New Pellet Heater

[Gerald]

The forecast is for 42 degrees in the morning. I guess I will get to see how well my new pellet heater works. I saved a lot of money ordering it from stovesunlimited.com over buying it locally. They are in Washington state, I am in Georgia. It was a long way to ship , but it got here just fine.
After I installed it last week I turned it on just to make sure everything worked OK. At 80 degrees it worked real good.
Since I have a ton of pellets we may not have much cold weather this year.
Gerald
PS: This is the third pellet heater we have purchased. It is a Breckwell P24ID.

 

[beenthere]

Why three? I assume it isn't because they wear out quickly. But then, I don't know that for sure.
But you sound satisfied with the pellets apparently.

Your heater looks attractive. How do you carry the pellets to the stove?

I just brought in a pallet of dry wood on the forks (pic), and will fire up the wood stove tomorrow after I clean the chimney in the morning.

 

[Dargo]

Very nice looking unit!! I have an old and extremely heavy Squire. It is just a plain wood burning stove, but we use it nearly every day in the winter. Have you ever looked into the corn burning stoves? When I run out of my supply of easy to get firewood, I'm considering going with a pellet stove or corn stove. I hear that they are reasonable to run.

 

[Gerald]

Beenthere, We sold our house last year, new owners saw my pellet heater "like this one",and it became part of the deal. I also have a Quadra-Fire stand alone pellet stove that I use in the workshop. The fans in the Quadra-Fire are loud, I don't think I would like it as well in the house. The pellets come in 40 lb. bags. No problem to bring in. I had my chimney cleaned before I installed the heater. Cost $100.00 and worth every penny.
Nice looking load of wood, nice looking tractor. Does it do OK with no weight on back and that much on the loader?
Dargo, Thanks. Mine will burn a mix of pellets and corn, but the last time I checked corn would cost too much to burn. Don't forget stovesunlimited.com if you go shopping for a stove. They saved me over $1200.00 on my stove and it was delivered to my door.
Gerald

 

[Gerald]

A picture of it working. It's only 47 degrees this morning.I told the wife that we would not need to let it burn long. She said to open the door! It is neat to watch.
Gerald

 

[WhyNot]

Gerald, It has been about a year since you installed your insert. I am looking at the same unit that you installed and was wondering how you like/dislike it. thanks in advance

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

We were just looking at pellet stoves and the salesman was telling us about a model that burns corn. Anyone have one of these? Salesman said they are cheaper than any of the other type to operate. Sounds too good to be true.

 

[Highbeam]

Depnds on the price/availability of corn in your area. Here in the NW we have lots of wood waste which makes pellets and therefor pellets are cheap here.

Some stoves burn combinations or either corn or pellets. I have even heard of some burning cherry pits.

Pellet stoves are a great compromise between the environmental benefits of wood burning and the headache of feeding a woodstove with cordwood. Really, the treehuggers like them as they are C02 neutral since the wood waste would have rotted in a landfill anyway. They burn clean with no visible smoke except at startup and they are thermostaticaly controlled.

The corn requires bulk commodity handling equipment. You will not get the corn in cute little bags. Dang near need a little silo.

 

[woodlot]

About a week ago, at the local fair, I saw the latest corn burning stove, actually a boiler. It was an outdoor unit and looked almost exactly like an outdoor wood boiler. The inside was quite different, with all the augers and such. The unit gets set-up with what looks like a small silo next to it. That silo is directly connected to boiler and is the "feed hopper" for the unit. You can load corn into the silo with a FEL. Its was quite a sight. The 7k pice tag was a sight too.

 

[DaveNay]

Can someone help me understand how heating with a single radiant source like a wood/pellet/corn stove works? I am from the great midwest, and I have had forced hot air all my life, and I can't really figure out how you can effectively heat a house like this. I picture an installation like yours Gerald, where the heat source is located in a central family room, and can easily heat that room, but what about the kitchen? The bathrooms (wife would never go for chilly bathrooms /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) and the bedrooms? With all the nooks and crannies and closed doors in a modern house, how do you get heat to the rest of the house without the room where the heater is located spontaneously combusting? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Dave

 

[Junkman]

My pellet stove has a blower and a heat exchanger mechanism. The blower can be hooked up to a wall mounted thermostat, or to be controlled by the stove temperature. I use the stove temperature method, since the thermostat, once satisfied will shut down the blower, and then all the heat stays in the stove or goes up the chimney. They are good for a localized heating problem, but not for whole house heating in my opinion....

 

[PitbullMidwest]

I saw a corn stove at a farm show that was an auxilery unit that hooked into the existing forced air duct work. The gas furnace only runs if the corn stove goes out or can't meet the demand. Completely controlled by the thermostat. It could also be upgraded it heat water.

 

[MossRoad]

<font color="blue"> I can't really figure out how you can effectively heat a house like this. </font>

When I first started dating my wife, her parents were heating their family room with wood. It would be 85 degrees in there and they would all be sitting around in their underwear eating ice cream as fast as they could before it melted while you could see your breath in the first floor living room! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Their new house has a large great room with a wood stove in the corner. That heats the kitchen, dining, living areas, but none of the bedrooms or bathrooms. They keep the thermostat set on 68, and it is located in the great room, soooo, the furnace never comes on and the bedrooms and bathrooms are cool. Not freezing cold, but a good 10-15 degrees lower than the rest of the home.

It would proabably be a good idea to have the bedrooms and bathrooms zoned off of the forced air furnace seperate from the room where the wood stove is.

 

[Highbeam]

Your modern furnace should have a blower which circulates air through the furnace and to the vents after sucking it from the high point of the house. Most thermostats allow you to turn on that blower without running the furnace so what you would have is a big circulating fan. That would do it as well as your furnace.

Still, the woodstove is a space heater and will work best in the room that it is built.

If you, or your wife, can't handle temperature changes in different rooms, cold toilet seats, or a warm living room then a standard central forced air furnace is your best bet. There are smaller auxilliary heaters or floor heaters that run on electric to independently heat the problem area short term.

I think these temp differences add character and let you remember where you come from. Also feeding a wood burner gives you a respect and appreciation for a warm home.

 

[MossRoad]

Their furnace fan does not do a good job of circulating it... here's why... they don't turn it on. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif They leave it on AUTO and since the thermostat is in the hot room, it never comes on.

They do turn on a ceiling fan at the peak of the great room to move the heat around, but that doesn't help the side rooms.

If I ever build a new home, it will be radiant floor heat. Water can be heated with just about any fuel source and the circulation pump(s) can be run off electricity generated by the power company, solar panels and batteries, my generator in an emergency, etc...

I'm not looking forward to this winter and the natural gas bills. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

To save money, I may even shovel my driveway by hand instead of using the tractor... gasp! Desperate times call for desperate measures /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Matt_W]

Beenthere,
That is a nice looking stack of firewood. I am looking to move firewood on pallets as well. I am a new tractor owner (B7610) and was thinking of buying clamp on forks. Do you have any idea how much weight that would be? I have bee pre stacking pallets with cherry, locust and maple about 2 1/2 feet high hoping I can move it when it is time to move. Thanks
Matt

 

[gsxr1100]

Nice stove I checked them out out at one time and said, boy I am lazy. So now I just hit a button on my remote. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif, and my stove pops on...no wood, no cleaning no nothing.

http://home.comcast.net/~mburnickas/fireplace/fireplace.htm

 

[gsxr1100]

Corn stoves are poor in the Northeast at least...We got a new one worth about 2K for free and sold it on Ebay....

 

[JimMorrissey]

"treehuggers"...what do they have to do with C02 emmission? Do you live in a valley. Have you ever looked down at a valley from above on a cold day and seen haze worse than LA on a 99 degree day in July?...Air quality that's almost on the unbreathable side? Treehuggers have nothing to do with it.

Good thing somebody is looking out for your environment for you.

 

[Highbeam]

What is your point? I have even been accused of being a treehugger every now and then. The treehuggers want less CO2 emmisions to reduce the alleged greenhouse effect. Therefor they like devices which reduce CO2 emmisions.

The pellet stoves are great at removing material from landfills, treehuggers like that too, and recycling it into a heat source.