Adding a pellet stove. Already have a wood furnace.

[Marine5068]

Around here pellets are one of the most expensive fuels.

Cheapest fuel here, next to firewood.
It goes in order of most expensive to least...
Electric
Propane
Oil
Gas
Pellets
Wood

 

[panolo]

I have two pellet stoves, both Englander. One is the very basic style that holds a little over a bag of pellets (25pdvc) and a larger one that holds 3 bags (25pah). I kept my house around 66 and went through 5 tons. The smaller stove will eat any pellet and rarely ever clog or give you trouble. The bigger one is a beast but needs more maintenance. Cleaning fines, sucking fly ash through the passages, etc. The hardest thing for me was to regulate the temps because even at the first setting with the blower going half it will heat my main area up to 75 if he temp is over 30.

There is also work to making sure your pellets are stored dry and can't get moisture. When they start to swell they jam in most augers. Plus the bags get heavy after awhile. With all that said I still have them installed and use them. Around here if you watched for sales you could get a ton for $200.

 

[Mustang71]

The moisture thing is good to know. My garage is always humid from the wife parking in there in the winter and it's all concrete walls since its half my basement. I'd have to use the stove enough so the pellets in it didnt absorb to much moisture.

 

[moresnow]

Any chance of getting up earlier to keep the wood furnace going? Can't imagine it takes over a half hour to load/bring up to temp/get your primary air control set to it's happy place? Likely your cheapest alternative. Slight daily routine alteration. Dunno?

 

[Mustang71]

It takes a while from coals to ripping fire where I can shut the air down some. Half an hour is a good day. I also dont have enough wood split and aged to do that at the moment.

 

[unclemoustache]

IMO that's one of those things that might seem like a good idea when you first think of it, but when it comes to actually using it, things don't work out so good. You'd need enough sawdust etc. to account for say 40lbs/day (a bag a day seems to be a commonly mentioned burn rate). Then you need huge time to turn it all into pellets, and I don't think those have a very high throughput. Then drying? Packaging/storing? And also assuming the machine always works as advertised and needs no maintenance or repairs.

I did a bit of Googling on the pellets - looks like those who have tried making pellets (or even setting up their own pellet mill for selling) were not successful. The dryness is a huge factor, especially when making them.