Wood Pellet Quality

 
fig
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Post by fig » Tue. Nov. 12, 2019 8:33 pm

I burn Somersets exclusively for several years. I’ve been getting heavy carbon build up in the burn pots that will cause serious issues I’ve been having to clean way more often and I have to use a needle peener to break the carbide off.

I’d like to chaulk it up to a stove issue but I have two pellet stoves and it’s happening to both of them.


 
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Post by ziggy87 » Wed. Nov. 20, 2019 10:32 pm

I have quite the experience with wood pellets. I would burn around 15 tons a year to heat 2 houses in my Harman PB105. I will say you get what you pay for. I have found that the best pellets seem to be Turman's, followed by American Woodfiber White Pine and their hard wood pellets, Hammers are up there too. I will agree that the quality has gone down hill in the past 2 years, but the prices have gone up significantly too. I always look for the pellet fuel institute rating on the bag before I buy. I am in my last week of burning pellets if all goes as planned.

 
fig
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Post by fig » Wed. Nov. 20, 2019 11:02 pm

Somersets have always been well known around here. By far better then anything else we get. Unfortunately the bottom has fallen out of their quality.

I too, plan to be done with them soon. I should have the coal furnace going soon.

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Mon. Feb. 10, 2020 3:13 pm

I always thought pellet stoves were crap until this year. I dragged it over from the Tiny House we lived in last year, and it really, really, really works well here.

It has not been a super cold year granted, and this is a super insulated home, but we are looking at a savings of pellets over propane of about $1200 for the year. That is NOT chump change. This is 02/010/2020 and from starting on October 7th, we just burned the 100th bag of pellets yesterday, so (2) ton in that time. Another ton will take me to the end of the heating season.

This fall I cut a load of tree length firewood which took me two days to cut, sold the firewood for $800, and bought (3) ton of wood pellets with it. No splitting, no stacking, no mess, and a warm house. This is the cheapest heating season I have ever had in this house.

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Mon. Feb. 10, 2020 3:23 pm

One thing a person can do to get the cost of wood pellets down too is, mix the wood pellets in with whole corn from a feed store.

After a lot of trial and error, I found mixing the wood pellets 2/3 with 1/3 corn burns the best, and gives a tremendous amount of heat. Corn burns super hot...too hot...and it does not light well, but a 2/3 to 1/3 mix works great.

Because corn burns about twice as hot as wood pellets, it is a cheaper fuel per btu versus its cost per pound. If a person bought it in bulk, or grew their own corn, it would be a lot cheaper too. Moisture is not so much of a problem, or at least not as much as I thought it would be because as it lays in the hopper, it gets warm and the moisture is driven off by the time it gets augured into the burn pot, so it burns just fine then.

 
fig
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Post by fig » Mon. Feb. 10, 2020 3:44 pm

I burned 50lbs of dog food my dog wouldn’t eat once. Burned great but left a greasy film over the entire inside.

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Mon. Feb. 10, 2020 4:02 pm

I never thought of dog food.

The thing with burning corn, or burning dog food is, a person could deduct the expense off their taxes and no one would ever know.

Or grow corn and take the subsidy for growing it...

I do not do that, but it is no different I guess than all the contractors that burn #2 off road diesel fuel in their oil boilers and take the deductions as if they burned it in their heavy equipment.


 
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Hambden Bob
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Post by Hambden Bob » Mon. Feb. 10, 2020 4:05 pm

Pellets,Now Dog Food? Good God,Man! Will You Stop At Nothing For A Little Heat?? Nay,I Say!
Fig,You know what we say around here:"Sell Your Dog Food And Buy Coal!" Bad Hambden Bob....Bad Ham!!

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. Feb. 10, 2020 4:21 pm

Anyway you slice it, if coal and pellets are the same price per ton, you are paying 30% more for your heat than you need to...

How much is feed store corn per ton?

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NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 3:33 am

Lightning wrote:
Mon. Feb. 10, 2020 4:21 pm
Anyway you slice it, if coal and pellets are the same price per ton, you are paying 30% more for your heat than you need to...
Not necessarily. What really matters is how the fuel source is controlled.

The problem with your math is, you assume that the same amount of pellets will be required as for burning coal to heat my house, and that might not be the case.

Humans like to have a very narrow temperature range, so my house only needs to heat to that temperature. Any time I am heating my home above 70 degrees I am wasting heat energy no matter what the heat source is. BUT if the ability to control the temperature is better with one source over the other, then it may be more economical.

Right now it is warm outside, and yet my house is 71 degrees, so my pellet stove is not on. I can do that because lighting it is effortless and takes seconds. If I was burning coal, I would inevitably keep the stove simmering just so I would not have to keep lighting a fire. That is consumption of coal that I do not have with wood pellets.

But that is an all or nothing example.

Like firewood, coal is often over-producing heat for my needs. If my house is 75 degrees most of the time burning coal, and only 70 degrees with wood pellets, it does not take long before the 30% discrepancy cost is eroded. And that is assuming pellets and coal cost the same...here it does not. Wood pellets are cheaper per ton.

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 3:46 am

We found this out the hard way with radiant floor heat. It is an absolutely amazing heating system...but only if a person wants to heat their entire home to 70 degrees all through the heating season.

What we found is, we do not spend a lot of time in the bedrooms, so this year we are not heating them. This means our pellet stove is only heating the great room, the bathrooms, and the laundry room; so only about half the house. We sleep better when its cold anyway, so by living with cold and warm spots in the house, versus an even 70 degrees, we are going to save about $1200 this year on heat.

Some may say, that is not comparing apples to apples, but it absolutely is. We are the same family, in the same house, doing the same thing...living here. With propane radiant heat, we have to heat the entire home, but with a pellet stove we can limit what we heat and when.

Some may think the way we live is foolish, to live in a home with warm and cool spots. Fair enough, but I know people that slave all summer cutting firewood so they can keep their house at 80 degrees all winter and brag about it. That is their choice, myself I think it is a lot of extra work for wasted heat, but that is their lifestyle choice, not mine.

 
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Post by NoSmoke » Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 3:57 am

But these are the heating appliances I have. My pot bellied stove was built in 1893 for goodness sakes so its ability to control the fire is limited. I know I can go out and buy a coal stoves that can maintain the temperature right to 70 degrees. So it is not like coal has this inherent heating flaw that cannot be overcome.

FOR ME...it comes down to return on investment. My coal stove was free, and my wood pellet stove was free.

It would be kind of silly for me to go out and buy a $2000 coal stove just so it can do the same thing as my pellet stove of maintaining room temperature at 70 degrees.

When my pellet stove craps out, and needs to be replaced, then I will have to make a decision between pellets and coal, but for right now wood pellets are the cheapest way to heat my home.

 
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Post by hotblast1357 » Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 5:19 am

Sounds like you just need to zone out your rooms so u can shut the radiant off where u don’t want it.

 
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Post by Hambden Bob » Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 5:26 am

NS,I look at it this way: When I'm Responsible for all facets of Heating Your Home,then I can call the shots!
Fortunately,I'm not! Your Life,Your Labor,Your Comfort And Necessity, And Finally,Your Labor(Yeah,Mentioned Twice On Purpose) And Cash! Well,that all piles up into the corner to Equal,Wait For It..... Your Way!!!
Enjoy Your Heat,Gang!!

 
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Post by lsayre » Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 6:42 am

100% dry hardwood (wood on a "dry basis") has ~8,600 BTU's per pound, and 100% dry softwood (of the coniferous type) has ~9,000 BTU's per pound due to its high energy resins (which contain ~16,000 BTU's per pound of pure resin).

Wood pellets of either type are about 6%-8% moisture (when purchased new). Thus you lose 6% to 8% of the maximum possible BTU's, plus you additionally lose the energy required to evaporate and drive off the 6% to 8% moisture. The combined loss due to moisture plus boiling it off appears to be on the order of about 7% to 9%. I would consider any source claiming that their pellets can do better than ~8% below the theoretical BTU max for perfectly dry wood to be suspect.

At best:
Hardwood pellets = 8,600 x ~0.92 = ~7,900 BTU per pound
Coniferous softwood pellets = 9,000 x ~0.92 = ~8,280 BTU per pound


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