gas, oil, propane bill vs wood pellets

[Lousyweather]

This topic has come up ad nauseum in many forums, including here. So many things effect the cost of fuel, and some really arent quantifiable. The wood guys come in cheapest, as some of these guys get their product free, but upon closer inspection, noone really quantifies the cost of gas, chainsaw, pickup truck, loading and unloading, and time spent acquiring the product. For me, I am NOT at home all day, I work all week and weekends, and am a single father of multiple children, and I dont own a pickup truck. I simply do not have the time to drive around looking for deadfall, etc, to burn all winter, let alone cutting it up, loading it into the truck, then unloading, re-piling, etc. Time is the one item none of us can produce. Much easier for me to have 5 tons delivered outside my bulkhead, and take them into the house at my leisure, when I can fit it in, time-wise.

With oil at $3.75/gallon, and pellets at $229/ton, and electric at god-knows-what, Im fairly certain of the polausible options for me, pellets certainly are the cheapest....go ahead....use those numbers, show me a calculator where pellets arent my cheapest option.

Natural gas? Unavailable where I live.

 

[referee38]

I just checked and from 10/2010 to today I have spent 2290.00 on oil this heating season.

 

[Lousyweather]

I just checked and from 10/2010 to today I have spent 2290.00 on oil this heating season.

ouch!

 

[jtakeman]

I just checked and from 10/2010 to today I have spent 2290.00 on oil this heating season.

Youch! What size house?

 

[referee38]

Oil heats my hot water also but 4 bedrooms , two bathrooms, basement and kitchen ,dinning room and foyer. Will have a Harman pellet stove installed before winter. I should have done it last year and got the big tax credit.

 

[heat seeker]

My oil bill would have been over $4000 for the full year. So far I have saved nearly $500! Next year will be even more.

 

[STANG32]

I bought my 2300sf colonial in july 08, electric heat, in december I got my first electric bill for heating season, 1000.00 bucks, I went around shutting doors, turning off t-stats,january & feb's bill were 900each, then 600, 500 & then normalled out to about 175 after the spring thaw.
I was determined to do something about this, I was going to go broke @ this rate.
I got my breckwell insert in october of 09, my dec bill was 341, then jan was 386, then i had my attic foam insulated & my bill has not been over 250 a month in heating season.
the only rooms that the elect heat goes on is my daughters room ,because we close her door @ night & the great room/family room. too big & too far away from the stove to be affective.
the electric company changed my meter twice thinking there was a problem w/it.hehehe

this year i bought 6 tons of pellets, roughly $1200.00 in pellets,
my average electric bill is 267.00/month for 5 months.

so $2535 total to run this house for the winter.
$508/month pellets & electricity

compared to $4500 the winter of 08/09
$900/month, electricity only


so, yeah, i am quite happy with my choice.,

 

[Snowy Rivers]

We live in a 2400 Sqft Ranch style home that is very open with basically Zero Hallway area.

Heating season starts around late September with a spot fire in the Pellet stove early in the morning and maybe late a night to take the chill off.

By mid/late October we are getting into full swing.

The season will last until possibly the first week of June, then the AC season is here.

The house has force air electric installed with the AC system in the air handler.

We installed an Earthstove WP-50 when we moved in and fed that stove Nut shells.
We also installed a Quadrafire at the same time and ran it on Pellets.

A normal winter would see us use about 3 -3-1/2 tons of Pellets and if the weather got really cold we would use the WP-50 on shells to keep things toasty

Sooooo during that time frame we would spend about $600 for a season (Oct-June)

Last winter I removed the WP-50 and remodeled the family room and installed a large Whitfield Pellet stove. At the same time I installed a very small Whitfield in the living room at the opposite end from the Quad.

NOW
This Winter we have been running the Whitfields in various combinations of Little one, Big one or both and feeding them Nut shells, the Quad has not been on once.

This winters total heating bill will come in at a Whoppping $165 for the entire season.
YESSS One Hundred Sixty Five Buckos for the winter.

If we used the electric it would be in the neighborhood of $1000 a month or more, not sure as we have never used the electric.
The normal electric bill is nearly $300 for the rest of the household items (hot water and such)


Pellet stoves and alternative fuels ROCK

The Shells require more fooling about, clearing clinkers twice daily and such and have more ashes but the savings is worth every penny of it.

Snowy

 

[referee38]

I am planning on putting money down on a pellet stove on Thursday on either a Accentra or a P43.

 

[will711]

I am planning on putting money down on a pellet stove on Thursday on either a Accentra or a P43.

Either one is a good choice, we went with the Accentra it fit our style better. This was our 1st year with pellets and the wife keeps saying BEST investment we made for our home. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Been using pellet stoves since 1992 and its the best thing we ever did.

Snowy