Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Eating corn here. Never got above 30 and it's windy. 72 inside. I really don't like winter.

 

I have been on other Pellet stove forums ....Good bet

 

I remember the 'shell' thing from IBC (I burn Corn) forum. Was long time ago.

 

His last activity was early April. I hope everything is ok…..

 

Try upping your RH. The closer you stay to 50% RH or above, the warmer you feel at any given temp because when the RH is low, your body is aspirating moisture through your skin and the evaporation of that, makes you 'feel colder' than it actually is. Hold my RH as close to 50% as I can.

Pellets or in my case, corn and pellets are always a PITA to handle / transport. I keep my stuff in the barn (pellets and corn separate) and mix as needed, into 4 large plastic refuse cans with good lids on a skid and then the skid gets set on the back deck with my pallet forks on one of the tractors. My house stove (USSC 6039) is in the greatroom and not easily accessable from the deck, so, the mix comes in, in 5 gallon buckets and my wife and I take turns feeding the hopper.

I clean it myself, on Sunday and Wednesday because corn makes a huge amount of ash. House (entire house) is maintaining 70 constantly and it 'feels' warm because the RH is high enough. I keep the shop at 68 when I'm in there (6039 again) and 50 when I'm not (in floor PEX with a propane fired boiler). I keep the central furnace 'blower on' all the time and the t'stat temp at 68, just in case of an incident. I use about 600 gallons of propane yearly, most of it for the shop and 2 ton of pellets and 4 ton of corn. Pellets are 200 a ton, corn is free.

I fully expect a huge increase in pellet prices next year but I have an additional 2 ton in storage and my corn will stay free. I pre bought 1000 gallons of propane and started out with 3 full 500 gallon bottles (480 each) and I own all 3. Have enough propane on hand and pre bought to go at least 2, maybe 3 years.

One thing I cannot control is the cost of electricity which I fully expect to go up.. My buddy in Bangor Maine got a Dear John letter from his electric provider, they are tacking on an 80% surcharge starting in January. I expect that here as well. Fuel costs for baseload generation is climbing and like any good company, they are passing it on to the end user.

 

Depending on where we hunt next fall, we might have a face to face. One never knows. The opposite it true in the winter when you are artifically controlling the atmosphere in your house.

 

The "ideal" RH for indoors in the winter is 40-50%

 

X4

 

I suck down about 2.5 gallons a day to hold 50%

 

Furnace mounted humidifiers don't work for us, way too much calcium in the well water. They plug up in a matter of days. We use a Sunbeam stand alone humidifier and 2.5 gallon jugs of bottle water and even that necessitates a filter change about every 45 days. The 2 tanks on the humidifier hold 3 gallons but I only dump in a 2.5 gallon jug of bottled water and the humidifier sits in front of the stove, in the heated airstream. Only run it during the day time, all that is necessary. A jug a day keeps the static electricity away..,.