Wood vs Pellet heat ???

[TnAndy]

My BIL purchases a pellet stove a couple years ago;not happy with it.$260/ton for "good pellets",40# bags that he can handle but my sister can't.He was burning 4 tons a year;no real cost savings over oil.
You have to shut down every two days to clean;no power ,no heat.
His brother spent a lot of money putting in a coal furnace;just about the same situation.
They just don't make sense to me.

Exactly...

The advantage of wood is normally you have the fuel on your place or can get it cheap/free locally.

To me, if you have to buy pellets, why not just propane/nat gas or fuel oil. Less handling, no ash, less maintenance.

 

[Creamer]

Exactly...

The advantage of wood is normally you have the fuel on your place or can get it cheap/free locally.

To me, if you have to buy pellets, why not just propane/nat gas or fuel oil. Less handling, no ash, less maintenance.

The only reason is that a few years ago propane got very high and many had to find an alternative.

The best reason for a corn stove is the cost - less than half the $260/ton for wood pellets. Of course around here corn is cheap and in ready supply.

 

[sixdogs]

As a side note, can you have a wood stove fire and every now and then toss in a couple of scoops of pellets?

Why would you? Pellets are expensive and wood is cheap. I don稚 think pellet stoves are cheaper than gas but that痴 another issue.

Already have wood stove plumbed into fireplace, have free supply of cabinet hardwood cut offs and almost free supply of around 20 bags of wood pellets from a neighbor that quit using them.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Already have wood stove plumbed into fireplace, have free supply of cabinet hardwood cut offs and almost free supply of around 20 bags of wood pellets from a neighbor that quit using them.

Then i would throw them in to use them, just wouldnt buy them for a woodstove.

Last house was all elecric, but came with a tiny decorative woodstove in FR. I put in a larger woodstove and kept it going 24/7. I still have the woodstove, but never built chimney for it in my new house (20 yrs old now). I had to buy firewood then, at over $100 cord 20 yrs ago. Probably double that now.

 

[Dutch445]

I was going to try coal but the dealer threw a BIG caution into that idea. Coal puts out enough "vapors & ash" that it will turn everything in the house sooty black.

I don't know were he got that from, I burn coal in a Hitzer insert, that is hard coal anthracite, coal does need air from under the fire and can be difficult to get started,
I lite mine off in mid Nov and it hasn't gone out since then. I get almost no vapors in the house and no soot. The ash does have a lot of fines that are very light and will
dust up the garage if I'm not carefull.[/QUOTE]

another coal burner here, have had 2 stoves in 2 different houses. first house was a hand fired, like a wood stove, not dependent on electricity, gave off tons
of heat, and never soot or fumes in the house. ash can be present from emptying the ash pan, but both my stoves are/were in the basement with exterior doors so
ash never makes it upstairs.
current stove is an Alaska Stoker, runs just like a pellet stove , except no auto start on this one. (power went out 2 times already this winter) is dependent on
electricity, although it's just a couple of small fans so not a lot of power required.

both stoves were very economical to heat with, and the current stoker runs longer in the season because it's easier to idle down in moderate weather (40's 50's)
the old handfired didn't like that warm of weather

 

[deserteagle71]

I was going to try coal but the dealer threw a BIG caution into that idea. Coal puts out enough "vapors & ash" that it will turn everything in the house sooty black.

I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania. Coal was plentiful and relatively cheap so that's what we heated with. NO problems with "vapors and ash" or black soot...only problem was making sure the air was turned down enough once the coal got going, else the top of the stove would turn a bright cherry red.

I've been seriously thinking about going to a pellet stove myself, after a lifetime of heating with wood. Where I live, finding firewood is more and more difficult every year. For several years I'd been buying my firewood from the Burns, Oregon area. Used to be a bunch of people selling firewood there but now its down to one. With all the huge forest fires we've had in the recent past there are huge areas of standing dead trees just begging to be cut but they are mostly on "public" land controlled by the federal government and the feds aren't giving out permits for the burned areas. They say the dead trees are for the woodpeckers, owls, etc. So eventually another fire comes through and those dry, dead trees become standing torches - or they fall over and rot.

 

[Creamer]

I grew up in northeastern Pennsylvania. Coal was plentiful and relatively cheap so that's what we heated with. NO problems with "vapors and ash" or black soot...only problem was making sure the air was turned down enough once the coal got going, else the top of the stove would turn a bright cherry red.

I've been seriously thinking about going to a pellet stove myself, after a lifetime of heating with wood. Where I live, finding firewood is more and more difficult every year. For several years I'd been buying my firewood from the Burns, Oregon area. Used to be a bunch of people selling firewood there but now its down to one. With all the huge forest fires we've had in the recent past there are huge areas of standing dead trees just begging to be cut but they are mostly on "public" land controlled by the federal government and the feds aren't giving out permits for the burned areas. They say the dead trees are for the woodpeckers, owls, etc. So eventually another fire comes through and those dry, dead trees become standing torches - or they fall over and rot.
View attachment 534589

The logic of government - gotta love it!

 

[Oaktree]

another coal burner here, have had 2 stoves in 2 different houses.

Curiously, where is coal sold these days?

Where I live, finding firewood is more and more difficult every year. For several years I'd been buying my firewood from the Burns, Oregon area. Used to be a bunch of people selling firewood there but now its down to one. With all the huge forest fires we've had in the recent past there are huge areas of standing dead trees just begging to be cut but they are mostly on "public" land controlled by the federal government and the feds aren't giving out permits for the burned areas. They say the dead trees are for the woodpeckers, owls, etc. So eventually another fire comes through and those dry, dead trees become standing torches - or they fall over and rot.

Wood permits on national forest land seems to be on a district-by-district basis. Here in N.H. they offer permits allowing you to take wood from the White Mountain NF, but it must be dead and down. No felling of trees.
I used to go in after there'd been a logging operation and get the slash. Some pretty good sized stuff there sometimes. Hasn't been much logging operation near enough to make it worthwhile in the last 5-6 years though...most loggers now chip all the slash. There are 3 wood-chip power plants within 20 miles of here so there's a constant market for them. Good for them, not so good for those of us who used to get cheap firewood.

 

[LouNY]

I paid $240 / ton this year, for Lehigh got a discount as I got 3 tons for me and 3 tons for my brother from a dealer in Granville, NY
Blashak is listed for $280 / ton
Reading for $270 / ton from a dealer outside of Saratoga.

 

[Deere Dude]

Around here they sell 6x6 and 8x8 or 6x8 cutoffs. They are oak and dried dice. They sell that for $15-18 for a payloader heaping bucket full. Nice, clean and solid. Easy to handle and stack. Most pieces are from a foot to 2.5 feet long. We use them for camping quite often.