$285. a ton??????
I was a dealer for pellet stoves back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Pellets were $120. a ton, my cost, and I had a very small markup hoping to make up some profit on stove sales. didn’t work. Quit selling them. I see absolutely no advantage economically using pellets for heat. But they are green and save the environment.
The heat is nice. The stoves operate by themselves virtually. I even had one myself. After quitting business I had to pay retail for the pellets and at that time the breaking point economically compared to propane was $180 a ton. When I moved, my new home had a wood furnace and I sold the pellet stove. I can still cut my own wood and heat the whole house for under $200 a year.
compared to oil heat the pellets may be feasable. But a $1000 low emissions wood stove and wood at $150 a cord if you buy it is the way to go. Keep the part of the house you spend the most time in warm, and the ambient heat will keep the chill off the rest of the house.
I got my stove in 91, one of the original Whitfields. I remember pellets for 2.50 a bag.
Those days are long gone. Plus, it’s been quite spotty for pellet availabilty last few years, they keep saying “we don’t have the material....”
I’ve been thinking about a second stove for my bedroom. A small, straight, plain old fashioned wood stove.
A bit shy of three tons of pellets last winter. But I burned my stove all the way through May because it’s basically been the pits in the PNW this spring.
I paid about $5 a bag last year, so at a bag a day, $150 per month plus the electricity to run the auger. If the electricity goes out, there is no heat. I have one pellet stove in the living room and one in the bedroom, but I keep the second one off because I can’t control the heat and it gets too warm.
Personally, I find the whole thing a pain, but I have no central heat, gas or propane, so I have little choice at the moment. It needs to be filled about twice a day, so you can’t leave for a couple of days and keep the heat on low.