woodstove or pellet stove

[bob208]

we have a Harman coal stove it will burn wood too only the grates move so you shake it down. I get slab wood $30.00 a bundle which is almost a cord. nice thing about our system is if the electric goes out we have heat and can cook on it too.

it is a little late for pellets now. most people buy them in the summer.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Also, since we are talking about cutting/gathering firewood.
I cut most of my firewood at a municipal compost site. The city will cut and drag whole trees from the boulevards or parks to the compost site and just leave them for people to cutup and haul away. Most trees that are brought there, usually are gone in less than 24 hours, so you have to be "Johnny on the spot" to get the opportunity to cut them up...luckily for me, I live at that end of town, and the city tends to drag them down my street with a payloader going in reverse to get them to the compost site. I am like Pavlov's Dog when I hear the payloader reverse beeper, LOL.

[Markopolo]

This is what I call a full cord... I don’t worry about measurements. A good truckload of hemlock in my flatbed 1 ton is a truckload.. that is my unit of measure

[Battis]

I worry about measurements when I pay alot for 128 cubic ft and get 110 cubic ft. According to the Mass bureau/division of weights and measures, 110 cubic ft is a "Face Cord" and perfectly legal. But you can tell the difference when it's dropped.

[bikerbeans]

I bought a pellet stove in 2009 and used it for 6 or 7 years. I gave up on this stove because the quality of the pellets declined every year, more ash, lower BTUs. I live in NW Ohio and the pellets were from Menards and TSC. Early on the pellets were mostly hardwood. Last time i bought pellets they were made from dead lodge pole pines from out west.

BB

[Adam20]

I have a Harman pellet boiler, heat house, attracted garage and shop have radiant heat 4200 sqft total for 3 areas, around 7 ton of pellets a year. Almost bought wood boiler but i dread cutting wood, handling it three times.

[ascast]

I looked into buying a "pellet maker" as a side business. Apparently you can make them from any wood, leaves, grass, cardboard, etc. You might look into a corn stove. Not recomending, my cousin has one and they like it.

[MaryB]

I went corn/pellet stove long ago. On my third stove. Baby Countryside DC model(12 volt) that they no longer make.

For the 120 volt pellet stoves get an inverter and a deep cycle boat battery. Will run it for hours! Once lit they use little power.

[TreeKiller]

As i got older I went to a duel fuel stove. A Toyotomi diesel or kerosene. The price of fuel id up since the first one but they use an average if 1 gal in a 24 hr period. Went from a pellet stove fuel and do not have to carry any pellets.
Dan

[Mr_Sheesh]

I had a pellet stove for many years. I haven't looked into them for years, had a used one back then - It worked pretty well mostly.

If you get a pellet stove, you want a top feeder, not a bottom feeder (i.e. the augur that feeds pellets should pull them up and drop them downwards into the burning box - Not feed them directly into the bottom of the burning box) as otherwise the heat from the burning pellets will do its' best to warp your auger, the neighbor had a bottom feed stove and it was always having to be rebuilt, about yearly.

The other thing is, don't lazily drop parts of the plastic wrapper from bags of pellets if you buy the 40# bags - As inside the augur's tube, it is quite hot - so that plastic will very happily melt, and then seize up your augur. Mine had some plastic left in it from the previous owner apparently, fixing that was ANNOYING, at least I only had to do that once!

[FISH4BUGS]

Wood stove all the way.
We burn 6 or more cords a year. Since my office is in the house, and the wood stove is our primary source of heat, it goes 24x7 and we burn a fair amount of wood.
The kid across the road stacks it for me. We have 9 cords on the ground ready for winter.
Pellets have to have some mechanism for feeding them, usually some electric auger. If the electricity goes out, you can't feed the stove. You are at the mercy of pellet suppliers.
No problem with the wood stove. Heat 24x7 regardless.
You have a choice - heat with propane, fuel oil, coal, wood, pellets or something else. You are going to pay one way or the other.

[Lloyd Smale]

I live where its COLD in the winter and winters are LONG. Most people up here know that if you don't have access to your own wood and the equipment to process it (saw, spliter ect) and aren't a healthy young man that burning wood just doesn't save that much over a high efficiency gas furnace. I heat my home, my pole barn loading room 20x20. My learning disabled sons small apartment in the pole barn 20x30 and my gas bill last year (and it was a very cold winter) was 1800 bucks. I have an outside wood boiler I used for about 10 years and because I worked and didn't have time I had to buy my wood. I had to walk out every morning and evening in the cold and sometimes storms to fill it and when I gave up on it is when I sat down and figured the difference and found I saved about 500 dollars a winter burning wood. I had a back operation that year and just couldn't go out and even load it. For 500 dollars I can walk to the hall and turn up or down the thermostat. have no smoky smell or ash to haul. don't have to even stack firewood. No brainer to me. Now that im retired and have the time my body wouldn't allow me to cut my own wood anyway. I know a few that went pellet stoves and just about all of them say its a bit more expensive but a bit less work. Fill the hopper and pull the ash. But then you still have to go to the supplier and haul it home and store it. then I don't know about where you live but if your insurance company finds out you have anything but a outside boiler your insurance rates will go up and if you don't report it and you have a fire caused by it they will not cover your damage. I paid 3k for that wood boiler and water coils and that's with me installing it. If I factored that 3k over 10 years of burning wood gas would be as cheap. By the time your outside boiler is 10 years old you have to factor in maintained on the unit. Last gas furnace I had was 20 years old and never cost me a dime of repair and was only replaced to get a higher efficiency unit. I actually could make out today burning wood with my boiler. my son in law sells cut and split wood and would probably give me wood for free but he cant come over when its 10 below or theres a whiteout outside to fill it so I think ill just continue to use gas. As a matter of fact he told me last week that he had a guy looking for a boiler and I told him get me a grand for it and haul it off and its his. Im to old to bother and would rather spend the time and effort out in my warm reloading room.

[Tackleberry41]

Yow $260 a cord. Last year I filled the bed of my dodge full size for $50. Cheaper than cutting and splitting myself.

[FISH4BUGS]

Yow $260 a cord. Last year I filled the bed of my dodge full size for $50. Cheaper than cutting and splitting myself.

Hey...I just spent $1750 on 7 cords ($250 per cord) for 2 year old seasoned wood delivered.
But I pay him for the wood in March, April and May for delivery in the fall. It helps his cash flow and I get great service.
Here in NH winters are long and hard. We get ready for winter just like the critters do.
Freezer full of veggies, freezer full of chickens, burger and bacon, and 9 cords on the ground covered.
BRING IT ON!

[MaryB]

I live where its COLD in the winter and winters are LONG. Most people up here know that if you don't have access to your own wood and the equipment to process it (saw, spliter ect) and aren't a healthy young man that burning wood just doesn't save that much over a high efficiency gas furnace. I heat my home, my pole barn loading room 20x20. My learning disabled sons small apartment in the pole barn 20x30 and my gas bill last year (and it was a very cold winter) was 1800 bucks. I have an outside wood boiler I used for about 10 years and because I worked and didn't have time I had to buy my wood. I had to walk out every morning and evening in the cold and sometimes storms to fill it and when I gave up on it is when I sat down and figured the difference and found I saved about 500 dollars a winter burning wood. I had a back operation that year and just couldn't go out and even load it. For 500 dollars I can walk to the hall and turn up or down the thermostat. have no smoky smell or ash to haul. don't have to even stack firewood. No brainer to me. Now that im retired and have the time my body wouldn't allow me to cut my own wood anyway. I know a few that went pellet stoves and just about all of them say its a bit more expensive but a bit less work. Fill the hopper and pull the ash. But then you still have to go to the supplier and haul it home and store it. then I don't know about where you live but if your insurance company finds out you have anything but a outside boiler your insurance rates will go up and if you don't report it and you have a fire caused by it they will not cover your damage. I paid 3k for that wood boiler and water coils and that's with me installing it. If I factored that 3k over 10 years of burning wood gas would be as cheap. By the time your outside boiler is 10 years old you have to factor in maintained on the unit. Last gas furnace I had was 20 years old and never cost me a dime of repair and was only replaced to get a higher efficiency unit. I actually could make out today burning wood with my boiler. my son in law sells cut and split wood and would probably give me wood for free but he cant come over when its 10 below or theres a whiteout outside to fill it so I think ill just continue to use gas. As a matter of fact he told me last week that he had a guy looking for a boiler and I told him get me a grand for it and haul it off and its his. Im to old to bother and would rather spend the time and effort out in my warm reloading room.

Told my insurance I put in a pellet stove, they asked for a copy of the certification and said fine, no premium change because pellet stoves are pretty dang safe with a lot of fail safe switches on them.

[Handloader109]

Well, here in NW Arkansas, it's a Rick, face cord. 16"widex 4ft high x 8ft long. Minimum this time of year is $50 if you pick up, commonly 60 to 65 and another 10 to 20 delivered. I just picked up a Rick for $55 today, red oak, split, about half dry.... I easily burn 2 to 3 in my big stove, has two blowers and heats great. Basement gets cold though, have a small stove down there that I havent used. But will this year. Wish it was a pellet.. May change it in a year or two. Would be nice to set it at 65 and keep it warm down there. I don't have anything left to cut on my three acres. Prior owner did that a decade ago. So no cutting here for me. Don't see many pellets offered for sale, so feeding one might be hard.

[shdwlkr]

A face cord of wood can be anything from 12 inches long all the way up to anything short of 48 inches long. At 48 inches long you are into a real cord of wood if it is 48 inches long, by 48 inches high and 96 inches long. Used to burn a lot of wood and coal when I lived in NYS many many decades ago.

[Shawlerbrook]

Been heating with wood since 1995. Since I live on 120 acres, the wood is “free” not withstanding the time and cost of fuels and equipment for processing. Lucky to have the wife helping. My opinion is wood is good if you have the ability to cut your own on your own property, but if you must buy, then pellet, corn, propane, oil, etc....or whatever is the cheapest and most available.

[jonp]

Pellet stoves are fantastic and you can even buy a pellet grill but if your still able I'd go with wood. I've never seen a pellet tree in the wild.

[redneck1]

Something to think about as you are buying wood is how efficient your stove is .
If you have an older stove it could be worthwhile to upgrade to a more efficient stove .
The epa rated Napoleon stove I have uses a preheated secondary air supply to burn off the soot and any unburned gasses .
It really does a good job of making heat , I don't get any creosote in the chimney and as long as it's over 20 degrees outside I get about 8 hours before having to stoke the fire .
The stove holds about 1.5 cubic feet stuffed full , below 20 degrees I have to add wood about every 6 hours and maintaining 75-80 degrees is pretty easy in my 1400 sf house all winter .