Bills for heating oil, natural gas and electricity are unpredictable. Home owners are searching for different ways to heat their homes. Here is an alternative that is rapidly growing in popularity…
A pellet stove is a type of woodstove that burns small pellets made of compressed sawdust, corn, or bio-mass wastes such as peanut shells. It can be an effective way to trim winter heating expenses, especially if you heat your home with relatively pricey heating fuels such as electricity, propane, or fuel oil. Pellet stoves are clean burning compared to fireplaces and wood stoves but release more particulates into the air than other forms of heating equipment.
Pellets typically cost about $250 per ton. Most home owners who use a pellet appliance as a primary heat source burn between three and five tons per year, depending on the climate in which they live and the size and efficiency of the stove. When heating an entire home in a relatively cold climate, usage may be seven tons or more.
Pellet stoves are not appropriate for every home. Drawbacks…
Is a pellet stove a better choice for you than a conventional woodstove?
Lean toward a pellet stove if…
You don’t want to fuss with your heating system more than necessary. Log-burning stoves require more time and attention than pellet-burning ones because you must add logs more frequently. A pellet stove typically must be refilled once per day.
Your chimney or flue would require an expensive insert or upgrade to serve a conventional woodstove. Pellet stoves are much less likely to require this. Most pellet stoves are vented through a special vent pipe that penetrates the roof, and some high-efficiency models are designed to be vented directly through a wall.
You have asthma or other lung disease. Pellet stoves usually burn much cleaner than conventional woodstoves.
Lean toward a conventional woodstove if…
Your home is on a large wooded property. Why pay for pellets if you can harvest your own logs for free?
Your region experiences frequent power failures, and you don’t have a backup generator. Pellet stoves require electricity for ignition and for operating the feed mechanism and blower. Conventional woodstoves do not require electricity.
A nice-looking fire is important to you. Conventional log fires tend to be more aesthetically pleasing than pellet stove fires, which are very small. Some pellet stoves do have realistic artificial logs.
There is no source of reasonably priced pellets near your home. Having pellets shipped to you will greatly increase their cost.
Most pellet stoves cost between $1,500 and $4,500, depending on features and heating capacity. Installation typically adds $300 to $600 to this price — more if the local labor rates are high or the installation is complex.
Stick with respected pellet stove brands. These include…
Harman (HarmanStoves.com).
Quadra-Fire (QuadraFire.com).
St. Croix (StCroixStoves.com).
I recommend buying the service plan if one is offered by your stove dealer. These complex machines do occasionally require service.
You will have to choose between a top-fed and a bottom-fed pellet stove. Top-fed models usually are a bit easier to operate, but they often require pricey high-grade pellets to run properly. Bottom-fed models usually run on standard-grade pellets.
Ask the stove dealer to demonstrate the stove’s ash-removal procedure before you buy. Select another stove if removing the ash seems complex or messy. Also, ask the dealer to help you choose a stove of appropriate size for the space you want to heat.
For more information on pellet stoves, go to my site, HomeTips.com.
