Wood Or Pellet Boiler? Musings.

[velvetfoot]

Please excuse the meandering nature of this post. I'm actually making a move and having a chimney guy over to do an feasibility review/estimate on another flue in the chase. But, just don't know...

I pay for wood: log lengths. Comes out now to about $100/cord NOT counting my processing expenses and time. I'm almost 62; still can do it, but can visualize a scenario where I couldn't. Would have to build a wood shed off the walk out basement. The HI300 does a good job of heating the house, especially downstairs, but it'd be nicer if the second floor would be warmer (2000 ft2 10-yr old colonial), and warming the basement so it could be used would also be nice.

Don't think bulk pellets are available here yet, so would still be lugging around 40 lb bags. I guess I could dump the pellets down a chute through the little window into a hopper bin. The automatic nature of something like the Windhager or other premium pellet boiler is very appealing, but the fuel cost is a concern: comparison to my bulk wood bad, but maybe not so bad compared to my oil heat. Need for no or little water storage also is attractive. Heating with pellets is a foreign concept for me though.

A wood or pellet stove in the basement could be a way to heat the basement, but don't anticipate using it that much and it would do nothing for the second floor.

On the more fun side, this whole thing is kind of a hobby, though, which could excuse just about anything.

 

[maple1]

What does the house have for a heating system now - aside from the stove.

Sounds like the decision you are trying to make is one only you can make - you're weighing variables & prefences that apply to you & your situation and you will have to live it in the future. I think I would lean to pellets by the sound of your situation - but that's just a quick off the cuff feeling.

 

[velvetfoot]

Hi. The house has oil hot water baseboard heat.

Yeah, I'm waffling.

 

[Floydian]

Hello velvetfoot,

You have a tough decision, no doubt. Personally I could not make this decision without knowing the annual heat load. Do you have a close number for how many MM Btus you need per year?

Paying for wood + some processing vs paying for pellets is a tricky to compare but like maple1, I'd lean towards pellets in your case. Future costs are such a big variable though.... I would think your cost for cord wood would go up some if the overall price of fuel(pellets) spikes.

As you probably know some cord wood boilers offer a pellet conversion that could give you nice versatility. But you would not get the ultra high tech automation of the Windhager.

Don't think this really helps you out at all.....sorry. But again, the annual heat load would be the BIG deciding factor for me.

Good luck,

Noah

 

[velvetfoot]

Hi Noah.

My oil boiler is rated at a net of 79,000 btu/hr, and I've added some blown in ceiling insulation that might have done a little good.

I don't think cord wood will ever be as indexed as oil and propane, but I think pellets might have that potential.
The automation of an advanced pellet boiler is really attractive.

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Hi Noah.

My oil boiler is rated at a net of 79,000 btu/hr, and I've added some blown in ceiling insulation that might have done a little good.

I don't think cord wood will ever be as indexed as oil and propane, but I think pellets might have that potential.
The automation of an advanced pellet boiler is really attractive.

Annual oil consumption? if possible for the last 3 years?

 

[heaterman]

Here's a cost comparison ....just raw numbers...showing the $$/million btu's for a bunch of fuels. The numbers I have plugged in for wood and pellets are local prices here in Michigan but I would think they'd be close



to yours too.

 

[velvetfoot]

Annual oil consumption? if possible for the last 3 years?

I haven't been burning much oil for the last several years since getting the insert.
I don't plan on heating the garage, workshop, etc.

I looked at that eia spreadsheet as well, with some other numbers. Who'd thought fuel oil around here would be $4.19. Not sure what pellets are going for, but I'm thinking around $250 around here. My wood is about $100/cord, but only because I get log loads-in the papers for split and delivered it's more like $225. The point being that wood cost comes closer to pellets when bought in a similar format, but savings can be had if putting in the work processing the logs. Pellets still half the price of oil though. (And I would ignore that propane number, for now anyway.)

 

[heaterman]

The efficiency number on the pellets is wrong if you are going to use a Windhager like you mentioned. Combustion testing on mine has never shown less than 84% and usually it is in the 85-87% range when I give it a sniff.
That would bring your pellet cost per million btu's down below the 18$ mark.
If you wind up with a Harmon or something similar you can plug in 70% for a real world number.

One of my customers told me he took his F350 and 24' trailer to a pellet producer about 40 miles from us this afternoon and loaded up 10 tons for $135/ton. Good premium quality pellets here seem to be a different ball game than other places. That is cheap fuel!

 

[Boil&Toil]

I don't know if or how far they deliver into NY, but you are not very far from bulk pellet home delivery operations based in SW Vermont. They purport to deliver all over Vermont, but don't mention crossing the border, so it may be that they don't. I'm sure multi-state operations involve extra expenses. Then again, I think one of the Vermont pellet boiler folks mentioned that bulk pellets were costing him more than bagged, at which point the exercise is good for you and hiring a kid is good for the economy when/if that gets beyond you.

http://www.vermontrenewablefuels.com/

And so long as you are able at all, if 40 lb bags get too heavy, you can turn them into 20 lb buckets if need be. When not, if no bulk delivery available, you can pay a kid to put them in the hopper.

You are also close enough to Vermont for this not to be utterly irrlevant, even if some details are not quite accurate across the border.

(broken link removed to http://publicservice.vermont.gov/publications/fuel_report)

I'm younger than you, but thinking ahead - I do not want to "have" to move out for as long as possible...

 

[mustash29]

For example, a Froling P4 pellet boiler costs more than the cord wood boiler by a few thousand, and the pellets would cost more, but there is a lot to be said about not having to cut, split, stack, season, etc all the wood.

At your age I would think the pellets would be more attractive. You could always keep the insert and cordwood around but as you age, rely more on the pellets.

I'm only 43, so for me the wood work is my excersize and hobby. My father is 79, mom is 71. They heat a 2700 sqft brick ranch that was built in 1967 with a Quardafire 5100 insert in the basement. With a bad back and weak heart, he's getting to the point he can't really proccess wood much by himself, more like he can run the splitter lever if my younger bro or my nephew is doing the hard labor.