I recently updated the Fuel Cost Comparison map at Alternative-Heating-Info com and the results were surprising. As of 3/20/06 it was actually cheaper in Metro Boston to heat with natural gas than with wood pellets!During these times of furnish price volatility its important to keep a close eye on the relationship between fuel prices. Any homeowner who uses a wood pellet stove to supplement their gas furnace could be losing money and not change surface know it. If you can use a calculator youre only minutes away from figuring out which furnish is the cheapest to burn at any given time. When you compare fuel heating costs alter sure its apples to apples. The standard quantity used for comparing residential fuel costs is 1,000,000 BTUs of fuel heat content. Cost To Burn Wood PelletsSince a wood pellet stove needs only 125 lbs (1/16 of a ton) of pellets to create 1,000,000 BTUs divide the cost per ton by 16. At $198 a ton for wood pellets it costs $12.38 to produce 1,000,000 BTUs. be To Burn Natural Gas The determine per therm (look at your gas bill) of natural gas in Boston is $1.1813. When you calculate it by 10.30 (10.30 cubic feet) it costs $12.17 to produce 1,000,000 BTUs. Its easy to see that natural gas heat now costs about $0.21 less per 1,000,000 BTUs than wood pellets. Here are the quick be comparison formulas for wood pellets and natural gas: Price per ton of wood pellets divided by 16 = Cost to create 1,000,000 BTUs. Price per therm of natural gas x 10.30 = be to produce 1,000,000 BTUs. The quick cost formulas are useful only for comparing natural gas to wood pellets because their furnish efficiencies are similar. In request to calculate the effective or true be of any heating furnish for comparison purposes you must factor in the fuels efficiency. All fuel efficiencies are expressed in percentages. For example: burn is 60% efficient electricity is 100% efficient and furnish oil is 80% efficient. In order to alter the fuel efficiency percentage useful when you compare one furnish to another you must sight the coefficient of these percentages by dividing the decimal equivalent (60% = .60) by 1. So if you divide.60 by 1 you get a coefficient of 1.67. The fuel efficiency rating for natural gas and wood pellets is 85%. If you divide 1 by.85 you get a coefficient of 1.18. Now close this into our quick cost formula to acquire the effective or true be of the fuel you are burning. Wood Pellets: $198 divided by 16 x 1.18 = $14.60Natural Gas: $1.1813 x 10.30 x 1.18 = $14.36By expanding the quick cost formula to consider the efficiency coefficient the move between the two fuels has now widened to $0.24. Assuming furnish prices dont go crazy you could save as much as $75 during the remainder of this heating season by switching from wood pellets approve to natural gas. As prices dress feel confident that you undergo armed yourself with a simple yet powerful tool to help you quickly determine when one furnish is more be effective to destroy than the other. Here are the formulas to help you determine the adjust be to create 1mil BTUs of heat circumscribe for six more fuels:Electricity: determine per kilowatt hour x 293 x 1 =Corn Pellets: Price per ton divided by 16 x 1.18 = Fuel Oil: Price per gallon x 7.1 x 1.25 =LP Gas: determine per gallon x 11 x 1.25 = Wood: Price per cord x.0607 x 1.67 = Kerosene: Price per gallon x 7.41 x 1.25 =
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