Pellet stoves what is the skinny?

[M-technik-3]

Can you set them on a remote like say a digital thermostat for your furnace. House I am buying has one and has an oil furnace/wood stove hybrid plus the pellet stove. Rather avoid using oil at all costs but sometimes it will be needed.

I am used to street gas which provides heat to my house/garage/tankless hot water heater/stove and my dryer so moving further into the woods has me a bit nervous as to utilities costing more. I know our electric rate will be 1.5 times as much as it is now. But I have made our existing home electric friendly so I can easily do that with the new home.

January was our highest bill with the crazy lows this year and our combined bill was only $250. Our bill last month $147 which is about normal. Oil just plan freaks me out due to the volatility of the market.

[dirtbag30]

my sisters fiance has one in his house, and they use it as their primary source of heat in the winter. and being in upper michigan we need heat.

i dont recall how exactly they work, but basically you put the pellets in the stove, and as they burn a dog wheel gear type thing spits them out. there must be some sort of thermostat that shuts it off and lets the fire burn out. but maybe not. seeing as there is an actual fire you have to watch and maintain you have to keep the pellets tank full or the fire will burn out and you will go cold.

the pellets burn slow and seem to get hot enough. it must be efficient enough because my sisters fiance is a penny pincher and they've had theirs for years.

[dirty30]

Makes good clean efficient heat but I sold mine because I am rarely home and did not trust leaving it running when I was gone during the day (or asleep at night for that matter) I was always paranoid it was going to catch the house on fire. Would be perfect if you had a spouse that stayed home all day to keep an eye on it. Good emergency heat source also given you have power but your heat pump can't keep up.

[red2.4srt]

I have a Harman pellet stove and have been using it for the past 2 years as my primary heat source. It's amazing heat and it's relatively low maintenance, more so than you'd imagine. I have the P43 (43,000 BTU) model and it has a built in thermostat that keeps it at a set temperature you choose on the panel. The nice thing is, it's auto igniting, so no messy starting gels and it runs round the clock, so long as there's pellets in the hopper (50# capacity). The main thing with the auto ignite is keeping the plate and it's enclosure clean and ash free, the ashes fall into the breather holes in the plate and pack the enclosure, creating a heat sink of sorts. It causes the stove to overload the burn area and when it finally ignites, it acts like an explosion and it'll freak you out lol

Different pellets also yield different results, the cheaper the pellets, the more ash they create. I keep a small generator in my shed to power the pellet stove only if we were to ever lose power, that's the only downfall is everything aside from the actual fire is ran with electricity.

Here's a link. Made in Pennsylvania, only 30 mins from my house actually. http://www.harmanstoves.com/Products...let-Stove.aspx

And here's a picture of mine after my Dad and I built the hearth for it and tore up the old carpet.

[kickinindian]

pellet stoves are crap...its like a sissy bitch stove (no wood chopping involved)....burn wood! when the power goes out you can still be warm at least. if your gonna have a pellet stove might as well just use electric heaters.

also chopping wood is one of the best ways to produce testosterone, for all you older gents out there ;)

[M-technik-3]

It comes with the house, not going not use it. Chopping wood is not needed the furnace takes 5 foot logs. House we are moving to is more remote than busy town we live in.

Tired of the noise.

[mrsleeve]

Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice - Henry Ford


Hes right too, grew up on wood heat I think by the time we got it burnt it was closer to 4 times

[M-technik-3]

Takes a season to season your chopped wood, don't think that is going to immediately happen. Thinking this year will be pellets for house.

It's snowing this morning. Nothing accumulating crazy.

[quickervicar]

Chop your own wood and it will warm you twice - Henry Ford


Hes right too, grew up on wood heat I think by the time we got it burnt it was closer to 4 times

I figure 3x, but the theory holds true. Coal only heats me twice.

I agree with those that say an emergency heat source should not need a cord. I chose my stove (Saey Hannover I) for this very reason. When the ice takes down power lines I still want to be able to have heat.

[Nesset]

Uhh. I'd say get a standard wood stove. It's not reliant on electricity for the stupid little motor and you get one hell of a good workout. My family has used wood heat for about the last 10 years and it really is satisfying. Plus people think it's cool to have a fire going all the time lol.

[mrsleeve]

I figure 3x, but the theory holds true. Coal only heats me twice.

I agree with those that say an emergency heat source should not need a cord. I chose my stove (Saey Hannover I) for this very reason. When the ice takes down power lines I still want to be able to have heat.

Well the way we did it as a kid

1: cut down, limb, cut up, load, drag all the junk to a slash pile

2: unload, split (Normally with a GOOD splitter, but as punishment for doing something stupid by hand), and stack in the wood shed. You want to get into shape split a winters worth of fire wood by hand

3: load, haul, unload, and stack in the basement (where the wood/oil forced air furnace was) we also had a wood stove in the kitchen and wood fire place in the formal living room

4: BURN 4b: Huge Bonfire when you toss waste oil or diesel on a slash pile from 15-30 trees worth of tops and unusable crap

[justin_l_]

Pellet stoves are nice, I've had one for a few years now. This year it ended up being cheaper to burn oil towards the end so the pellet stove has been off. You can set them up on a thermostat to turn on and off just like a furnace, but it is less efficient electrically. Every time you start it you are using the electric igniter which is just a high temp heating element. As for using it when the power is out I have mine setup on a computer battery backup. It lets it run more than long enough to get my generator setup.

[Peterkaczynski]

we have 2 in my house awesome and cheap source of heat

[LINUS]

Have a Lopi brand now & it's a thermostat wired setup. I have a old one (no electronics circa late 90's) in shop, will get piped this spring - summer.

Biggest thing to pellet stoves is just clean the boxes & annual vaccuum - good ones that's 95% of service on backside of buying.

It has its' own ignitor & fireye, all the stuff that makes it girl friendly / safe when you aren't around.

Downside like pointed out is it takes power for the simplest ones, the pellet auger & blower are on the juice.

That said, many counties ban using old style woodstoves as primary heat due to soot / tar emissions - ideal would be like how my Pops built last house - pellet stove main floor, monster woodstove in basement, all on a common flue. It fed itself when you didn't care, and you still had heat if utilities were crapped awhile.

I'll crank mine & it's still cheap on electricity & pellet/tons used.

And get pellets that are all wood, cheapies don't have BTU's & can have dirt/plastic/?? In them. The plastic & ?? can foul inner workings if electronics involved.

[flyboyx]

one good thing about the pellet stoves is that you can burn dried shelled field corn in them if you want. the more expensive models have a hopper near the burner and with a thermostat in the house, it will auger the pellets/corn into the burner and produce heat for your house. all you have to do is fill the hopper once a week or so. these types are often in a little remote building beside your house/shop. this makes it a little safer in the event the works were to go haywire on you and burn down.

they also burn and radiate heat much more efficiently than most wood stoves.