Mid-Atlantic (NY, PA, NJ, DE, MD, VA) Pellet Savings $300 Ton Versus Oil $2.93

[UpStateNY]

H'mm is it time to just go back to burning fuel oil

Local fuel oil prices are down to $2.93 per gallon and wood pellets are up to $300 a ton. The (broken link removed to http://pelletheat.org/pellets/compare-fuel-costs/)don't show a lot of savings per BTU based on those prices. The only savings from wood pellets is I heat the rooms I spend most of the time in and leave the other rooms cold.

Answer: not much savings that I can see.

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

For me the break even point at $300 per ton is $2.52 for oil. But that means I can set and forget the temp without the cleanings, lugging and maintenance.

 

[Tonyray]

For me the break even point at $300 per ton is $2.52 for oil. But that means I can set and forget the temp without the cleanings, lugging and maintenance.

My furnace would drink oil like a drunken sailor if I kept it at the same temperature[ 74 degrees] that I keep the pellet stove at..
No saving for me there...

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

That's both units producing the same amount of BTUs, whether it is 65 or 70 degrees.

 

[Jason845845]

H'mm is it time to just go back to burning fuel oil

Local fuel oil prices are down to $2.93 per gallon and wood pellets are up to $300 a ton. The (broken link removed to http://pelletheat.org/pellets/compare-fuel-costs/)don't show a lot of savings per BTU based on those prices. The only savings from wood pellets is I heat the rooms I spend most of the time in and leave the other rooms cold.

Answer: not much savings that I can see.

i'll fill your tank in exchange for your dirty, pain in the ass no money saving pellet stove.

 

[whit]

Wonder if the increase is pellet and firewood consumption, plus better winterized homes, along with people switching to natural gas where available (not here) is helping drive down the cost of fuel oil. Less demand should lead to lower prices. In past years they were decommissioning fuel oil refineries, tightening supply and so pushing the price up. Yet here the price is falling.

For my part I was raised with the belief that forests are dark places where wolves and witches dwell. So anything that encourages the cutting down of trees is a plus.

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

Wonder if the increase is pellet and firewood consumption, plus better winterized homes, along with people switching to natural gas where available (not here) is helping drive down the cost of fuel oil. Less demand should lead to lower prices. In past years they were decommissioning fuel oil refineries, tightening supply and so pushing the price up. Yet here the price is falling.

For my part I was raised with the belief that forests are dark places where wolves and witches dwell. So anything that encourages the cutting down of trees is a plus.

Nope. The US is cranking out I believe around 9 billion gallons per day. That is the most in thirty years, coupled with the Saudis allowing crude to continue to be pumped even nearing break even, the price of oil plummeted.

 

[Threerun]

We're still at $200 a ton locally. I paid $235 for a ton of Idaho fir premium pellets. Since my home is electric (and propane) I'm still ahead of the game. I think. Lol.

 

[UpStateNY]

We're still at $200 a ton locally. I paid $235 for a ton of Idaho fir premium pellets. Since my home is electric (and propane) I'm still ahead of the game. I think. Lol.

My son is in NH and he just locked in his Propane at $2.19 a gallon. At that price Propane is getting competitive with wood pellets.

A guy I work with has a coal stove gravity feed with no electric. He tends to it twice a day. Once he fires it up he says he keeps it running for a month before he shuts it down for a complete cleaning. Coal gives off 45% more heat per ton than wood pellets. His coal just cost him $200 a ton for 40lb bags.

 

[rscottski]

Regarding oil prices, while supply and demand certainly effect price, the slowing down of quantitative easing by the federal reserve has an impact as well. The Federal reserve is printing less money so large banks and financial institutions are pulling some money out of commodities thereby lowering the price. Pellet fuel is probably the only commodity that is going up in price right now. Foreign central banks are increasing the amount of money they are printing while the US is decreasing the amount it is printing. With oil being priced in US dollars and other things being equal, it take fewer US dollars to purchase the same amount of oil. I wish we lived in a true supply and demand economy. At least then things would make sense.

 

[SteveA]

I'm pretty new to this pellet stove thing, but I think the savings from the stove is beyond the simple calculation of $/BTU burned oil vs pellets. As others have said, this calculates to $3.00/galon oil being about equal to $360/ton. I think the key difference is 'usable efficiency', with the pellet stove delivering a lot more of the BTUs into the room then an oil fired furnace.

Anecdotal story is a coworker who averaged 800 gallons of oil (home at 68 degrees). With Pellets, he uses 5 tons (home above 70degrees). If you compute the BTUs of 800 gallons of oil, he should be using almost 7 tons, and the warmer home would be an adder on that.

 

[TimfromMA]

I don’t buy into the BTU vs BTU calculation. I simply look at how much oil I was using before the stove put in and how much after. My oil consumption dropped by 600 gallons per year as a result of burning pellets. As soon as I can buy 600 gallons of oil for less than the cost of 3 ½ tons of pellets, I’ll go back.

 

[xSpecBx]

My biggest concern with burning oil is that when January/February rolls around will the price still be sub $3.00/gal? I don't see oil prices increasing drastically any time soon given the decreased demand and increased output, but if I knew what stocks were going to do I wouldn't be worrying about saving money on oil.

Right now I'm using pellets when we're home and oil during the day when we're at work. If oil continues to stay low when my pellets run out I will just burn oil for the remainder of the season instead of trying to get more.

 

[DBNH22]

H'mm is it time to just go back to burning fuel oil

Local fuel oil prices are down to $2.93 per gallon and wood pellets are up to $300 a ton. The (broken link removed to http://pelletheat.org/pellets/compare-fuel-costs/)don't show a lot of savings per BTU based on those prices. The only savings from wood pellets is I heat the rooms I spend most of the time in and leave the other rooms cold.

Answer: not much savings that I can see.

Here in NH pellets can be had for 240-250 a ton for certain brands and oil is averaging around 2.99. Still savings but not as much as last year. Last year I used 5.69 tons of pellets. When I do my cac I always assume 1 ton pellets = 118.5 gallons oil. So this year if I used roughly the same amount I'd see:

5.69 tons pellets or 5.69*118.5 = 674.3 gallons oil

674.3 * 3.00/gallon = 2023.00 for oil

5.69 * 250/ton = 1422

2023-1422 = $601 roughly saved in my situation

My car insurance for the whole year is only $800 so I've just paid for most of it.

 

[chken]

Last year I saved about $200 for every ton of pellets I bought compared to the equivalent amount of oil, and this year I'm saving about $100 for every ton. Since I plan on 5 tons, that's about $1000 in energy savings last season and only $500 this, and I've purchased less expensive pellets this year to boot!