Pellet stoves are amazimg!

[mrobins297aaa]

Guess I'm lazy .. I had one in my PA log cabin. When I was able to get propane delivered -- out it went. The pellets are a pain (easier vs wood -yeas) ..... can't imagine the work to heat with wood.

yeah I hear ya, I couldn't imagine heating with wood either.......it's a lot of work.
at 68 the pellets are getting to be a lot of work, I've went from 12/13 tons a year to 3 or 4 tons but a lot that has to do with the propane prices falling over the years from about 2.75/ gallon to last year I pre bought at 1.27/gallon

 

[Ji m]

Can we agree that pellets are not the first choice for anyone, but a compromise due to budget or lack of resource?
That if electric or gas were available at the same price, you wouldn't do Pellet stoves?

Disagree,
pellets stove is an alternative to wood,
not electric, or even gas.

It's great supplimental heat,
with oil heat I keep the house set at 58 (night) to 62.

Drop a $4 bag of pellets in the stove (Harmon Accentra),
and the pellet room is sitting at 80+ degrees and the rest of the house in the 70's in a couple hours.
The dogs, and everyone else sits around the stove, and the hats, gloves and boots dry fast.

I loved when I had gas heat,
but I'd still like to have had a pellet stove for supplimental heat.

 

[Ji m]

^also,
I can open the door to the garage, crank the pellet stove up in the next room,
and make the garage livable even though the garage heat is drained and turned off
(forced hot water unit that would cycle all day just to keep the garage at 40 degrees)

 

[machsnell]

I have a woodstove in the house for 100% of the heat and one in my 1800 SF shop. The house stove is a nice catalytic model that burns one load per day 95% of the time and burning PNW woods I made it past Christmas before emptying ash. Get a good modern stove, it makes all the difference.

In the shop I have a cheap non-catalytic stove that I run really hard whenever I want heat. It takes a lot of effort and time to use it but that stove really makes time in the shop pleasant. Burning is a hobby itself. The trouble is, I need to be there to stoke it and adjust the damper, etc. until it's working. A nice pellet stove can be turned on manually or with a thermostat, even with wifi, and just do the work. They are quite expensive to buy and require replacement parts but the convenience is hard to ignore.

The Harman line has an excellent reputation. The P61a is the one I would want. They also make a European looking model that holds 120# of pellets.

Highbeam
Wow one load per day is amazing. I can have only coals left in my stove after 10 hours but most heat is gone. It does have 2 fans that push the heat out.

It's a big stove that will take 26 inch logs but it really needs 4 stockings per day to really keep the heat.

I will look into newer stoves but I do love my Tremont. I would love to stock once or twice per day and not deal with gobs of ash. I have to clean my stove and ash pan regularly.

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[machsnell]

Disagree,
pellets stove is an alternative to wood,
not electric, or even gas.

It's great supplimental heat,
with oil heat I keep the house set at 58 (night) to 62.

Drop a $4 bag of pellets in the stove (Harmon Accentra),
and the pellet room is sitting at 80+ degrees and the rest of the house in the 70's in a couple hours.
The dogs, and everyone else sits around the stove, and the hats, gloves and boots dry fast.

I loved when I had gas heat,
but I'd still like to have had a pellet stove for supplimental heat.

Agree. Dogs kids, me everyone loves hanging out around the fire when cold.

Also it's fire. Can't beat looking at it watching a movie or football.

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[larry4406]

my stove works fine with my Generac 7500

But if the power goes out while your not there to intervene and get the genset going, then what?

Maybe I don’t understand how these stoves work. Perhaps they are quick to self extinguish on loss of power.

I’ve no experience with these, only my wood stove.

 

[lurtz]

I bought a couple of Harman Accentra freestandings, both used a few years ago. Harmans make a decent stove that does a great job with auto start and stop, as well as built in thermostatic and safety functions.

I have had to replace a few items over the years. But no more then what I have had to do to maintain my oil boiler. The accentra anf xxv models by Harman are cast iron so they are heavy, but also attractive and radiate heat alot like a good wood stove does.

I bought the stoves when Oil was almost $5/gallon for "pre-buy" . The two units kept my 130 year old new hampshire home warm throughout a couple of winters when I was afraid of turning on the boiler thermostats. Every time the oil delivery man showed up I had to re-mortgage the house!!

As far as power outages go, if the stove loses power, on what is in the burnpot at that time will need to slowly burnout. Without power the auger will not deliver pellets into the burn pot/chamber. If you have a long/tall enough exhaust vent pipe, natural draft will help to take care of the smoke as it slowly burns.


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[lurtz]

I should add that now oil has dropped to prices that make the price efficiency of pellets moot. It is much easier to just set the thermostat on wall and let the boiler do the work. I still use the stoves quite a bit as supplemental heat, and I am happy to have them. Here in Northern NH we just had a few weeks straight of temps that seldom got above 0f and a few times close to hitting -30f. Even though my 130 year old house is not insulated well and the basement is unheated and drafty, I was in t-shirts and no socks with the stoves running. They really do put out a lot of heat. My boiler would have struggled to get me there on its own.


One plus for pellets vs wood.... so much easier and cleaner to organize and stack a ton of pellets vs. split wood.


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[smalltown]

I've been running a Quadrafire Castile pellet stove for 7 winters. Great little stove. Really enjoy watching the football game with a fire burning in the stove. Mine has a thermostat and starts and stops when needed.

 

[mrobins297aaa]

[QUOTE=larry4406;6968258]But if the power goes out while your not there to intervene and get the genset going, then what?

Maybe I don’t understand how these stoves work. Perhaps they are quick to self extinguish on loss of power.

I’ve no experience with these, only my wood stove.[/QUOTE]

I know it's happened a few times but I don't remember it being a problem. Everything just stops and there isn't very many pellets in the burn pot so the fire goes out pretty quick. I'm sure every situation is different but I do have a tall chimney (about 15') so maybe that helps.

 

[wirt]

If you lose power and the stove can no longer drop pellets or power the exhaust fan then yes you can get smoke. However if your stove is vented UP the smoke will gravity feed up like any other chimney. If you direct vent out the back horizontallly then you have the chance of a little snake backing up.

Mine only did that one time, it was no big deal as it was just the very small amount that could escape the door gasket and only last a few minutes.

 

[larry4406]

If you lose power and the stove can no longer drop pellets or power the exhaust fan then yes you can get smoke. However if your stove is vented UP the smoke will gravity feed up like any other chimney. If you direct vent out the back horizontallly then you have the chance of a little snake backing up.

Mine only did that one time, it was no big deal as it was just the very small amount that could escape the door gasket and only last a few minutes.

Interesting. When the Op first posted, I searched his model and found a manual as I was curious on the flue. http://downloads.hearthnhome.com/installManuals/P43_61A_68_I.pdf

The manual shows several flue methods. Some, not all, of the flue methods have the note "This method provides excellent venting for normal operation. This method also provides natural draft in the event of a
power failure". Thus my concern on how these things behave on loss of power.

There is a section on Power Failure in the manual. It says, "To reduce the probability of back-drafting or burn-back in the pellet burning appliance during power failure or shutdown conditions, the stove must be able to draft naturally without exhaust blower operation. "

Thus it would seem that as long as one used a flue venting method that "provides natural draft in the event of power failure" one is covered. Wirt - this is consistent with your experience.

Very strange that the manufacturer would provide flue venting methods that do not natural draft and then in another section tell the user that the stove must be able to draft naturally without blower operation.

 

[wirt]

not strange really, that's one of the benefits of a pellet stove. Say you want it on your main floor living room you can vent it horizontally instead of trying to figure out how to get it vented through a second story.

Also that is why we gave the battery backup, the odds of losing power are fairly slim, the odds when we are not home even more so. I know my backup lasts two to three hours so if I'm not getting the generator out I have time to turn off the stove.

 

[biggziff]

Pellet stoves are OK, but they have too many downsides for most. They only provide up to around 50,000 BTU output (theoretical max), they have to be cleaned frequently to maintain peak efficiency and pellet quality varies widely and has a significant effect on heat output. A coal stoker is a better choice, IMO. Highest BTU per unit output of almost any fuel solid or otherwise, almost zero maintenance and same simplicity of using a hopper with a stoker stove or you can use a hand fired for a stove that isn't dependent on electricity to provide heat.

 

[shaggyant]

A coal stoker is a better choice, IMO. Highest BTU per unit output of almost any fuel solid or otherwise, almost zero maintenance and same simplicity of using a hopper with a stoker stove or you can use a hand fired for a stove that isn't dependent on electricity to provide heat.

It’s great when you have coal close by. It’s the cheapest $$ wise per btu of anything out there. In my situation on the West coast there is no easy coal supply close to me.

 

[biggziff]

It’s great when you have coal close by. It’s the cheapest $$ wise per btu of anything out there. In my situation on the West coast there is no easy coal supply close to me.

That is a problem for sure. If there isn't demand for Anthracite in your area it can be pricey. Up here we have mines and breakers less than an hour away. I heat my home for about $300 a year (oil hydronic is now the backup) with coal and I don't care what temps my wife and daughters set it to.

 

[yeldogt]

yeah I hear ya, I couldn't imagine heating with wood either.......it's a lot of work.
at 68 the pellets are getting to be a lot of work, I've went from 12/13 tons a year to 3 or 4 tons but a lot that has to do with the propane prices falling over the years from about 2.75/ gallon to last year I pre bought at 1.27/gallon

Hay .... who does not like nice fire burning in a great fireplace on a cold snowy day. I get it .. but a wood or pellet stove ?? not the same. And we all know that a true fireplace is not really getting you lots of BTU's.

I get that free wood will save you money -- but that's really what it's about and the work is never factored in. Plus .. it's dirty. I'm glad we have been lucky with cheaper energy.

 

[LEVE]

You're still lugging around wood (pellets), are at the mercy of the folks that make the pellets, and if you lose electric power the stove doesn't work

I've heated with pellets for about over 15 years. I've used exclusively Quadrafire stoves that I've picked up used. They were inexpensive because the stoves circuit boards were bad. I easily fixed the PCB's and always have kept an extra PCB in stock as well as an ignitor. I use a wireless thermostat located across the room to keep the temp even.

My next stove will likely be a "WiseWay" Pellet stove that does not need electricity.

Here in my little town on the coast, I can often buy good burning pellets for $3.85 a bag. That's a considerable savings over electric heat for the month.

As for heating with wood, I did that for a quarter of a century. I'd have a logging truck dump a load of logs in the back of my acre. I'd buck it up over the summer and stack it to dry. That would last a few years.

Now that I'm older, I appreciate having a bag to carry in... no chainsaw, no rolling logs onto the ankle, etc.. I appreciate not having to locate, cut, transport and stack the wood. I can easily keep three tons of pellets dry outside my back door. It's nice to know I have stored a winter's supply of heat for a reasonable cost.

 

[larry4406]

I've heated with pellets for about over 15 years. I've used exclusively Quadrafire stoves that I've picked up used. They were inexpensive because the stoves circuit boards were bad. I easily fixed the PCB's and always have kept an extra PCB in stock as well as an ignitor. I use a wireless thermostat located across the room to keep the temp even.

My next stove will likely be a "WiseWay" Pellet stove that does not need electricity.

Here in my little town on the coast, I can often buy good burning pellets for $3.85 a bag. That's a considerable savings over electric heat for the month.

As for heating with wood, I did that for a quarter of a century. I'd have a logging truck dump a load of logs in the back of my acre. I'd buck it up over the summer and stack it to dry. That would last a few years.

Now that I'm older, I appreciate having a bag to carry in... no chainsaw, no rolling logs onto the ankle, etc.. I appreciate not having to locate, cut, transport and stack the wood. I can easily keep three tons of pellets dry outside my back door. It's nice to know I have stored a winter's supply of heat for a reasonable cost.

I’m 55 and currently do the wood splitting thing with a friend. I can understand when I get older that the pellet stove might be easier.

 

[danfromsyr]

did fire wood for 30years of my first 40years in life..
would go thru 15-18face cord a year. essentially about a face cord a week on avg for the heating season.



sure the heat isn't the same but I get to spend my days & weekends doing other things than sourcing and handling fire wood. costs well even free firewood isn't free. and once I grew tired of the logs&chainsaw routine and had green wood delivered 2years in advance.. then moved the mouse infested wood each fall to the porch..
porch only held ~12fc.. so always had wet or snowy wood to move at the end of the season as well.

now I go thru 3tons of wood pellets. a bag a day on average.

I keep 1 ton ~50bags in the attached garage and don't have to dig any out of the snowbank in the middle or end of winter. my local country Maxx offers a buy & hold program for pellets.. so I buy my 3 tons and swing by and pick up 10-25 bags when the garage gets low.. it's good for them cause they get you back into the store a few times and good for me cause I don't have to trip over the extra pellets.. I drive by the store weekly anyways.

living in an old uninsulated farm house has it's space heating challenges.. and Nat gas heat is wicked away too fast.. can't afford it always on..
the pellet stove runs constant.. so while only 36kbtu. it's on every minute all day.. so overall there's no ebb&flow of heat to cold to heat to cold to heat to cold of the Nat gas furnace.