WATCH: Greg Pahl’s Sustainably Heated Home: His Wood-Pellet Boiler
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Greg Pahl, author of Natural Home Heating: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Options, no longer relies on fossil fuels for winter heat. He has no natural gas tank or oil bill. He is not subject to the wild fluctuations in market energy prices—from expensive to ludicrous. And he isn’t spewing once-buried carbon into our atmosphere all winter long. After a relatively easy swapping of boilers in his basement, Greg now enjoys clean heat throughout his home by burning sustainably-harvested and locally-produced wood pellets.
In the video below, Greg explains his wood pellet boiler system. In this earlier video, Greg explained his solar domestic hot water system. Both systems are great steps to take when transitioning your home from fossil-fuels to renewable energy.
This video is part of a series. See also:
November 20th, 2008 at 10:00 am
So one pallet might last around one month (1 - 1 1/2 bags per day). I suppose I will have to read the book, but how much does one pallet cost? How much does the wood pellet boiler cost?
November 21st, 2008 at 5:35 am
Expect the boiler and installation to run 5-8k, typically on the higher end.
Expect to have the boiler ‘go down’ every couple of weeks (usually just needs a restart).
Expect to buy parts, and repair it yourself. Very few dealers service them and those that do only do it during business hours during the week. I have to pay 80/hr for my repairman. Ignition switches seem to fail couple of times a year.
Pellets depend upon the quantity, quality, and time of year you buy. Size of house you heat, etc. Out East, where this author lives, there have been massive pellet shortages and prices have been so high there is no financial sense in doing pellets. Out west, its not so bad. Here in Oregon, you get premium pellets affordably and they are always available - because they don’t have to ship them far here like they do in many other non-forestry states.
December 4th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
B–
Yes, one ton lasts for about a month. Last winter we ordered 5 tons at $225/ton for a total of $1,125. We burned about 4 tons, actually costing us $900 for the season. It would have cost us around $3,150 to heat our home with Number 2 heating oil. The (Danish) Tarm model 1.5 pellet boiler cost us about $7,500 back in 2004. It’s more expensive now. Installation was another $2,000 or so. We saw this fuel fossil crisis coming, and decided to switch sooner rather than later. We’ve been saving a lot of money ever since. The boiler already has pretty much paid for itself in fuel savings.
David–
Yes, our install cost was a bit higher than your estimated range. But, as noted above, the boiler has pretty much paid for itself. We did have a few initial problems with a fuse, but after that was sorted out, we have had very little trouble. Although our boiler is a manual-start model, it has only “gone down” once in the past four years when a small electrical relay burned out. Even during a power failure, the fire continues to smolder for an hour or so. The fire has gone out several times when I forgot to turn the boiler back on after cleaning it, but that’s not the boiler’s fault!
The hopper will hold 240 pounds (six bags) and the boiler will easily run for three or four days without much intervention. I spend about 20 minutes per week on routine cleaning and fueling activities. You may (or may not) have to do the repairs yourself, depending on the make, model, and location of dealers. We have had very few problems with ours in any case.
Out East (Vermont) where I live, the price of pellets has gone up this year to around $280 to $300 a ton delivered, a bit higher, but still only coming to a total of $1,200 for the season. The current average price for Number 2 fuel oil in Vermont is around $3.78/gal, coming to $3,402 for 900 gallons. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take $1,200 over $3,402 any day. We have saved another $2,202 this year.
Are we glad we made the switch to wood pellets? You bet!