With Cheap Oil Prices Anyone Else Not Buying Pellets This Year?

Yes, that makes sense if an extra stove efficiency factor is multiplied in. I didn't originally bother to check the other fuel types, because I don't keep their BTU/unit of measure memorized.

 

I think it's also worth mentioning that one should not stop with the results from the calculator to determine which fuel to use.. Everyone's situation is different. In general, central heating systems are either hot water or hot air (yeah, some have electric baseboard). Central heating systems that are not contained in the living space (i.e. in a basement or garage) will have heat losses that are not accounted for in the attached/linked calculators. For example, an oil forced hot water system will tend to keep an unfinished basement several degrees warmer due to radiant heat loss from boiler and pipes. This heat is may make living space floors warmer but it also escapes laterally through the foundation.. Additionally, forced hot water systems will have high localized heat loss through walls due to large ΔT between the living space and the outside of the wall. This occurs due to design in that the radiators are on outside walls and often placed under windows. Makes for even distribution of heat, but increases losses. For forced hot air systems that use ducting outside the living space, additional losses occur that way too.

When heating with a space heater be it electric, pellet or wood, one tends to have an uneven heat distribution in the living space. This is dependent on air flow within the structure as well as insulation/air sealing properties of the exterior of the building. It is possible for one to keep a local area in the house at 80 degrees while areas further from the space heater are 60 degrees (depending on outside temperature). Depending on how the living space is used, this may be perfectly acceptable and have the same BTU heating requirement as keeping the entire structure at 68 degrees.

In my personal situation, we have a stove insert that dumps heat straight into the kitchen. The family room is close by and heats up well too The distant parts of the house cool considerably when it's in negative numbers outside but we mitigate that by only heating them when we are using them.

So with all this said, these calculators are just a starting point. I think if I was to have to choose between a space heater (wood stove) or central heating system (my oil boiler) given the same forecasted costs, I'd choose wood 99% of the time. I'd probably do the same thing for pellets if I had a stove. What is going to be different this winter from previous winters is that I'll probably leave my boiler on all winter and just set the thermostats at 60 degrees so we don't have to deal with portions of the house getting down to the mid 50's on the coldest of nights.. As for the stove room, its generally 75-78 degrees which is more than comfortable when it's snowing outside..

So, all that said, cheap oil/nat gas may not be as cheap as it appears to be in these calculators..

 

I use the azz calculator and it always shows that my azz is warmer with the pellet stove over the oil burner, that's all I need to know.

 

True Dat

 

Hi guys I thought I'd drop by to say hello. I filled up the tank for $1.57 a gallon so yeah
my pellet burner will not be running this season unless oil prices shoot up.

 

Aw, you should fire it up every so often Xena! We all like to play with fire here.

 

Latest news on the oil front is Saudi Arabia will not agree to a cap on oil production. Bodes well to keep oil and gas prices low this winter.

 

Article I read today said if they don't agree, the prices will drop like a rock real fast, all the way to the $30 range.

 

Sold the big house 6000+sqft and downsized getting ready for the move, new house 1800 sqft NG, no pellets for me. NG probably won't hit 50 bucks.
I tell people this house 1800 sqft is our downsized house and they think I am kidding.

 

I say keep an eye out for some great deals on used pellet stoves

 

I have enough....

 

Well, as far as cooking on a woodstove - some you can, some you can't. My second woodstove was a really nice soapstone model that looked great and heated up the house well and held the heat well too. But I couldn't boil water on it. No, seriously, a pan of water would not even simmer. I will grant you I could still bake a potato in it and at least get some really warm water to wash with along with heating the house.

But having a propane stove I can boil water and fry and all that good stuff on the stove top - I just have to light the stove top manually. My previous house had a stove I could still use the oven with (and I used it to heat the house when electric went out prior to getting a wood stove). But this house has a stove where I set the oven temp digitally so it won't heat the house.

 

It's very much the same here raybonz, except of course we'll need the generator to power the pellet stove when the lights go out..

We don't use the electric stove during outages - too many folks had issues trying to run electric range stoves off generator power during the ice storms of '97 and '08 in town (electrical fires / toasted their stoves / a few homes were badly damaged) ... we do have a small 2 burner element 'hot plate' that works well , the microwave works , and there's always the gas grill available for true chillin' and grilling.


That $200/cord price cut/split/delivered is below the going rate in this area - if that's semi-seasoned or dry, it's an excellent price.


During the ice storm of '97 it was so bad the oil & propane trucks couldn't make it into the development beyond our house - I was sanding the road in front of our driveway, so more than a few trucks could back in / turn around during that event, 2-3 days in. We were buying off-road diesel in 5 gallon containers and dumping it in the oil tank at the start: it was way too dangerous for the driver to get to the oil fill, the first few days here.

Power was out for 2 weeks during the '97 storm, that was a tough one. But we had the wood stove then, a kerosene heater, and the generator, so we were able to ride it out - lots of non-prepped folks ended up moving out of town after that event.

re: independence & self sufficiency - fully agree, we're happy to have the pellet stove, 'cause with a little preparedness, we'll know things will be ok here.

All that said, now I've got to test out the hot plate, and refill the empty spare propane bottle today.