I don't feel so bad now, I thought I was paying a lot by paying $179 a ton for Country Boy hardwood premiums this year....
Pellets, Pellets, Pellets !
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- Sep 24, 2012
- 51
Looks like I will try a couple ton of the Cheat River from tractor supply this year, it sounds like they are a good upper mid grade. Then I can get some other bags of other brands this winter and try them out and see if it is worth spending the extra money on more expensive ones next season.
Ditto! I also purchased the stove to save $$$. If paying up to $100.00 more for a ton is good for your situation, go for it. My stove gets my bedroom up to 65*F so I can sleep and that is all I need. I tried a couple bags of Barefoot, but I could not see any difference in the heat output.
Bill
Eatonpcat
Minister of Fire
- Sep 24, 2012
- 51
Eatonpcat
Minister of Fire
I'll pay the extra $ for the higher quality.
Last night I had about 5lbs of Inferno left in the hopper, (given by a friend who is a dealer), I loaded in a bag of Somerset on top and watched the therm.....
Somersets gave me almost 50deg more.
Last night I had about 5lbs of Inferno left in the hopper, (given by a friend who is a dealer), I loaded in a bag of Somerset on top and watched the therm.....
Somersets gave me almost 50deg more.
Harvey Schneider
Minister of Fire
Doesn't it all come down to $/BTU? I can understand that some stoves (or their owners) are fussy about ash content, fines and clinkers, but economically it is all about $/BTU.
Yes, until one figures their cost of maintaining a stove that is having trouble handling the "cheaper BTUs" something like TCO should be considered but rarely is.
as a newbie to pellets, I have used three off that list . The New England are more $$ and seemed to work no better than the GS's,.. and the North Amarican burned well but produced at least twice the ash. I do have the Somersets are available in my area and I plan to try those next...but for now the GS's are working well.
allFIREDup
Member
yes, spending 50-100 more per ton for slightly more BTU's isn't cost effective. Green supremes keep my home at 75 degrees all winter long. If I burn a little more pellets using GS than I would with a better quality pellet, it's still more economical to use the GS. I can buy an extra ton of pellets with the savings. Other than having a picky stove,too small of a stove or bragging rights in having a high premium pellet, an expensive pellet is not worth it no matter how you slice it.
IHATEPROPANE
Minister of Fire
Too many variable to figure out how much money savings come btu of one pellet versus btu of another. I look for pellet that allkiw me to go a full week without touching the stove.....that's where i save money on time....and sometimes the better pellets are actually cheaper
Oh goody we have some takers.
You have to derate the pellets because of the effects of the differences in ash content (I'll leave fines out of the first part of the discussion).
First the ash destroys the efficiency of your heat exchanger rather fast (it is a good thermal insulator).
Then the ash also destroys the air flow through the burn pot and reduces the burn efficiency by clogging up its breathing system,
If you want to know how it works I suggest a little practice on your stove. Once heating season arrives do a really good job cleaning your stove, then on a fixed heat range setting fire the stove for an hour and record the air temperature coming out of the furthest heat exchange tube on your stove.
Burn those same pellets for a week and then turn your stove off and let it cool completely then at the same heat range with the same pellets start your stove let it run for an hour and measure the air temperature at that same tube.
Now you can report back your results.
Do this for several different pellets only doing a good cleaning job between the changes of pellet brands.
Tabulate and post your findings.
Now for the second part the fines consider a hot air furnace's worst enemy dust and pet hair it clogs filters and blowers, now your stove probably doesn't have a filter in its convection air system but it certainly has a blower and that puppy no work too well when even slightly fur balled up, now that we know that the convection air system gets crud sucked into it and some of that crud is fines dust and further that mess gets deposited on the "cold" other side of the heat exchanger and is also a decent thermal insulator what would you expect to happen. Yep you got it, not good, heat no get to room to warm your old arthritic joints.
Now you can come up with your own derate factors and apply them to the BTUs figure to arrive at your net usable BTU figure. It may not turn out the way you think it might at first.
You have to derate the pellets because of the effects of the differences in ash content (I'll leave fines out of the first part of the discussion).
First the ash destroys the efficiency of your heat exchanger rather fast (it is a good thermal insulator).
Then the ash also destroys the air flow through the burn pot and reduces the burn efficiency by clogging up its breathing system,
If you want to know how it works I suggest a little practice on your stove. Once heating season arrives do a really good job cleaning your stove, then on a fixed heat range setting fire the stove for an hour and record the air temperature coming out of the furthest heat exchange tube on your stove.
Burn those same pellets for a week and then turn your stove off and let it cool completely then at the same heat range with the same pellets start your stove let it run for an hour and measure the air temperature at that same tube.
Now you can report back your results.
Do this for several different pellets only doing a good cleaning job between the changes of pellet brands.
Tabulate and post your findings.
Now for the second part the fines consider a hot air furnace's worst enemy dust and pet hair it clogs filters and blowers, now your stove probably doesn't have a filter in its convection air system but it certainly has a blower and that puppy no work too well when even slightly fur balled up, now that we know that the convection air system gets crud sucked into it and some of that crud is fines dust and further that mess gets deposited on the "cold" other side of the heat exchanger and is also a decent thermal insulator what would you expect to happen. Yep you got it, not good, heat no get to room to warm your old arthritic joints.
Now you can come up with your own derate factors and apply them to the BTUs figure to arrive at your net usable BTU figure. It may not turn out the way you think it might at first.
allFIREDup
Member
i scrape the the burnpot every time i add a bag of pellets with a sharpened long pry bar. If there is a clinker it won't feel like clinking after the pry bar hits it....takes less than a minute to scrape the burn pot. Still not worth paying 50-100 more a ton. A clinker has never kept my stove from keeping the house warm. Expensive pellets clink too..don't be fooled.
allFIREDup
Member
true, if you can get the "high quality" pellets for what the "lower quality pellet cost is, then obviously that is better but those deals are far and few between. i can go a week and longer without touching the stove but It's a habit that I have of taking a minute to scrape the burn pot daily.
Smokey, your experiment sounds interesting but I think we would have to be careful interpreting the numbers (much less the subjective "this pellet feels warmer" anecdotes). I mean, is it not true that we buy and rate BTUs based on weight, but feed based on volume? One pellet might put out hotter air than another, but that might be because the stove burns more (by weight) of that particular pellet on the same settings. To me, that prevents the experiment from being useful as far as comparing the absolute air temperatures from pellet to pellet.
Still the experiment would provide data on the effect of the ash in the pellet on stove performance, based on comparing the relative differences in temperature from clean to dirty between different pellets. But again there would probably be influences we aren't accounting for (differences in room air temp or humidity? differences in density affecting burn rate as mentioned above?). Are we REALLY going to see a measurable impact on thermal transfer in the heat exchanger?
Still the experiment would provide data on the effect of the ash in the pellet on stove performance, based on comparing the relative differences in temperature from clean to dirty between different pellets. But again there would probably be influences we aren't accounting for (differences in room air temp or humidity? differences in density affecting burn rate as mentioned above?). Are we REALLY going to see a measurable impact on thermal transfer in the heat exchanger?
I think something is not right, when the quality of the pellets determine the temperature of the house. Poor winterization or lousy stove, usually winterization.
On an extremely cold day GS's(or other meh brands) would be over 3 bags a day. Hamer hot ones was only 2 bags a day. Been there done that! I burn the hot stuff when its cold.
GS's= $4.38/bag=$13.14/day
Hamers=$5.38/bag=$10.76/day
Actual burn results from last season. GS's are 209/ton and Hamers are $269/ton(spring buy price).
popcorn-check
cold drink-check
subscribed for the fun!
GS's= $4.38/bag=$13.14/day
Hamers=$5.38/bag=$10.76/day
Actual burn results from last season. GS's are 209/ton and Hamers are $269/ton(spring buy price).
popcorn-check
cold drink-check
subscribed for the fun!
allFIREDup
Member
On an extremely cold day GS's(or other meh brands) would be over 3 bags a day. Hamer hot ones was only 2 bags a day. Been there done that! I burn the hot stuff when its cold.
GS's= $4.38/bag=$13.14/day
Hamers=$5.38/bag=$10.76/day
Actual burn results from last season. GS's are 209/ton and Hamers are $269/ton(spring buy price).
popcorn-check
cold drink-check
subscribed for the fun!
I don't use over 3 bags a day when it's extremely cold with GS's. If i did I'd look for a hole in the wall or ceiling and plug it up.
No whole in the wall. Its call no octane in the tank!
So your saying you use the same amount of fuel no matter what the outside temp is? Yeah OK, I won't buy into that! I see you have maybe one full year under your belt, And last winter was rather warm. I'm betting a solid week of -20ºF might change your tune!
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