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

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

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

Natural gas consumption in millioncubic 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 = 512gallons

Heating oil cost = $3.37/gallon

Cost for heating year = $1675

U.S. Energy Information Administrationheating fuels projection values from March 2019