Wood pellets stored in bulk will not only give you the lowest cost per tonne but they will also take away the need for handling hundreds of 40lb bags every season.

Bagged pellets will remain to make sense for smaller pellet stoves but central wood pellet heating systems will run hands free with a good bulk storage system.

You can store pellets in bulk in many ways with a few constants: the pellets must remain dry and the storage must allow for proper pellet flow. Let’s look at a few options:

The easiest storage method is an agricultural silo placed outside somewhere near the boiler room.  Silos are easily purchased (Biothermic can supply you with Meridian Silos) and easily placed.

The silo pictured at right holds about 7 tonnes of wood pellets.  Biothermic supplied this silo complete with all the necessary features, ready to go “out of the box”.

Another popular option is a bag silo.  Just what it sounds like, it’s a cloth bag that is supported by wood beams and is made to accept pneumatic deliveries.  Bag silos are great if you have interior space but don’t want to build a pellet storage room.

The components will fit through any doorway and can be assembled on site easily.  An added bonus being that the room it’s placed in will smell like fresh wood just after a fill-up!

Of course you can also build your own pellet storage room inside a building.  This requires some attention to detail to make sure that good pellet flow is ensured.  For example, pellets will not slide down a surface unless it is at an angle greater than 45 degrees.  For our trucks, you’ll need to install a 4″ fill pipe and a 4″ return air pipe, pellets go in but the air has to come back out.  This return line will also exhaust dust from the room.  Across from the fill pipe, you need a soft rubber mat to absorb the impact of the pellets blasting in.  To much impact to the pellets and dust levels will increase!

To learn morea about building a storage room, please look through the P4 Pellet Boiler borchure.  There are some images and details there of configurations and how to connect the pellet vacuum system on the boiler to the pellet store.

Want to reap the benefits of bulk pellet delivery for a non Fröling system?  You can do that too but we’re only able to help make sure the delivery goes well, getting the pellets out of the store for your wood stove will be up to you.  There are lots of options out there but you’ll have to do some homework.  This NWT company is providing a great option that can be attached to houses and filled by our trucks.