Time to buy or wait? - Getting started

[Stentor]

I'm new here and bought my first pellet stove (Harman XXV) late in 2008. I'd appreciate comment on two questions.

1. Is April and May better for pellet pricing and availability than, say July and August?

2. How do I decide what pellets to buy? I've used two tons (New England Wood Pellets and Maine Wood) this first season. They seemed fine. I'm buying a few bags of different kinds now to test but see little difference. I'll do trial and error, make price comparisons and search forums like this for opinions. I wonder if trade group memberships like Pellet Fuels Institute give me some quality assurance?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[www_godzilla]

That's the Million $ question. The true answer won't be known until this time next year. Until then you have to guess. Honestly we don't know what future events will shape our pellet world. North Korea could start a regional war. This would cause the price of oil to skyrocket. General Motors could declare bankruptcy,causing the stock market to plunge. Which in turn would make the dollar that much more weaker,which in turn makes the price of oil go up. Oil is traded in American dollars. I already bought 2 tons this spring and I will buy another 1.5 tons from Pelletsales.com. My friend is buying 5 tons and I am buying 1.5 tons. It's cheaper if you can buy more. Ask if anyone in your area needs pellets also. Pool your resources,it will benefit you both. OH...I'd buy now..LOL

 

[webbie]

A harman will put up with lesser grades of pellets than many brands.

It is my guess that the price of pellets is currently on a downward curve. But this can differ regionally.

At this time last year we had oil headed to over $100 a BBL. We certainly do not seem to have those political and economic conditions today. But that is simply my guess.

 

[MCPO]

Heating oil will continue to harbor numerous reasons for folks to be concerned with it`s volatile prices and this will support and sustain higher levels of pellet prices , at least for this year since we can all recall when some people locked in at $4.28 a gal last fall.
However Americans have a short memory and if the price of oil were to stay reasonable for another 6-8 months pellet prices and or sales might then decline but probably not this year.

$300+ per ton for pellets is currently seen as a real ripoff but when and if heating oil reaches $4.28 a gal again the price of pellets won`t look quite so bad. Last fall pellet users would have paid anything just to get them.

So, I guess I`ll add another ton to my 2 left over after all is said and done. It will be my hedge against another repeat of the last oil blowout.

 

[mccabedoug]

I see you are in the Boston area. For us, I do not believe you will see pellet prices drop this year. Again, here in New England, why would they? Oil prices are low and EVERYONE has pre-buy prices between $260 and $300 ton without delivery. They are also warning (again) of shortages to perhaps justify the higher prices. I am not a pellet retailer or producer so I do know if any of this is true and justifies the steep prices. Throw in the standard $30/ton delivery charges and we are at the same level as this past winter: $300/ton. If anything, if oil prices rise, even the slightest, I believe pellet prices will blow right past $300/ton regardless of the time of year. You'll hear of pellet shortages (which I never believed because I NEVER had trouble finding pellets as long as I was willing to pay $6/bag) to justify the purely coincidental rise in pellet prices with rising oil prices.

But, this is just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.....

 

[imacman]

IMO, I'd buy just enough pellets from a place that has a decent pre-buy so you know your covered for most of next winter, and then once you have them safely tucked away for the summer, start a diligent search for even cheaper pellets. This is what i'm doing.

I don't know that the price is going to go down for sure, and that's where the security of having pellets NOW fits in. But if they DO go down, I'll stock-up on those.

Hey, worse case scenario is that I have too many pellets, and then I'll put the extra's onto a place like Craig's list and sell them in the late fall.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[rowerwet]

I was set to go with pelletsales.com but have found I can do better localy with my own vehicles rather than $15-19 a ton for delivery.
now I am planning on getting 2 tons of a good brand, 2 or more tons of not so good and 2 tons of corn and mixing it to get an even better price overall without the issues of burning just one type at a time. of course with a 440lb hopper I can do this easier than most.

 

[Stentor]

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll err on the side of caution until I have a couple of years of experience with pellets. So I'll get enough to take care of most of the next season. If prices go down between now and then, I'll buy more and hedge my bet. (My pellets will be in part of the garage and kept dry, so I assume they shouldn't deteriorate.) I feel like a commodities trader calculating the world's energy requirements -- which I guess is what we're actually doing!

When I buy, I'll post the information in the Fuel Price Reports section.