Wood Pellets

[Blue Thunder]

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 convenience. 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.

Very few of todays pellet brands give you the 8200 btu's, and if they do, it's a softwood or softwood blend. It may be hotter but you use more pellets. My personal preference is a premium grade hardwood pellet. (I have a Harman stove). Our group is looking at a bulk purchase of the aforementioned hardwood pellets at $219 delivered. Not fantastic but still pretty good.

Your point above regarding efficiency is well taken. A wood stove is only about 60% efficient while todays pellets stoves are 80%-85% efficient. I heated with 4 cords of wood per year for a long time. Pouring the 40 lb bag into the hopper once sure beats touching each piece of wood seven times from start to finish of the process.

BT