Heating with Pellets

[oosik]

About thirty years ago we converted from firewood to wood pellets. Bought a Wellenco PelletMaster pellet stove. It was advertised as being able to burn just about anything. We found the best pellets were Lignetics. Produced in Glenville, WV.

We also tried wheat, olive pits, coal and paper pellets. Wheat is dirt cheap around here. The auger would chew up the wheat and things became plugged up. Olive pits were great but very expensive. Coal was a nightmare. Greasy coal dust/fumes everywhere. Paper pellets were a passing fad. The "greenie" tree huggers could never make a go of the paper pellets.

We used the pellet stove for about ten years. Then the pellets peaked at about $250/ton and we went to electric heat.

Been using electric heat for around the last twenty years.

 

[Oaktree]

If I had to buy my stove, I would consider a coal stove instead, and buy coal as it pencils out even better. But again, I had my wood pellet stove given to me, so that is why I used it.

I've never had a coal stove (or furnace), but going by those I've known who did that would be at the bottom of my list. It can be hard to control the heat, and since they burn so hot they're pretty useless for those nights it doesn't get below 20-25 or so, let alone in the spring/fall when all you want is to take the chill off in the evening. Never mind the ash is highly toxic.

Are you thinking deer damage, root borers, rust, smut, mildew, weed control and we haven't even thought about tillage and harvesting.
I think it would be interesting to watch and listen in on. :confused2:

Don't forget raccoons and crows...they seem to be more of a threat to a corn crop here than deer. The weather is also a big variable...a hot, dry (or cool, wet) summer and your yield is going to be waay down.
Not to mention the work (and equipment) necessary to plant, harvest and strip those cobs. How do you propose to keep rodents out of your supply? Seems like it would be a magnet to rats, mice and who-knows-what else.
If you're going to go to all that effort, why not just stick with firewood?

We have never been so warm, so for so little money, with so little work.

Is it safe to assume that your stove is away from living areas of your house (ie-a basement with heat ducted to the living area)? The noise from a pellet stove would drive me nuts.

I'm gonna stick with firewood as long as I'm able.

 

[LouNY]

I have a coal insert in the fireplace, it saves me several hundred gallons of oil each year, it burns clean no creosote to worry about. I get it in 40# bags about 4 pallets a year, it can be stored out in the weather and it doesn't care.
I wish I had put in a coal boiler many years ago when I put in the new oil boiler.
It is not a greasy or sooty fuel.

 

[Oaktree]

We used the pellet stove for about ten years. Then the pellets peaked at about $250/ton and we went to electric heat.

Been using electric heat for around the last twenty years.

Basically, it comes down to what's the least expensive way to heat where you live. In the PNW electricity's cheap, other parts of the country not so much. Likewise propane in the midwest or firewood in northern New England.
There's no one "right" solution.

I dread what will happen if the new green deal (or something similar) ever comes to pass...heating costs will soar, and likely many of the ways we heat today will be restricted, if not totally banned.

 

[deserteagle71]

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Is it safe to assume that your stove is away from living areas of your house (ie-a basement with heat ducted to the living area)? The noise from a pellet stove would drive me nuts.

I'm gonna stick with firewood as long as I'm able.

^ Me.

Firewood is nearly impossible to find in northern Nevada anymore - most of it is on public land (87% of Nevada is public land "managed" by the Federal government and they tell us all those trees that were destroyed in fires must be left for the woodpeckers, etc). So for the past 25 years I've been making an annual trip to Oregon to buy firewood. Last year even that source dried up so I gave up and bought a pellet stove, an expensive Harman that was advertised as being "whisper quiet", and that I would get used to the noise it did make. NOT! Also, though my thermometer tells me it is 72 degrees in the house it still feels cold - the wood stove heat just somehow felt warmer.

If I could find a good source of firewood I'd reinstall my Blaze King wood stove in a heartbeat.

 

[coobie]

About thirty years ago we converted from firewood to wood pellets. Bought a Wellenco PelletMaster pellet stove. It was advertised as being able to burn just about anything. We found the best pellets were Lignetics. Produced in Glenville, WV.

We also tried wheat, olive pits, coal and paper pellets. Wheat is dirt cheap around here. The auger would chew up the wheat and things became plugged up. Olive pits were great but very expensive. Coal was a nightmare. Greasy coal dust/fumes everywhere. Paper pellets were a passing fad. The "greenie" tree huggers could never make a go of the paper pellets.

We used the pellet stove for about ten years. Then the pellets peaked at about $250/ton and we went to electric heat.

Been using electric heat for around the last twenty years.

I hear you on the $250/ton for pellets.Back 15 years ago they were $99/ton.We switched back last year to a propane free standing stove plus our furnace.We have two 500 gal.porpane tanks and filled up in sept.for 98 cents per gallon.Still have 40% in the one tank.IMHO much cheaper now for propane heat verses wood pellets.

 

[crashz]

Me too.

We have never been so warm, so for so little money, with so little work.

Same here - but you get pulled into the warm wood heat. When we heat with oil, we set the thermostat at 64-65. When the pellet stove is on, 68-69 degrees. Love the pellet stove!

 

[LouNY]

Same here - but you get pulled into the warm wood heat. When we heat with oil, we set the thermostat at 64-65. When the pellet stove is on, 68-69 degrees. Love the pellet stove!

Oil 62-68 depending on the zone,
coal 72-76 these old bones like that nice dry mid 70's.

 

[shooterdon]

I hear you on the $250/ton for pellets.Back 15 years ago they were $99/ton.We switched back last year to a propane free standing stove plus our furnace.We have two 500 gal.porpane tanks and filled up in sept.for 98 cents per gallon.Still have 40% in the one tank.IMHO much cheaper now for propane heat verses wood pellets.

Last time I checked, pellets were $220/ton here in Northern MI. Cheaper to heat with propane, and no bags to handle to ashes to dispose of.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I just bought propane on 03-02-2020, 367 gallons, and the price was $4.159 per gallon.

Yeah, chew on that for a second.

When my cogenerator is up and running, I can heat with:

Propane
Coal
Firewood
Electric
#2 Heating Oil

Wood Pellets (backup)

Then with electricity I can:

On-Grid
Produce my own

It is not so much that I can produce my own power and heat from the same source, but that I can have different options on how I heat my home.

 

[deserteagle71]

I just bought propane on 03-02-2020, 367 gallons, and the price was $4.159 per gallon.

Yeah, chew on that for a second.

^ Same here and why I can't afford to use propane for heat. Electricity costs about the same when used for heating. We have a lot of geothermal and solar power plants in Nevada - but the power is all sold to California.

 

[BrokenTrack]

^ Same here and why I can't afford to use propane for heat. Electricity costs about the same when used for heating. We have a lot of geothermal and solar power plants in Nevada - but the power is all sold to California.

Here it goes to the lower New England states.

As far as hardgood exports go, wood products still rule, but in terms of exports from Maine by dollar value; it is electricity. Now they want to put a major transmission line from Quebec into MA. It is going to devastate us as far as biomass jobs go as those plants will be shut down like they are in NH.

 

[coobie]

Last time I checked, pellets were $220/ton here in Northern MI. Cheaper to heat with propane, and no bags to handle to ashes to dispose of.

$229 per ton last year in s.michigan I used 4-5 tons per year.No brainer for me propane was cheaper.

 

[LouNY]

Coal at $280 per ton with 75% efficiency is $1493.33 per million btu,
wood pellets at $229 per ton at the same 75% efficiency is $1850.51 per million btu,
propane at $1.25 per gallon (good luck around here with that) at 90% efficiency is $1520.69 per million btu,
propane at $2.00 per gallon and 90% efficiency is $2433.10 per million btu,
the old standby for the north east Oil at $2.80 per gallon with 80% efficiency $2523.61 per million btu.

Very nice heating cost calculator here:
Fuel Comparison Calculator for Home Heating | Coalpail.com

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I paid $1.19 for propane last summer, then $1.69 this winter...

I'm only burning wood when I feel like it, which is most evenings.

SR

 

[Oaktree]

Now they want to put a major transmission line from Quebec into MA. It is going to devastate us as far as biomass jobs go as those plants will be shut down like they are in NH.

Lucky you. :fiery:
We managed to defeat something similar here in N.H. a few years ago, but it was essentially on a technicality (the state site review committee ruled that Eversource/Hydro Quebec failed to prove that this project would benefit N.H.). Fortunately, the state supreme court supported the ruling, much to the chagrin of our governor.

Last I knew the plants in Bethlehem and Berlin were still running, though the future seems uncertain. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but from what I understand Eversource refused to pay the premium price for electricity produced by these plants, even though they are required to by law.
I have mixed feelings on them. The plants pay top dollar for wood chips, driving the cost of firewood up, and the whole tree is generally chipped, leaving no slash to help regenerate the soil.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Lucky you. :fiery:
We managed to defeat something similar here in N.H. a few years ago, but it was essentially on a technicality (the state site review committee ruled that Eversource/Hydro Quebec failed to prove that this project would benefit N.H.). Fortunately, the state supreme court supported the ruling, much to the chagrin of our governor.

Last I knew the plants in Bethlehem and Berlin were still running, though the future seems uncertain. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but from what I understand Eversource refused to pay the premium price for electricity produced by these plants, even though they are required to by law.
I have mixed feelings on them. The plants pay top dollar for wood chips, driving the cost of firewood up, and the whole tree is generally chipped, leaving no slash to help regenerate the soil.

I knew Berlin was operating, but I thought that was because of power and heat for the prison? I did not know about Bethlehem, I thought that one was shut down. I do not live there, but do have a house there, and pay my fair share in property taxes! :-(

In any case, I cannot imagine (2) mills would drive the price of firewood up that much. Here, firewood only pays $10 more per cord than pulp going to the paper mills, and biomass only pays $3 a ton.

Power is getting nasty in Maine though. Central Maine Power (which is owned by the parent company that owns 90% of the Eastern Part of the United States) has the LOWEST ranking of any power company in the USA. It is so bad that there is talk of the State of Maine talking them over because they are so shoddy in business like practices. But the new corridor itself only has a 30% approval rating. Now that it is going to referendum, it most likely will be voted down.

They told us 20 years ago to rip out the hydro dams, and now they are saying it is in our best interest to have them...and coming from a foreign country no less! :thumbdown:

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Sawdust is made into pellets via high pressure machinery which squeezes out the moisture, AFAIK, it's not practical or economical to do on a small sale.

You can mix dry corn with pellets in some stoves or even burn corn alone. Back years ago, they sold corn stoves, but the ethanol boondoggle jacked he price up and made it uneconomical unless you grew and processed your own.

The sawmill down the road runs a big co-gen operation. They use high pressure steam to run turbines to power the mill and sell electricity on the grid, and low pressure steam for resin stills, pressboard, lumber kilns and fuel pellets, then use cooling ponds to dispose of the rest. I told them they should set up a greenhouse operation for the waste heat, but the mill is already a mile long from one end to the other. I guess enough is enough.