My first set up would hold 20 pounds of pellets.
The second 120 pounds.
The newest one, 920 pounds.
The second 120 pounds.
The newest one, 920 pounds.
The next step in my pellet transfer system
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Nice, but what happens on the inside, is there a bunch of dust in the house/basement, where does the pressure go; into the stove and up the chimney ?
No, the total height is about 4 and 1/2 feet so I just stand on the ground and put the bags into it. I'm ordering about 30' of 3" flexible hose and once I get that the bin will be on the trailer you see in the background.
My pellets are in my garage about 200' away so I am currently loading 25 bags on the trailer and bringing it up to the house and then loading the pellets into the bin and blowing it in. Once that hose comes in I will only have to handle the bags once and it should cut my time in half for filling the pellet bin.
My pellets are in my garage about 200' away so I am currently loading 25 bags on the trailer and bringing it up to the house and then loading the pellets into the bin and blowing it in. Once that hose comes in I will only have to handle the bags once and it should cut my time in half for filling the pellet bin.
I have a 5 ton bag bin in the basement. The bin acts as a filter and traps the dust inside the bag and eliminates the need for a return tube to release the pressure.
Somehow it looked higher to me in the picture.
Is it heavy? You to clear a path in the snow when filling in winter?
Luvmesomesamples
Burning Hunk
That is great! I was thinking about doing the 5 gallon bucket set up for late spring or early fall and I can get a couple of premium pellets for a discounted price. Do you not have bulk delivery where you are Andrew? I am finding the price to be the same or cheaper to have my vermont wood pellets delivered and don't have to touch a single bag!
Around here bulk delivery is $30 per ton more expensive than buying by the bag. Also, I haven't found a bulk dealer that does 100% softwood yet. The other issue I've had with bulk delivery is the supplier running out of pellets near the end of the season. I also heard one of the local bulk delivery companies got a bad batch of pellets and they had several customers (including a school) who had to remove those pellets from their bins because the pellets wouldn't burn.
So last summer I bought a truck load of pellets and I have been hauling them to my apartment once a week to keep the hopper at a consistent level. This summer I'll buy enough pellets to keep about 22 tons of pellets on hand. With this new system I'll only have to handle the bags once
The entire setup weighs about 70 pounds and once I get the hose I'll keep it strapped to the trailer. I have an apartment building that also has the same Pellergy system and I have been using the 120 pound system up there to load pellets into a 3 ton bag bin. That's why I'm getting a 30' hose. I can't get the trailer close to the feed port.
So last summer I bought a truck load of pellets and I have been hauling them to my apartment once a week to keep the hopper at a consistent level. This summer I'll buy enough pellets to keep about 22 tons of pellets on hand. With this new system I'll only have to handle the bags once
The entire setup weighs about 70 pounds and once I get the hose I'll keep it strapped to the trailer. I have an apartment building that also has the same Pellergy system and I have been using the 120 pound system up there to load pellets into a 3 ton bag bin. That's why I'm getting a 30' hose. I can't get the trailer close to the feed port.
Luvmesomesamples
Burning Hunk
Vermont renewable has a extremely large delivery radius and use 100% softwood vermont wood pellets. Not sure if that is who had a bad batch but I did have some trouble with a delivery earlier in the year. The problem with mine was a lot of fines and some increased debris and clinker in the burn pot but they burned ok. Still I'm paying 293 per ton delivered and I'm pretty far away from the mill.
I used them two years ago and my issues using them were twofold. First they had a two ton minimum and they were only in my area about every 4 to 6 weeks. Since I have a 3 ton bag bin it made timing a delivery very tricky and a couple of times I ran out of pellets.
I may touch base with them this fall to see if they are up in northern VT more frequently now. If they are charging $293 delivered that's only $10 a ton more than what I'm currently paying for Spruce Points and I might consider using them again.
I may touch base with them this fall to see if they are up in northern VT more frequently now. If they are charging $293 delivered that's only $10 a ton more than what I'm currently paying for Spruce Points and I might consider using them again.
Luvmesomesamples
Burning Hunk
Yea I don't know if I am getting a customer rate since they installed my system. I think they have expanded quite a bit in the past few years. They have a second truck now including a tractor trailer truck. May be worth while to look into to at least supplement. I agree you probably should have a back up stored just in case. Alan is the president and is easy to work with. Stay warm, spring is around the bend!
I suspect my price will be higher. It looks like you're about 24 miles from them and my apartment is 150 miles.
Karl_northwind
Minister of Fire
I like it, have you figured out or calculated the rate of transfer of your system? obviously the varying pipe lengths and hopper volumes will change the rate.
It will empty the bin in about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how full the bag bin is. The more pellets in the bag bin the slower the transfer. Right now I can only fill my 5 ton bin with 3 1/2 tons of pellets before the back pressure stops the pellets from going in. What I do now is wait until I have about 1 ton in the bin and then I put 1 or 2 tons in.
Karl_northwind
Minister of Fire
sounds like an air return line would help that. I guess that's the downside of the fabric bags with no return air line. so a reasonable guestimate is 25 minutes per ton, depending.
cool. watch out for the static discharge. pellets and their dust will make a large static charge that needs to go somewhere. the "real" pellet transfer hoses have a ground wire in the plastic spiral to ground the 2 ends. I would assume pellet fines could go boom.
cool. watch out for the static discharge. pellets and their dust will make a large static charge that needs to go somewhere. the "real" pellet transfer hoses have a ground wire in the plastic spiral to ground the 2 ends. I would assume pellet fines could go boom.
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The feed pipe is aluminum and grounded to my electrical panel.
I checked in with VRF and it would be $313 per ton. That's $3 per ton higher than the local bulk delivery company, but it's 100% softwood from Vermont Softwoods so it's easily worth the extra price. Unfortunately, it's still $30 per ton higher than the bagged pellets I get.
Seems pricey. Sandri charge $218 a ton + delivery for bulk New England pellets and they seem to work quite well. For the last delivery another forum member contacted me and we had a delivery on the same day and we both got discounts on the delivery. If anyone else has bulk deliveries from Sandri please contact me so we can maybe get even better discounts.
In May last year Sandri were asking for 1-2 days notice for delivery, this year for Feb it was 5-7 days notice, maybe it was because it was a busier time of the year. The driver said he was working 6 days a week with the smaller 16 ton truck.
In May last year Sandri were asking for 1-2 days notice for delivery, this year for Feb it was 5-7 days notice, maybe it was because it was a busier time of the year. The driver said he was working 6 days a week with the smaller 16 ton truck.
Luvmesomesamples
Burning Hunk
I did speak to Sandri early this year and it was going to be 270ish delivered as recall. I burned a ton of New England blend last year in my Accentra insert before I upgraded and felt like they burned pretty hot. However the ash was about 8 times the amount of the Vermont wood pellets. I go about 230 hours inbetween cleanings right now and it would probably be closer to 80 with them. Would be worth it for 50/ ton in saving. Thanks for the info!
I'm cleaning once a week which is about 120 hours on average. I could easily go two weeks but it only takes about 10 minutes to do the cleaning.
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