Wood Pelet Stoves

[Polarblu]

LOL believe me we had many a (too many beer) discussions about how to store the grain truck load. I was thinking a silo in the corner of my shop and bring it in by the pail. Anything to get it cheaper and cut down on plastic. Trouble is moisture, dont know about you guys but i use it as kitty litter also and just a little moisture breaks the pellets down fast into dust that wont go through the auger in the stove very well.

Anybody who might try this make sure your stove hopper is always closed cause kitty poo plugs it up solid!!

 

[gro4u]

farmers..... we are all the same. I was going to use a feed auger and put a small bin outside. when the beers wear off - you realize - just carry the darn bags. kitty poo comment made me laugh - have fun prying that out of the seized feed auger?

 

[medler]

HAHA .I would have never thought about that.It gave me a real good laugh

 

[Polarblu]

LMAO i had to take the whole damn thing apart! The auger is the center most point on the little Kozy brand that i have. About 60 screws and a new politically incorrect name for said kitty and about an hour and a half.

Still think i can use space in my shop to store pellets in bulk instead of humping them in a pallet at a time.

Now i need a Princess Auto version of a cigar humidor.........
Beers anyone? even engineers are allowed to comment!!

 

[gro4u]

I am trying not to laugh because I don't wish a job like that on anyone - it ain't workin though here is a site with some small plastic bins if you are actually serious about the pellets in the garage idea

Here kitty kitty!

 

[catzuki]

Well out here its the 5.25 bag. It was 4.25 when we first bought our stoves. I would buy a who train load from pinnicale if i could, but i was told they dont sell to the general public. I also wish i could buy some bulk. problem with bulk is trying to keep them dry with the amount of hunidity out here. Even a grain bin with airation wouldnt help enough i dont think. ut if i could get the pellets for cheap enough i would help split a load. Id be interested in about 6 pallets or more. But they would have to be cheap. I can head just into ND and pay 90/pallet, but id rather support a canadian dealer if i could.

 

[gro4u]

I called Pinnacle just for interest sake but they really only will give retail pricing unless someone sets up as a distributor. FOr the fir pellets they want $209.95 per ton which works out to $4.20 a 40# bag picked up in Quesnell. I don't know what freight would cost but theoretically it would not likely be less than $1 a bag. For SPF pellets, the cost would be $20 tonne less. Bulk SPF pelets can be purchased for $159 metric tonne (2205lbs) but the fir is not available in bulk. If there was more to be saved, I would be interested in arranging something but that doesn't really seem possible based on these numbers.

 

[catzuki]

ya thats BS. Especially when a guy can go south and get them for around 90-180 per ton. I would pay 90 ton for pellets even if they only had 7500 btu per lb. Its still better than paying that kind of oney per ton from a canadian dealer.

 

[Polarblu]

ya thats BS. Especially when a guy can go south and get them for around 90-180 per ton. I would pay 90 ton for pellets even if they only had 7500 btu per lb. Its still better than paying that kind of oney per ton from a canadian dealer.

How about a Pinnacle depot in Fort St John? Might take some doing but I know some of the good old boys. If it can be made to pay for itself its is a viable interest.
Super B dumps into a auger transferred into an bin that's sealed and heated. Could use chip vans lined with plastic. Waste could be used for KITTY LITTER???????

 

[medler]

How many hours can you guys go w/o dumping out the ashes out of the burn pot?

 

[Polarblu]

How many hours can you guys go w/o dumping out the ashes out of the burn pot?

Anything past 100 is pushing it on my Kozy. Thats fir with morning stirring. 3 days and i empty and give the old girl a brush off. not much comes out but it burns hotter clean.

 

[medler]

Anything past 100 is pushing it on my Kozy. Thats fir with morning stirring. 3 days and i empty and give the old girl a brush off. not much comes out but it burns hotter clean.

Your burn pot must be bigger than mine HAHA.Sounds sick but anyway i have to dump the ashes every 24 hours other wise it overflows..I have taken the whole thing a part once ..It is an enviro model .And i vacuum it out through the access holes every few days.I think the pellets i am burning aren't the best..I guess it is actually called the burn pot LINER .Thats is thing little screen thing on top of the actual burn pot..

 

[bigz64]

How about a Pinnacle depot in Fort St John? Might take some doing but I know some of the good old boys. If it can be made to pay for itself its is a viable interest.
Super B dumps into a auger transferred into an bin that's sealed and heated. Could use chip vans lined with plastic. Waste could be used for KITTY LITTER???????

be careful moving the pellets with something like a grain auger. the auger will cut the pellets up and you will have a lot of fines or sawdust, which will clog your stove. a grain vac is the best option

 

[medler]

Does it damage the stove to "stir" the ashes in the burn pot liner?I have never done this as i just let them pile up and then when it is cold and shut off i dump them into the ash pan??I am a wood stove veteren ,but this is my first wood pelet stove.

 

[gro4u]

BigZ64, have you actually moved them with an auger before? I assumed that wood work OK. If someone wants to try this for real, I have all the grain handling equipment we would need (including a conveyor for gentle handling). I am sure lots of people on this site probably are farmers with similiar equipment. You can also buy bulk bags that have a plastic liner in them that hold 1 metric tonne of grain (probably a bit less of pellets due to low density). But do enough people have a way to transport and handle bulk bags? I should have known the place to find others crazy enough to even think about trying this would be a sledder site!
BTW, I think we clean our ash out once every couple weeks if we keep the stove running continuosly.

 

[catzuki]

i would be interested, but its hard to justify it in a sence. i can get grain for .75 bushel. I like having 100 bags most of the time just cause its handy for the old lady. She doesnt like grain.

Now as for cleaning, my PC45 i clean every 2 days cause of grain. Grain leaves alot more ash, but for the price, i dont mind the little extra cleaning. When we were burning pellets, it was every 3 weeks or so before we would clean it.

 

[Polarblu]

Does it damage the stove to "stir" the ashes in the burn pot liner?I have never done this as i just let them pile up and then when it is cold and shut off i dump them into the ash pan??I am a wood stove veteren ,but this is my first wood pelet stove.

My stove is an older one that just has a sqaure bin that the pellets fall into and it creates a "puck" at the bottom. I stir it up to break that up so that air flows freely through.
I dont have a liner in my "burn pot" its just iron.

 

[bigz64]

BigZ64, have you actually moved them with an auger before? I assumed that wood work OK. If someone wants to try this for real, I have all the grain handling equipment we would need (including a conveyor for gentle handling). I am sure lots of people on this site probably are farmers with similiar equipment. You can also buy bulk bags that have a plastic liner in them that hold 1 metric tonne of grain (probably a bit less of pellets due to low density). But do enough people have a way to transport and handle bulk bags? I should have known the place to find others crazy enough to even think about trying this would be a sledder site!
BTW, I think we clean our ash out once every couple weeks if we keep the stove running continuosly.

the pellet is strong from up and down pressure, but side to side pressure the pellet has no strength. a conveyor would work fine, as it does not damage the pellet.

you are thinking of 1 ton grain bags:

one ton bag, new and improved one ton bag, one ton grain bags, sandbags, burlap bags, woven polypropylene bags, fibc bulk bags, air bags, ny, nj, ct, pa, new york, new jersey

these bags are reusable a couple times so its it better on the environment than the small 40lb bags

i dont know if you read my earlier post but i am building a mill near edmonton this summer. so i will have all the equipment for loading and unloading (tractor and a boom on a trailer) as i will be delivering the pellets myself. i am starting out small and supplying to people like on here and local businesses. the first year i will probably be pine/spruce only. the next year i will see how much it will cost to import cedar from bc.

 

[gro4u]

that sounds great - I will look out for that.

 

[Sledderglen]

I bought 2 pallets per season. Just stacked them up in my garage but be carefull with bags getting punctures in them. I just put a piece of Duct tape over the hole and all was good. The bags are good and strong as you guys know already. Loose pellots and grain hoppers way overthinking the easy dumping of 40 lb bags. I do like the idea of grain and even corn. Moisture is a major issue with pellots as well as type of sawdust. Those with burnpots coking up it is usually from wood type and moisure content of pellots. I tried some pellots from Slave Lake and had poor luck with them. I ended up bring in a few bags of pellots at a time and openning them up to dry out inside the house first.