Pellet usage

[Shield1561]

4 bags a day here in my harman p68.

4 bags a day? Yikes! How much area are you heating and what's the average temp around there? I'm about two bags a day with the P68 when the weather is mid-teens or so. Been about a bag and half lately. Roughly 2000 square feet with two floors, keeping 72 downstairs and 68 upstairs. Not using any oil either, but if I was burning four bags, I think it would be cheaper for me to run the furnace. Dang, four bags a day makes me shutter, all that work and not saving any money.

LOL. Yeah. Its pretty sad actually. Its been about the same temp wise here. I have a 4200 Square Foot 3 story victorian built in 1840. Insulation is pretty much minimal. Just bought it so I haven't had much of a chance to work much with it yet. The Prior owners installed the P68 before they had to move for work reasons. All the pellet stove really heats is the first floor, and even at that, doesn't heat very well. Using 4 bags a day I'm getting about 67-68 in the dining room where the stove is, and the living room and kitchen off each side of it stay about 63. The breakfast nook on the other side of the kitchen is usually around 60, and I have a pretty open floor plan. Luckily, the Master suite is on the first floor and its just me here for now, so its not too too bad, but in all reality, I'm thinking it would be better just to burn the oil. On fuel oil keeping the house at 65 it takes about 10 gallons a day, give or take. I figure at 10 gallons a day at 2.29 its costing me a hair under $23/day to heat the house, and the pellets I bought at $250 a ton, so its costing me about $20 a day via the pellet stove. The DHW comes off the boiler, so its running only when needed. At the moment the Oil heat is acting more on the side of a backup system. Depending on how the price of fuel oil goes, that will be the breaker, if it drops to where its cheaper at 10 gallons a day, I'll go ahead and go back to that. Unfortunately, I'm in more of a country setting, and natural gas hasn't made it this way yet, but its supposedly coming, but you know how that goes. Luckily, i'm on a main route in what used to be a small village, so there are a decent number of houses around me that might make it worth NYSEGS money to bring the gas this way, eh, who knows. LOL. One thing I'll never do again, buy a house for its beauty and history vs economy in this day and age, but ya live ya learn I guess.

-Justin

mine can burn 3-4 bags if and only if its fully maxxed out all day long..but the last time i tried that on my 120yr old.1900sq.ft 2 story colonial 5bedroom it got insanely hot..the heat blowing from it at 4 feet will literally burn you because its so friggin hot..around 93 downstairs/90 upstairs with ouside temp of 15-20..ah those were the days when i could waste 3.89 a bag and not give a crap..now at $6.00 i gotta be really careful of my settings

I hear ya brother. The price is kinda crazy. Its been about -10 to -20 at night around here lately. Last night I was pretty surprised, I had the P68 cranked on all the max settings and the house actually got to 73* downstairs and the mid 60s upstairs. of course that also meant that 2 bags didn't quite last 9 hours! I was a bit disappointed in that, but I figure the pellets are already paid for, might as well burn them, and try to save what I can in fuel oils costs, as money is a bit tight at the moment. Seems like every time I turn around I'm looking online to see if there is anything about NYSEG bringing Nat Gas to the area. LOL

-Justin

 

[BadDad320]

On average, so far, I have burned 2.2 bags per day....... Currently, with this cold snap, 3 bags per day are being burned.........

 

[Shield1561]

On average, so far, I have burned 2.2 bags per day....... Currently, with this cold snap, 3 bags per day are being burned.........

What's the specs on the home you are heating? and which pellet stove?


-Justin

 

[alexei27]

1 to 1 1/4 bags a day for my SHP-22. 2 tons burned already this winter (on Long Island) and about a ton left.

We've been able to shut the stove down from about mid-morning to late evening...so that 1 to 1 1/4 bags is assuming about 2/3 of the day. Burning all day is about 2 bags.

 

[jng518]

I am keeping 800 square feet at between 67-70 with a Big-E with a t-stat set at lo=1 /hi=2.
From Nov.2008 to date on average less than 1 bag a day. Started out with 152 bags now
have 57 bags left.

 

[AmandaSkye]

We've been running our stove 24/7 since the beginning of December and we have burned about 66, 40 lbs bags of pellets. The most we've paid for a bag is $7.29, and the least is $4.80.

 

[lessoil]

Have burned about 2.5 tons to-date. Keep my home warm at 72-75, all rooms, raised ranch. Hot air furnace comes on a few times daily when then temps outside go down in the teens and lower. Can't stand to be cold. Mostly stay in the family room where the stove is. Wife and I don't like lifting the bags but find it much better than lifting logs. We pull in a supply of bags from the garage by using a kid's plastic sled. Helps save on the back!

Same usage/temp setting here since mid-October.
We did have to run near 78 downstairs when it was -24 so as to keep the upstairs 64(Bedrooms) and 68 (Hallway).
We are heating about 1540 sq ft of a small Cape.
Our savings, in terms of oil usage, will be in the neighborhood of 500 gals.

 

[Steveo]

I have actually burned less than I thought. We have been burning since October and have only burned two tons so far. Our house is only 3 or 4 years old and is super insulated. The stove is turned down during the day when I am at work and then it is put on five in a half when I am home. This keeps the house well above 70 degrees. So we seem to be burning one bag a day on average but more on the really cold days and less on the not so cold days.

 

[teddy1971]

I've been burning since October. I keep the house at @ 78 (We like it hot). This keeps the upstairs @ 72. I'm heating 2500sqft. I have 2 tons left out of 5 tons. I've only used 160 gallons of oil so far and I used to use 800 gallons for the season keeping the house between 58 and 68.

 

[Shield1561]

I've been burning since October. I keep the house at @ 78 (We like it hot). This keeps the upstairs @ 72. I'm heating 2500sqft. I have 2 tons left out of 5 tons. I've only used 160 gallons of oil so far and I used to use 800 gallons for the season keeping the house between 58 and 68.

Wow. thats pretty good. I wish i could get by on that. I'm using up to 120 bags a month to keep the place just barely warm. I'm beginning to think either my stove isn't working correctly or i really need to insulate my house better. How is your house insulated? How old is it?

-Justin

 

[JBlank912]

I've gone thru 3 tons of Penningtons, and 1/2 way thru a ton of clean fires (far better then the Penningtons). But I only used 240 gallons of oil since August (I use it for hot water also) where with this cold a winter I would have been over 1000 gallons by now. We are also keeping the stove room at 72-75 which is keeping most of the rest of the house warm. Upstairs bedroom heat has been on for less then a day this entire season and that was after a 1 week power failure and house had dropped into the 40's. The stove is doing pretty much as well or better then I expected.

Since I switched to the Clean Fires it really shined. I was able to lower the heat setting 2 notches and get all the heat I need.

 

[teddy1971]

I've been burning since October. I keep the house at @ 78 (We like it hot). This keeps the upstairs @ 72. I'm heating 2500sqft. I have 2 tons left out of 5 tons. I've only used 160 gallons of oil so far and I used to use 800 gallons for the season keeping the house between 58 and 68.

Wow. thats pretty good. I wish i could get by on that. I'm using up to 120 bags a month to keep the place just barely warm. I'm beginning to think either my stove isn't working correctly or i really need to insulate my house better. How is your house insulated? How old is it?

-Justin

I use a thermostat to keep the house at 68 when we are not home during the day. Most of the time we keep it at 78. The house is 6 year old and well insulated. I only use oil for hot water and for the basement (keep it at 68 degrees). I've used 1 Ton of Fireside Ultra (they give off alright heat but are very dirty), 2 Tons of Lignetics (they give off great heat and burn very clean) and am on my first ton of Dry Creek (they seem to burn pretty clean and give off great heat as well).

 

[TomPajak]

I've been burning since October. I keep the house at @ 78 (We like it hot). This keeps the upstairs @ 72. I'm heating 2500sqft. I have 2 tons left out of 5 tons. I've only used 160 gallons of oil so far and I used to use 800 gallons for the season keeping the house between 58 and 68.

Wow. thats pretty good. I wish i could get by on that. I'm using up to 120 bags a month to keep the place just barely warm. I'm beginning to think either my stove isn't working correctly or i really need to insulate my house better. How is your house insulated? How old is it?

-Justin

Boy I hope you have a supersize house for that kind of usage..Im running 1.5-2 a day and its around 70-71 and my house isn't that greatly insulated but its ok..has blown insulation in the walls from prob 10-15 yrs ago...big thing to check for me were the windows..had them all replaced....good luck and I hope its your stove and not the house

 

[krooser]

I've been using my stove almost 24/7 since late October. So far I've used 130 bags...

 

[jtakeman]

129 bags so far, Neer 2000 sq ft. Raised ranch. Stove in basement( I know would be better upstairs) House kept between 70 to 72 degrees. Nice and warm!

jay

 

[woodsman23]

I've been burning since October. I keep the house at @ 78 (We like it hot). This keeps the upstairs @ 72. I'm heating 2500sqft. I have 2 tons left out of 5 tons. I've only used 160 gallons of oil so far and I used to use 800 gallons for the season keeping the house between 58 and 68.

Wow. thats pretty good. I wish i could get by on that. I'm using up to 120 bags a month to keep the place just barely warm. I'm beginning to think either my stove isn't working correctly or i really need to insulate my house better. How is your house insulated? How old is it?

-Justin

Justin there can be no way you used 120 bags in a month??. If so how much sq ft are you heating and you must not have any insulation at all. Is there a door or window open somewhere?, You must have a huge home or your stove is not doing it's job. what kind of stove and pellets are you using? I just have to know.... what is going on there.

 

[Shield1561]

I've been burning since October. I keep the house at @ 78 (We like it hot). This keeps the upstairs @ 72. I'm heating 2500sqft. I have 2 tons left out of 5 tons. I've only used 160 gallons of oil so far and I used to use 800 gallons for the season keeping the house between 58 and 68.

Wow. thats pretty good. I wish i could get by on that. I'm using up to 120 bags a month to keep the place just barely warm. I'm beginning to think either my stove isn't working correctly or i really need to insulate my house better. How is your house insulated? How old is it?

-Justin

Justin there can be no way you used 120 bags in a month??. If so how much sq ft are you heating and you must not have any insulation at all. Is there a door or window open somewhere?, You must have a huge home or your stove is not doing it's job. what kind of stove and pellets are you using? I just have to know.... what is going on there.

The total square footage of the house is 4215 square feet. I have part of the house closed off, so I'm prob only actually heating about 2500 square foot. the house was built in 1840, and insulation is minimal. The windows are all a couple years old, part of the house had some rennovation done so there is a little insulation, but I don't believe there is much in there. I have an energy audit company coming tomorrow to give my house a thermography reading throughout the house so I know what I really am working with insulation and air leak wise. Wish me luck. LOL.

-Justin

 

[mick5726]

Started on my 5th ton today, have been burning 24/7 since Oct. 08, have 3 tons left.

 

[rowerwet]

I used just shy of three tons this year, now I am saving 8 bags for power outages or the furnace dieing, I won't have to by HHO as I have an almost full 200 gal oil tank and another 80 gal in barrels (jet fuel from work). next year I hope to buy 6 tons and add my hot water to the heat load.