Burning wood pellet fuel can be a convenient, cost-effective way of heating your home. Wood pellets are a great source of heat as they burn incredibly cleanly and put off nearly as much heat as their cordwood counterparts.
Switching to wood pellet heating certainly doesn’t come without its questions, though. How many bags do you need to get through a winter? How long does a bag of pellets last? Should you be burning softwood or hardwood pellets — and what’s the difference, anyway?
We’ve heard these and many other questions before. After all, at HY-C, we manufacture our own wood pellet fuel. We know the common queries people tend to have when they’re considering pellet heating. And, more importantly, we know the answers, too.
In this guide, we’re going to cover 8 of the most commonly asked questions about wood pellet fuel. By the time you’re finished with this guide, you’ll have much better and clearer insights into wood pellet heating to decide whether or not it’s right for you.
Wood Pellet FAQs
How Many Bags of Pellets Do I Need for the Winter?
One of the most fundamental questions when heating with wood pellets is, “How many do I need, anyway?”
Most wood pellet fuel comes in 40-pound bags. Homeowners who heat their homes with wood pellets report needing anywhere from 2 to 4 tons of pellets to get through a heating season. That seems like a wide range, but the number of pellets you’ll need varies depending on:
- The insulation factor of your home
- The efficiency of your pellet stove
- The temperature outside
- The temperature at which you keep your thermostat
That said, it’s not uncommon to utilize anywhere from 125 to 175 bags of pellet fuel during an average winter.
Wood pellets are often sold by the pallet, with 50-bag and 100-bag options available. In terms of pallet quantities, most users will need 1 to 3 (depending on whether they’re buying 50-bag or 100-pag pallets).
Do Wood Pellets Give Off Carbon Monoxide?
Yes, wood pellets do produce carbon monoxide when they’re burned. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can be lethal if you breathe in too much of it. That’s why it’s vital to ensure that your pellet stove’s chimney system is professionally inspected and sealed tightly.
Do Wood Pellets Create Creosote?
Burning wood pellets can result in creosote in your chimney, but pellets produce much less creosote at a much slower rate than cordwood.
This is because while the moisture content of cordwood fuel can vary widely, wood pellets only contain 5% to 8% moisture. Drier fuel produces less creosote. And while you’ll still need to clean your pellet stove’s chimney and inspect it for creosote regularly, wood pellets are one of the cleanest-burning organic fuels available.
Do Pellets Burn as Hot as Cordwood?
Whether or not pellets burn hotter than cordwood is essentially a case-by-case basis.
Wood pellet fuel contains 8,500 BTUs per pound on average. Because of the uniform size, density, and moisture level of pellets, this average tends to stay pretty consistent.
Cordwood fuel, on the other hand, can contain anywhere from 8,000 BTUs to 9,500 BTUs per pound on average. The amount of heat you get out of cordwood depends on two factors:
- The species of cordwood being burned (some burn hotter than others)
- How well-seasoned the cordwood is
If your cordwood has been properly seasoned for 12 months and is a high-BTU species (like oak, black locust, or maple), it will burn hotter than wood pellets.
But if your cordwood’s moisture level is 20% or higher and is a low-BTU species (like basswood, buckeye, or white fir), it will not burn as hot as wood pellet fuel.
Is It Better to Burn Hardwood or Softwood Pellets?
Whether or not you should burn hardwood or softwood fuel depends greatly on what kind of appliance you’re using to burn the fuel.
Softwoods tend to burn hotter than hardwoods, but they also burn up more quickly. And, while hardwoods may not put out as many BTUs as softwoods, they burn more slowly, offering a steady, consistent heat source over time.
With that in mind, softwood pellets are better for pellet fire pits because they require as much upfront heat as possible but are only in use for a few hours at a time.
Hardwood pellets are better suited for pellet stoves which need as long of a burn time as possible to keep a home heated sufficiently.
How Long Will a 40-lb Bag of Wood Pellets Burn?
Generally speaking, you can expect between 12 and 24 hours of burn time out of a bag of wood pellet fuel. How did we arrive at that figure?
Well, to understand what kind of burn times you can expect, let’s look at the specs of the Castle Serenity Pellet Stove (a popular model) as an example. There are three variables we need in order to determine our expected burn time:
- The average heat output of a pound of pellet fuel (8,500 BTUs per hour)
- The minimum heat output of our pellet stove (12,807 BTUs per hour)
- The maximum heat output of our pellet stove (26,493 BTUs per hour)
We know that there are 8,500 BTUs of heat energy in a pound of pellets, and 40 pounds of pellets in our bag. That means there are 340,000 BTUs (8,500 x 40) of heat energy in our 40-pound bag total.
We also know that our stove puts off 12,807 BTUs of heat per hour on the low end. If we divide 340,000 by 12,807 we get 26.5 — the expected hours of burn time we’ll experience if we run our stove on its lowest setting.
Finally, we know that, on the high end, our stove puts off 26,493 BTUs per hour. Again, if we divide 340,000 by 26,493 we get about 12.5 — the expected hours of burn time we’ll experience if we run our stove on its highest setting.
Depending on the temperature outside, our thermostat setting, and the insulation factor of our home, we can expect between 12 and 27 hours of burn time out of one 40-pound bag of pellets. This is pretty standard for a 40-pound bag of wood pellet fuel.
Is It Cheaper to Burn Cordwood or Pellets?
In most cases, it’s cheaper to burn traditional cordwood fuel than wood pellets.
For one, cordwood fuel is abundant in many places. In a lot of cases, most homeowners don’t even buy cordwood. Rather, they cut it, split it, and transport it themselves. In these cases, the cost of the wood is free — and it’s pretty tough to beat free.
Also, wood pellets entail a higher production cost than cordwood. After all, cordwood simply needs to be cut and split. Pellets, on the other hand, need to be ground, pressed, and packaged, all of which requires specialized machinery.
The real answer comes down to a number of varying factors, like the species of wood you’re buying, whether it’s hardwood or softwood, and even the region in which you live. But generally speaking, cordwood tends to be a bit cheaper than wood pellets.
Are Wood Pellets Cheaper Than Gas?
The answer to this question essentially comes down to how much natural gas costs in your area.
Remember that most homes require anywhere from 2 to 4 tons of pellets to get through a heating season. A ton of wood pellets costs (on average) $275. This means that most people can expect to pay between $550 and $1,100 to heat their home with wood pellets each year.
From there, the question simply becomes whether or not you’ll pay more to heat the same space with natural gas. This often depends on which state you’re in.
Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut tend to have high natural gas prices, while Idaho, Montana, and Utah are on the lowest end of the natural gas cost spectrum in the U.S.
Should You Heat Your Home with Wood Pellets?
So, there you have it: 8 frequently asked questions about wood pellets (with the answers to go with them). And while we got pretty in depth here, you may still be wondering, “Should I heat my home with wood pellets?”
Well, if you’re thinking about it, be sure to check out our guide to the pros and cons of wood pellet heating. It takes an even closer look at wood pellets and pellet heating appliances to help you discover whether or not heating your home with pellets is the right choice for you.
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