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

I have no idea, I do not sell wood that way.

I do sell firewood sometimes in mid to late winter after deducing that I can make it through winter on whatever it is I am heating with and sell my excess wood pile. But in that case the price is higher because who has dry firewood to sell that late in the year? I also insist the buyer comes and hauls it away. Maine has a law where if you drop off the wood at someones house, it becomes their property as it would be impossible to trace where wood came from, so if their check bounces, you are out of money.

I do make $20 more per cord for tree length firewood than I do for wood hauled to the paper mill, so I sell a fair amount of it, but its hard to beat the consistence of paper mills. I hauled ten cord of hardwood to the paper mill Friday morning at 8 AM and by 3 PM I had the money, paid in cash, in hand. With firewood you have to watch what you put on the truck as the people want only a little ash, a little yellow birch and the rest being beech and maple. And of course it can not be too big (12 inches minus) and not many limbs. For all that fussiness, that is why I get an extra $20.

 

In my case the choice was electric heat at $ 600 a month or pellet stove at $ 300 a month . Very happy with my CB 1200 and the nice cozy heat .

 

I had said a few years ago that I thought the pellet prices would go up and that I was prepared to pay $250 a ton for an average performing pellet. Didn't see oil going to $1.70 a gallon or less. My thoughts were that the price for pellets would need to come up to support a healthy industry and ensure there would be enough for all for years to come. At the time I was paying $199 or $209 a ton for Somersets. I wish I had seen the FSU and Chows selling last year for $99 cause this year it appears I'm gonna pay $259 for chows now. And I pay a discount price for oil because I work on their equipment (delivery trucks) .
So we are going to keep with my words and buy a couple of tons of pellets and fill up the tank with juice. I have been using 3 + tons a year and used small amount of oil to supplement heat one bedroom and bath during very cold weather and dhw. So for me this year a few less pellets and a little more oil. Not going to totally give up on any options.
Doggy

 

That was my point.
I doubt that there are many pellet burners here that would want a load of logs dumped in their
driveway to cut and split and leave there for a few months, vs. a few pallets of pellets..
So the price of a load could be a hundred bucks. It wouldn't matter.
They could, however, want a cord of cut and split wood, delivered......
Which is why the cost difference factor between a cord, and a ton, is more relevant...

 

Then buy coal. Rice coal can be burned in most pellet boilers if you recalibrate the auger speed; an easy enough job to say the least. (At current prices coal is $13.02 per million BTU's and wood pellets is at $18.10; both assumed to be 80% efficiency).

I don't have any issue with people that burn pellets because my father does. He has hundreds of acres teeming with firewood, but he went with pellets simply because he was concerned if he died at his age of 70, my mother might still be able to buy pellets cheaper than oil, and have the capacity at her age to dump in a 40 pound bag into the hopper. I can understand that, and appreciate that kind of forward thinking. Myself, if I was him I would switch it over this year and burn coal instead, but he is stubborn that way.

 

I used to...
Like the pellets better.

 

Us old guys tend to be that way.

 

Been there, done that .. Never again .. Life's too short to be stressing in the middle of winter trying to stay warm.

Agree w/ all that heating options are good - the more there are, the better here.

 

Latest fuel prices compared. (million btu)
Electric 57.15 (.195 kwh)
Propane 40.24 (2.94 gal)
Pellets 18.79 (248 ton)
Oil 18.57 (2.06 gal)

Dan

 

Very interesting. Is this per dollar?

 

That is how much per Million BTU

 

Thanks; but, for example, whats 18.57 in regards to oil? I mean its fuel PRICES compared.

 

Well, lets see, 18.57 divided by 2.06 = 9 gallons to make a million BTU.

It is telling you that it takes $18.57 worth of oil to make a million BTU. And that is if the oil is priced at $2.06/gallon.

 

If electricity was 19.5¢ per kilowatt hour... it would cost $57.15 for 1,000,000 btu's of heat. $38.58 more than oil.
If propane was $2.94 per gallon ................it would cost $40.24 for 1,000,000 btu's of heat. $21.83 more than oil.
If pellets were $248 per ton .......................it would cost $18.79 for 1,000,000 btu's of heat. $00.22 more than oil.
If oil was $2.06 per gallon ..........................it would cost $18.57 for 1,000,000 btu's of heat.

These calculations were based on average current pricing in New Hampshire.

Dan

 

I'm wondering if that fuel calculator came from an oil dealer.
Pellets are typically 8250 BTU/lb, or 16,500,000 BTU/ton.
Even if you're overpaying $248/ton, $248/16.5 = $15.03 per MMBTU.

$310 per ton would be about $18.79/MMBTU though.

 

I think it takes into account appliance efficiency.. For oil, $18.57 will get you 1.2MBTU of oil, but 1.0MBTU of heat. YMMV.

 

Calculations from spreadsheet supplied by Perdue University.

first pic is of the spreadsheet with prices that Pete Zahria shows - at the default efficiency (column I) - note that Column J does not equal what Pete's numbers are. Second pic is of the spreadsheet with the 4 discussed fuels at 80% - except electricity at 100%. That is how the $/million BTU was calculated for Pete's numbers



If you have an older boiler, as I do, you can play with the % to get closer to your actual circumstances. In this case I have a 1981 boiler so it is probably at 70-75% efficiency. Using 75%, I get a propane cost of $42.92 per million BTU. While pellets, are at $19.27/million BTU (if I had paid $248/ton - paid a lot less, but that is beside the point)

 

This calculator comes from PFI. I've found it simple and easy to use. You can change all of the values including pricing in your area...
Compare Fuel Costs

 

You know.... it's obvious that there are different calculators out there,
and also everyone's stove probably has differences in degrees of efficiency.
Which is something not many can determine.
I think looking at ANY chart/spreadsheet, has to be taken as a "guide"
and not bible....
As we all say sometime..... YMMV
(your mileage may vary)

Dan