Pellet stove, pellet stove insert, or outdoor furnace?

[CalicoKat]

Previous owners heated the farm house with pellet stove in the basement. They're taking that with them. And they like heating the house with the fireplace. There's a propane tank out back for the furnace in the basement.

 

I know that the propane & furnace is the most expensive way to heat this house. So some sort of alternative heating is being investigated.

 

Pellet stove or Insert? DH wants to retain the ability to use wood in the fireplace so that would mean a stove.

 

Pellet stove or Outdoor furnace? Both still require electricity so a back up generator or battery would be required in a power outage. And this is the one reason DH would still like to have the ability to use wood in the fire place.

 

We do have the ability to cut wood on from our land so we wouldn't have to buy wood. And for this reason we're leaning towards installing the outdoor furnace.

 

But we're newbies and we just are uncertain.

 

My folks who live down the road, and who have a pellet stove insert, are encouraging the insert because of how easy it would be to get up and running. They admit to not knowing much about the outdoor furnace.

 

Thanks in advance for your BTDT thoughts and recommendations.

[Trish]

Just agreeing with your hubby's insistence on the ability to use wood. When the economy goes down, neither pellets nor propane may be available. I'd get some cords of seasoned firewood wood now.

[Parrothead]

Are you where you will have more than 3 feet of snow to wade through (or do extra snow blowing) to get to the outdoor furnace? That is my big negative for the outdoor boiler. Dh travels on occasion and I have been known to get stuck taking care of snow removal.

 

I also have the same concerns as your dh. I'd really like to have a stove instead of an insert just in case I need to burn wood to have heat.

 

So when we build/buy we will have a pellet stove.

[happypamama]

We've been using wood in an outdoor furnace for four winters, and we love it. It heats beautifully, and while it does need some electricity (we have a backup generator but have not had to use it yet), it also heats our hot water in the winter, so I think DH said that that negates at least some of the electricity cost (hot water tank is electric). DH gets a load of firewood periodically in the warmer weather and has it chopped into manageable chunks. Then in the winter, he takes 5-10 minutes every day when he gets home from work and chops it into smaller pieces and fills the furnace. Sometimes he doesn't even need to fill it every day, though in the very coldest months, occasionally he will need to check it twice a day. If we go away, we set the furnace to a low setting, so that it stays on enough to keep the pipes from freezing, and if it's more than about three days, we have a neighbor boy come fill it. (We do keep a small amount of oil in the indoor furnace, just in case of emergency, though.)

 

Really, the outdoor furnace is great! It's expensive to start, but compared to our other option, which is oil, it will pay for itself before it wears out (supposed to last about 25 years). No issues with allergies or smoke in the house, like we could possibly have with a woodstove.

 

ETA: Yes, DH does sometimes have to stomp through snow, which is a pain. He says it's a lot of work. It is. When he was away for several days in lots of snow, I had to fill it, and even with him having left some near the furnace for me, it was still a lot of work. You need to find a balance between keeping the stored wood away from the house because of termites, but you want the wood fairly close to the furnace. Plan that carefully!

Edited August 10, 2011 by happypamama

[suzf242]

We have 2 pellet stoves and a propane fireplace insert right now. This works fine for us and is easy and fairly cheap at present (compared to oil). However, if I had the wood and all of your kids to help chop and haul, we would definitely go with the outdoor stove!

 

Take care,

Suzanne

[Denisemomof4]

I just had a friend over today who was telling me that the insert doesn't allow the heat to fully warm the house when the power is out. Because she has an insert she also has a fan or what ever to blow the heat out. With no power, the insert can't warm the whole house. She said that's why she likes my wood stove. No power? No problem. This stove keeps our large house TOASTY warm when we lose power. And we've lost it for multiple days before.

 

I vote for stove and no insert.

 

I see people using those outdoor furnaces and WOW do they require a TON OF WOOD, which translates to a TON OR WORK or a TON OF MONEY. I don't think I could ever recommend that. We cut our own wood and go through about 6 cords of wood every year, on top of getting oil delivered at least every 6 weeks. We have one large room on a separate zone that the stove doesn't heat. The water heater (WASTE OF MONEY) has the furnace going off all winter long.:glare:

[Amy in NH]

After doing a TON of research, we are installing a pellet furnace that hooks into our existing FHA plenum. Our oil furnace will be the backup for when we're not home, but really we can choose to heat with whichever is least expensive. Heating companies around here are getting ready to start bulk deliveries in the next few years, so we are leaving room for an auger-fed hopper & we'll install a chute when we fix our foundation (hopefully next year).

 

I know people with outdoor furnaces that couldn't keep their homes warm in the dead of winter (we reach -30 to -40).

[CalicoKat]

OK so we "pulled the trigger" and bought used a free standing pellet stove.

 

There's a spot in the basement for one -- the previous tenants pulled theirs out when they moved-- so ours will go in this spot.

 

Thanks to a drafty old house that stove should heat the whole house effectively until it's double digits minus cold. Or at least that's what the sales person (who uses a stove in her old house) told us. We were inclined to believe it. No insulation between the floors in this house!

 

OK, we still have the fireplace for wood burning. It's been cleaned and fixed. It was heavily used. We're not going to put a pellet stove there.

 

And then there's the good old expensive propane tank. :glare: It's a necessary evil for my stove and dryer. Hopefully we can keep the furnace use to a minimum.