Calling all Pellet boiler owners, how’s it going?

[salecker]

im in northern Ontario and going through 60 stove cords of unseasoned wood , so I’m trying to figure out how much pellets I’m going to use and a pain in the butt I’m guessing it’s going to be 30 tons , if anyone has a clue and can help ou it would be great ive looked at the conversion tables an still can’t get it

60 stove cords?is that like the "Face Cord"
Most everyone equates a cord of wood as 4'x4'x8', that is the legal definition and then you can compare apples to apples.
face cords can be anything that is 4'x8' and could be 1'deep or 4' deep or more depending on the length of wood you stove will take.

 

[Waterboy]

We call 4x4x8 bush cord so I burn 20 bush cords and trying to figure how many ton of pellets

 

[Waterboy]

Sorry it’s 8 foot square 4 feet high

 

[salecker]

Sorry it’s 8 foot square 4 feet high

So actually 2 cords ...

 

[Waterboy]

I burn 20 bush cords

 

[Tonty]

Wow, that’s a lot of wood. If I understand you right, that would be 40 “standard” cords. Do you burn year round?

 

[Waterboy]

Yes I’m not sure how much people wood , ever one seems to have a different meaning , I burn one full transport load and a half when I get it they say there’s 48 stove cords on a truck witch is 4 foot tall 8 feet long and 16 inches wide , I don’t cut mine 16 inches i cut mine at 30 inches . No I don’t burn all year round from nove till middle of April . I’ve been burning wood since I was a kid and would like to go to pellet boiler . And would love to know how many tons of pellets it’s going to equal

 

[Tonty]

I do not know wood to pellet conversion. I’ve never used pellets. Those who do will need to know the amount of standard cords you currently burn. The other thing that might work would be if you weigh the wood you use and also know the moisture content. According to the info I found, one pound of dry yellow birch would have approximately 6,397 btus. One pound of pellets would be approximately 8,250 btus per pound.

 

[BansheeTwin350]

1 ton of pellets would contain around 16 million btu's. It looks like 1 standard cord (4x4x8) would average around 20 million btu's. So there's at least some confusion on my end on how many standard cords (4x4x8) you are using per year. Once you know that number, basically increase that number by 25% to get the number of tons of pellets you would use. Of course that isn't taking efficiency into account. The efficiency of your 6048 vs a Maxim. Also doesn't take into account any other efficiency items (insulated lines) that you can improve along the way.

 

[dmq400]

Hi All, I'm new to this forum and Hearth. I wanted to reach out and get some opinions from ya'll. I had a Kedel boiler installed in 2016. I knew there was going to be a learning curve with it but thought it would settle in and eventually pay for itself. I've had all kinds of issues with it over the years. My local guys who installed and service the boiler have been out here a zillion times this winter. They are just as frustrated with these units as I am. The biggest issue I've had over the years is the ignitors failing. There have been other issues as well. I'm exhausted with not having heat in the dead of winter (Christmas morning, 3 degrees out, no heat). I have zero interest in going back to oil heat or some other fossil fuel. What kind of boiler do you have, and what has your experience been like? I'd really appreciate some honest appraisals. I may just end up replacing this unit.

Hi - hope your still on the board here. I too have a Kedel installed in 2015 and problematic to say the least. Ran good all last winter but it just quit again. And now I find out Evan, my go-to Kedal guy in Portland, has closed up. Did you find anyone else to help figure things out....or did you just toss it and get another? Thanks -Dan

 

[mainahTJ]

Hi - hope your still on the board here. I too have a Kedel installed in 2015 and problematic to say the least. Ran good all last winter but it just quit again. And now I find out Evan, my go-to Kedal guy in Portland, has closed up. Did you find anyone else to help figure things out....or did you just toss it and get another? Thanks -Dan

Hi Dan,
Yeah, I still have the Kedel. My latest problem is the vacuum completely died and I'm told there are no parts or even getting another vacuum. So I have a silo with 3+ tons of pellets that I need to find some way to get from there to the hopper. Boiler and hopper auger are working fine (knock on wood). Just need to try and get through this winter, go through these pellets and then look into something else. I've had it with this lemon. Don't know where I can just get a vacuum? I'm using the shop vac to get them from the auger and then dumping them by hand, but it's a ton of work/time.

 

[dmq400]

Hi Dan,
Yeah, I still have the Kedel. My latest problem is the vacuum completely died and I'm told there are no parts or even getting another vacuum. So I have a silo with 3+ tons of pellets that I need to find some way to get from there to the hopper. Boiler and hopper auger are working fine (knock on wood). Just need to try and get through this winter, go through these pellets and then look into something else. I've had it with this lemon. Don't know where I can just get a vacuum? I'm using the shop vac to get them from the auger and then dumping them by hand, but it's a ton of work/time.

Yeah…I wonder how many of these Kedels were actually sold. And I see the manuf NEB in Denmark has come a long way in design with their NEB line. Have you been in touch with Alvin Hernandez in Denmark? He is still supporting the kedel and in fact has recently sent me a new control…..another $900. Ugh. If your not aware he is at [email protected] . My job today is to get all my questions in order about how to put this new controller in for a phone call to Alvin tomorrow. The 6 hr time diff is a big PIA. -Dan-

 

[BrooksDonovan]

Wow, sounds like all of the pellet boilers are high maintenance compared to cord wood boilers. Yeah I know we have more prep work in making the cord wood but it would be interesting to compare the price point of BTU's if you purchased firewood vs purchased pellets...

Anyways, I am completely happy with my cordwood boiler made by Froling and would steer anyone towards their based on my experience with their cord wood boiler. Storage is a must though. Good luck.

Hi Marshy. Who did your install?

 

[Jluczak]

I'm on my 8th season using a pinnacle pb 150. I clean it every 2-3 weeks . It takes about 40 minutes to clean. I do not remove the blower to clean it because I vacuum and used compressed air to clean the blower and exhaust pipe. It burns 3 bags of pellets a day no matter what temperature it is outside. It runs best on softwood pellets but I've switched to blended pellets because softwood pellets are harder to find. I just added 80 gallons of storage this year although it's not all that necessary. It does push alot of heat now that I've added it. I burn around 8 to 10 tons of pellets per year in the coldest area of Northern NY. I've only had to replace the blower fan once and I have an adjustable snap cap now for the last 6 years and have not had to replace it. I heat a 2400 sq ft house and a separate shop that is 40 x34 with 14' ceilings. I have 65feet of 1" pipe insulated and buried 5ft down. I'm very satisfied with this boiler. It takes a little tinkering to adjust for shoulder seasons. It is a heavy duty unit. I have it connected to my fuel oil boiler. I have not ran my fuel oil boiler in 3 years. The pellet boiler is set up in my shop with a 60btu modine which never kicks on because the pellet boiler alone keeps the shop at 60. I very satisfied with this unit but parts like the control board are not always available.