Anyone using a pellet stove?

[Skinny Shooter]

We are looking at a Harman unit for supplemental heating and it also has a battery backup for power outages.
Besides not having to cut and stack firewood each season, have you found any benefits or disadvantages?

[Andy L]

I dont have one, but I am around one frequently. Puts out alot of heat. Great supplement and suppose it would do well for a room or two in a pinch.

Downside is cost of pellets.

[fabsroman]

Yep, pellets do cost money. Depending on where you live and who you know, wood can cost money too. Even if the wood is free, it still costs something because with pellets you don't have to spend time, diesel, and gasoline cutting pellets, not to mention chain and chainsaw upkeep. I have been around pellet stoves plenty. A friend of mine had one in law school and that thing really put out some heat. Plus, the burn rate was adjustable on it by having it drop more or less pellets into the stove automatically. He would reduce the burn rate at night when everybody went to sleep. Another guy on a farm I hunt at has two pellet stoves in the house. One is in the basement and the other is upstairs. He uses them to heat most of the house, but he does have a heat pump for when the stoves are just not enough.

I have also been around a wood stove and that thing made the basement of this guy's house so hot that I had to be in short sleeves during the winter to stay down there. Man, was that hot.

Personally, I prefer a wood stove and all the mess it makes (e.g., lugging wood in and out of the house and storing it somewhere around the house). I also have the ability to get wood for free from a couple of places about 5 minutes from me, and another couple of places 30 minutes from me. With that said, I don't have any type of stove in this townhouse except a cooking stove because I have no where to keep pellets or wood. When we buy a house, I will have two wood stoves in it.

Skinny, Harman also makes some wood stoves that I have been looking at for my parents. Those are really nice looking stoves regardless of whether you go the wood or the pellet route.

[Nulle]

I have had both wood and pellet stoves with the recent being the pellet and I will never go back to the old wood stove again.
I like mine and it is in the 40'X16' addition I built .

[BradC]

Fabs,

This wood stove your friend had in his basement, was it one that was plumbed into the duct work for aux. heat? And if so, how good of a job did it do? The reason i ask is that I am building a house now and seriously considering putting one in my basement to supplement the central unit.

Thanks
BC

[skeet]

Skinny I have had both types of wood stoves...regular and pellet. Wood stoves put out more heat and are a lot dirtier and less safe. But the pellet stoves are not too far behind in heating ability and as the heat is blown they are a bit more efficient. The pellets are a whole lot easier to use and are fed automatically. Storage of pellets IS a problem as they do have to be kept in a dry area. Another downside of pellets is the supply thing. A couple of years ago they were "hard" to get(of course the price went up). So buy 'em early...or at the end of the heatinmg season for next year. Also if ya know any farmers etc...consider a stove that will also burn corn so ya can buy that at a cheaper price. Heats just as well as pellets. Have 2 wood stoves here in Wyoming but looking at alternatives myself. Coal is cheap!:D BTW I used a pellet stove in my gunshop for a lot of years. More instant heat than wood too. You do have to clean them ocassionally..but not as often as wood stoves.

[fabsroman]

The wood stove wasn't hooked up to the central heating. This house isn't too big, so that wood stove sitting on top of a brick base was plenty to heat the entire basement just sitting there. It did have a blower on it to throw out the heat from the stove, but that was pretty much the extent of it. The house in this basement consisted of 3 rooms. One was a living/rec room where the stove was located that was 20 x 20 if that, another was a little storage area, and the third room was a bathroom. The rest of the house wasn't much bigger, but there were 3 bedrooms upstairs.

[M.T. Pockets]

Corn burning stoves are common where I live. In my opinion, they're much safer than wood burning units. Much less debris to deal with and you can vent them out without a lined block chimney.

Corn has historically been at around $2.20 per bushel til this last year, it is now about $3.65. A friend of mine heats his whole house with a corn stove, he said corn would have to go over $5 per bu. before it would be cheaper to go back to his oil furnace with $2.50 fuel oil.

[gregarat]

My parents have been using one for many years.

The only thing I would advise to watch out for is, how you store the bags of pellets. My parents kept them in dads shop, and mice would chew into the bags. Dad started to buy by the 1/2 ton, insted of a ton. So They can rotate the bags quickly.

A huge advantage is no more split, stack, then get a (or two) wheel barrel full of wood in the frezzing cold. Just 40-80lbs (1-2 bags) pellets would keep us warm for the day:) .

[fabsroman]

How much do pellets cost per ton, and how many tons would it take to heat a home in the Maryland area? With all the city folk around here, I would probably have a hard time finding a place that sells them. I won't have to make a decision for a year or two, so who knows what pellet prices will be at that time.

[skeet]

Heck Fabs, Wally world sells pellets...under 200 bucks a ton. I used 1 1/2 -2 tons to heat 2600 sq ft...but it was a very efficient house

[fabsroman]

Now, spending under $400 to heat a 2,600 sf house is a bargain in my book. Between diesel, chainsaw maintenance, chainsaw consumables, and gas for the splitter it might come close to that amount anyway. Not to mention time. If I work three hours instead of cutting wood for 3 days, that would pay for the pellets. Then again, hard manual work is good for the soul, not to mention spending time with my dad and brothers. I'll re-evaluate the situation when we are actually going to buy stoves for a new house, but now I won't rule out a pellet stove.

[Nulle]

There are different styles and brands and some are rated to put out more heat then others just like regular furnace units. I think all of them now are vented right out the side of the house with no problem.
My friend tried the corn thing but said his unit required the corn to be real dry or he had problems with it all the time.
We get mostly pine based pellets in this area and I have gotton some hard wood based pellets and they work much better and less clean up.
First of the season Wally World had them for about $2.50 a 40# bag and now I see they are over $3.

[multibeard]

I don't know of that many pellets stoves around here. There was a guy that was drying cherry pits to sell commercially but it never went over. They will work in a pellet stoves.

Alot of people are going to outdoor wood furnaces (boilers)around here. The wood doesn't have to be that well cured to burn in them. Only need to be filled 1--2 times a day. Also get domestic hot water from them. The hot water from the boiler is fed to the house underground.

They have heat exchangers that go in forced air systems if you don't have hotwater heat. The only draw back is that many towns have out lawed there use due to the acrid smoke that they omit.

They also come in corn burning models. They one at a dairy farm has a pretty good sized corn storage bin sitting next to it that feeds the boiler.

Here is the website for one of many different outside wood furnaces
http://www.centralboiler.com/?src=msncb

[Skinny Shooter]

This is the unit we are going with: http://www.harmanstoves.com/callouts.asp?id=12
Pellets are $200/ton and we have one ton ordered.
We've had zub-zero temps here now for awhile and am looking forward to the install on Friday.
The pellet stove will be great but there is just something about a wood fire. :)

edited due to bad grammar

[skeet]

Think you will like that stove. Harman makes a good stove but they are a bit expensive. Check Wally world for pellets or even Sam's club. You may find them cheaper ..especially in March and April:D

[Skinny Shooter]

Hay Carl, cool thing about this company, they are located just north of Harrisburg.
Not only are they close, it also means no asian workers had their mitts on my purchase. :cool:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v161/xm15e2/3dflagsdotcom_usa_2fawl.gif

[fabsroman]

Skinny,

Are you telling me that they are made in Harrisburg? If so, do you have a website for them. The stoves I was looking at were from a retailer in Seattle and the shipping was insane.

[skeet]

As I said ...they make a good stove. But with no slanty eyed people werkin on it for 25 cents an hour...Well why don't ya wanta support them Chinese? Is ya prejudiced? I buy all I can from Harbor Freight!! Well, every now and then.

Seriously a good stove. If we hadn't moved here we were gonna get one too. If ya get me a good deal I might buy one when I come back in April! hehehe..ya know..you pay the 20% down and I'll pay the rest! If I can I want to stop up and see ya. Hey BTW they just put on a 75 buck bounty on coyotes here. Almost calving time and they kill the calves right while they are being born!

[Skinny Shooter]

Hi Fabs, yep, they are just north of Harrisburg in Halifax. A couple of posts up I posted the weblink of the stove I'm getting. You can hit their homepage from there. You might have a dealer or two in Maryland.
Skeet, that would be great if you could stop by. Let me know. You're killin' me about the coyote problem. Imagine being able to use a suppressed varmint gun so the livestock don't get spooked or the remaining coyotes don't get scared off. :p

[Nulle]

I guess mine is a Pel Pro made in Canada and they work good.
The Tech service has been great on the one time I called them and I got mine at Menards and it was on sale for under $1000

[Skinny Shooter]

The stove is installed. Looks and works great so far.
Changed my mind on the battery back-up. Decided a generator will give me more flexibility for the length of time that might be needed beyond what the battery can provide.
Besides, I can use a generator for other things once in awhile too.
Like TEOTWAWKI :D

Can anyone tell me the differences in generators?
Am looking at a Coleman Powermate 5000 Watt Generator w/ a Suburu 10hp engine
Model PM0435001 from www.HomeDepot.com

[skeet]

I have a 5000 watt Coleman..with a Briggs. Pull start but it works just fine for my uses. 5000 watts won't run the whole house though

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I can say we have one in our club house and the thing puts out some heat when on high..is how we start out then have to turn it down..clean, no wood chopping but needs the tray cleaned up now and then...no biggie..would get one.

[fabsroman]

Please, 5000 watts won't run nearly an entire house. My dad plumb blew one generator up after we had hurricane Andrew come through here and they were out of electricity for a week+. Of course, he blew it up the first day. He hooked up 4 fridges, the entertainment center because the World Cup was on, lights throughout the house, my computer and laser printer when I used to live and have my office at their house (long story), and then he went to cut a fallen tree with an electric chain saw. The chain saw sent the thing over the edge, and the piston/rod shot out the side of the motor housing. Not to mention that every time I printed something with the laser printer, the draw was so bad that I could hear the generator whine and my battery backup started beeping. If anything took too long to print, the computer would start to shut down. Man, was it tough to get work done. I was going back and forth from my girlfriend's, now my wife, condo because she never lost her electricity and I wast taking my laptop and "portable" laser printer with me. That was a rough week.

[Nulle]

I baught a Champion generator last Fall but not after loosing 500 quail chicks in one of our "ice outs". Thats the last time that is going to happen and besides like you said I am going to use it for the motorhome also.

[Skinny Shooter]

Just picked up that 5000watt model.
It's primary use is for the pellet stove so our pipes don't freeze and we can stay warm during frequent power outages. I don't plan or want to run my house off of it, not sure if I gave that impression.
The comment about TEOTWAWKI was said tongue in cheek. :D
Will probably use it for tools, etc later on.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Wow fabs, that must be one heck of a generator to run all those things. All at one time? I would think they would just stall out if not able to handle the power surge needed to run an item. That is what mine does anyhow when it is overloaded. Most problem I have with mine is the initial power needed to 'start up' things like a big A/C unit or fridge.....once past that, runs fine....I also would think the only reason for the motor to blow up would be lack of lube oil or proper vent to keep cool while running. Then there is the defective motor. I did freeze up an old sears generator when the bushing between the motor and generator wore out and guess the banging around at that point put too much tension on the motor shaft..killed the bearings...oh well...fixed that....sold it...got myself a better one. Nice to have some lights and able to keep the freezer going when power is out a long time.