You aren't far from me distance wise. I'm basically 120 clicks from you on the US side.... Your weather is a mirror image of mine.
Right on schedule consumption wise...
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You aren't far from me distance wise. I'm basically 120 clicks from you on the US side.... Your weather is a mirror image of mine.
Polar Bear
Feeling the Heat
Just south of the motor...maybe just a tad farther than 120 clicks...... I used to go through Sudbury on the way too Cochrane to hunt and snowmachine (in the winter). Sold the sleds a while ago. I'm too old to get hurt anymore.
TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
I'm feeling better after reading everyone's usage to date. I'm a couple of bags over a ton YTD, and I thought we were over-using. The house is more warm than most humans need because my mother in law lives with us. Plus my wife is always cold. We're seldom below 72 degrees.
When did you start burning this season? Regardless you are doing well in the consumption aspect running a 68. I have to be honest on my total amount used. I have been very wasteful. Shame on me. I know I could have reduced it by at least a half of a ton. I could seen 4 tons likely getting me thru a typical winter here. I like to figure on worst case scenarios though. I also did a bunch of playing around with mine to get to know what it will and can do also.
My wife has houseplants and outside (summer) plants that come inside and would probably die from the desert air (inside) if it wasn't for a humidifier. I would too actually. I have sleep apena and sleep on a machine with it's own humidifier built in so I get it two ways, in bed with moisture and awake with the humidifier providing moisture. Worse thing I can have is a dried up nose/sinus.
Your air gets dry because one, the RH of the outside air when it's cold is low and two, your home is aspirating just like you, it's shedding moisture to the outside air.
I input about 7 gallons every 24 hours average to the room air.
30 (f) here tonite and a high of 31 (f) tomorrow. My sooty glass will be cleaned by tomorrow morning.
SmokeEater
Feeling the Heat
November was very cold here in the Northern Adirondacks with many days the lows going below zero. December, on the other hand, has had normal temps. I started burning pellets in late October and have burned about 90 bags. Last winter I burned about 10 2/3 tons. So this looks like a better start. I'm burning about 2 1/2 bags per day right now but have burned 4.
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
Started burning early October but only a few bags that month. Up to 68 bags through today across both stoves, averaging 1.7 per day this month. 10 bags under projection overall but almost 2 over for month to date. Hamers in reserve waiting on first cold snap.
Must look at weather logs for past few years to see when that usually hits (of course I have them, updated every 15 minutes!). Just after new year seems about right from memory. I think late Jan into Feb was coldest 3 & 4 years ago, but late Dec to late Jan for past two years, but the computer has a better memory than me... When was that polar vortex thing again??
Must look at weather logs for past few years to see when that usually hits (of course I have them, updated every 15 minutes!). Just after new year seems about right from memory. I think late Jan into Feb was coldest 3 & 4 years ago, but late Dec to late Jan for past two years, but the computer has a better memory than me... When was that polar vortex thing again??
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions when ready to start planning it.. Researched filters and UV a bit, and happy with where we landed.
Yup
The older I get, the less I like the weather, HOT OR COLD SUCKS.
Just topped up our shell storage barrels with this years run.
The weather is a lot warmer than last year at this time too.
Currently running one Whitfield 24/7
I do still prefer winter over the heat of summer.
At least we can start another stove if it gets cold.
Good luck on the corn
We have minimal choices here other than pellets.
Started using hazelnut shells in 92 season as cheap fuel
Snowy
The older I get, the less I like the weather, HOT OR COLD SUCKS.
Just topped up our shell storage barrels with this years run.
The weather is a lot warmer than last year at this time too.
Currently running one Whitfield 24/7
I do still prefer winter over the heat of summer.
At least we can start another stove if it gets cold.
Good luck on the corn
We have minimal choices here other than pellets.
Started using hazelnut shells in 92 season as cheap fuel
Snowy
I read your original thread and some of the, what I considered rude comments.
Like here in Michigan we have cherry pits available. Personally, I don't use therm, I have used them in the past but they tend to burn quickly and yeild less heat than pellets but corn is superior to pellets in heat production and this is row crop country so corn (at least as cheap as it is) is the fuel of choice and if I hadn't pre bought and paid for 5 ton of pellets, I'd be burning straight field corn right now.
These stoves/appliances are all about using a convenient, preferrably locally sourced fuel to heat with. If I had Hazelnut shells to roast (rather than using Silk on my ceral), I too would be burning them.
Burn on..............
Right now we are running about even. Don't believe I've ever exceeded 6 ton in any winter but then our climate is a bit more moderate, even last winter, as cold as it was, I ran out almost 6 ton but the last ton was buy by the car load from Menards and the pellets were crap. I had to supplement the stove with the central heat plant to keep the house at a manageable/liveable temperature.
This year, if we get the 'polar vortex scenario', I'll start supplementing my fuel with corn in a ratio equal to the degree of coldness. Above 40, it's pellets only and below it's a corn/pellet mix and if it's sub zero, it's straight corn and the pellets stay in the barn.....
Been burning since beginning of October, bought 150 bags, burnt 22, 2 stoves
I'm loving every second of this.
I'm loving every second of this.
Playing 'catch up' with pellets and corn as of late (about the last 4 days).... It's averaging 30 (f) here during the day, high 20's (f) at night so the stove is chugging along, I'm back to my regular usage after a nice hiatus of little pellet usage..... Oh well, it is winter......
Been burning since beginning of October, bought 150 bags, burnt 22, 2 stoves
22 bags in 2 and 1/2 months ???????????????? What are you doing, burning one pellet at a time
22 bags in 2 and 1/2 months ???????????????? What are you doing, burning one pellet at a time
House must be insulated like a vault????
Dgopetactical
Feeling the Heat
So far I'm at 70 bags I've been burning on and off starting in mid October then switched to 24/7 November 1st. So far I'm 4 bags behind last year at this time. Day time temps been around mid 30's mid 20's at night. We did have a week stretch in the beginning of November of highs around 22.
Denny
Denny
Thats what 'ate into my load' of pellets too (and corn). I was thinking (at that time) that this was gonna be another killer winter like last winter, but so far it's just been average cold and average snowfall but we have a looooooooong way to go yet.
Dgopetactical
Feeling the Heat
Yep a long way to go is right. I average about 4 tons a year so if it stays about like this I should be ok. What I have in my avatar is for this year and I'm buying for next season now since pellet prices are going up and most likely will never go down, so I don't want to eat into next seasons stock.
Deromax
Burning Hunk
22 bags in 2 and 1/2 months ???????????????? What are you doing, burning one pellet at a time
I'm at about 12 bags burned. Anything above 15F outside will make the stove to over heat the house. Those having a ton burned at this time must live in a mansion or forgotten some door or window open somewhere!
Not entirely sure they will go up in price, in fact, they may go down
, 2 factors will impact pellet prices, one the world market for oil and two the availability of corn at a reasonable price per bushel. If oil prices stay low for the foreseeable future, many people who use pellets, especially in the north east will go back to using heating oil and people like me and others with corn locally available will either run a mix of corn 50-50 (which most all pellet burners can readily handle with no modification to the a/f ratio) or go straight corn (which I can do with a true multifuel stove that I can custom tailor the a/f ratio to run corn efficiently.Keep in mind that we export pellets to the EU and other countries but they too are experiencing low oil prices, not just us.
Consequently, you have all this pellet making capacity here and less sales so like any good business model, they (pellet makers) adjust the pricing to reflect demand.
Certainly not cast in stone, but a distinct possibility.
In reality, pellet prices haven't went up much in the last 20 years compared to the rate of inflation and hard goods prices. I remember buying pellets 10 years ago for not much less than I'm paying on pre-buy now.
What hurt me was the spike in field corn prices that started about 6 years ago. As a devout corn burner, I had to switch to pellets because corn got so expensive it would have been cheaper to run the central furnace and burn propane but thats all changing now.
If I was able to predict the future, I would have no pre bought 5 ton of pellets, I would have bought one ton and 600 or so bushels of field corn. I keep corn in the grain tanks all the time anyway for stock feed. Been 'snitching' their corn lately. I can store about 3000 bushel of corn at one time.
They may increase in price, only the world markets for oil and grain will really dictate what happens.
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