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BLOG COMMENT
Thank you Eoin for your input to this discussion. You are of course correct in what you say. Balcas, the original Irish supplier, has cheaper bulk prices also. However the cheaper price you quote is, as you say, for 3 to 4 tonne BULK lots of wood pellets. Few users however have the luxury of having bulk storage facilities which are large enough and damp proof enough to take that many loose wood pellets. Wood pellets need absolutely 100% dry conditions - otherwise they turn to sawdust. Proper dry bulk storage would cost another couple of thousand Euro to install and there is no grant for this.
These non-bulk storage customers therefore have to rely on Bagged supplies and are hit with the much much higher prices.
I am glad I decided to hand back my wood pellet grant to SEI because if I was now caught in this trap it would drive me insane!!! I predicted many of these problems that are now coming to light, and I pointed them out to SEI - who of course totally ignored me. SEI in their wisdom decided to stimulate the market by throwing money at it. But they did NOTHING to stop the cowboys and price gougers from preying on the people.
SEI did they even bother to consider the supply situation for wood pellets. Balcas told me SEI did not even take the trouble to contact them on their ability to supply the market at the time when they were the sole supplier.
As you can see, I am not too happy with our tax money being given so freely to SEI!!
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I'm no expert on pellet stoves but you can get them for a lot cheaper than 330/tonne.
You can get them for 245/tonne here if you order in bulk (3 or 4 tonnes.)
http://www.enerfina.com/enerfina/pages/fpps/
That crowd say that at the moment they only supply Leinster but that in 2008 they will start suplying nationwide.
So maybe it's just your current suppliers are ripping you off ??