When analysing wood pellet cost it is necessary to look at all the relative costs and not just at the cost of the pellet itself. One of the key complaints that people who use wood pellet have is that there are significant extra costs that they either did not realise or did not know were involved with wood pellet.
The two main hidden items that has an impact on wood pellet cost are transportation and storage. While each one on its own can be significant, when combined can add up to very significant.
Wood pellet cost of transportation
While most suppliers will include the cost of delivery in the retail price it is worth noting that buying wood pellet in bulk can make a huge difference to the cost. A 15kg bag of wood pellet can cost $5.50 on average. However, if you were to buy a ton of wood pellet in a bulk delivery it would cost approximately $200 – this works out about 40% cheaper than if you were to purchase the same amount but in individual 15kg bags.
Unfortunately most suppliers have a minimum delivery quota of 3 tonnes. This means that buying in bulk can be a double edged sword and this is where the second hidden cost comes into play.
Wood pellet cost of storage
While savings are to be made by buying in wood pellet in bulk there are hidden costs tat are incurred in the storage of wood pellet. A 15kg pellet of can be transported and stored quite easily, however the transport and storage of 3 tonnes of wood pellet is not so easily achieved. The average household simply does not have the spare capacity to store 3 tonnes of wood pellet. As a result a household looking to achieve savings in cost is faced with a dilemma – do they construct a purpose built storage unit for the wood pellet or do they take a risk and store the wood pellet in some other manner that leaves the wood pellet open to degradation and waste.
These are the questions that have to be answered by the householder who is looking to balance cost savings with the practical realities of using wood pellet as a fuel source.