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01/27/2008 03:19:24 PM · #1 |
We are looking at our heating options and are considering a wood pellet fire. They are pretty new here but if I believe all the advertising reasonably common in the US.
Do you have one?
What have been the advantages and disadvantages?
Have you heard anything about them?
Any information would be helpful :) |
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01/27/2008 03:33:44 PM · #2 |
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Message edited by author 2008-01-27 16:48:12. |
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01/27/2008 03:34:02 PM · #3 |
Search "wood pellet heat" on Google. We do not use heat here in Florida much, so I have never heard of this before now. There are a lot of sites on Google.
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01/27/2008 03:52:32 PM · #4 |
If you have some acreage, you can also burn corn in them. grow your own.
I would love to have a pellet set up. My old boss' brother had his set up for corn. Huge bin incorporated into the side of his house, so only had to fill it once a year (besides cleaning).
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01/27/2008 04:36:53 PM · #5 |
Yes I have googled them within NZ but theres nothing like peoples personal thoughts :) Sadly we dont have land to grow corn on but thats an interesting idea!
For those interested heres a link to a kiwi company that sells the fires and pellets here |
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01/27/2008 04:47:11 PM · #6 |
| i know someone who had his gas fireplace converted and installed a pellet stove. he loves it. says it keeps them warm and is much more economical than gas. |
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01/27/2008 05:18:31 PM · #7 |
| so i understand from friends pellets aren't cheep as coal but cheeper than gas |
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01/27/2008 05:59:13 PM · #8 |
Pellet stoves are fairly common where I live. They are very efficient.
There are several varieties of stoves.
Pellet stoves are usually a parlor style stove - relatively small, comparable to a small wood stove, but can
generate higher levels of heat.
The pellets are usually made of an extruded wood base (sawdust & a binder). Other types of extruded pellets include products made from a numerous materials - cherry pits (from Michigan, they must smell good) & grass to name two that I have seen on the market.
Multifuel stoves, usually referred to as corn stoves, are a different kind. They are usually more robust construction than a pellet stove. The technology is a little different. Multifuel stoves are the kind that usually are made into a furnace style, which can easily heat an entire home.
Multifuel stoves can burn corn or pellets or a mixture of both.
As for the fuel in either stove the moisture content must be low. For example regular corn right out of the field is usually unsuitable, as it must be dried.
Currently, unless you are a farmer and grow corn, the price is very high, and many people are burning only pellets.
The price of pellets is about $4.00 for a 40lb bag, and in Wisconsin, expect to burn a bag a day. |
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01/27/2008 06:19:07 PM · #9 |
I have a wood pellet stove, about 12 yrs old, came with the house. I can tell you how mine works but keep in mind it is an older model, so details for operating yours may vary. My house is an 1879 brick house with a crawlspace in which I have just added a heater, and the house also has baseboard units.
Advantages: Very good as a secondary heat source. Fill the hopper with wood pellets (about $5 Cdn per 40 lb bag, get them by the 1/2 or full pallet). Put about a small handful of pellets in the firebox, add a squirt of firestarter gel, set alight (I use matches). Close the door, turn on power, set the auger (rate at which pellets are dispensed), open the flue and enjoy! Put a little Ecofan on top and it spins around dispersing heat from stove.
Disadvantages: Must clean out ashes frequently, ie about after every 2 burns or so. Can be messy!!! I am now in the habit of cleaning it and starting fire in morning BEFORE shower so I can wash off any soot etc and not get it on clean clothes. I didn't get an instruction manual with mine and previous knuckledragger owners spray-painted over instructions with stove paint, so had to learn by trial and error which buttons to push and how to set dials. Also must plug it in order for it to work. Firestarter gel not expensive but it is another product to buy.
I don't know where you live, but for insurance reasons I had to get my stove WETT certified as it burns a wood-based product. So a local stove guy had to come over and check that it was installed properly, adequate distance from walls etc.
Hope this helps! Feel free to PM me with further questions.
Message edited by author 2008-01-27 18:22:52. |
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01/27/2008 11:25:40 PM · #10 |
| Thanks for all comments so far :) |
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01/28/2008 08:18:15 AM · #11 |
I researched them when I was looking for an alternative to using Fuel Oil due to the expense.
They look to be really nice as far as heat output for dollar spent. However, they do need to be cleaned (turned off and let cool) every so often and this was a big deterrent to me. I needed heat all the time. Also, at $4/bag, they do get to be a bit expensive compared to other options. However, they don't require a chimney. The real down side is that you have to keep the pellets very dry.
I ended up skipping the pellet stove and going with a coal stove. It looks just like a pellet stove but I never have to turn it off to clean. I fill the hopper with coal and it burns all day. Plus, around here, coal is about $10 for a 100 lb bag. I also got a Power Vent so I don't need a chimney. The selling point was also that I could keep coal for years. It can get wet and it doesn't expire or go bad. Therefore, I can keep it in a big stack in my barn.
I'm in Upstate NY (Binghamton, NY) area and our temps are pretty cold for most of the winter. Last year, I spent under $400 to heat my home to 68 degrees F all winter. This year is slightly warmer. Thus far, I've burned around 1300 lbs of coal (for a total cost of $130).
Pellet stoves are nice, but lighting them and cleaning them get old pretty fast. Granted, lighting a coal stove is a royal pain -- but I do it once a year.
Good luck with your choices! |
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01/28/2008 01:18:34 PM · #12 |
I had one for years at my old home before I remarried and moved to MA. I loved it, and miss it still.
-Pellet storage is a huge pain, and was the biggest issue I had. I would keep them on a covered porch and they pretty much took over the entire room until spring. One bag is pretty heavy, and it took a little getting used too to lift them into the hopper. I invested in a loading dolly and would keep 5 or six bags in the living room at a time rather than carrying one heavy bag across the house all the time.
-Getting pellets delivered early in the season saves a huge pain in the rear later on. My tiny ranch would use about 3 pallets of bags a year and less after I bought "corner fans" to mount in doorway corners to help circulate air down to the far end of the house. (I may be wrong on that figure, its been a few years and I forget) Get them all set up and moved to where you will be storing them before the snow flies because carrying 300 40lb bags across a snowy/icy walk is no fun at all.
-The dust from the bags is messy, as well as ashes when you empty the pan. You need a place you can get rid of the ashes too, and if anyone tells you to use them on your driveway as ice melt ... it only tracks soot-mud all over your house. LOL
-The quality of the pellets = the number of times you have to empty the hopper. Cheaper pellets make more ash and are less efficient. I was told that there is no difference in the amount of burn time between the higher quality and the lower one, and while there wasn't much there WAS a longer burn time on the better quality pellet. Mostly you only had to change the ash bucket every two weeks rather than every two days.
-Be careful when you empty the ashes. The bucket was hot and frequently there were banked hot coals in the ashes itself. I managed to burn down my compost bin one morning because of that.
-Unlike a woodstove, when the power goes out so does your heat. The burner wont go if the hopper isn't turning in new fuel and keeping the fan blowing. I bought a boat battery with a converter and used that as an emergency backup system for when we lost power (which was quite a bit out in the woods where we were in NH).
I'll add more as I think of them...
Message edited by author 2008-01-28 13:26:21. |
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