long way to overall efficiency.
Discussion was about costs. My boiler also heats up a couple hundred pounds of cast iron, in the form of 6" high x 2" thick finned registers running the perimeter of the rooms. Heat up is quick. I would wager it bring the common area of my house up to 72 before a centrally located pellet stove would.
roadking88
Feeling the Heat
Tonyray
Minister of Fire
As far as cool down, my reference was to the hot water copper pipes in the baseboard cooling down, Not the furnace itself...
Big difference..
St_Earl
Minister of Fire
i asked the oil man how much HHO is going for here. (he was delivering propane we use for cooking) to my surprise, it had actually gotten down to $1.99 gal, but had gone back to $2.09.
i had always seen prices here be 20 to 30 cents above the state average.
if we had a boiler, i'd be beginning to start thinking about oil. (in a very hypothetical way)
but we have a forced air furnace and the ducting is not good. some rooms that really need registers don't even have them.
so the oil burner remains only emergency back up.
i had always seen prices here be 20 to 30 cents above the state average.
if we had a boiler, i'd be beginning to start thinking about oil. (in a very hypothetical way)
but we have a forced air furnace and the ducting is not good. some rooms that really need registers don't even have them.
so the oil burner remains only emergency back up.
Bioburner
Moderator
Usually a bump in price at harvest time as driers are use to dry corn. Was the driest harvest season in 30 years so little propane used.
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
Oh good night... Thank you Roadking88! Just use the calculator and be done with it.
#2 is 144,000 a gallon, %80 efficiency. If you think your cast iron boiler is anything higher than %80 your dead wrong, or being lied to. I built the 3 steam oil fired boilers at the Baseball Hall of Fame. HB Smith Iron, Wiesshaupt burners running north of 300 psi. One of the only times you will witness #2 burning blue. Still not %90. My $7500 Enerac was never wrong.
With oil being so cheap, for this day-in-age, Id pre-buy as many gallons as I could afford. I locked up 1500.00 in Propain as I doubt it will be this low again for many years. I still bought 2 tons of over-priced pellets as for my open, highly insulated home, pellets heat much faster and warmer than my %95 eff Weil Mclain wall hung Triangle Tube copy.
The local Home Depots keep dropping tonnage prices $10 every other week. But I just cant see purposely buying Green Supremes in tonnage....
With oil being so cheap, for this day-in-age, Id pre-buy as many gallons as I could afford. I locked up 1500.00 in Propain as I doubt it will be this low again for many years. I still bought 2 tons of over-priced pellets as for my open, highly insulated home, pellets heat much faster and warmer than my %95 eff Weil Mclain wall hung Triangle Tube copy.
The local Home Depots keep dropping tonnage prices $10 every other week. But I just cant see purposely buying Green Supremes in tonnage....
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