# a ton of pellets = how much wood



## Mroverkill (Nov 8, 2011)

ok so the wife brought up the idea of using a pellet stove down stairs because we can hook it to a thermostat and have a onn off feature


since i am buring 4-5 cords of wood a year in the main living space i am wondering how much is a ton of pellets and how long does it "last"


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## Don2222 (Nov 8, 2011)

Mroverkill said:
			
		

> ok so the wife brought up the idea of using a pellet stove down stairs because we can hook it to a thermostat and have a onn off feature
> 
> 
> since i am buring 4-5 cords of wood a year in the main living space i am wondering how much is a ton of pellets and how long does it "last"



Hello

They say 1 Ton of pellets is equal to 1.5 cords of wood. However you can regulate the heat much more with a pellet stove to get it when you need it.

I find that 1 40 lb bag lasts approx 24 hours burning constantly on a low heat setting. With a thermostat 1 bag will last even longer. I use approx 3 tons or 150 bags per year to heat my entire 2,000 sqft house with the stove in the basement and 2 registers I cut with the basement door open for the return air!

See pic of heat coming out of the living room register using medium heat setting of 3.22 lbs per hour!!


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## Delta-T (Nov 8, 2011)

this is the great conundrum...a ton of pellets = ~17-18 million BTUs, but a cord of wood is a measurement of volume, not energy. Really hard to do that conversion. In general, here in the northeast most people average about 1 ton for every 500 sq ft they try to heat for the year. That might be your most useful calculating information.


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## Mroverkill (Nov 8, 2011)

yea well the wood stove install will have paid itself off after this heating season with what i saved in oil. 

We have a nc-30 sitting new in the box that i might be selling to buy a pellet stove for the basement but i have to see what the install issues might be in the basement. 



With the pellets  if i have a outdoor  shed then i can store them there right or does is need to be a "very dry" area


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## nate379 (Nov 8, 2011)

If a ton of pellets is ~18,000,000 BTUs I don't see why it would be hard to figure.

Cord of wood is anywhere from 11,600,000 BTUs for cedar to 30,000,000 for Hedge.  I burn mainly birch here which is 20,000,000 BTUs per cord.

I would say roughly speaking a ton of pellets is about equal to a cord of wood.


Now which is better, pellets or wood, kind of like trying to figure if Ford or Chevy is better.


I went with wood because I didn't want to depend on someone for pellets, needed something that would work without electricity, and also pellets are quite expensive here.  Cheapest I have seen was last night at Walmart $5.87 a bag, so $294/ton.  Lowes sells them for around $8/bag.

I'd be better off just running my natural gas boiler vs using a pellet stove.


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## turbotech (Nov 8, 2011)

If you dry your wood properly and use average hardwood for the northeast then you get about 20,000,000 BTU per cord.  If you burn average to above average wood pellets then you get 8K BTUs/lb or 8K*2000 = 16,000,000 BTU per ton. As you can see you get MORE BTUs in a cord of wood. When comparing area of wood  which is meaningless then the pellets "look" better. Comparing BTUs shows a cord of wood is better. Pellets have the advantage of ease of use and more stable heat. It is up to you in terms of ease of use and less work, but also unstable price much like fossil fuels. With chunk wood you have more control of what you want to spend vs how much work you want to do. If you have storage space then you can buy pellets when they are cheap and store for later. Personally, I like burning both chuck wood and pellets. Both have pros and cons, but overall they are better for the environment than dino juice.

What kind of wood and how long do you dry it properly for? What kind of pellets? Premium or ultra premium?

With pellets you can tune the stove to burn optimum for the entire bin full of pellets. To do that with an EPA gasifier stove you would have to sit in front of it and keep tweaking the air feed. So, you may get more BTUs from the cord wood, but overall you will lose efficiency of the stove burn so that the pellets vs chunk wood comes out equal in that sense. Filling a bag of pellets before bed time is nicer than waking up to put wood in the stove.


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## Delta-T (Nov 8, 2011)

NATE379 said:
			
		

> If a ton of pellets is ~18,000,000 BTUs I don't see why it would be hard to figure.
> 
> Cord of wood is anywhere from 11,600,000 BTUs for cedar to 30,000,000 for Hedge.  I burn mainly birch here which is 20,000,000 BTUs per cord.
> 
> ...



this only works if you know the species and the moisture content. You are then just comparing the efficiencies of the 2 technologies. There's a bunch of "squirrely" math you could do. I'm sure you are getting this energy content by the pound, not by the volume, and that in itself makes for some interesting stuff. Anybody keep their wood on a load cell? Then we could do some real math.


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## jtakeman (Nov 8, 2011)

Where the stat will save you is the over fire or over heating the house. Nice steady temps you will use less than the roller coaster.

3-4 tons will probably do.


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## whit (Nov 9, 2011)

There's not just the question of BTU's, but the efficiency of the stove - how much of the heat goes outside instead of into the house. In my case what heat I don't get from cord wood or pellets I get from oil. Burning cord wood I'd run through about 3 1/2 cords and about 550 gallons of oil over a year (oil also heating water). Burning pellets I'd run through a bit over 3 tons and about 550 gallons of oil. The stoves are in different places, so architecture is going to make some difference too. My wood stove is older though. Probably a newer one would save at least that 1/2 cord.


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## Don2222 (Nov 9, 2011)

whit said:
			
		

> There's not just the question of BTU's, but the efficiency of the stove - how much of the heat goes outside instead of into the house. In my case what heat I don't get from cord wood or pellets I get from oil. Burning cord wood I'd run through about 3 1/2 cords and about 550 gallons of oil over a year (oil also heating water). Burning pellets I'd run through a bit over 3 tons and about 550 gallons of oil. The stoves are in different places, so architecture is going to make some difference too. My wood stove is older though. Probably a newer one would save at least that 1/2 cord.



I use 3 tons of pellets for heat and now 200 gallons of oil for DHW with the new cold start triple pass oil Boiler with the outdoor reset.

So whit, you may need a new high efficiency boiler too.


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## whit (Nov 9, 2011)

Don2222 said:
			
		

> I use 3 tons of pellets for heat and now 200 gallons of oil for DHW with the new cold start triple pass oil Boiler with the outdoor reset.



Nice. Based on summer oil use, I figure I'm over 300 gallons on hot water alone - indirect with a new well-insulated tank, but the furnace is 20 years or so old.

Then again, it could be we just bathe here more often


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## save$ (Nov 9, 2011)

Conversion math was never a strong point with me.  What I konw is that what on "all nighter" med. size stove, we heated about 2100 sq feet to mid 70's, on an average of 5-6 cords of wood for about 14 yrs.   Now with pellets, 3 years at 5 ton, and one (last year) at 6 ton for same area and temp.  However, we do have a furnace for so back up in the very cold, but that only sips oil.  hot water and back up heat for 15 moths at 196 gallons.  Hot water for two senior people.
so no real solid math, but close enough to say ton per cord is nearly the same.   Just so glad the oil man only comes once a year!  I think I could do better, but the pay back isn't there.   Next hot water heater may be the on demand type.


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## webbie (Nov 9, 2011)

On a very rough basis - a ton of pellets replaces 100 gallons of oil.
A cord of wood, burned in an efficient stove, can vary - woods vary in density (weight) and since wood has BTU's based on the pound, this matters.

Again, very rough...

In the west, a ton of pellets is equal to or greater than a cord of softwood. The wood contains more original BTU, but after correction for moisture (pellets have much less), they are close enough.

BUT, in the east, there is no way a ton of pellets equals a cord of good dense hardwood burned in a newer stove.

The calcs would go something like this.
Ton of pellets - heat output once adjusted for efficiency and moisture = 10,000,000 BTU
Cord of Oak - average dry weight = 3,200 lbs - total output adjusted for moisture and efficiency = 13-15,000,000 BTU.

Again, very roughly, good wood and good stove COULD replace 150 or more gallons of oil per cord.....

BUT, one must keep in mind that many woods, even in the east, are less dense. Swamp Maple, Poplar, etc. are all fairly lightweight. People often buy cords which are somewhat short. Keeping all that in mind, the ton of pellets (never short) is probably equal to the cord of wood unless you cut yourself (full cords!) and have denser woods (hickory, locust, madrone, certain oaks, etc.)


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## webbie (Nov 9, 2011)

Another factor is that pellets can often match the heating load closer - since they can be turned up and down easier. This means you use less.


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