Heating with Pellet Stove???Wth?

[20 20]

have used pellet stoves for years, wood is our main source but our pellet stoves can easily heat the house also. I have a pellet furnace and a small pellet stove. Even if I were to only heat with pellets it would still be 1/5 the cost of oil. The pellet furnace only gets used few times a season, only when we're not using the wood stove. The little pellet stove is only used on nights when the temp is below 20f. The price of pellets has not gone up that much over the years 15yrs ago it would have been 180.00 a ton now I can get them at around 200-220 a ton. Oil went from under a dollar to over $4.00 per gal, that's why we took the oil furnace out.

 

[Ken45101]

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).

There are some important efficiency variables that you missed. Pellets are less than 100% efficient, probably in the 75-80% range.

Vented propane: 75-95% efficiency. Unvented propane gas logs, etc. are 99+% efficient.

Electric resistance is 100% efficient. However, heat pumps, at milder temperatures (above 40F) are well over 100% efficient.

In our experience, pellet stoves do NOT "make plenty of heat". When we were trying to use our pellet stove, we needed to supplement it with propane (gas logs).

Ken

 

[Dream Farmer]

We have had a pellet stove for four years now... It and the fire place are our two main sources of heat. We have an oil furnace that now only supplements the house heat. as 20 20 said due to redicllous heating oil price pellets are relatively cheap I too pay approx $200 a ton $4 or less a bag for pellets.
Shawn

 

[jonyyuma]

Guys Thanks for the info. We heated with a Wood burning stove, until the ashes and smoke messed up my wife. It was a Ashlee thermostat model. Lots of heat but dirty, enough to trip her allergys. Looking to retire in Arkansas, and saw the stoves in some homes with propane or heat pumps. Exactly like you have described, I had no idea about he noise or possible smoke again? I love Natural gas heat, as when we were all electric, and we were constantly cold. Most of you know it only gets to freezing for a short time here..l

 

[sld]

Pellet stoves have their place. My experience is using it as secondary heat not primary. When we built the house I had the foundation boxed out for a fireplace that we never installed.

I put a 45K btu pellet stove in and it will keep the basement at 72 degrees no matter how cold it gets outside (we will get single digits regularly). The excess heat will go up the stairway to the upstairs. It won't heat the whole house when it's very cold but definitely keeps the furnace from running as much.

The only way to heat the basement like this with our natural gas furnace is to make it unbearably hot upstairs. I burn less than a ton of pellets per year and I will run it for a few hours just about every evening when it's cold.

For this situation I can think of no other source that would work better. It is a Country Flame model and has been flawless for almost 10 years with minimal maintenance.

 

[Highbeam]

There are some important efficiency variables that you missed. Pellets are less than 100% efficient, probably in the 75-80% range.

Vented propane: 75-95% efficiency. Unvented propane gas logs, etc. are 99+% efficient.

Electric resistance is 100% efficient. However, heat pumps, at milder temperatures (above 40F) are well over 100% efficient.

In our experience, pellet stoves do NOT "make plenty of heat". When we were trying to use our pellet stove, we needed to supplement it with propane (gas logs).

Ken

Sorry Ken, you're wrong. I did consider efficiencies. If you took the time to check my figures (instead of just dismissing them) using a very available fuel cost calculator you would have verified that propane is indeed about twice as expensive to heat with than pellets at the given prices. I used a higher than average 90% efficiency figure for propane and the industry standard 80% for pellets.

Sheesh, put brain in gear before engaging mouth.

 

[Highbeam]

You need to properly size your pellet stove if you want to depend on it for 100% of your heat. If you have a particularly "needy" home then you may need two stoves, a very large stove, or a pellet furnace. It is not the fuel source's fault that you chose to burn an insufficient amount of it.

I will never consider unvented petroleum burning appliances as safe for a home. There is a reason that they are illegal in many places.

 

[jmurray01]

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?

Yes, one is called Sooty and one is called Smokey :laughing:

Sorry, couldn't resist! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[Ken45101]

Sheesh, put brain in gear before engaging mouth.

Yeah, speak for yourself.

 

[soulasphil]

Pellets provide a very clean way of heating a house. No logs to carry to the fire place, no smell of oil, very small amount of ashes (maker claims 95% efficiency and I empty the ash container once every fortnight). No limit to the size of furnace you install, very efficient hot water production. The figures vary from one country to another, but in Europe the cost is less than with oil, much less than propane and much, much less than electricity. Pellets can be bought in bulk (cheaper than bags) and blown into your silo.

 

[Highbeam]

Yeah, speak for yourself.

NEWB.

 

[coobie]

Our pellet stove (avalon astoria) is our main heat source,it heats our 1650 sq.ft.house.I buy our wood pellets in late june or early july.We burn about 3 ton per year cost per ton is around $175-$185.Cheap heat IMHO.Go to this website hearth.com and read about pellet stoves.coobie

 

[coobie]

There are some important efficiency variables that you missed. Pellets are less than 100% efficient, probably in the 75-80% range.

Vented propane: 75-95% efficiency. Unvented propane gas logs, etc. are 99+% efficient.

Electric resistance is 100% efficient. However, heat pumps, at milder temperatures (above 40F) are well over 100% efficient.

In our experience, pellet stoves do NOT "make plenty of heat". When we were trying to use our pellet stove, we needed to supplement it with propane (gas logs).

Ken

WOW how old is your pellet stove?We also have propane heat and a pellet stove.Our stove heats our whole house(1650 sq.ft.) and our propane furnace NEVER comes on.coobie

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Love my pellet stove, Harmon XXV. I burn it almost non stop all winter, puts out lots of heat, I actually run it on low. Last winter used 2 tons of pellets. Like someone else mentioned, price on pellets went up in early 2000's, but have since remained steady, and have even dropped some. I keeps my entire 1st floor warm in the winter, last 2 winters I never used my downstairs oil furnace.
If I had access to no cost firewood, Id burn it, but since I have to buy firewood, pellets are way cheaper to buy, much cleaner, much less work. I still have about a cord of firewood stored from when I last used my wood stove, over 14 yrs ago. One of these days I'll install the old woodstove in the barn/shop.

 

[clemsonfor]

I have never heard of bulk pellets here in the US. I go to Hearth.com which is a fireplace/stove site and never heard of that? It may be a Euro thing? After all many of the pellets we make here end up in Europe i have heard. I dont burn them so i dont keep to close of tabs on it but would of thought i would of read about it before if it was availible here. As far as our exports go i have heard we export a good but because of our endless wood supply,and the high cost of energy over there. Also im a forester and we always look at it as an extra market if it would ever take hold and more facilities would be built to manufacture pellets.

 

[Highbeam]

Also, unlike Europe, most folks that use pellets for heat use a freestanding stove. There are a handful of furnaces available that use ductwork but they are really the exception. What really is lacking in the US is pellet boilers. I have never heard of one installed in the US. I really think that Europe is ahead of us on utilizing this energy source that is so available in our own backyard.

I have an 1800 SF garage with radiant tubes in the slab. I need to heat the water somehow and a pellet boiler would be the cheapest way to do it on a $/btu basis. If only there was a pellet boiler market here.

We don't have bulk pellet delivery available in my area. That pellet pumping truck in the photo is expensive and I'd bet the largest reason. Also, since we use stoves, it is easier to dump a 40 lb sack of pellets than to try and fill a bucket from a heap and then dump that bucket into the stove. I suspect in Europe that there is some sort of auger system to supply the boilers from the silo automatically.

 

[Oaktree]

I have never heard of bulk pellets here in the US.

I've heard them advertised as being available in bulk, but apparently this translates to "by the pallet" as opposed to having a dump truck just dump a pile in your driveway or a bin. At least that's what I was told by a neighbor whose daughter-in-law buys them that way.

 

[jonyyuma]

Highbeam, That idea of the boiler outside does appeal to me here too..I currently have a neighbor that uses a woodburning boiler to heat Glycol-water for the heating of the home. This puts the smoke and any ashes outside the home, or under the deck for protection?ro

 

[clemsonfor]

I've heard them advertised as being available in bulk, but apparently this translates to "by the pallet" as opposed to having a dump truck just dump a pile in your driveway or a bin. At least that's what I was told by a neighbor whose daughter-in-law buys them that way.

Yea thats all i have heard to. You buy them buy the ton, they deliver them on pallets.

 

[tglass]

Yea thats all i have heard to. You buy them buy the ton, they deliver them on pallets.

I always buy them by the ton and haven't had any problems., well, yes I have from certain producers,with fines causing quite a burn problem, but, insuring the house when they know you have a pellet stove. That is the problem. Most insurance companys want a fortune if they know you have one or will decline you. Tell me why? A fireplace will catch on fire more often than a pellet stove. I have no intention of giving any insurance company a wavier if it is the fault of my stove any more than a wavier if my central elec. furnace burnt the house down. Both have extreemly good safeguards, and with like anything, you must be careful.