Wood pellet questions

Don-Wi · Oct 28, 2010

I called a buddy of a co-worker today that sells pellets. Said he had hardwood for $195/ton, and soft wood for $205/ton. To me that seems backwards so I asked him dont the hardwood give more heat?

He replies no and says the softwood do.

I always thought hardwood was better burning and more bang for the buck, but I've only lived in the house for a year now, so I can't say I've run much through it. Just looking to buy more pellets before the price goes up again.

On the other hand, there is the place I bought 4 tons from last March and they've got the same hardwood pellets for $169/ton. Vulcan brand.

What do you guys burn? How much do you pay? $169/ton is hard to beat. comes to about $3.40/bag, and is much cheaper than even TSC.

Donovan from Wisconsin

camju · Oct 28, 2010

Not an answer but I would like to know how many bags a day a 1000 squareft house would use in a day at 30 bellow weather.

Aleuicius · Oct 28, 2010

As I understand it: a pound of wood - regardless of type - gives off just so much heat when burned. The differences are that many hardwoods are denser and will fit more pounds into the stove, per loading.
Oak is about 42 pounds per cubic foot and the desired hardwoods range down to the mid-thirties. Softwoods are generally less dense, being in the lower thirties down to some pines around 26 pounds per cubic foot.
Then again, some softwoods (firs)get up near 40 and some hardwoods (like poplar)down in the twenties.
With pellets, I don"t think there would be much difference, as a pound is a pound is a pound - though the softwoods bags may seem slightly larger.

Zachary Hoyt · Oct 28, 2010

By the cord hardwood is better but maybe by the ton the resins in
the softwood would make the difference. There should be a lot
more volume in a ton of softwood than a ton of hardwood.
Zach

LOU from WI · Oct 28, 2010

Camju, you and I both,it takes us 8-10 hardwood cord to heat our house all winter, we are also well insulated on our 26x36 two story house.LOU

BCnT · Oct 28, 2010

not sure what you mean by softwood but around here thats pine and cedar and will sure coat your stove pipe with creosote if you burnin it slow...seen more n one chimmney fire from creosote buildup.

K. Peters · Oct 28, 2010

I buy most of my pellets at Fleet Farm and in the past I burned mostly hardwood pellets. They had a sale once on the softwood pellets so I bought a pallet to try them, I wonder how long that pallet sat in their yard the top 10 or so bags must have gotten wet at one time turning the pellets back into sawdust. When I did use the ones that stayed dry I couldn't tell the difference in heat output from soft to hardwood pellets.
For $169/ton I am very interested I live in NE WI

outlar · Oct 28, 2010

I prefer oak ash maple and hardwoods for better btu

wolfman · Oct 28, 2010

As long as the bag says "Premium" I burn them-don't
know if they're hardwood or soft!

Gun guru · Oct 28, 2010

I only burn hardwood pellets, have for 5 years now. Never heard of softwood pellets before.

I paid $637 for 3 tons, delivered around the 4th of July this year. I buy from a dealer/trucker in the mid michigan.

If you can get $250/ton or under then you got a good price.

S2710 · Oct 28, 2010

My house is 1200 sq. ft. and on 30 below weather I can get by on one and a half to two bags. That is keeping the house at 68 and it is insulated fairly well and I also live in the valley where the wind isn't too bad.

Cal Innes · Oct 29, 2010

I have been burning pellets here in maine for a few years now and have stuck with hardwood and even with that, I have found wide variation in the quality of them. Some leave a lot of ash and tend to plug up the stove while other brands work better. Quite a few pellet companies have started up here in state in the past2 years and most are hardwood. Pellets are running about 205/ton at the moment. Last year they were over 300 and were hard to come by. This year EVERYONE has 'em and there seems to be a glut.
As to the softwood/hardwood issue, when running the sugarhouse, I always use pine. It burns faster, but hotter because of the pitch within. A pound of pine will give more BTU than a pound of hardwood because of the pitch (one of the universities around here had done research on all that).
My 2 cents,
Cal

outlar · Oct 29, 2010

Maybe I should of said better btu per armload, this cleared up my misconseption of btu/lb

buickanddeere · Oct 29, 2010

(quoted from post at 18:34:47 10/28/10) I called a buddy of a co-worker today that sells pellets. Said he had hardwood for $195/ton, and soft wood for $205/ton. To me that seems backwards so I asked him dont the hardwood give more heat?

He replies no and says the softwood do.

I always thought hardwood was better burning and more bang for the buck, but I've only lived in the house for a year now, so I can't say I've run much through it. Just looking to buy more pellets before the price goes up again.

On the other hand, there is the place I bought 4 tons from last March and they've got the same hardwood pellets for $169/ton. Vulcan brand.

What do you guys burn? How much do you pay? $169/ton is hard to beat. comes to about $3.40/bag, and is much cheaper than even TSC.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Mix some stoker coal with any wood pellets if you want lots of cheap heat.

Don-Wi · Oct 29, 2010

The place is located in PLymouth, just past Fleet Farm on 57. It's called Anderson... something er other... They sell pellets in bulk and in bags by the ton. Also sell wood and pellet stoves. They sell Vulcan brand pellets and they seem to burn pretty good, compared to what the last home owners left behind. Both bags said premium, these just seemed to burn better.

The number I called was 877-339-0061. They're only open during the week, so no Saturday runs. I woulda gone today, but I had to go in to the surgery center and have my throat scoped, which meant being knocked out. No driving the rest of the day.... First time with an IV though....

Hopefully next week I'll get a chance after work on Friday.

Donovan from Wisconsin

K. Peters · Oct 31, 2010

Thanks for the info. Hope your feeling better.

Don-Wi · Nov 1, 2010

The reason I had it done is because I was having bad heart burn, and all my brother's have it too. My oldest let his go too long before getting checked so he's got Barret's Esophagus. Not life threatening now, but if he woulda left it unchecked he could've gotten cancer.

As soon as I mentioned that to my doc he reccomended getting checked just to be safe. Will know in about a week on the Barret's, but they don't expect it as I looked pretty good so far. Just a little irritated for the most part.

What did suck was getting over the anesthesia the next day. Felt like I had the flu, shivered uncontrolably the next night once in a while, and then woke up in a cold sweat at 6:30.

A few hours later I was feeling fine and no more issues....

Donovan from Wisconsin

Wood pellet questions

Don-Wi

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camju

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Aleuicius

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Zachary Hoyt

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LOU from WI

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BCnT

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K. Peters

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outlar

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wolfman

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Gun guru

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S2710

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Cal Innes

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outlar

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buickanddeere

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Don-Wi

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K. Peters

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Don-Wi

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