Question

2000 pounds (50 bags) of wood pellet fuel costs $249 in bulk from Home Depot, Lowe’s, or Tractor Supply. In our part of the country, it is not uncommon to burn about 2.5 pounds of wood pellets an hour during the six months of peak home heating needs.

At 2.5 pound/hour rate of consumption, how many pounds of wood pellets would you use each day? How many pounds of wood pellets would you need for 183 days of heating? What would be your cost for wood pellets each day? What would be your total cost for wood pellets for 183 days of continuous home heating? Compared with the other home heating fuels shown below, which is your most cost effective heating source value?

AVERAGE home heating fuels costs projected for Winter 2019-2020 for Western U.S.

Natural gas consumption in million cubic feet = 53.13

Price per million cubic feet $10.33   

Natural gas cost for heating year $549.00

Electricity kWh consumption rate = 10,304 kWh

Price per kWh = $0.202

Electricity cost for heating year = $1370.00

Heating oil consumption = 512 gallons

Heating oil cost = $3.37/gallon

Cost for heating year = $1675

U.S. Energy Information Administration heating fuels projection values from March 2019

Answer 1

As seen from other given option, most cost effective is using wood pellets