Yesterday was cold and clear out, so I decided to give the nut shellers a call and see if I could get some shells.
The winter has been fairly cold so far and we have been plowing through a lot of shells to keep one if not both of the whitfields running full time.
This is our first year to heat this house 100% with the shells.
In the past (up until last winter) we used the Quadrafire for the average days and if it got cold we used the Old Earthstove WP-50 on shells.
Last winter saw many changes with the addition of the Prodigy and then the change to the Advantage II that replaced the old Earthstove.
Now we are heating 100% with a waste product.
Soooooo since we started the season fairly early and the nut crop was smaller than normal and much later too, getting shells in was later too.
Having not heated this house 100% with shells previously I did not have any idea as to how much it was going to take with the current stoves.
I picked up about 4000# of shells in the dump truck and got them all barreled up within a couple hours.
Scrounged up a dozen more cheapy plastic garbage cans with lids (keep out rodents) and added these to my regular compliment of containers.
Best guess after seeing what I ended up having to dump in the side yard afterwards, I likely stored 3000-3500 pounds.
We should be good to go now until summer.
I calculated out what we have been burning so far and its about 40 pounds a day on an normal day and a little more when I run two stoves.
The shells are costing me about 2 cents a pound to purchase and very little time to get stored.
The plant is 15 minutes away from the ranch, so the travel cost is minimal.
Looks like a daily cost of about 80 cents. If one factors in the electicity and all its still a super deal at around a dollar or so.
For next season I am planning on getting a 5 cubic yard dumpster and storing that in the out building and filling it with shells.
Getting a weather window when I have the time to go and do the job is always an issue too.
I would love to have a large enough storage area to be rid of all the barrels in my basement.
Yesssss, all warm and cozy and now the weather man says the temps are going to go up to the 50's after tomorrow.
This will see us drop back to using the tiny little stove for a while.
Later troops
Snowy
The winter has been fairly cold so far and we have been plowing through a lot of shells to keep one if not both of the whitfields running full time.
This is our first year to heat this house 100% with the shells.
In the past (up until last winter) we used the Quadrafire for the average days and if it got cold we used the Old Earthstove WP-50 on shells.
Last winter saw many changes with the addition of the Prodigy and then the change to the Advantage II that replaced the old Earthstove.
Now we are heating 100% with a waste product.
Soooooo since we started the season fairly early and the nut crop was smaller than normal and much later too, getting shells in was later too.
Having not heated this house 100% with shells previously I did not have any idea as to how much it was going to take with the current stoves.
I picked up about 4000# of shells in the dump truck and got them all barreled up within a couple hours.
Scrounged up a dozen more cheapy plastic garbage cans with lids (keep out rodents) and added these to my regular compliment of containers.
Best guess after seeing what I ended up having to dump in the side yard afterwards, I likely stored 3000-3500 pounds.
We should be good to go now until summer.
I calculated out what we have been burning so far and its about 40 pounds a day on an normal day and a little more when I run two stoves.
The shells are costing me about 2 cents a pound to purchase and very little time to get stored.
The plant is 15 minutes away from the ranch, so the travel cost is minimal.
Looks like a daily cost of about 80 cents. If one factors in the electicity and all its still a super deal at around a dollar or so.
For next season I am planning on getting a 5 cubic yard dumpster and storing that in the out building and filling it with shells.
Getting a weather window when I have the time to go and do the job is always an issue too.
I would love to have a large enough storage area to be rid of all the barrels in my basement.
Yesssss, all warm and cozy and now the weather man says the temps are going to go up to the 50's after tomorrow.
This will see us drop back to using the tiny little stove for a while.
Later troops
Snowy