Pellet heads!! What's up today?

We did too...!!
Amazon is great.. this is the easiest tree we ever decorated!!


Dan

 

No tree here. The cats would 'cut it down' in about 30 seconds

 

Kind of wondering how much pellets will increase next fall. I have a feeling the 200 buck a ton average price is gone. I'm thinking 250 average for the Tractor Supply white bag stuff.

Long as my 'free corn' keeps flowing, I'm good. Cost me a carton of Marlboro reds every fall or 70 bucks. Not a bad deal for as many tons as I want.

Least the power is back on here. Don't like sucking down expensive diesel to run the standby. Keeping a close eye on the RH now. As the ambient temp drops outside, the air gets dryer and so does the house. I'm holding it at 45-50% rh presently.

 

How much is fuel oil there? Anyway,I went for several years with just LP, some years ago. Still cheaper for pellets here,than LP,
Cost per million BTU = $

41.13 for LP

Cost per million BTU = $

17.98

for wood pellets.

Lots of people here are wishing they did not sell their pellet stoves. Fuel oil,LP and NG will steadily climb this winter.

 

Yep,you are past the edge,for sticking with oil. I always try figure my time.

 

You do realize that 'fuel oil' is just off road diesel, I hope and the cost of that is going up like a hot air balloon as well. Far as young, I'm 71 and some days feel like 101.

If I didn't have a source of free corn, I'd just go back to propane and call it good. We have a condensing furnace and it's over 90% efficient.

The issue with ANY fuel, oil or pellets or coal is, it will all increase with inflation because of the cost of processing it also rises. Viscious circle that I am (very lucky not to be involved with because the corn I burn is what is called 'no germ' seed corn.

In order for a seed producer to sell seed corn, it must germinate above 95% or it's not marketable and my buddy down the road tests his monthly for germination. I get the stuff that is below 95%. If I don't take it, he has to pay a tipping fee at the landfill to bury it so, I'm saving him the tipping fee. He wins and so do I.

The is nothing more stinky than a pile of wet corn getting moldy. What I get, he puts in supersacks or bags it for me. They have a fully automated bagging line so like pellets, it never gets handled at all. The robot stacks the bags on skids and shrink wraps them, 2500 pounds to a skid and of course I have a front end loader capable of handling them.

All the corn is at 10% RM or less. Has to be to be sold and it's very clean too, no earwings, no dirt, no metal, nothing but corn.

I prefer the supersacks but bagged works too. Have to roast the bags when empty, I return the supersacks and the skids they come on. You cannot use the bags over because the line stitches them closed and add a pull strip, much like those that come on bird seed or feed that you get from the farm store.

If your unit is corn capable and you have a seed processor near you, you can inquire about roasting their no germ corn as well.

Sure saves me a bundle on fuel costs. Only issue with corn is the amount of ash it produces. I have to clean my unit 2 times weekly and not just shovel the ash into the ash pan but 'clean it' as in with a vacuum cleaner and bottle brushes and I made extension tube from a length of old garden hose that I can stick in the combustion blower from the stove end to suck it out as well and I have to dump the cleanout tee at least every week and I added a short length of venting to the bottom of it (mine is outside) because the ash will fill up the cleanout Tee full in a week.

So there are some disadvantages to it but the overall cost negates them.

..and I mix pellets with the corn anyway because running straight corn will cause hard clinkers to form in the pot. The pellets (I mix at a 1-3 ratio), 1 part pellets to 3 parts corn, negates that clinker issue. I still get some but I'll open the stove door and reach in with an old table fork and flip them out (while the stove is running).

Producing pellets is very energy intensive no matter what the feedstock is. Could be scrap lumber, forestry slash or discarded pallets but whatever it is, it has to be reduced to a slurry (usually with some sort of mill) and then extruded and then the pellets have to be dried and bagged and shipped and it's all big machines with big motors and the drying part uses lots of energy too. They could be heating their dryers with surplus pellets, or NG depending, but they still have to buy electricity to run the machinery and it's all going up so the cost of the product goes up as well.

After all, extruders are in business to make money just like any other business which is why I believe the cost of pellets will go up. How much, I have no idea but they will go up, just like fuel oil is and NG and electricity too.

Buddy in Maine just got a dear john letter from his electricity provider. First of the year, they are adding an 85% surcharge onto his electric bill. He almost crapped his pants but, you gotta have it so you grin and bear it.

He heats with wood but you still need electricity to power the lights and the clothes dryer and the fan that distributes his heat from his wood furnace and he buys his wood in log form mostly and I'm sure the cost of that will go up as well.

Viscous circle and I think we all know who did it and I won't go there either.

 

That was gone about 100 years ago here...

Dan

 

Our local Home Depot has Green Supreme's for 209. But did not get any, as I still prefer North Idaho's.

 

Same here. I have 2.2 ton in garage from last year and didn't add to it. Dreading getting these to the basement-first time I have felt this way, but the aches and pains are getting more prominent.

Dino juice boiler is 25 years old and wont last forever and that will need updating soon.

Spent 2 plus hours getting the stove cleaned and first fire yesterday (latest ever for me) but aafter 12 heating seasons she fired right up.

Maybe once the real cold sets in I might feel differently about not having fire in the basement-maybe it will be a less and less used heat source but bottom line, with price of pellets added to all the work the cons are starting to outweigh the pro's.

 

From NH.gov, heat per million btu. The average cost per ton of wood pellets surged to over $300/ton - but that also includes delivery charges. Electric prices will surge next month. That propane price isn't even close to what a small time user like me will get. The liquid fuel prices are for those that use over 1,000 gallons and don't include delivery charges. My bet is that propane is over $5.50/gal - what I was paying in 2013. Interesting that firewood is more expensive than pellets.

 

Keep your options open and definitely consider the mini splits…..many utility companies are offering nice rebates when you buy them. The heat works amazing well and the AC is an added bonus!

 

My older brother in Kingston NH ditched the pellet stove (wood stove for years before the pellet) when he moved from Rowley Ma about 3 years ago. Installed mini split about a year ago and loves it. Says its works well for heat down to about the upper 30's outside but he mainly got it for the ac side as hauling heavy window units getting too hard to do.

 

The Mitsubishi hyper efficient units will heat with outside temps in the single digits…..

 

That is info I was looking for. I mainly want a mini split(hopefully next summer) not so much for the heating, but the cooling,BUT if going to spend the money, would be wise it seems to get it for both.My main issue, over the last 5 years, forest fire smoke from Cali and OR has been increasing, duration and amount. Don't have A/C, never needed it, but when their smoke and particulates come in,I have been shutting the house up and running air filters and humidifiers. But,as you know, when the humidity goes up, this doesn't work. I know about variable vane compressors,how well they work, because vehicles have been using them for a while. Thanks for the heads up on the Mitsubishi.

 

Operative word is "here"...


Dan

 

Not here. Bought an extra ton of Michigan hardwood pellets on pre buy at TSC and it came in at $201 a ton but I had to pick them up which is no issue (on either end). Loaded with a hi-lo at TSC, unloaded here with one of the tractors and pallet forks and put in the corner for that 'just in case scenario.

I'm guesstimating pellets will be 250 / ton here next fall but in the grand scheme of things will still be less that propane and maybe even less than NG and surely less than electricity, which is the most inefficient way of producing heat.

No matter how you turn it, the cost of heating will be more next year, how much more is a total crapshoot and depends entirely on the government and their legislative mandates and well all know how that works.

Of course food is more, gasoline and diesel is more, everything is more except your incomes, which stay stagnant.

Far as a Mini-split goes, we only have ac in the bedroom and that window unit stays in the window all year. In the fall it gets a boot cover. In the spring it comes off and the HX hosed out.

 

Maybe I should go into the pellet delivery business myself. Could get a smaller rubber tired hi-lo and carry it on my Gooseneck with pellets. Was talking to the clerk at the local tsc and she told me people come and pick up pellets with SUV's and cars and stuff them full of bags. Seems counter productive to me. I want to handle them as little as possible.

One thing about pellets and that is, the more you handle a bag, the more fines you get.