Cost of wood pellets

We are planning to have one pellet and one log stove fitted later this year.

This winter has been our first with a pellet stove in addition to a log burner. The former is on our middle floor and its fan creates a surprisingly powerful convection effect that warms the upper two storeys. The log burner also heats a top floor bedroom via ducting part of the house. It’s been interesting comparing the two this winter.

The advantages of the pellet stove are it’s more regulable and can be turned off and relit without the hassle of lighting a fire, an optional phone based app (which we don’t need) and can be also be programmed, Lastly, the pellets don’t leave a mess like logs (ours aren’t those meticulously trimmed, perfectly round ones that you see in stove ads). I like wielding an axe and splitting logs, but if I live long enough to find logs too much of a schlepp to hump around, I’d replace the log burner with a second pellet stove.

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Yes. It’s across all sectors. A Pharma CEO on an earnings call some weeks was quoted as saying “we’re not giving these price increases back”. There are calls for governments to intervene with windfall taxes to curb the behaviour.

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how many MPs are funded by big pharma, I wonder :thinking:

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Good point.

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That sounds likely and if it’s the case confirms my suspicions.

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Price increases in the science sector are going to stay though. FWIW we’re seeing our materials costs increase well above inflation, and as a general observation it’s only the pharma companies that managed to get a covid vaccine out that are flush with cash - an observation from our sales team this morning. It’s proving a challenge for us to sell the stuff we make to the guys who need it for basic and advanced research.

Energy costs aren’t the driving factor behind high pharma prices, so much the cost of everything that is going into them. I bought some materials last week, basic cost in 2022 £140 per unit, now £204 per unit.

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Wood pellets go through an energy-intensive manufacturing process (including heat for drying the wood) and they aren’t necessarily made locally so transportation costs are another factor. By comparison, logs are only marginally more expensive compared to last year (at least where I am) as they are sourced locally and left to dry naturally. There is also some concern that the wood from some sources of pellets is not sustainably sourced.

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We don’t use pellets, but I got this offer through from a company we have used for wood, is it a good deal ?

We have an open fireplace which is horribly inefficient. If we weren’t renting I’d have replaced it, quite possibly for a wood pellet burner as I was impressed with the one a friend has installed. However this has made me reconsider… Although it’s a moot point whilst we’re not in our own place.

The other week I saw this story on the news where one wood pellet user got so fed up of the price of pellets that he took things into his own hands…

My criends bought a pellet maker.

Seems perhaps an expensive measure for many but I can easily imagine neighbours joining together as a syndicate to do this kind of thing.

My friend is an entrepreneur, if only the french had a word for that. He will produce his own and sell the rest.

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I’m afraid the world price of the pellets is likely to remain high as a major use is now for the production of electricity. Its an alternative to Russian gas and what is more it counts as a renewable.

Are you sure? It’s a scam site - prices too low to be true and bank transfer only.

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Pellets are subject to supply and demand as well. It’s been a snowball of higher electricity costs - higher demand (inflated more by people jumping from fuel to avoid those prices) due to more people using pellets and incentives to swap - a drought that stopped felling for months and thus reduced production - general increase in prices for everything.

It’s an essential purchase once your reliant on it so everyone pushes prices slightly more knowing everyone will pay.

There’ll probably be a glut and bargains by summer knowing the normal cycles

In the immortal words of John Lydon, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”

I will check with my neighbour Claudia as my wife got the email from her, she got us a couple of pallets of wood from her supplier last year as a stop gap when our supplier died.
I’ll take the link down untill I check with her, I thought it was too cheap so one reason I was asking on here as she is on holiday.
We buy our wood locally so hadn’t seen the site before.
I know she has definitely bought wooden furniture from them as I took delivery for her.

If the pellets could be made from broken Ikea furniture you could have a limitless supply.

Or instruction manuals :yum:

With the amount of phenolic resins in most IKEA furniture I’d only recommend burning it as a very amateur attempt at chemical warfare!

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