woodstove vs pellet stove again

[Battis]

I'm pretty sure I talked about this subject before, but...
I've been heating with a woodstove for 40 years. Green cordwood was around $70 back then. Now, it's at least $300 per cord (up to $450) and most places won't deliver less than 4 cords at a time without a delivery fee. I don't have the room for 4 cords at a time. The firewood guy that I've used for years just moved to Costa Rica, so I'm scrambling for next year's firewood.
Once again, the talk has turned to pellet stoves. It'll be between $6,000 to $8,000 to get started with a new Harmon, and there might be a venting issue with the high outside chimney that I have for the woodstove. But, it is tempting.
Any thoughts from pellet stove, woodstove owners?

[FISH4BUGS]

Been heating with wood for some 20 years now. Green was $280 last year. No idea what it will be this year.
We have 2 stoves - one small Jotul in my spousal unit's massage room and one big Jotul to heat the 1600 sf house.
The small stove burns 2 cords of 13" wood, the big one does 6-7 cords of 18" a season.
All delivered by the wood dealer over a month or so and stacked (by me) in the spring.
So...i would say we are hard core wood burners.
We looked at pellet stoves when we did the massage practice room. We decided against them for the following reasons:
1) You are dependent on a manufacturing company for the pellets
2) The pellet stoves have an electric auger to feed the stove. Another part to break and replace.
3) Power outages can stop your pellet feeder device. Even though we have a generator, if something happened to that, you are out of luck.
The side benefit of wood is that I am 75 and actually enjoy the exercise. It keeps me moving and flexible.
Pellet stoves simply did not fit the way we do things.
YMMV.

[jwhite]

The pellet stove requires power and that is reason enough for me not to have one. I also know of a couple that have had control issues, one of which lead to the fire working back into the pellet hopper which in turn caused a major house fire.

[Shopdog]

Only took me 40 or so years to figure this out...

Buy cheap cast iron griddles and cut them to fit inside the firebox with an angle grinder. Cuts like a hot knife through butter.... it not only supercharges the efficiency but protects the fire bricks. Good luck with your project.

[Battis]

I agree with every reason posted above not to get a pellet stove. Woodstoves are easy to maintain, they keep going when the power goes out, free exercise...
Green cords in my area (southern NH, northern MA, which is basically the same thing) are $300 this year, just about what I paid last year. I just found a supplier that will deliver 2 cords at a time with no delivery fee.
Yeah, I'll stick with the wood.
I had a slab of soapstone from an old table that I cut to fit the top of my woodstove. It really holds the heat longer.

[dverna]

Been heating with wood for some 20 years now. Green was $280 last year. No idea what it will be this year.
We have 2 stoves - one small Jotul in my spousal unit's massage room and one big Jotul to heat the 1600 sf house.
The small stove burns 2 cords of 13" wood, the big one does 6-7 cords of 18" a season.
All delivered by the wood dealer over a month or so and stacked (by me) in the spring.
So...i would say we are hard core wood burners.
We looked at pellet stoves when we did the massage practice room. We decided against them for the following reasons:
1) You are dependent on a manufacturing company for the pellets
2) The pellet stoves have an electric auger to feed the stove. Another part to break and replace.
3) Power outages can stop your pellet feeder device. Even though we have a generator, if something happened to that, you are out of luck.
The side benefit of wood is that I am 75 and actually enjoy the exercise. It keeps me moving and flexible.
Pellet stoves simply did not fit the way we do things.
YMMV.

Good post.

Just to add...I had a buddy with a pellet stove and he could not get a comfortable level of heat. It was always too hot. Maybe he bought one too large or he did not understand how to operate it.

I heat with wood and propane (70% wood). I also sell firewood, so I am a bit biased.

One other consideration. If your wife/lady friend needs to add fuel, a 40 lb bag of pellets is not going to be easy for her. She can more easily carry in five or six splits of firewood at a time. A couple of years ago I broke my ankle and was on crutches for a while. We had enough firewood in the garage to last us until I was able to hobble around again. My fiancé was able to keep the "fire burning".

[ohen cepel]

When we bought the current house it had 2 pellet stoves installed (one on each side of the same wall). We have burned the one which sits in the porch area more. The one more interior gets the room very hot quickly. However, I'm not real smart on them.

I don't like being stuck with paying whatever price is asked for the pellets and some years they were very hard to find. When I did find them I was limited to 10bags. I have also had people buy some which had gotten wet which ruins them. As mentioned above, my wife would struggle to get a bag of them to the stove and put into it. If one is there, she will scoop them in with a smaller container.

I could see a pellet stove in a case where I don't want to drag firewood into that part of the house and I'm not really depending on it.

New place has a wood stove in the basement which I much prefer. Can burn more diverse stuff in it, not hooked to a manufactured product, doesn't need power, and I have wood on the place to burn.

Pellets aren't bad but I'm not a big fan of them in most cases.

[Battis]

In my area ten or so years ago, wood prices soared, which turned alot of people to pellet stoves. Then the wood sellers were stuck with wood they couldn't sell, and their prices dropped alot. I think that's happening again. Seasoned wood around here is around $450 to $500 (kiln dried is more expensive). Then again, there are home owners that might burn a cord a year, so they'll pay the high prices.

[Rapier]

None of the above. Got tired of fooling with all of the wood burning mess. New house has no extra worries, no pool, no hot tub, no wood burning anything. Spent the wood money on whole structure close cell spray foam insulation. I do not miss it at all.

I keep a large burn pile on the tree farm, so have plenty of stuff to burn. If it ever stops raining.

[Battis]

How cold does it get in NW FLA?
I called the oil burner guy yesterday and talked about upgrading our regular heating system. We still have steam radiators, which are great, but we removed a large one when the hearth was built. We don't use much oil but that might change.

[Shawlerbrook]

With 120 acres and most of it wooded, there’s no choice here at least until I get too old to process it.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Right now, Natural Gas is real cheap in MN, it's been that way for a number of years. I often think about quitting cutting/splitting/burning dead trees, but tree scrap just keeps presenting itself. While I am not paying cash for firewood, I am spending on gasoline/oil/sawchains/tarps and time. Mostly, I enjoy it, so there is that.

[georgerkahn]

Back in 1978 I bought a Vermont Castings Defiant wood-stove and reckoned it would supplement/reduce natural gas heating expenses. It did. After fifteen years or so the cast back cracked, and I could not get a replacement -- supposedly there's too much "pollution" so, we replaced it with another brand. The true sadness of it all, is the money I annually"saved" was such that I could no longer afford to eliminate the wood-stove as my major heat source.
Back then I'd cut and split all my own wood, sometimes purchasing cut-in-four-foot-length offerings the County had on auction. But, the tale of time, my leg started getting worse and worse, so I now need purchase wood in what seller calls five-cord loads. I split all (with a 27-ton TroyBilt splitter ) and stack. Seller commands $450.00 USD for the load. When split and stacked -- e.g., the pieces are smaller so there's less 'air space' and to my 4' x 8' x 16" per face cord, it generally measures out to just several -- maybe 20 -- pieces more than FOUR face cord. It generally takes between eight and ten cord for me to get through a winter; generally nine being the modal number. Still -- $900.00 is not, imho, toooo bad to get through a winter in my -- close to Canada border -- latitude. A neighbor with similar house size generally pays a tad less than three grand for his only-natural-gas heating; lady across the street (propane) also needs come up with about the same (albeit she keeps thermostat waaaaay down ). Despite my two canes required for walking, I managed to cut and split about two and one-half face cord last summer -- my only costs being the fuel for my Stihl 019t, MS260, and 039 chainsaws; diesel for my Kubota tractor; and the gasoline for my truck to haul trailer w/tractor, and another with the cut wood home.
My buddy, Hughie, vis his advancing age replaced his wood-stove with a Pellet stove. In my opinion, unless you have someone to deliver pellets to your door; carry them into your house; as well as have a place to keep them REALLY dry indoors -- there is NO real savings!!! I have my wood in a open shed, and most of the time when we bring it in it "feels damp" -- but the wood is not green and burns quite well.
THIS (me) "cripple" -- given the choice -- would not think twice before replacing my wood stove, should it require replacement, with ANOTHER WOOD-STOVE!
If nothing else, too, the exercise I daily get bringing in the 16 pieces of firewood for 24-hours -- is perhaps the only (winter) exercise I get... and... the heat from wood is just soooooo nice .
geo

[ascast]

I have heard several times about feed augers that somehow allowed fire to get back in the feed system, but pellets and rice coal. Probably corn as well. I don't like that "option". If you go that route, see if the door can be opened to feed wood in case of power outage. Maybe look into battery backup, like car battery and inverter.
I burn wood exclusively. My brother crapped up my oil burner and is too lazy to fix it. I have over 100 acres of wood lot, tractors, trucks, several chain saws, blah blah. Cost me about $200 per year to heat. That 5-6 cords or 15-20 14/16 inch face cord. I get about half that just keeping my roads open. I burn what ever I must cut, meaning Hemlock, Aspen,Pine. If I have to cut it, I'm burning it. I wish more Beech would fall in the roads.
Pellets MUST be same as stove manufacturer ? That is a new one on me. I would shop around and "SHOP AROUND" that problem if you know what I mean. Off season pellets can be cheap here. Easy to get ahead for year 2. I see machines to make pellets for sale every year. There must be some universal pellets out there. Let us know which way you go.

ps I don't like cast iron. If it should break crack you may never get it repaired. My stove is a Riteway 37 all steel save the grates. Long out of business. But, I could drag this down the road or shoot it all day ( cast boolits only) and it would still function. Installed in 1980 ish. My stove looks like a big black box. No pretty windows. It was built to heat my house, not look at. We have cable TV for that. I really don't know why they still use cast iron. Cheap and cast easy I suppose.

[Battis]

Even buying wood can be tricky in MA. A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet normally, but in MA they can legally sell a face cord which is smaller (110 cubic feet). I found that out the hard way. Plus, there are regulations that prohibit transporting wood across state lines, though most sellers ignore that.
Yep, I'm in it for at least another year.

[dverna]

I burn a little bit of wood...LOL

This is 20 loggers cords

Attachment 322571

We turned it into this in two days:

Attachment 322574

Sorry about the upside down picture but I cannot get it right.

And then stacked it into totes:

Attachment 322572
Attachment 322573

That just over a two year supply and cost us $2000 for the wood and processor rental.

Bought a processor last year for $13k and started selling wood. My current cost for firewood and supplies works out to $150/cord for oak and I sell it for $240 delivered within 20 miles. I produce a cord in about 2 1/2 hours working alone and using a tractor.

[BD]

I have been burning wood most of my life, and will likely continue to do so. In the late 80's we sold the big house in town, (10 cords a year to heat that one), and built a smaller passive solar house on 5 acres south of town. In the 90's I built my shop, also passive solar, and between the two buildings we burn about 3 cords a year at most. We also have a propane rinnai which we use when we go away so who ever we talk into house sitting for the pets doesn't have to deal with the Catalytic Defiant wood stove. I buy the wood tree length green and the price has gone from 1,100 a truck load, (9-10 cord), to 1,400 in the last five years. I work up my wood myself, sometimes with help from the kids, and I figure we'll keep using wood until I get too old to do it.
My daughter and SIL put a pellet stove in their house in town, and it works fine. But it doesn't have the same appeal for me as wood. I can't really say why. I guess I've become an old yankee stuck in his ways

[MaryB]

My pellet stove is going on 10 years old... 40 pound bag of pellets currently runs $5.49 here, cost per million BTU's for pellets is ~$21, cost for 1 mil BTU's for wood at $300/cord is ~23 so slight advantage to pellets.

The stoves that suffered burn back were recalled, had to have sensors added. Mine is simple top feed(not bottom like the burn back stoves), no stirrer so no moving parts in the burn pot... I DO have to remember to check for and empty some ash from the pot on long(16+ hour) burns. It has to be below 30f for me to use it or it gets to hot in here. I use a small fan in the opposite side of the house to push cold air to the stove, and a fan to pull warm air upstairs.

Stay away from the Country Flame/Harvester type stoves, yes they worked, sorta... I had one and had to watch it close to not get burn back from to much ash in the burn pot, it piles up then blocks the auger drop slide... as that fills it burns back up into it... better stoves have forced air at the top of the drop slide to force air down it blowing flame away from it... can still get a burnback in absolute worst case but I would have to burn 24 hours straight for that.

I only use my pellet stove when I am awake so no overnight burns(unless I have a power outage, then it runs all night but I totally empty the burn pot and start fresh). My stove is 12 volt and runs off my solar battery... can run weeks off solar!

[jimlj]

I've had both. I liked the feel of the heat from the wood stove best, but the wood stove was more of a mess than the pellet stove. Burning pellets for me was less expensive and far easier. I no longer have either. I think (at least in my area) natural gas is the best option.

[Slugster]

I don't have pellets growing in my woodlot, so I guess I'm going to have to stick to firewood. All jokes aside, I would rather not have to rely on an outside supplier for my solid fuel. The gooberment is already dabbling in the laws and solid fuel heater design. What happens when the greenies decide that they need 'pellet control'?