Propane shortage

[LD1]

I am not sold on wood pellets as being an efficient heat. It is only slightly better than propane if you look in terms of $ per btu. And prices fluctuate so much on everything.

I fill the tank in the summer when prices are low. At $1.50 per gallon for example, $100 would buy me 6.1 million btu's of heat.

At $200/ton pellets would give 6.8 million btu's per $100.

Given that small increase, but the added hassle of having to keep it full, and having to haul a few tons of pellets each year, I don't think I would burn pellets even if someone gave me a furnace for free.

But I can see advantages in other areas where propane is more $$$ of pellets are still only $200 / ton

 

[charlz]

I am not sold on wood pellets as being an efficient heat. It is only slightly better than propane if you look in terms of $ per btu. And prices fluctuate so much on everything.

I fill the tank in the summer when prices are low. At $1.50 per gallon for example, $100 would buy me 6.1 million btu's of heat.

At $200/ton pellets would give 6.8 million btu's per $100.

Given that small increase, but the added hassle of having to keep it full, and having to haul a few tons of pellets each year, I don't think I would burn pellets even if someone gave me a furnace for free.

But I can see advantages in other areas where propane is more $$$ of pellets are still only $200 / ton

Depends greatly on your propane prices. My average over six of the last eight years has been $2.32/gallon for propane. That is summer and winter prices. I haven't called in the two years as my stove has paid for itself but I would call periodically and get the price even though I didn't need a fill. My wood pellet prices have been around $180/ton purchased on sale in the summer.

So that $100 only buys me 3.9 million BTUs of propane but buys me 9.4 million BTU's of wood pellets. I base this on the manufacture rating of 8500BTU's/pound. I think your 6.8 million BTU's is a little low as that only comes out to 6800 BTU's per pound of wood.

Gets even more when you figure my winter prices are higher than average. If I was using propane all winter I would need 3-4 fills per year mostly in the dead of winter when prices are highest. If I had to buy propane at the currently reported $4/gallon my wood pellet savings would really kick in.

 

[batwing]

I am not sold on wood pellets as being an efficient heat. It is only slightly better than propane if you look in terms of $ per btu. And prices fluctuate so much on everything.

I fill the tank in the summer when prices are low. At $1.50 per gallon for example, $100 would buy me 6.1 million btu's of heat.

At $200/ton pellets would give 6.8 million btu's per $100.

Given that small increase, but the added hassle of having to keep it full, and having to haul a few tons of pellets each year, I don't think I would burn pellets even if someone gave me a furnace for free.

But I can see advantages in other areas where propane is more $$$ of pellets are still only $200 / ton

We have a pellet boiler and propane boiler. There are a lot of differences in Pellets, premium pellets are about 200 dollars per ton but just went up 15.00 here. We also filled up with propane last summer it was 2.39 gallon. If it is above 40deg we use propane, but below 35deg pellets save us a lot.

 

[LD1]

Definataly a lot of variables. You are assuming buying enough pellets at the summer low. Which can also be done with propane if you have a large enough tank.

And the website I saw had 13.6 M btu listed for pellets.

Another question I have and haven't researched...how efficient is a pellet burner? How many of them BTUs are actually heating your house? I know a lot of propane furnaces are over 90%

 

[batwing]

Definataly a lot of variables. You are assuming buying enough pellets at the summer low. Which can also be done with propane if you have a large enough tank.

And the website I saw had 13.6 M btu listed for pellets.

Another question I have and haven't researched...how efficient is a pellet burner? How many of them BTUs are actually heating your house? I know a lot of propane furnaces are over 90%

There is a big difference in pellet stoves last I new 72% was about as efficient as they get, some get dirty fast and are hard to clean they are not very efficient when dirty. Good pellets make a big difference.

 

[charlz]

I track my pellet use so I know about how much I need each year. The price stays fairly flat through the year but I buy what I think I need during the summer 'stock up now' sales. If I need one more ton in spring it might be $20 higher than if I bought the summer before. In order store enough propane I would need multiple large tanks. Based on my pellet use I would need at least 1000 gallons on hand to ensure I made it from summer fill to summer fill. They only fill to 80% so one 1,000 gallon tank would not do it. The larger the tank the more the cost so I would have to factor in higher rental or pay back if I purchased them.


My pellet stove claims 85.2% efficient and IIRC my furnace is 89% or 91%, I have it written down somewhere. One chief difference though is the pellet stove has no duct loss. My furnace ducts are insulated but ran through the unheated crawlspace under my house. Every time the furnace kicks on it blows cold air into the house and then it takes a while to warm the ducts up before you get full temp. So I consider it to be a wash between the two as far as efficiency goes and I just compare on a BTU-BTU basis of the fuel.

 

[kenmac]

I've never seen a pellet stove, But based on what LD is saying his propane cost vs pellet cost, and the pellet stove only being 72% efficient the 80% furnace (which is the min. efficiently you can buy) beats the pellet stove. That's a lot of heat going up the stack on the pellet stove

 

[AMD]

Just paid $1.04 L or $4.29 US gallon. That's 40 cents a L more than this fall.

Had heard that it topped the 1$ per litre mark locally - our next fill-up should be in a week or so and I'm not looking forward to it. I've been trying to burn some more wood to offset.

Think we paid $0.63 a litre in Oct, $0.73 in Nov and $0.889 in Dec. Not the kind of trend I like.

 

[tcartwri]

Had heard that it topped the 1$ per litre mark locally - our next fill-up should be in a week or so and I'm not looking forward to it. I've been trying to burn some more wood to offset.

Think we paid $0.63 a litre in Oct, $0.73 in Nov and $0.889 in Dec. Not the kind of trend I like.

What's more irritating is that we were pushed into the switch by our home insurer and the oil company. There was nothing wrong with our existing oil setup at all.

 

[batwing]

I track my pellet use so I know about how much I need each year. The price stays fairly flat through the year but I buy what I think I need during the summer 'stock up now' sales. If I need one more ton in spring it might be $20 higher than if I bought the summer before. In order store enough propane I would need multiple large tanks. Based on my pellet use I would need at least 1000 gallons on hand to ensure I made it from summer fill to summer fill. They only fill to 80% so one 1,000 gallon tank would not do it. The larger the tank the more the cost so I would have to factor in higher rental or pay back if I purchased them.


My pellet stove claims 85.2% efficient and IIRC my furnace is 89% or 91%, I have it written down somewhere. One chief difference though is the pellet stove has no duct loss. My furnace ducts are insulated but ran through the unheated crawlspace under my house. Every time the furnace kicks on it blows cold air into the house and then it takes a while to warm the ducts up before you get full temp. So I consider it to be a wash between the two as far as efficiency goes and I just compare on a BTU-BTU basis of the fuel.

The pellet stove efficiency rating published by their manufacturers is a combined rating which includes combustion efficiency, electrical efficiency and heat transfer efficiency. Pellet stoves mostly burn at over 98% combustion efficiency, and the electrical efficiency is about 99%. Assume, for the sake of argument, that the heat transfer efficiency of a pellet stove is 60%. If you add up 98%, 99% and say 60%, you get 257. Divide that figure by three to get the overall efficiency and it comes out at 85.7%. All I know is when you walk into a house with radiant heat it feels good!! When the temp gets below 25Degs our pellet boiler cost about half what propane cost for us.
Ron