Revisiting pellet stoves in June (transplants, how much, house)

[lisa g]

We need to find an alternative or at least supplemental method of home heating. I remembered someone (buck?) posting about installing a pellet stove long ago and wondered whether anyone has installed one in the basement providing heat through air ducts. If so, any recommendations or tips - aside from shrink-wrapping the windows would be greatly appreciated! I can't stomach the amount of $ we spend in oil and find it possibly more disgusting than our old CA electric bill.
Thanks!

[daniellefort]

Have you considered a wood stove instead? A pellet stove requires power so if your power goes out, your pellet stove goes out too. My brother considered this and went with a wood stove instead. The cost of buying the pellets, use of power and possibility of losing electricity and your heat veered him to going to wood stove. It heats his entire home upstairs and downstaris quite well. Just a thought. I don't know much else about them. Just what my brother told me about them.

My sister also has a wood stove to heat her 2 story home. The only oil they used lst winter was for the water heater and even that had a lower setting on it where it was adjusted to come on certain times of the day.

[quadmommy121203]

I dont really have any information to give you, but we are looking into it as well. With the current cost of oil still going up, I cant imagine the amount of money I will spend next year.

It seems to me the pellet furnace is the way to go. We are probably going to have one installed. We looked into the pellet stove and decided it would take up too much space in our living room.

[Colebrook]

Quadmommy,
We have a pellet stove in our family room that is just wonderful. I have the circuit that it is plugged into set up with my generator. We also have an old time kitchen cook stove in the kitchen, that takes the chill off in the morning.Wood stoves are a bit of work were as the pellet stove is relativly easy. You pour a 40lb bag of pellets into the hopper and it's good for 20-24 hours. With a pellet stove any out side wall can be used to vent out of, where as a wood stove has to have a chimney. We really like our pellet stove.

[buck naked]

we went with pellet because the stove was a gift :>



haven't fired it up yet, plan to install it over this summer and be ready for winter's (bad word)......you know.


I'll let you know how well it works but I have high expectations. Anything is better than doing nothing. We are already passive solar and that works amazing well.

[notdancingqueen]

We are new to the whole supplemental heating thing (transplants from Maryland) and will be getting either a wood stove or a pellet stove. There is a hearth in place already for it and I believe a chimney right there -- so wood or pellet would work from that aspect.

I didn't think about a pellet stove needing a power source...that's something to consider. Anything else to think about in choosing between since the chimney isn't an issue?

[bryfry]

OK, lets do some math. You use a bag a day, essentially, and what do they cost? If you use $5/bag as a low baseline, you're spending $35/week or $150.50 a month ($35 x 4.3 weeks/month). That's $827.75 per winter season (approx 5.5 months). Remember that is on the low side. Depending on the quantity (per ton or by the bag), the prices can fluctuate between $5 and $10 a bag. So you may spend upwards of $1500 if you are not buying right.

You also have to factor in the price of the stove itself. These can run from $1300 to $2500 depending on the model and features. If you purchase one for $2k, for the sake of arguement let's divide the cost over two winters. That's about $182 per month. So add that to the cost of the pellets per month and you get $332.50/month over a two winter period (remember-it's on the low side). Unless you completely shut off the main heating system, it will run, but at a limited fuel usage. So, then you have to factor that monthly fuel use into the equation.

As you can see, there are things to concider. Due to the potential high cost of these things, it will take a few winters to reap any monetary benefit. I'm not against them; I burned wood almost all of my life. I just got rid of my wood stove because after renevating the room it was in, I didn't want it to get sooty and dirty again before I try to sell. Wood stoves are a lot of work and they can get the house dirty. If you have to buy the cord wood, well you might as well do with out it. I've always gotten my wood for free, but I had to work at it-cut, split, stack, season it, etc.

No matter what you decide, there are factors to bare in mind. Keep it all in perspective and use your head, that's all.

[lisa g]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Bry, thanks for the reality check

[Colebrook]

I just bought a ton of wood pellets for $220. There are 50 bags to a ton. Depending on what you set your feed to the stove at or set the thermostat at is really what determines how much you use. We use a little less some times more but averages out at about a bag a day. So for about $4.40 you stay warm for the day.

[ConwayNative]

I ran two pellet stoves last year. One in the basement, one on the main level. My house is about 2200 sqft. I went through 5.5 tons. I bought most of it for around $210 per ton. I figured this saved me about $1400 over my previous years where I used a gas furnace and a wood stove on the main level.

I did not tie my basement stove into the duct work, but thought about it.