It really is an interesting idea. Have a small homebrew operation and be able to provide for yourself. There's the convenience factor and the pellet stoves are so efficient that their emissions are pretty low.

There was another thing called Bio-blocks that showed up on the market here about four or five years ago. It's pretty much the same as a pellet except that it's about the size of a brick and can be burned in a wood stove.



The thing with pellets and such is that they might require more energy to produce than they yield in heat. You have to figure the fuel used for the chain saw, maybe a tractor of some kind, a truck, a chipper, a hammer mill, a pellet press, and so on. After you ran the numbers it would probably show a net energy loss.

The thing about wood is that it's a low grade fuel. For most people it's too much like work. It's especially so with the old timers. There comes a point .... they've processed their own firewood for thirty or forty years and they just get tired. They run up to Home Depot and buy a pellet stove. They still have to fill the hopper on the back of the stove once a day with pellets but that's tolerable.

Pellets aren't a bad thing but there are better options. There's a super insulated passive solar home in the neighborhood that heats itself to at least 50 degrees on the coldest winter days. You can pretty much heat it with a match.

Heat pumps seem to be the currently emerging thing here. The few people that i've talked to who have them are pretty happy. If there was ever a time and a place to jump in this might be it. Might turn out to be that you could make a six figure income with sales & service if it catches on.

( Sorry for the thread drift. )