"PFFT!" man, I have not seen that many exclamation marks in a text form since my 16 year old daughter sent me a mean text on the phone. Call the Stove Keepers if you want to fix the misconceptions within the pellet world as I only want to know a few simple questions.
Smokey, thanks for the info as your last post of the basically ever changing information is what causes such a big headache when dealing with pellets. I wish there was a more standard form of how they are manufactured. This may sound a bit ignorant but does the 700btu difference make a big enough difference to justify more money/bag?
If you start with the low BTU pellet (Barefoot) the higher BTU pellet (LaCreate) is worth a premium of 9.45 percent over the price of the Barefoot pellet. Just on BTUs only.
Now what you need to understand is that both of those BTU figures are within the range that one can find on the market these days. It is generally recognized that there is range of heat output that is about 20% better at the high end over the low end for premium pellets. Things get even more interesting when you factor in time or costs of cleanings which generally increase with the lower BTU and higher ash pellets.
If you have to have your system cleaned twice a season by so called professionals because of using the low end pellets instead of once per season the advantages of the higher BTU and low ash pellets to the run of the mill pellets becomes greater. A single service can cost more than the price of a ton of pellets in some locations.
If you do your own service then you have to figure what your time is worth.
It is up to you to figure it all out.
The one place where the extra BTUs really comes in handy is when you have maxed your stoves firing rate out and can't quite keep up with the heat loss of your house. In that case the extra can mean the difference between comfort and being cold. Again that is your call when you size the stove (or stoves) to your house's heating requirements.
Every year we hear the stories of woe (jtakeman is an expert in this situation and has shared his first hand knowledge of such, he has also done more than a little pellet testing and taken far more than a fair share of crap for it).
I keep telling people to do a heat loss calculation and make certain their stove can cover it at its middle firing rate. Some folks listen and some don't.
Most of the pellet makers try to improve their product some make great strides and some don't.
Some folks get hung up on dollar signs going too far in either direction only to get caught up short in some manner in the end.
Pellet prices where you are are different than they are where I am or other people are. You can use the BTU/pound figures to decide how much of a premium to pay for one pellet versus the other, just don't forget the end goal and all of the other operational considerations of keeping the house warm.
What I've done is when I find a good run I stock up, the pellets keep if kept dry. It has been almost 2 years since I've purchased a bag of pellets and I likely won't for at least another year.
The other thing you have to watch out for is getting old and/or abused stock, it can stay in the pipeline for a long time.