Putting Pellets Away article is located here.
This article is a nice overview about point of use wood pellet fuel storage and is worth a read for anyone considering switching to heating with wood pellets. Several industry experts we know and trust are quoted in the article and what they have to say about wood pellet storage is spot-on in our opinion.
It is worth noting that the article misses an important segment of fuel storage, custom built storage, which is usually built as a special interior room in a basement. Custom storage is usually built from plywood and often utilizes sloping sides that cause pellets to flow to a central auger or to suction pickups. Building custom pellet storage requires fastidious attention to air and dust sealing at all seams and especially at access doors. Custom bins are durable and provide a unique opportunity to create storage in spaces that won’t accommodate factory built cloth or steel bins. We have even seen ingenious bins built in old jail cells and integrated in hose drying towers in firehouses.
It is also worth noting that manufacturers of heating boilers are constantly improving technology used to convey pellets from the bulk storage bin to the boiler. Fröling is introducing a new fuel pickup system that uses up to 8 suction points mounted on a flat floor. By eliminating the need for sloping sides in a custom storage bin, approximately 25% or more fuel can be stored in the bin.
There are many other tricks of the trade not mentioned in the article. We recommend consulting with an experienced installer before installing any fuel storage, though the industry is still young, many installers have 10-15 years of experience in the trade and have learned much in that time. Many of those industry experts have been working to create wood pellet delivery and storage standards. These documents are still in progress, but there is an active effort to standardize the industry.
https://www.biomassmagazine.com/articles/12312/putting-pellets-away
Fuel Storage located in a Congregational Church built in 1787.
Fuel storage located in an available narrow location.
Fuel storage in the basement of an old school house.
Fuel storage in the drying tower of a fire department.
