Quote:
Originally Posted by Slickcraft
At about 8,200 BTU per lb a ton of premium wood pellets contains about 16.4 million BTU at a current cost of about $245/ton. If you buy green firewood and stack/season it yourself then firewood is less expensive per gross BTU.
Pellet stoves burn very low moisture content fuel at high temp so the gap with wood stoves is closed somewhat by higher net efficiency but burning quality firewood still has an edge in price. Burning pellets in a thermostat controlled pellet stove also has has an edge in convince. Burning pellets in a wood stove gives you convenient dry fuel but not the efficiency of a high burn temp pellet stove.
Having burned 5 cord a year for 28 years, that is 140 cord cut split stacked and carried, I decided to go with the ease of the pellet stove. We still have a wood stove for heat over on the island so we get to enjoy that spring and fall.
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Thanks for crunching the numbers - about what I'd expect in terms of a BTU per dollar breakdown.
A note to my previous post - I referenced red oak, which is about the densest hardwood species that grows prevalently around here. Chances are someone buying their cordwood is going to be getting a delivery of mixed hardwoods containing species of less density - birch, soft maple (red opposed to sugar), and maybe even a stick or 2 of popple. So that would skew the cordwood value downward a bit.
For me, I cut, split, and stack my own stash. I enjoy the work and don't charge myself for my own labor. Keeping the house warm and seeing the oil truck drive by without stopping at our place is payment enough.
