How many Tons Do I Need to Heat My House

[houset]

1000 gal of oil is about 139,000,000 btu. Four tons of pellets will only produce about 67,000,000 btu... You do the math.

Some people get by with using fewer btu with a space heater. This is typically because people tend to centralize around the space heater and other areas of the house tend to be cooler than they would otherwise be with central heating. Space heaters can also be a little more efficient when compared to central heating, but we aren't talking 2x as much!

Interesting:
So 9 ton would be the equivalent to my 1000 gallons. With that, Pellets are about 2100 vs. 3500 of Oil (assuming 3.50/g) That pays for my stove in year 1. In all honesty, every situation is different. For example, i installed new Low-e windows throughout my first floor, i insulated 2 rooms, and i suspended the ceiling. And I most certainly will be eliminating drafts before the winter. The one good thing that came out of the sudden spike in crude is now i have an alternative fuel, along with a much more energy efficient home.

Now all i need to work on is to combat the 43% rise in Electricity costs come this November.

 

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Just remember that you still take a reasonable amount out of the equation for heating hot water and maintaining boiler temp. if you burn 800 from say sept thru may you are probably using 100-150 gal for other than heat uses that won't need to be figured into pellet usage. 650gal / 125 gal per ton 5.2 ton. I know everyones numbers will vary (throw in a teenager)

 

[teddy1971]

Just remember that you still take a reasonable amount out of the equation for heating hot water and maintaining boiler temp. if you burn 800 from say sept thru may you are probably using 100-150 gal for other than heat uses that won't need to be figured into pellet usage. 650gal / 125 gal per ton 5.2 ton. I know everyones numbers will vary (throw in a teenager)

I completely forgot about the hot water. The "Oil Man" Usually tops off my oil tank in April and does not come back until End of october. During this time I utilize @ 150 gallons of oil for hot water. So you are correct that I can take off 150 gallons of oil from my total of 800 gallons. This leaves me with 650 gallons used for heating. I'm going to go out on a limb here and knock off another 100 gallons that is used to heat 800 sqft of my house. As I explained above I use 800 gallons to heat 3300 sqft (3 zones - 1 zone per floor). I will only be using the pellet stove to heat the top two floors (2500 sqft). The remaining square footage (the basement) will be heated via a space heater (built in thermostat to save on electric). So my thought process is that I can conservatively take off 100 gallons of oil just for the savings on heating the basement. This leaves me with @ 550 gallons of oil used to heat the the two floors of my house in the winter. If I use the formula of 120 gallons per ton I will need 5 tons to heat my house for the winter. I can actually purchase this towards the end of winter since my local hardware store always has pellets in stock (@250 per ton) and offers free delivery to town residents. Does this sound right to you guys?

 

[BadDad320]

Interesting thread.. Point taken, remember that all the oil you use is not just for heat. I knew that but never made it part of the pellet usage estimate. We'll all be a lot smarter after winter is over.

 

[Wet1]

Just remember that you still take a reasonable amount out of the equation for heating hot water and maintaining boiler temp. if you burn 800 from say sept thru may you are probably using 100-150 gal for other than heat uses that won't need to be figured into pellet usage. 650gal / 125 gal per ton 5.2 ton. I know everyones numbers will vary (throw in a teenager)

I completely forgot about the hot water. The "Oil Man" Usually tops off my oil tank in April and does not come back until End of october. During this time I utilize @ 150 gallons of oil for hot water. So you are correct that I can take off 150 gallons of oil from my total of 800 gallons. This leaves me with 650 gallons used for heating. I'm going to go out on a limb here and knock off another 100 gallons that is used to heat 800 sqft of my house. As I explained above I use 800 gallons to heat 3300 sqft (3 zones - 1 zone per floor). I will only be using the pellet stove to heat the top two floors (2500 sqft). The remaining square footage (the basement) will be heated via a space heater (built in thermostat to save on electric). So my thought process is that I can conservatively take off 100 gallons of oil just for the savings on heating the basement. This leaves me with @ 550 gallons of oil used to heat the the two floors of my house in the winter. If I use the formula of 120 gallons per ton I will need 5 tons to heat my house for the winter. I can actually purchase this towards the end of winter since my local hardware store always has pellets in stock (@250 per ton) and offers free delivery to town residents. Does this sound right to you guys?

Ahh, well that's a different story then.

It looks 4 tons might be pretty close since the math suggests you'll need about 4.5 tons to replace 550 gal of heating oil.

 

[teddy1971]

Thanks again guys for all your help regarding the amount of pellets I'll need.