Wood pellet fireplaces are becoming a more populare option for reducing utility costs as heating fuel prices continue to soar.

The wood pellets that are used to fuel these pellet fireplaces are made from wood scraps that are compressed into pellets to form a smooth flowing and even burning fuel. Although they are typically a less expensive way to heat they are a bit less convenient than just turning up the thermostat to the furnace.

The pellets typically come packaged in 40-50 pound bags. They can be bought in small numbers or delivered by the pallet.  Each day the pellet fireplace is in use it has to be reloaded.  With heavy usage it may require a second refill.

But according to Peter Howe of NECN, Jon Strimling had a better idea.  His idea was for homeowners to be able to flick a switch and have a hopper load the pellet fireplaces and then have a delivery truck load the hopper.

“We’re taking pellets in bulk out of the back of this truck, by bulk I mean there’s no bags in them, and we’re flowing them down this pipe into the garage” says Strimling.

The typical home using 3-4 tons a year would only require two fills to keep their pellet fireplace running. That’s 3-4 tons that the homeowner doesn’t have to move by hand.

Strimling’s company currently charges around $325/ton, with the bags being delivered on pallets. In heating value, that is 30-40% less expensive than heating oil. They have just begun selling hopper systems and hope it will make pellets even more popular.

Ten to fifteen percent of the product cost is actually tied up in the packaging, so bulk delivery of the pellets is not only less hassle, it costs about 10 percent less as an added bonus.

Despite the hands on requirements of heating with pellets, it’s popularity has grown in recent years. More then 800,000 U.S. households use pellets for either some or all of their heat.  This equates to 2.2 billion pounds of wood pellets annualy. The industry continues to grow with over 80 pellet producers and 23 manufacturers of pellet fireplaces, stoves, and pellet furnaces.

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The benefits of wood pellets are as follows:

- Ease of transport

- Clean burning fuel

- It complies to consistent standards. (Things which have standard sizes, shaped and moisture content can easily be designed for)

Pellets can be purchase by the bag for hand loading or by the truckload if you have a system that is set up for it.

When ordered by truckload the pellets are blown from a delivery truck up to 20 yards to a storage unit. In the past there has been a lot of hassle with dust, but this was largely due to the use of agricultural feed trucks being used to deliver the pellets. As dust is not really an issue for agriculture, they did not have dust minimisation technology, and it was a mess. If you use one of the large suppliers these days, there is little problem.

Understanding Wood Pellet Boilers And.. Combustion

Wood pellets can also be used to fuel a boiler.  The pellets are fed into the “burner” where they are burned. The burner in all boilers does much the same job. It’s a place where the fuel is mixed with air to provide the optimal conditions for combustion, and lit. Before you know it the combustion gases are travelling through the heat exchanger where it heats up the water.

The flame from the burner, and the resultant combustion gases escape into the boiler, transferring their heat to the water circulating through the heat exchanger within the boiler. The heat is then distributed the house using a wet system. In most cases water flows through the heat exchanger in the boiler, absorbing heat from the flame and the combustion gases. This hot water is then circulated around the house to radiators, underfloor heaters and hot water cylinders.

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Pellet inserts burn wood pellets that are made from wood waste materials that are left over from other manufacturing processes using wood.  These wood chips, saw dust, etc. are compressed to the point that they will stay in the pellet form. 

Compressing the material into pellets makes for a very handy way to deal with this fuel source because they can be easily poured into the pellet insert and they are easy to package and transport.  Pellets can be transported in bulk trucks or in bags that are convenient for home owners to purchase and transport.  They can also be easily stacked for storage.

Pellet inserts are among the cleanest burning heating fixtures on the market.  They are extremely efficient and very environmentally friendly.  Regular wood burning inserts have to be designed to meet EPA standards to be certified but because pellet inserts create such minimal pollution they do not even require EPA certification.  You may see EPA certifications on some model because the manufacturer voluntarily applied for it, but it is not required for pellet burning inserts.

Other differences between pellet burning inserts and regular wood inserts are that most pellet burning inserts require electrical power to run the pellet feeder mechanism and the fan(s).  Another difference is the way they can be vented.  Regular wood burning inserts usually need a chimney to vent smoke and gases whereas many pellet inserts can be vented right through a wall. 

Another feature that is often included in a pellet insert is a thermostat control that monitors the heat coming from the insert and adjusts air flow and pellet feeding to raise and lower temperatures as needed to maintain the desired room temperature.

There are many models and designs of pellet inserts on the market to choose from so you may want to compare features as well as appearance when it comes to installing a pellet burning fireplace insert.

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Many of the new fireplace inserts are designed to burn fireplace pellets.  But what is a fireplace pellet?  A fireplace pellet is a wood pellet that is typically made from waste materials such as chips, wood pieces and sawdust. These materials are ground up and compressed until they make a pellet of highly compact material.  A fireplace pellet is more dense then typical wood and therefore burns longer and gives off more heat.  Because they are manufactured under controlled conditions the moisture content in a wood pellet can also be kept very low which improves their burning efficiency and reduces emissions.

At the pellet manufacturing facilities the wood debris and sawdust are milled into dough that is pressed through the holes of a die.  The pressure raises the heat of the material to the point that the lignin in the wood forms natural glue that holds the pellet together.

Another advantage of using pellets is their consistent size makes them flow well and makes it easy to control an automatic feeding system which will feed the pellets into the fireplace as they are needed.  That way you can load up the holding area of the fireplace and let it feed the pellets as needed.  It also makes things easier for the manufacturer to package them and haul them in bags or other containers.  Some people even set up a holding bin next to their house that can be loaded by a truck and have an auger or belt system that moves the pellets automatically into the fireplace or stove to be burned.

The use of a fireplace pellet system is becoming more wide spread.  Even in Europe the popularity is growing as using wood pellets for heating homes is quickly becoming a way to save money on heating costs.  In the U.K. it is estimated that customers are reducing heating costs by as much as 50%.  

It is no wonder that their popularity has increased.  They are less expensive, easy to transport and use and create a highly controllable heat source that has very low emissions.  One must applaud the person who came up with the idea for the wood pellet.

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