xparatrooper wrote:
On Feb 1, 6:09 am, terry wrote:
Friend has been extolling the virtues of a pellet stove owned and
operated by his relative.

He says that it uses about one bag of pellets per-day; which cost
about $5-$6 per bag. $150 to $180 per month? There are occasionally

Another timely topic. Turns out my cousin is part owner of a
compressed log company. I had never really thought about this stuff,
but we had a "catch up" conversation a month ago (it had been several
years since we really had hung out or anything)

The Northern Idaho Energy Log company apparently ships throughout the
US and Canada. Each 8 pound log contains about 64,000 BTU and is NOT
laced with paraffin, and therefore it is MUCH better for the
environment (less soot up the chimney, hardly any ash residue in the
stove)

I got a sample log to try and it was a little hard to start, but
burned for 4 1/2 hours, and there really wasn't any ash left to speak
of.

I have never tried pellets, but I have heard that you need to clean
your ash a couple times a week. Now ash is good for a garden, but a
winter's worth would be hard to find a home for. These logs could let
you go several weeks in between cleanings.

I am not an employee or anything, but my cousin is a stand-up guy, so
I am just passing this on.

http://www.northidahoenergylogs.com

Best of luck!

I know the bio-bricks are popular around here, and they sound much like your
compressed logs. Bio-brick is just one brand name, there are several. You
can burn them in a fireplace, and they are legal in a non-certified wood
stove. That says something about the cleanliness of them. They're much
like giant pellets anyhow.

I have to take issue with some of the comments about pellet stoves. I clean
mine out twice during the winter, and empty the ash about once every other
week. If you're doing it more often than that, you have either a
mis-adjusted stove or crummy pellets. I usually try to burn softwood
pellets from the northwest because they're the hottest. This past weekend
when it was bitterly cold and there were gale-force winds outside I burned a
couple of bags of hardwood pellets from Pennsylvania and they were
phenomenal. It actually hurt to get close to the stove. So much for
northwest softwood, eh?

In my case I don't have a lot of choices, and pellets have kept us comfy for
many years. A lot of newer model stoves will burn different fuels, such as
corn, peanut shells, etc. There is no ready supply of those things in this
area, and I haven't been able to determine the btu value except for corn,
which is far less than pellets.

Good quality pellets will burn at between 8-9000 btus per pound. Corn gives
off about 7,000, and lots more ash due to the higher moisture content, so I
stick with the pellets.

I don't suppose most people have my predicament, but around here pellets
rule.

Keith




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