Pellet Stoves

[Boz330]

When I built my house I used 2x6s so the outside walls are very good. The SE wall is mostly windows and when the sun is shining the furnace hardly runs. Before the furnace was installed I was working in the house doing trim work on a 2* day and could work in a long sleeve shirt reasonably comfortable.
The last few winters the LP use has been 600gal a year. I have a 500gal tank which means a fill is 400gal and we normally need gas in late Jan or early Feb. This year we called in early Jan and they would only give us 150gal. That was gone in 1 month (coldest month of the winter). When I heard the price I got another 140gal from my friend with a bulk tank and transferred it. My guess is I will use 800+gal this year.
On the natural gas, I got a lead on a retired state inspector in the next county over who's job was inspecting gas wells so I'm going to see if I can pick his brain on private well development. Thanks for all of the info.

Bob

[Freightman]

I hav burnt more wood this winter than I have in the past ten winters, but got my latest natural gas bill and it was the highest I have ever paid $72

[MaryB]

Almost everyone I know who hated their pellet stove bought a piece of junk from the local Menards/Lowes/Home Depot. They sell **** stoves with no support.

in kentucky it would probably do fine but I know a few freinds up here that tried them and were dissapointed. Wood was more expensive. They claimed at first it was cheaper but that was going by how much the instructiions said the thing would burn and they burned about twice that much. I told them when they got them that i couldnt see how taking wood and processing it into pellets could be cheaper then buy the wood and burning it as is. Personaly if i was going back to wood id just buy a good air tight stove with an air jacked and a blower. If I had money to buy what i really wanted it would be an outside wood boiler. Granted many of you that live down south have differnt needs then i do and something like one of these little stoves might be all you need to heat your home where cold is considered 40 degrees not -20

[Moondawg]

The EPA is in the process of outlawing any type of wood burning stove. Their new regulations on stoves should be in effect within the next year. I don't think they are grandfathering anything.

[Jr.]

Get a good stove quadrafire makes self igniting stoves that run off of battery backup in case of power outages and are pretty efficient I modified my old one to have a pulsating auger and a lower kick on temperature for the room air blower more than doubled the efficiency.... also if you are looking for a non electric stove check out some YouTube videos on wise way pellet stoves pretty interesting

[Blacksmith]

Is there anybody out there with experience with this type of stove. I tried to find a cost comparison between pellet stoves and propane but had no luck. I was thinking of using one as supplemental heat to stretch my summer fill. This winter our LP went from $1.19 per gallon summer fill rate to $3.34 per gallon now. Fortunately for me I have a friend with a bulk tank and is on contract price and he took care of me.
There is a window/door company locally that makes pellets from there saw dust and sells them which means there wouldn't be any shipping.
Your experiences would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Bob

To answer your original question it all depends. There is no simple way to make a price comparison that would be accurate in every situation so you will have to do the math for your own set of facts. What you need to do is look at the cost per BTU (British Thermal Unit) that goes into the house. Each fuel type has a BTU content per unit of measure i.e. pound, gallon, cubic foot, etc. Each heating device has a efficiency rating which is how well that particular device can extract the BTU's available in the fuel and turn them into usable heat, some heat goes up the chimney. So different fuels have a cost per BTU which depends on the delivered cost of that fuel where you live and each make and model of heating device has an efficiency of how well it burns the fuel it uses and it gets further complicated when you look at using combinations of heat sources. The complete picture is then overlaid on the basic question of how energy efficient your home is.

Most sources say that the biggest bang for the buck comes from first improving the energy efficiency of the home, at least the easy fixes. Things like adding insulation to houses that have less than what is recommended for the area, cutting down on air infiltration with caulking, adding permanent or temporary storm windows, and so on. Next is to make certain existing heaters are working properly and are tuned for efficiency. Then look at adjusting your lifestyle if possible, for example are there unused parts of the home that could be closed off and not heated for part of the year or part of the day or you could turn your thermostat down and put on a sweater type of action.

When those remedies are exhausted then look to the heating system. The whole heating system both current and proposed needs to be considered. First is the current system the right size and type for the house, some houses have been changed over the years but the heating system never updated or the system is old and should be replaced with a more efficient one or the type of fuel is no longer cost effective. Then it is time to consider supplemental heating and what you want to accomplish with the additional heat. For some people it is as simple as they use a heat pump system which works well and is efficient until it gets really cold and the built in resistance heaters kick in so they want temporary supplemental heat on really cold nights to keep the resistance heaters from going on. Other people want to heat the whole house with a less expensive fuel. So the answer for one may be a small wood stove for occasional use and the other it may be better to completely replace the main furnace.

The bottom line is do the simple things first, I saved a ton of money through caulking and insulating in one house I had. Then take a look at the whole system with a clean sheet of paper and figure out what the ideal system for your house and where you live. Finally look at the costs of either changing the existing system or adding supplemental units to achieve your goals. The right answers will depend on your particular house and what part of the country you live in.

With combination systems some things to consider are how you will circulate the heat to other areas of the house, how to balance the total "system" consisting of different units, and how you will store and handle the supplemental fuel and waste it produces. Good luck and keep us posted on progress.

[Boz330]

The EPA is in the process of outlawing any type of wood burning stove. Their new regulations on stoves should be in effect within the next year. I don't think they are grandfathering anything.

It will be interesting to see how they are going to enforce that. Where I live the folks would be subject to tell any inspector to shove his regulation where the sun don't shine. There are a lot of places that have no other way of heating. My old house was that way. As our situation improved we went to gas heat in the new house we built. If not for the objections of my wife we would still be heating with wood.

Bob

[MaryB]

Fuel comparison spreadsheet http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...,d.aWc&cad=rja

[Rich/WIS]

Have a pellet stove in my greenhouse to supplement the regular heat. Burn it on the 2 of the five settings and it is reasonably quiet, use about a bag a night this time of year (0 or lower at night), buy two tons a year (about $200/ton delivered). Heat the house and greenhouse with a Central Boiler outside wood furnace, needs about 20 cords a year, usually cut it myself (mostly birch), and buy some oak logs as a reserve ($85-100 a full cord delivered). The house has an LP furnace for emergencies, had to use it a few weeks this year when the fan that the wood furnace runs on crapped out, otherwise only fire it once a month to be sure it works. The outdoor furnace is hard to beat, even if you buy wood. Don't need to split unless the log is too heavy to lift, mess is outside. Pellet stove is also great, keep it cleaned and it runs problem free, and despite what some people will tell you they are not hard to keep clean. Have a wood insert in our fireplace that we used before the outdoor furnace as a supplemental system, only fire it now for special occasions, and a as a last ditch system in case if DIRE emergency.
My buddy buys his wood and heats his house (3200sqft) with an outdoor boiler and figures he spends about $1000 a year on wood and propane. I am heating 3200sqft of house, 600sqft of greenhouse and 2000sqft of basement (man cave and workshop) and it will cost me about $15-1600 this year. These systems are not cheap but even with the lower price of LP when I installed them they paid for themselves in about 4-5 years. Mine is an old and much remodeled house, and although upgraded and insulated is not the level of sealed and insulated as new homes are today. If I were building a new home now I think I would look at geothermal and maybe a freestanding wood stove as back up, but I'm in my 60s and not likely to move or build.

[MT Gianni]

It will be interesting to see how they are going to enforce that. Where I live the folks would be subject to tell any inspector to shove his regulation where the sun don't shine. There are a lot of places that have no other way of heating. My old house was that way. As our situation improved we went to gas heat in the new house we built. If not for the objections of my wife we would still be heating with wood.

Bob

It is reinforced when the home is sold, no financing if a wood stove is in place. Thankfully no local restriction where i live.

[bearcove]

My gas bill in winter with a wood stove is $25 instead of a peak bill of $250 A LOT OF IT IS SCRAP FROM THE SHOP OR NEIGHBORS. Sorry about caps but it was an accident but right.

ALL FREE

[perotter]

Years ago when the price of corn was down below $1 a bushel, lots of farmers around here were buying pellet stoves because you can burn dried shelled corn in them. At the time it made better economic sense to burn the corn they grew for heat than to sell it. A few years later when the price of corn went back up, this didn't work out so well.

Corn is cheap enough now that some are burning it again this year.

PS

In the past my brothers burned soybeans and barley in their pellet stoves. Both worked better than corn for them. They really loved burning soybeans. A lot of heat and burned very well.