Heating with Pellet Stove???Wth?

[jonyyuma]

I looked at another house last weekend. It had a Pellet stove for heating? What does it burn, I mean beside the obvious?What can you tell me about yours? Do they have cats on the exhaust? Heat output?

 

[Raspy]

My sister used one for years. The heat and predictability was fine, but it always had to run on the same thing, pellets. So she was always dealing with supply and price.

The beauty of a good wood stove is that you can burn fuel from so many sources in it. Plus wood stove needs no power to operate.

Seems like you might as well have fuel oil if you are thinking of pellets.

 

[Gods Country]

I used a pellet stove for 15yrs.
They have their place.
The price of pellets has realy shot up since then however. It was really only worth it for me because I had electric heat in that house. It was a relatively cheap purchase, zero clearance, and installed myself, so it worked.
I always purchased my pellets during the summer when prices were lower.

 

[Pete Judd]

We have one as well, and it heats our 1900 sq ft house. We go through 2.5 bags a week, sure cuts down the elect bill. I empty the ash tray about once every 2 weeks, and a major cleaning every year. We only burn it when we are home and not overnight. Just light it in the am while the coffee is being made, heat the house up, and then let it run on it's lowest setting all day.

 

[brokenknee]

Here is a fuel price calculator. Wood is the cheapest for me, I have electric baseboard heat. Wood is a lot of work, I don't mind it though good reason to get outside and do some exercise. I have 40 acres of mostly poplar, I do cut some; but also get wood in logger lengths (last load 10 cords for $700 for red and white oak). I am considering a pellet stove for the shoulder seasons, (when it is not cold enough to burn 24 / 7). I have looked into them and there is a lot of difference in quality from the low end to the top end. Top end have thermostats, ignitors, dc fans that are very quiet and allow you to burn other bio-mater such as corn etc. (corn at $6 a bushel would not be economically sound) Pellet stoves do require some work, but not as much as wood.

Pellet Fuels Institute - Compare Fuel Costs

 

[mbohuntr]

We heat almost exclusively with pellets, our house is 2400 sq ft and well insulated. we burn 3-4 tons per season, Oct thru April. You might wish to research one that doesn't need frequent cleaning, that can be a pain. We use an Englander bottom feed that will run over 15 bags before cleaning, and never gets "clinkers".

 

[newbury]

Here is a fuel price calculator. Wood is the cheapest for me, I have electric baseboard heat. Wood is a lot of work, I don't mind it though good reason to get outside and do some exercise. I have 40 acres of mostly poplar, I do cut some; but also get wood in logger lengths (last load 10 cords for $700 for red and white oak).

With that much acreage if you have any use for lumber you should investigate getting a small sawmill.
They generate a LOT of slabs, which burn well.
It's still a lot of work AND exercise, but it sure is pretty after I go thru the process of getting a tree to lay down and split up into lumber.

 

[Ken45101]

We bought a pellet stove 5-6 years ago. Big mistake. I does not do an adequate job in cold weather (below 30F). Pellet prices jumped and pellet quality declined.

It's good for "in between" weather when it's too warm to run the wood stove but we still need some heat.

We got an excellent deal on pellets last fall (TSC had a good price plus a 10% off coupon). I bought 3 tons and 2 of them are still in the barn.

Some stoves (like ours, a Harmon Advance) are an absolute nightmare to clean. I know one guy who traded his Advance on a different Harmon model just because of the cleaning issue.

Pellets are more convenient than a wood stove (the thermostat is nice!) but wood is less costly (even if you buy wood) and provides much better heat. I've actually been chilly sitting 6 feet way from our pellet stove! The blower can make things drafty. My wife and I very much prefer the wood stove in winter! The pellet stove is okay for spring weather.

hearth.com has a fuel comparison calculator. Pellets only come out ahead better than electric heat (and maybe propane, depending on prices).

Speaking of which, my son has a unvented propane fireplace. That's all they use for heating, it has cut their heating bills significantly vs. the central propane furnace.

Ken

 

[clemsonfor]

They use wood pellets. These can be bought online and drop shipped to you by the ton or bag. You can go to TSC or lowes maybe and buy them there as well or any stove store. Folks say its constant heat and in a good insulated home can be all you need.

I think in the future as more mills open the price may fall as demand increases as does supply. Some stoves burn pellets only some burn corn, yes a dry corn kernal, for fuel and some burn both.

Both type pellet stoves do not have cats, and can vent directly behind themselves if on an outside wall through a 3" steel pipe. Only exhaust is heat and water and CO really. There very clean burning, but like folks said you HAVE to have power to get any operation, they have fans to push heat an auger to move pellets an igniter i think? as well as some i think have an exhaust fan? My wood stove should not be burned wide open with out blower but can on a lower setting, and i can always leave the door open and use it like a fireplace as well. I can heat without power a smaller portion of the home with the wood stove, but i have a generator so thats not my problem. I sit there blower going fire wide open in my warm house, watching my satellite tv.

 

[forgeblast]

I have a vented Jotul lp stove. Its our main source of heat in the winter, along with electric baseboard heating. It has a battery thermostat system so it works if the power is out. I can sit on the couch and turn it on with the remote. It looks like a wood stove and many people mistake it for one.
its the firelight
Jotul GF 600 DV II Firelight Gas Stove

 

[charlz]

Lots of threads about pellet stoves on here. I have been using a pellet insert for about 7-8 years. Pellet prices did go way up 2004-2006 but now are mostly down to about 2004 levels. Quality can vary, I find if it looks like good wood it probably is.. if it looks like it have needles and bark in it they are crap (all softwood out here). I find heating with pellets to be %45 the cost of propane for my central furnace.

Historically I have found that the pellet stove is good until the weather gets in the low 20's/teens and then I also need to run the propane. I have a 2400sqft house and the stove sits in the living room with is open to both floors. We run ceiling fans in almost every room. I run a standup fan all winter to push air through the north part of the house which would not normally circulate based on the floor plan. During the colder parts of winter I set the pellet stove to run all the time (higher temp) and set the propane to the temp I actually want the house to be. This way the pellets do most of the work and the more expensive propane is only used when needed.

This year I finally got around to installing an outside air kit and it seemed to make quite a difference in how the remote parts the house felt, along walls etc always seemed cold. This year we had a pretty mild winter for about half of it. Will hold judgement on how effective the outside air kit is until the next 'good' winter.

 

[cdaigle430]

I looked at another house last weekend. It had a Pellet stove for heating? What does it burn, I mean beside the obvious?What can you tell me about yours? Do they have cats on the exhaust? Heat output?

I always think its a great idea to have at least three ways to heat your home using three different fuels. For example, I primarily heat my home with number 2 oil and when it gets really cold or oil is above 4 bucks a gallon, I shift to my pellet stove (Had it for 5 years). Then I can use LP in a nonvented lp stove.

Supply and demand will drive up the cost of all fuel sources. Wood stoves are great because they dont require electricity but supply and demand and shortage of seasoned wood can become a headache. Also I hate the handling of the wood, cutting, splitting, stacking, stacking again, bugs, moisure, bugs, stacking Getting the fire started, and the fact that usually to heat a house you will always have a room that is too hot and some that are too cold. Plus-the friggin smoke sucks.

For me Pellets stoves are clean, the bags keep the fuel from getting moist or wet-and are recycleable. The 40 lb bags are easy to handle and dump in the bin and stack. The blower forces the hot air to circulate so its never too hot or hot by the stove itself. Its the most efficient wood burning device out there at the moment. I can pick up a bag of pellets from just about any store here in Maine.

I am also tired of the wood smoke blowing into my yard from my neighbors wood stoves.



The three disdvantages to pellet stoves are it requires electricity, moving parts, and will not work in power outages. (they do have 12 hour batteries for them however-which I will be getting at some point).


For me pellet stoves over wood stoves-any day

 

[Oaktree]

How noisy are they? Don't know very many people who have them, but those that I have seen in action, seemed a bit loud to want in living space...maybe a basement.

 

[charlz]

How noisy are they? Don't know very many people who have them, but those that I have seen in action, seemed a bit loud to want in living space...maybe a basement.

I have a Quadrafire 1200i. It is a constant blower noise, not real loud, a little louder than running a typcial stand up fan but not as loud as a box fan on high. I have mine in the living room and you do have to turn the TV up a little louder in the winter months

 

[brokenknee]

How noisy are they? Don't know very many people who have them, but those that I have seen in action, seemed a bit loud to want in living space...maybe a basement.

I do not own one, just checked them out at a dealer; the dc fans are very quiet. The dealer powered up two of them for me, the first one was very noisy, not anything I would want in a living area. The second one had a dc fan and was barely audible.

 

[Ken45101]

How noisy are they? Don't know very many people who have them, but those that I have seen in action, seemed a bit loud to want in living space...maybe a basement.

Our is adjustable. On low it's not bad at all....but doesn't move much air. On high it's too much for me and even at a middle setting it is louder than I like.

Its the most efficient wood burning device out there at the moment. I can pick up a bag of pellets from just about any store here in Maine.

I am also tired of the wood smoke blowing into my yard from my neighbors wood stoves.

I am not convinced that pellet stoves are more efficient than a good EPA wood stove. Yeah, they can talk about burning efficiency, but a lot of heat goes out the flue too, they are not telling the overall efficiency of the stove.

As for smoke, our pellet stove produces as much, or more, than our wood stove. Yes, pre-EPA stoves were worse and of course there are the people who burn poorly seasoned wood or have a smouldering fire. But very, very rarely can I see any smoke coming from our wood stove chimney.

Ken

 

[charlz]

Pellet stove should not produce any smoke except on start-up.

I think the efficiency of my pellet stove is quoted at 85% or so. However, I find that over time the heat exchanger tubes get coated with ash and you can feel the difference when you pull the cleaning rods. I use a glove and pull my cleaning rods daily to get the best efficiency. You can hold your hands right in the exhaust of a pellet stove so not a whole lot of heat is going out the exhaust.

 

[schmism]

a properly burning pellet stove is very efficient. The amount of ash developed is a good example of this. they have a blower that forces air to the small fire. This produces a very hot clean burning fire. The heat output is regulated by how fast a screw feed, feeds the pellets to the fire.

Does the house not have a heat pump? 35miles north of Memphis is like Millington/Munford. You live on a heat pump for like all but 2 weeks of winter for which you have a pellet stove for reliable backup heat.

 

[whistlepig]

Our house came with geothermal and also a pellet stove. We use the pellet stove for backup heat if we lose electric. Our pellet stove will run off a portable generator but not the geothermal. I can think of nothing better for backup heat. The wood pellets store well for long periods of time. Ours doesn't produce much dust in our house. Lugging bags of wood pellets doesn't make a mess in the house. From what I have read it wouldn't be my choice for primary heat. But for back up heat it is at the top of my list. We really like ours.

 

[Highbeam]

With pellets typically at 200$ per ton and propane typically at 2.5 per gallon, it costs about 50% as much to heat with pellets. Electric resistance heatat 10 cents per KWH and propane heat are about the same and fuel oil at 4$ per gallon is way way too high.

Pellet stoves make plenty of heat, do it dependably, and with a thermostat. They come in different output sizes so if you need a constant 20,40,or 60 thousand btus then be sure you have the right stove(s).