Yesterday we had 4 tons of wood pellets delivered.
That’s four huge pallets full of wood pellet bags. We had two stacked into the old coal bin in the basement–they brought a cool roller track thing that made it a cinch to slide the bags down the stairs:
And then we had the other two pallets dropped near the deck so Yankee Bill can stack them on the side porch-which when moved will put them close to the house but out of the elements:
I posted a picture of the pellets being downloaded on the Frugal Upstate Facebook Page and got a few questions:
Why did you choose a pellet stove?
When we moved into our home it had a fuel oil furnace with a 275 gallon tank for heat. There was/is some supplemental electric baseboard heat in the bedrooms. In the winter keeping the thermostat at a fairly chilly 68 during the day and nudged up to 72 in the mornings and evenings we were running through lets say 3 full tanks of oil.
I just had a friend fill her oil tank for $3.55 a gallon. So at today’s prices, assuming 3 tanks of oil (or 825 gallons which is right in the average range) that would be $2928.75. That’s a lot of money to pay to keep a house on the very cool side!
We knew we wanted to change our method of heating in order to save money.
I preferred a wood stove–I grew up with wood heat and like the fact that it runs when the power is out (the pellet stove has a mechanical feed system to drop the pellets down into the stove that requires electricity) , that you can cut your own wood if necessary (you have to buy pellets) and that you can cook on top of it if you need to (again in power outages–can you tell I grew up in Maine where we had blizzards?).
Yankee Bill preferred a pellet stove as the pellets come in nice neat bags, can be ordered by the pallet, are easier to stack then cord wood, don’t require splitting or seasoning, and it all (including the firebox) stays cleaner with a heck of a lot less ash & residue.
Since Yankee Bill was the one who would have to do 90% of the work related to the stove*, and since marriage is a series of compromises, we purchased the pellet stove. Actually, I purchased it, and 3 tons of pellets, with money I made from this blog. Gotta say, I was pretty proud of that.
(*note-not being sexist or anything, my back & neck have issues and I really shouldn’t be doing things like chopping or hauling wood for long periods)
Since last year we wound up purchasing another ton of pellets in the late spring/early winter (part of which is left) we went ahead and purchased 4 tons of pellets for this years heat. At $215 a ton plus delivery and taxes, that works out to a total winter heating cost of $920
$2928.75 vs $920.
I’d say that was worth it.
We do supplement with the furnace–but our fuel oil company hated us last year. I think we used maybe 100 gallons the entire year.
Four tons? Really? For one winter?
Yes. Really. Heating things takes a lot of stored energy. Energy stored in wood, in oil, in pellets, in natural gas. It’s just that unless you are stacking wood or staring at pallets full of pellets you really don’t get the true sense of how much mass it takes to make that heat. When you have fuel oil you just turn up that thermostat when you want more and monthly (usually when you aren’t even home) a truck pulls up and tops off your tank. You don’t SEE all the gallons you are using.
4 tons keeps about 2/3 of the bottom floor of my 3000 sq foot house cool (instead of freezing).
Where do you get your pellets?
I buy my pellets from a local business. Very local-he’s only about 1/2 a mile up the street from me! The brand that he sells are New England Wood Pellets.
There is variation in the quality of pellets. What they are made of can effect how clean they burn and how much heat you get from the volume. These pellets cost a bit more than what you can buy at a few other places near us-but they are made with hardwood so they burn hotter and with less residue than some of the real “bargain” pellets.
Why are you ordering your pellets now? It’s only September!
It may be a while before we start using the stove for the winter, but the price of pellets changes with the season. We wanted to get the lower “summer” price before the increase at the beginning of October. Also it’s better to get the pellets when the weather is nice since you will have to move them around a bit.
Also its just one less thing to worry about. It’s ordered, delivered and paid for–so it’s here and ready.
What if the power goes out?
Well, if the power goes out we can either run our generator, or using our 800watt inverter attached to the battery of the car we can run the mechanical portion of the stove so that it will continue to provide heat.
Do any of you use pellet stoves?
This is fascinating, Jenn! Like you, I grew up with a wood stove, but we of course had to chop all of the wood ourselves…we lived on a retired Christmas tree farm way out in the boonies, so we had plenty of wood to use and chop, and while pine isn’t the cleanest burning, and needs plenty of seasoning time, it was free. Really interesting to see new technology applied to wood stove heating.
Our condo is all electric (built in the late ’60s when electric was the rage anticipating the gas crisis) with radiant heat in the ceiling (not smart), but the cost is pretty reasonable, as we have zoned heat. We turn the heat off completely in the second bedroom, which doesn’t get much use, keep it at 60 in the bedroom, and then just heat the small living area normally, keeping our bills to around $100/month during cold months.
I still miss the wood heat–the pellet stove has a blower and blows out the hot air, so although you can see the lovely flames standing in front of it is more like standing in front of a forced hot air heating vent. You don’t get that lovely all over radiant heat on your front while your back is still cold 🙂
Wow, $100 a month for your climate sounds pretty dang reasonable to me! Good job! We’ve also replaced 95% of our windows, use thermal honeycomb blinds and block off unused rooms. The bedrooms are on baseboard electric with programmable thermostats so they are warm just in the morning & evening for the kids.
There is also a new pellet stove now that requires no electricity to run! The Wiseway Pellet Stove. It also has optional equipment for heating water. This stove will work when the power is out just like your old woodstove, but burns cleaner and is EPA and UL approved.
Very interesting! I’ll have to look that up.
quite expensive
We just put one in last winter-since here in CT it was pretty mild-we only used three flats of pellets and our oil savings was tremendous. I felt like you-I grew up in Vermont and had a wood stove and furnace, but my hubby would be doing most of the work involved so the pellet stove won here too. Our house is definitely warmer with the pellet stove versus oil. Do you find some pellets create more dust than others?
We’ve only used the one kind-we empty the ash pan about 1x a week when we are running it constantly…
Hi Jenn, I just read your post about the wood stove and wood pellets. I had no ideal! I live in the city here in Ohio, and always have used gas heat or electric heat. I find your post amazing. Learn something new everyday 🙂
I use a wood stove, love it except for the mess that bringing the wood in (I store it on my back porch, or now that I don’t have a car—in the carport). I have a electric furnace for back up……it might do a good job if there were more heat vents, but in 1800 square feet there are 10 heat vents). Sounds like a lot….one is a bathroom that is rarely used and may not be used at all if I don’t get another roommate. One is the foyer, really stupid place if you ask me. There are only two between the dining room and living room which are open plan.
And the last year that I actually used the electric furnace (before I bought the wood stove), I was paying 200.00 per month and still freezing my buns off. I’ll take the mess and 50.00 a month electric bills any day!
My dad uses a pellet stove and also gets 4 tons of pellets. We don’t have a nifty slider thing. All the children and grandchildren help carry the 40 lb bags down the stairs, down the backyard hill, and into the basement. We stack them hiiiiigh. It definitely saves him money.
There is a company that makes non electric pellet stoves. The stove is gravity fed. The stove is EPA certified and is portable so you can place it where you need it. No need to worry about electricty to power the pellet stove!