Pellet Furnace (apartment, house, buy)

[wnalley]

I saw on an old thread someone was asking about stoves and got a lot of responses so I was wondering if someone can answer about furnaces..

We also have a 3000sq ft home but are putting in a pellet furnace.. Does anyone have any idea how many tons of pellets we may need?

[Northern Maine Land Man]

That answer depends entirely on the insulation quality of your home. Older homes are not well insulated.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by wnalley

I saw on an old thread someone was asking about stoves and got a lot of responses so I was wondering if someone can answer about furnaces..

We also have a 3000sq ft home but are putting in a pellet furnace.. Does anyone have any idea how many tons of pellets we may need?

On average from what I have been told by people who own these stoves plan on two tons if it's run as a supplememtal stove and four if it is primary heat. As NMLM points out insulation, run time and outside temperatures will of course be a factor. Mind you these figures are for a pellet stove not a furnace. I'm sure a furnace/boiler would use more fuel.
I burn wood to supplement an oil boiler. In the winter of 2008-2009 I burned nearly 5 cords. Last winter I only burned about 1 1/2 cords. It warmed up around here toward the end of January and stayed warm. Plus we installed a new furnace in 2009 which helped immensely. Our place is 2500 square feet, older construction, not so good insulation, but we do have new replacement windows.

[foxywench]

well we have 3 pellet stoves in our house, all 3 harman brand, and our house is about 2500 sqft, we have one upstairs that heats the entire upper level, 1 downstairs that heats most of the lower level (would heat the entirety but i keep my apartment closed off.
and the 3rd is in my 500sqft there abouts apartment.

our house is about 27 years old.
we go through about 2 tonnes of pellets in a typical connecticut season...or at least we did last year. we had new windows put in in the spring and are expecting that number to drop to about 1 1/2 ton.
we have electric baseboard heat and NEVER use it. so our stoves are our main heat source.

given your extra square footage, and your in maine, is say expect 4 ton if your house is well insulated and you put it on a thermostat. BUT id get 6 ton in as a just in case. we ALWAYS buy more than we think we'll need, just keep them dry and they will last indefinatly.
pellet stoves and furnaces work best when used on a thermostat and more so when kept clean.

we LOVE our stoves, our heating bill, even with the cost of pellets is 1/4 of what it was with electric baseboard and we still use electric for water/cooking.
we make sure to do a good scraping daily and a good full clean bi-weekly. might be more frequently with a furnace. the waste however is minimal, we end up only emptying the ash mabe every other week and thats with the stoves on most of the time...they are incredibly efficient with fule (and the ash is good on compost piles)

my suggestion if your looking into a pellet stove however would be to look into a multi fule pellet stove, they can burn regular pellets but can also burn corn, walnut and more, that way if theres ever a pellet shortage you can always get other fule in.