Pellet stove, inserts... worth it? What kind? Help!!

[sewpeaceful]

Okay, after a year in New England and a LONG winter and rising oil prices with no hope of them getting better, we are looking at alternatives to heat our home. Our biggest challenge, as it turns out, is that the main living area of our home (not the basement) is 2700 sqft. The house is going on 11 years old.

 

We started seriously looking at pellet stoves yesterday (nonstop research, went to a store, the works). We are focusing on inserts given we have a fireplace. What we are discovering is there aren't a lot of units designed for a house as large as ours.

 

We are not looking to replace the oil furnace, just do something to prevent it from coming on so much! Last year's oil bill was $4,200 and it is expected to be significantly worse this year.

 

If you have a pellet stove, what do you like? hate?

 

If your stove runs well and is easy/manageable, what brand model do you have?

 

If you hate your stove and have done nothing but fight with it, what model do you have?

 

If you considered a pellet stove and opted NOT to get one, what did you decide to do instead?

 

Has anyone had success running a heat pump to cut oil bills? But I hear they aren't as efficient or useful at below 30 degrees... December, January, and half of February had highs in the single digits. Sigh... my falls and springs are gorgeous?? :)

 

Guys, we can't continue to feed this tank all winter. Each fill up hits about $800-$900 every 4-6 weeks and the prices are only getting worse. A pallet of pellets run about $270 and last the same 4-6 weeks.

 

Help. :bigear:

[Parrothead]

Ours in an insert and it is a Harmon stove product. It is old. It might actually be replaced this year because something quit on it at the end of winter and it doesn't run. Hopefully my landlord gets on the ball since I do not want to have to heat this house built in 1890 with oil.

 

Of the two Harmon inserts available today mine looks like it is the size of the smaller one. We have 2400 square feet but it is 2 story and we use small electric heaters in the bedrooms if needed. It does stay cool in my house. If people come over I tell them to bring/wear a sweater. I'm not one that believes in wearing shorts and tanks in the winter and having the heat set on 75*F. It is winter and 63*F indoors is quite warm enough if one dresses appropriately.

 

This keeps the cost of both pellets and oil reasonable. We use 3 pallets of pellets and 1-2 tanks of oil.

[Chris in VA]

Hi--I know you pm'd me, but I have to clean out my message box to reply! So just wanted to say I'll get back to you when dh comes home, as he knows far more than I do.

[vettechmomof2]

We heat with coal. LOVE IT!

Easy to care for and maintain. If the power goes out we still have heat. With our old pellet stove we did not.

We built to coal bins in our garage and go through a little over 4 tons per cold season. It costs us a smidgen over $1,000.00(1,052 I think). We heat with nothing else.

We have a 2 story house with garage/basement and attic. It is 2,000 sq. ft. The only room it doesn't heat well is our downstairs bathroom and that is because the people who added it on before we bought the house did not insulate it. So the heat just leaks out.

[CalicoKat]

:lurk5:

[KathyBC]

We removed the pellet stove that was in this house because you need to buy both pellets and pay for electricity to run the auger and the fan. We also wanted a way to keep warm when the power is out. Other complaints I've heard is that they can be noisy and some can have trouble with the auger jamming.

 

Depending on the specifics of where you live - by-laws, fire insurance, wood availability - wood heat in your basement could heat your whole house. You could perhaps tie in to your exisiting chimney? and keep the wood and dust downstairs.

[Liz CA]

We had a pellet stove. Here are a few points:

 

It did heat pretty well and ours had a big enough hopper to run through the night.

 

Dirt/Debris around the stove area is a little less than with a wood stove (in our case at least :001_smile:)

 

When the power goes, so does the pellet stove because the auger is dependent on electricity.

 

If you want to be truly independent of any energy source, I'd go with a wood stove. No matter what goes, you still have heat. You can even boil water on top of a wood stove. The pellet stove never got hot enough on the outside for that. The heat comes from a vent like area and is blown out - at least ours functioned that way.

 

Check out http://www.jotul.com Great stoves in various sizes.

[RoughCollie]

I don't know if it makes a difference, but we live in a 90+ year old stone house. Things might be different for pellet stoves that are installed in modern housing.

 

We have a pellet stove. If the power goes out, we can't run it. We could get a battery for it, which costs $600! A small generator costs about that much.

 

It took a few months for me to become a pellet stove expert. I used the owner's manual and online sources to figure things out because, IMO, our stove has quirks.

 

Our stove vents through the wall behind it. This vent is about 6" from the dryer vent. This is a mistake because the dryer will get ash in it when the wind blows. This happens to me only when the dryer is empty, because I actually check whether it is windy before I dry clothes in the winter. I clean the dryer by putting a wet bath towel in it and turning it on. The towel is washed immediately after it has done its job.

 

The biggest problem we have is pellet storage. There are hundreds of 40 lb bags. We do not want them too far from the house on freezing cold, snowy days. The first year, we stored them on pallets outside the basement door, covered with a tarp. Last year, we stored them in the basement, which is convenient, but takes up a lot of space.

 

The second biggest problem is the stove itself. We have a Breckwell Big E. We rent this house, and if I were to buy a pellet stove, it would not be a Breckwell. The ash drawers cost $100, and we go through one a season. The welding on the seams doesn't hold and ashes and lit pellets go through the cracks and bounce off the fireproof stand onto the carpet.

 

The third biggest problem, in this house, is that the stove is in the basement. Although it is supposed to heat the entire house, it doesn't. It sort of heats the first floor, and the second floor is freezing cold. We use the oil heat at night and turn the pellet stove off. We use safe space heaters in the areas that are still cold, because the oil heat doesn't work in every room either.

 

We use a wet/dry vac with an ash filter to vacuum out the stove every day. A regular vacuum cleaner, no matter how wonderful, will not work because the stray pellets will jam it up and ash will clog the filter. It will take a couple of hours to return a regular vacuum cleaner to working order after having used it to clean out a pellet stove.

 

There are round bars above the fire compartment which have a stick thing that I pull out to clean them. That is not enough. There is a lot of ash in that upper compartment -- I use a paint brush to clean it out during the weekly cleaning.

 

Wear old clothes when you do the daily cleaning. Ash does not readily come out of clothing. Daily cleaning and filling the stove takes 10-15 minutes. Weekly cleaning takes me about an hour, and I am thorough because ash left behind will turn into something like plaque - only thicker and much harder to remove.

 

Every couple of months, according to the owner's manual, we are supposed to take the side panels off the stove and vacuum them out. I do not do this, mostly because by that time I am in full hate the stove mode, and need it too much to wait hours for it to cool down. Before each stove season, a man comes to thoroughly clean the stove and make sure it is in good working order.

Edited July 24, 2011 by RoughCollie