wood burning stoves or pellet stoves? (credit, house, buy)

[Sweets1446]

Just wondering if any of you have experience with wood or pellet stoves. I do not have a fireplace in my home and I am looking to cut back on my heating bills next winter.

Pellet stoves are convenient and cleaner burning than wood stoves, but pellets are hard to come by and they use electricity. Wood stoves are more maintenance, but I have two trees that may need to come down (too close to the house) so I would have some decent firewood on hand by next winter.

Just looking for some opinions, thanks for your help.

[Gessa]

I would ask this Q in the Green Forum.

[joe moving]

you got it right.

if you can handle the wood , go for it.

If you can't handle the wood (think about chopping, splitting, loading, starting up a fire, keeping it going, etc...) i would look at price differences between a propane stove and pellet stove. Pellets are $ and still require maintenance.

wood is the cheapest, gas stoves are not much more. pellet stoves are most expensive.

gas stoves don't require any maintenance really. if you get natural gas to the house this is a no brainer . Wood has a nice ambiance but is a lotof work. pellet stoves require maintenance too.

i personally wouldnt worry about wood's emissions too much. a Hot fire is pretty clean and you are burning a fuel source that can regenerate itself almost as far as you are burning it (not like, OIL, for example)

Check to see about rebates here:
Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency : ENERGY STAR

Stove which burns biomass fuel5 to heat a home or heat water.



Stove which burns biomass fuel5 to heat a home or heat water.

Thermal efficiency rating of at least 75% as measured using a lower heating value.


I do not know if any wood burners are 75% Or pellet stoves for that matter....?????

[Badday]

This thread is a little off for me, but I use to live in Jersey, now relocated for many years, but I have a wood stove, so I thought I might comment. I burn wood and pellets in my stove, I just throw in pellets as I am burning the wood, but there isn't much cost savings between the two, I also buy my wood already split and delivered, only hardwood of course. Shop around in your area, and ask other people who use wood stoves, pellet stoves and such. From my experience a pellet stove will work fine, if your house is well insulated and not a lot of drafts, because a pellet stove uses heat from inside the stove and relys on fans to blow it out, as a wood stove uses radient heat and is actually easier to get the heat really going on a really cold day. You might also check on ventless gas heaters, I have heard since they don't have a flew or chimney you get most of the heat and it doesn't go up the chimney, so it is suppose to save you money. Check it out.

[Alex07860]

I have a wood/coal stove that I use every winter. I can't comment on Pellet since I've never used them but yes, wood is a lot of work to start it, but once you get it going, you get a nice heat, it does help if your home is nicely insulated or if the room is not huge. We usually buy a cord of wood every winter which runs us about $180 - $200 and it lasts all winter long for us, but again, all we're using it for is for our family room which is a nice big room (22 x 28). Hope that helps.