Pellets: Prices, storage, availability

Pellets (for stoves, inserts and boilers....) look like rabbit feed - they typically have a small 3/8 to 1 inch length - and are made from compressed sawdust, wood chips, agricultural wastes and other biomass materials.

Wood Pellets: pure biomass They are a typical biomass product, made predominantly from wastes, which helps cut environmental pollution (and energy bills...).

Environmentally Assessment

Since ultimately pellets are made from wood, they can be considered a renewable energy source. The combustion they release when burned is minimized by the carbon dioxide that the trees and plants behind pellets have absorbed while growing, contrary to what happens when we use oil or gas. In this case, the combustion releases dioxide carbon locked up for millions of years, increasing the CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

Pellet prices

Pellets have a high calorific value, around five kilowatt-hours per kilogram: the energy content of two kilograms (4,4 pounds) of pellets corresponds broadly to that of one liter (0,264 gallons) of fuel oil. And since their prices are very stable and much lower than heating oil or even natural gas (around 0,2-0,25 USD/0.16–0,2€ per Kg), pellets can be an excellent deal as a fuel for stoves, inserts or boilers.

Pellets vs. Gas for Stoves and Inserts

Pellets are typically much cheaper than gas. And since the prices of pellet stoves and pellet fireplace inserts aren't very different from prices of other fueled stoves and inserts, this very fact turns pellet stoves and pellet fireplace inserts very competitive and advantageous relatively to gas stoves and gas fireplace inserts.

Your Pellet needs for Boilers

The annual requirement for a typical home – with, say, annual heating needs around 9-11 Kilowatts – may be about 280-320 cubic feet (8-9 m3).

In other words, homes with an annual heating bill of ten kilowatts will spend around 1500 USD (1000 €) on pellets, something around half of what homeowners would pay using heating oil or gas.

Pellet economics and boilers

See: Pellet Boiler Prices.

Pellet storage and logistics

Buying pellets in bulk - and storing several cubic feet of them - can save you a lot of money, but that demands a large scale storage system, involving tank containers (with different configurations and sizes), silos or dedicated basement rooms.

Yes: pellet boilers demand a large storing system in order to store all the pellets you need for the cold weather. (Note: 1 ton of pellets demands around 50 cubic feet of space).

And that may be a disadvantage and a problem if you don't have a sufficiently large and dedicated basement or space to accomodate the containers or silos...

Pellet availability

Wood pellets are very common if northern European countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Austria… and are becoming also common in UK and U.S..

Today’s Canada and U.S. pellet production exceeds largely the internal demand, and a significant part of the production of states as Maine and New Hampshire is exported for the European markets. In most US states there will be no problem in terms of pellet availability – either in small or large quantities. It’s just a question of information.