How long does a bag of pellets last? A 40 lb (18.1 kg) bag lasts 18.1 kg divided by your stove’s burn rate. A stove burning 1 kg an hour empties a bag in about 18 hours; at 2 kg an hour, about 9 hours. For a whole winter, multiply your daily use by the number of heating days. Your stove manual gives the burn rate for each setting.
Step 1: find your burn rate
Look for “fuel consumption” or “burn rate” in the owner’s manual or on the maker’s website, in kg/h or lb/h (1 lb/h = 0.45 kg/h). Most stoves list a low and a high figure. If you mostly run on a middle setting, use a value between the two.
Step 2: hours per bag
| Burn rate | One 40 lb bag lasts |
|---|---|
| 0.5 kg/h | about 36 hours |
| 1.0 kg/h | about 18 hours |
| 1.5 kg/h | about 12 hours |
| 2.0 kg/h | about 9 hours |
| 2.5 kg/h | about 7 hours |
These are simple divisions, not measurements of any particular stove.
Step 3: bags per winter
Bags per season = burn rate × hours per day × heating days ÷ 18.1
Example only: 1.5 kg/h × 12 hours × 150 days = 2,700 kg, which is about 150 bags, or three one-ton pallets of 50 bags.
What changes the answer
- Your home’s heat loss: insulation, windows, air leaks and the size of the area the stove heats.
- Your thermostat setting and whether the stove is your main or backup heat.
- The length of the season where you live.
- The pellet itself: drier, lower-ash pellets give more heat per bag. See how to judge a pellet.
The best data is your own: write down the date you open each bag for a couple of weeks, and you will know your real consumption. To run the numbers with your own settings, use the pellet bag calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How long will a 40 lb bag of wood pellets burn?
About 18.1 kg divided by your stove’s burn rate: roughly 9 to 36 hours depending on the setting and the stove.
Is 50 bags enough for a winter?
Fifty bags is 907 kg. At 1 kg/h for 12 hours a day, that covers about 75 days. Use the formula above with your own numbers.
How many bags of pellets to heat 2,000 sq ft?
Floor area alone can’t answer it; heat loss depends on insulation, windows and climate. Start from your stove’s burn rate and your hours of use, then track your first few weeks.
Ready to stock up? See heating pellets and pallet prices.