We have been waiting for the price drop, buying a few bags at Walmart Ellsworth Maine, for $4.98 a bag. Maine Woods brand. They burn fine with the air turned up, but they do not feed well. They seem to have a lot of fines in the bags and need to be screened for a better feed. They need to be pushed down and moved to center of the hopper occasionally, otherwise the stove will go out, with 1/2 of a bag clinging for dear life to the sides of the hopper. We had waited all late summer and fall for the drop, but it was not forthcoming. Now with the warm fall and oil at the $2 range, we are expecting to burn more oil this year. We are hoping and expecting others to do the same and thus cause pellet prices to fall to the $199 a ton range by spring. If anyone sees decent prices or a drop, please post the news here for others. If oil is cheap in your area, fill your oil barrels now, as oil is cheaper than pellets currently, and with a lot less hassle.
New England (MA, CT, ME, NH, VT, RI) Still expecting a price drop in pellets
- Thread starter Jim Maine
- Start date
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Johnny_Fiv3
Feeling the Heat
If prices on decent, not super mega ultra platinum premium plutonium softwoods, but good reputation pellets drop, I have a wad of cash in the safe ready to buy. All my local places knock off some $$ per ton if paying in cash. And if the drop is enough, I will buy 3 years worth, which is about 8 tons for me.
SininStyle
Burning Hunk
- Mar 8, 2013
- 161
Every stove is different but you might want to try the next time your bin gets low, wipe it off, then wipe it down with wax paper. The wax will fill in the imperfections on the side wall giving very little for the pellets to stick to.
Someone will probably tell me how bad this is for something or rather but I did it 2 years ago and its still helping so I really dont think any amount is rubbing off and heading into the stove. Thats after 6-8 tons a year.
Jake86
Burning Hunk
Jake86
Burning Hunk
Just read the Russians see the oil price staying around $40. or lower for the next several years. Bad news for them. Good news for future pellet prices. I estimate half of current pellet prices next few years ($150 a ton for good stuff). My guess.
batchman
Burning Hunk
Last weekend pelletsdirect.com had a cash-n-carry sale so I went down and loaded up on some stuff. Prices were pretty good at least on the premium stuff by this years' standards. One look at his lot and I predict they'll be doing that again. I've seen aerial photos of pellet mills with fewer skids on-hand...
I'm a little worried about my local stove shop, like everyone they've got a lot of pellet inventory just sitting. Not sure they're a big enough business to weather this. If they carried the stuff I want to burn I'd buy it from them just to help make sure they're around next year.
Cheers,
- Jeff
I'm a little worried about my local stove shop, like everyone they've got a lot of pellet inventory just sitting. Not sure they're a big enough business to weather this. If they carried the stuff I want to burn I'd buy it from them just to help make sure they're around next year.
Cheers,
- Jeff
MikeinRI
Member
Pete Zahria
Minister of Fire
Peterfield
Minister of Fire
I'm spending my time buying from private sellers when the price is right. Just picked up 17 bags of Cleanfire's and a couple of bags of Cubex for $80. I wanted to try both brands so we'll see how my stove likes them.
batchman
Burning Hunk
Sure enough they're at it again this week. Seems the per-bag prices have dropped even further, $6/bag for some pretty spendy brands. Even though he's got a 10 bag minimum it looks like a pretty good way to try some of the "magic pellets".
Cheers,
- Jeff
no relation, just went to double check something and saw I was right...
Does a heat pump have any significant economic advantages in Jan and Feb when the temps in New England usually range between the teens and twenties (if not worse)?
Not that I've seen, but there are some units with gas heaters for cold weather if you have nat gas available or are willing to do propane. For someone who wants A/C in the Summer and heat for a large portion of the rest of the year it might make economic sense. Throw solar panels into that equation and long-term the numbers don't look so bad either.
I paid extra three years ago for a more efficient oil burner and cheap oil is extending the "pay-back" on the more expensive system I invested in. If I had known oil would be $1.50 in two years and electricity 23-27¢/kWh I may have bought the cheapest system and saved the difference to put towards solar panels. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
Depends on the Electric Heat Pump SEER Rating. They now sell Heat Pumps with crazy high SEER of 28 and above which does significant better in colder weather than a 14 SEER.
A typical electric Heat Pump 14 SEER can be 50% more efficient than radiant baseboard electric heat when the outside temp is above 30F.
I assume the higher the seer rate the more expensive a setup will be. It doesn't sound like it makes economic sense for me since the only time I might want to turn on electric heat is when it's below 15 degrees outside; not a temp where a heat pump is of much use.
Now when temps are above 15 degrees, if a heat pump is significantly cheaper to use than pellets that would be a different story. Then I could reverse the roles of the systems-- I'd only use the pellet stove when the temps are below 15 degrees and I'd use the heat pump at all other times. (Of course then I'd need a whole house heat pump system-- how much is that gonna cost!
Now when temps are above 15 degrees, if a heat pump is significantly cheaper to use than pellets that would be a different story. Then I could reverse the roles of the systems-- I'd only use the pellet stove when the temps are below 15 degrees and I'd use the heat pump at all other times. (Of course then I'd need a whole house heat pump system-- how much is that gonna cost!
Peterfield
Minister of Fire
Loved the Cubex and yes, it's a hardwood. Window stayed clean and very little ash. Good heat.
Like you I picked up a few bags of cubex (from someone switching to wood). I got 8 bags-- not to much help in heating the house but I am looking forward to comparing them to the crappy hardwoods I got at TSC.
Peterfield
Minister of Fire
I have been starting to see more ads on CL for pellets at good prices. 3 tons of Blazers for $800, Clean Fire's and Cubex for $4.00, a guy selling Maine's Choice for $3.00 a bag and I just scored a ton of Hamer's Hot Ones for $200. I wish I had more storage because I think they'll be more deals within the next few weeks.
When el nino is a distant memory and oil is back to $100 a barrel it would nice to have a cache of 10 -- 20 tons of high quality pellets at an investment cost of $200 per ton!
Pete Zahria
Minister of Fire
Were those the ones you had to lug out of the guy's basement?
Not such a great deal if it is........
(for me anyway)
Dan
Jake86
Burning Hunk
My propane dealer is a nice guy. Very personable, likable, and all that. He charges $2.32 a gallon for propane which is necessary for him to pay his expenses. I get it. I need him long term and he provides a valuable service, but being able to heat my house on my terms is a good feeling. If I shop around and get a good price for wood pellets, so be it. Independence is a nice feeling. Being able to heat my house on my terms is nice. I get a really good feeling seeing the face of the gas delivery guy when he tries to squeeze in the propane and it's already full! Sweet ! ! !
Peterfield
Minister of Fire
Were those the ones you had to lug out of the guy's basement?
Not such a great deal if it is........
(for me anyway)
Dan
That's why I passed. Couldn't envision going up and down a flight of stairs 50 times with a 40 pound bag.
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