I just stumbled across several articles that warn of possible CO poisoning from indoor wood pellet storage. Maybe I’m late to the party, and this has been discussed on here already… I’ve always stored my pellets in a storage room in my house. I store up to 3 thousand pounds at a time. Should I not be doing that? The room that I store them in is a cool, dry, concrete floor, lower level room. I’d be shocked if the room ever gets above 65 degrees.
I had to google it. Found an article, or the article, can't say if that was the one you saw. If it were us I'd put a carbon monoxide in your pellet storage room and see for myself. Makes me wonder, suppose storing wood for a wood stove inside that causes CO too?
mat60 This is one of the articles that I initially read. There are a bunch ( I went down a worm hole ) Pellet Offgassing: Simple Problem, Simple Solution? | Biomassmagazine.com Have you been able to get Heartland Pellets up there, lately? I'm having trouble getting them here. Shipping issues... Heartland's are the best. I bought 1,000 pounds of "Rapid Heat" pellets today. They are out of Rapid City, SD. They seem to be burning well so far.
Hi there We've bought 3 pallets of Heartleands over the last couple months but the dealer did say he did not know when his next shipment would be. That said, same thing happened several years now. And yes, Heartlands are awesome! Too bad we don't have Rapid Heat here. That said, if you are storing the pellets in your home (or in an attached garage etc.) I would get a CO detector to be safe--wormhole or not, keep your family safe
I hear ya I drove into town and bought a CO detector at Ace, for my pellet storage room this afternoon. I just installed it. I already have a few CO detectors in the house, but I didn't have one in the storage room until today. I put money down on a long ton of Heartland's while I was there. They said they'd call me when/if they get them in. Usually, they have 5 to 10 tons on hand year round. They didn't have any when I went there today
I store 3 tons in my basement (650 sq/ft) and have 3 tons in my 13x24 garage. No problems here. However, anyone with a pellet stove, wood stove or fossil fuel burner should have CO detectors anyway. I have on in the basement and one on the main floor. Well, after I typed that I realized the last sentence is incorrect - I have two dedicated CO detectors; one sets on my electronics cabinet in a living room, and one is hung on a post 7' from the P61a. Then I have 3 combination smoke/CO detectors; one about 5' from where a large pallet of pellets is (large pallet= 7 bags per layer), one in the stairway and one in the main floor hallway right in the path of the airflow from the P43.
I think that article is for very large storage of pellets. I bought a CO detector that sits in my living room where I bring in 5-10 bags at a time since I don't have room to store tonnage BUT that's where my pellet stove is. I'd rather be safe than sorry and spend that little bit of money for a CO detector.
There have been issues where in large storage containers (several tons) that didn't have air circulation, the co built up to toxic levels and killed people. However, the amount of co emissions from a couple of tons in a house or building with moderate ventilation will be fine. Your average propane cook top puts off more co than a few tons of stable wood.
