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I recently saw some pellet heaters.
They seemed nice.
We have a couple acres in the PNW with 2 houses.
Calling it 2 houses is a stretch because one of them is actually a large artist shop with a large loft bedroom.
So the places are about 1,600 with very tall ceilings.
The shop has electric wall heating.
The main house has electric wall heating, a wood burning stove and a propane fireplace insert with a blower.
I really am not a fan of electrical heating.
I just think it is not safe.
We are on propane but never use it.
There is no natural gas here.
I was thinking about switching out my propane fireplace insert with a pellet stove heater.
I like my wood burning stove but it has no blower and is a chore to start early in the morning when I am feeling lazy.
I was thinking about using my wood burning stove less and using the pellet fireplace because it seems easier and more efficient.
My father in law used to live close by and he had a heat pump.
I never thought it worked well so I don’t want to go there.
Have any of you used a pellet heater or been in a similar situation?
"I like my wood burning stove but it has no blower and is a chore to start early in the morning when I am feeling lazy."
IMO....If you have to "start" your woodstove every morning, you may have the wrong stove, or wrong fuel for your situation. Any top rated free standing wood stove or fireplace insert should be capable of retaining a good bed of coals overnight, so all it takes is stoking with more wood in the morning.
I looked at both pellet and wood stoves for our home, and settled on wood insert (with 2 speed blower) as it fit our situation best. Availability of fuel source, type, size of home, ease of loading fuel into stove, and the ability of holding a fire overnight should be important considerations when choosing a stove.
I recently saw some pellet heaters.
They seemed nice.
We have a couple acres in the PNW with 2 houses.
Calling it 2 houses is a stretch because one of them is actually a large artist shop with a large loft bedroom.
So the places are about 1,600 with very tall ceilings.
The shop has electric wall heating.
The main house has electric wall heating, a wood burning stove and a propane fireplace insert with a blower.
I really am not a fan of electrical heating.
I just think it is not safe.
We are on propane but never use it.
There is no natural gas here.
I was thinking about switching out my propane fireplace insert with a pellet stove heater.
I like my wood burning stove but it has no blower and is a chore to start early in the morning when I am feeling lazy.
I was thinking about using my wood burning stove less and using the pellet fireplace because it seems easier and more efficient.
My father in law used to live close by and he had a heat pump.
I never thought it worked well so I don’t want to go there.
Have any of you used a pellet heater or been in a similar situation?
Thank you.
Andy.
I hate pellet stoves. We rented a house with one for a year and a half (two winters). Contrary to claims they are “clean burning,” the fan they use to move warm air out sends a lot of dust into the air. This does vary by pellet quality, but they all put out more fine dust than you might realize. The better pellets cost more, of course.
They do use electricity—not the same as using a wood stove!
Tbey suck because if the pellets in the hopper run out while you are away, the stove keeps trying to start the nonexistent pellets, which consumes a shocking amount of electricity. AND the house gets cold while you run up the electric bill! Ask me how I know this.
We put in electric heaters (the pick-a-watt blown air kind and the convection kind) in the house and a room off the garage, plus propane parlor stove for the living/kitchen area of the house and propane radiant heater for the garage bay. We learned long ago to have backup heat types in case of power outages or propane running out (though this never happened to us). Also on hand for emergencies or spot heating sre rollable oil-filled radiators and small Mr. Buddy Heater units (which use propane canisters).
The propane heaters are champs during power outages. Even if you need to ignite the stove or the radiant garage heater, it can be done with a BBQ grill lighter. Forget about watching the digital thermostats while power is out, though.
Electric heating is safer than any fuel-burning heater (hardwired, those portables are deathtraps!)
Quote:
Originally Posted by MechAndy
I like my wood burning stove but it has no blower and is a chore to start early in the morning when I am feeling lazy.
I have a classic wood stove, isn't meant to burn unattended. Pellet stoves are slightly better in this regard, needing a bit of manual labor at least every few days, won't keep the house from freezing if you go away for a 4-day weekend.
And as mentioned above, nearly all pellet stoves require a constant source of electricity to run -- if utility power goes out, you have no heat (there are a few models that can run off a car battery as a backup power source, good for about one day).
Quote:
Originally Posted by MechAndy
The shop has electric wall heating. The main house has electric wall heating, a wood burning stove and a propane fireplace insert with a blower.
I really am not a fan of electrical heating. I just think it is not safe.
. . .
I was thinking about using my wood burning stove less and using the pellet fireplace because it seems easier and more efficient.
Which safety concern? Hardwired electric heat (resistive or heat pump), properly installed and maintained, is the safest heating source; the least likely to cause a fire or to kill/maim with fumes. But electric heat is also really, really expensive up here in Northern New England.
In terms of "efficiency" (cost per delivered BTU), it's difficult to beat a modern wood stove, as pellets have similar energy per pound as "compressed wood logs" or a good seasoned hardwood, but tend to cost more per pound than cordwood.
As for easy and efficient, maybe try running your wood stove on 100% pressed wood "logs"? (see below)
Quote:
Originally Posted by gemstone1
IMO....If you have to "start" your woodstove every morning, you may have the wrong stove, or wrong fuel for your situation. Any top rated free standing wood stove or fireplace insert should be capable of retaining a good bed of coals overnight, so all it takes is stoking with more wood in the morning.
I looked at both pellet and wood stoves for our home, and settled on wood insert (with 2 speed blower) as it fit our situation best. Availability of fuel source, type, size of home, ease of loading fuel into stove, and the ability of holding a fire overnight should be important considerations when choosing a stove.
I mostly burn seasoned hardwood splits in my wood stove, but I don't always like going out in the snow to get wood so I also have an indoor stockpile of compressed wood logs/bricks, basically super-jumbo sized wood pellets (sold under the names CanaWick, EcoBrick, BioBrick, etc).
They're pure wood, ground up and run through a press just like the pellets, only bigger. Less work than cordwood, and if you buy early in the season, sometimes less expensive than seasoned hardwood (again, in $/BTU). You still need to load the stove regularly and clean out the ash, but that's true of pellet stoves also.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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We have each (pellet and wood) in our PNW home with climate extremes (Lots of 80 mph winds below freezing + freezing rain)
The pellet stove is a very high end model, but it is really just a 'heater'. (same as electric or gas heater)
Definitely not the ambiance or intensity / thermal mass / effective warmth ('feels like') of wood heat.
Of course if you don't have the time to cut 7 cords of wood / yr.
Once in a 'keeper home' spend the $ to add a Russian / Scandinavian masonry fireplace (Thermal mass). Some 'stoves' are built on that concept and are much better than conventional wood stoves. Our 'Fireplace Extraordinaire' (WA produced) creates a positive pressure interior of home, forcing leaks OUT rather than IN. It is pretty capable and has run non-stop during winter for 30 yrs. BUT... it burns far more wood than a Russian style (Which thrive on free pallets). Our neighbors only have to run their Russian fireplace 1-2x / week, while mine is running 24x7.
We have a wood stove that heats water. The heated water circulates to a thermal-bank, from which it then circulates through our radiant heated floors. Our entire house [2400 sq ft] is one single loop. We love this setup.
I have been reading about non-electric pellet stoves. I like that idea.
I would suggest that you first look at non-electric pellet stoves, and then talk to a couple o fyour local handymen. See if there is any model of pellet stove that they could modify to heat flowing water.
When the power goes out you lose the circulator pumps, but at least the fire will continue uneffected.
Make sure that each loop has a pressure-relief valve.
non-electric pellet stove and the "Burn Back" hazard
Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner
I have been reading about non-electric pellet stoves. I like that idea.
I've seen mixed reviews on the two models available currently.
Seems like non-electric pellet stove have most of the same drawbacks of a cordwood-burning stove/insert, require more maintenance, and pellets usually cost more than hardwood (in dollars-per-delivered-BTU)?
Breckwells are nice, Clarrys are ugly, Rileys are kind of neat. The La Nordicas work well too.
Quote:
... Seems like non-electric pellet stove have most of the same drawbacks of a cordwood-burning stove/insert, require more maintenance, and pellets usually cost more than hardwood (in dollars-per-delivered-BTU)?
Cutting, splitting and stacking firewood is always cheaper than buying a bag of pellets in a store twice a week.
Pellets require a factory to mill the wood pulp, blend with binders and make the pellets. Then you still need the plastic bags, etc.
I have known people who like the convenience of pouring a bag of pellets into a hopper, as compared to handling firewood. They say it keeps their homes cleaner.
I really like my wood burning stove.
It looks beautiful and fits well in our place.
It actually has a spot for a blower but I’m thinking that since it’s 25 or so years old finding one would be tough but I could probably build one.
The fireplace insert on the other hand is weak or lame at best.
The facia and all the nice trim work that surrounds it is absolutely awesome and goes up near 30 feet.
I just don’t dig that insert and want to upgrade it.
That is why I was thinking of a pellet heater.
I would like not to modify that wall.
Our first house was only heated by a wood burner stove.
I had to travel to the east coast for work or lose my house so my wife had to heat it, juggle a 4 month old child and go to work.
Thank god we had good hardwood and coal to survive.
Good wood can last all night but we don’t have that here.
In WA we only have softwood or compressed rolled sawdust logs to heat with.
I won’t cut my madrones for heating because they are just to nice.
My CA neighbor lost his house due to electric wall heating and being not properly insured.
His son left a towel on the bathroom door knob after a shower and just went to town for a minute.
That destroyed that family .
Submariner I dig you floor heating idea.
We had to heat our water heater in Germany with wood.
I have installed electric floor heating before in bathrooms and like it.
StealthRabbit any chance you could send me a link or point me in a good direction?
Thanks.
Still all in all I just want easy peasy heating.
Still scratching my head but I think I’m getting closer.
... The fireplace insert on the other hand is weak or lame at best.
Whenever someone mentions a fireplace insert, I picture a 30 ton mass of stone masonry that sits 3/4 outside. That you try to heat so it can radiate heat to the great outdoors.
In the old tymes home builders used to set wood framing directly onto that masonry, full knowing that every time the fireplace heats up it is heating the wood framing that its in direct contact with the heated mass. Modern fire codes forbid that practice, as it should. But every year we see news articles about house fires where the arson investigator says the heated components were in direct contact with wood framing, and obviously the house caught on fire. No big surprise.
Brother Ben Franklin invented the potbelly stove, to bring the heated components indoors. So all sides of the firebox can radiate heat into your house.
The other thing that I notice is many people place a woodstove against an exterior wall. So they can heat that exterior wall. I guess it is so folks passing by with infrared visors can more easily spot the house.
Our woodstove is located dead center of our house, and it has a ceiling fan suspended directly above it. OMG that thing pushes heat out in all directions.
Quote:
... Submariner I dig you floor heating idea.
We had to heat our water heater in Germany with wood.
I have installed electric floor heating before in bathrooms and like it.
One time I went skiing in the Swiss Alps, the room I stayed in has heated towel racks. I loved that idea.
At the next apartment building that we bought, when I was replacing the baseboard heat units I ran the copper pipe up waist high and made towel racks in the bathrooms of each apartment.
After I retired, and started building our homestead. I made a large heated towel rack in our house suitable for hanging all of our rain gear and snow suits.
When you have a system of heated water flowing through pipes, you can do all sorts of cool fun things with that heated pipe.
Another topic. Most heating systems try to heat the air mass in a house. When you heat the floor of a house, it changes the dynamics of your lifestyle. It has been -20f outside and blowing snow, and we have noticed that when someone opens the door, our house does not get cold quickly. Normally you would see a gust of cold air rush into the house, and all of your warm air would flow out. But that doesn't happen when you have a heated floor.
Last winter, we had a visitor who brought with her a 7yo daughter. The 7yo wanted to run inside and outside leaving the door open. The visitor was horrified. But we kind of made an experiment of it. We sat with our coffee cups and watched, to see how long it would take for each of us to feel the -20F air that should have blown in. It took an extraordinary long time before the house lost any heat.
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Electric heating is safer than any fuel-burning heater (hardwired, those portables are deathtraps!)
non-electric pellet stove and the "Burn Back" hazard
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