Heating with a Pellet stove.

dj1701 · Sep 15, 2020

Anyone heat their shop with a pellet stove?

Looking for a very small stove that wont break the bank. will only be running it
while I'm working in there.

I heat my house with a Harmon coal stove for the last 10 years.
Harmon stoves are way to expensive for what I need.

Thanks
Dave

LS Tractor Owner · Sep 15, 2020

We use a Castle serenity pellet stove for our little cottage. Works great! Has many nice features found on much more expensive units. Around $1100, they will usually go on sale for about $950-$1000.

Castle - Serenity wood pellet stove

There are 5 levels of heat / blower speed, all can be controlled from a remote. Again, I am very pleased with the unit.

oosik · Sep 15, 2020

I bypass all the sweat & bother. Heat my workshop with a propane fired salamander heater.

Jack Murdock · Sep 15, 2020

dj1701 said:
Anyone heat their shop with a pellet stove?

Looking for a very small stove that wont break the bank. will only be running it
while I'm working in there.

I heat my house with a Harmon coal stove for the last 10 years.
Harmon stoves are way to expensive for what I need.

Thanks
Dave

I am in the 12168 and my neighbor has a Harmon pellet stove no longer being used you get get reasonably. You would be responsible for removing from the basement.

reb · Sep 16, 2020

I got a used pellet stove from my FIL. Works great. Parts are easy to find. Jack Murdock's suggestion makes sense to me.

dj1701 · Sep 17, 2020

Thanks for the replies, but now I'm thinking of going electric.

Maybe one large, or two smaller ceiling units. I know electric costs more but It seem less hassle.

5030 · Sep 17, 2020

Been heating the house with a 'pellet' actually a pellet stove is a biomass stove, for 20 years now. Works good, provides supplemental heat (we use propane for the main furnace).

I typically burn 2 tons of pellets and 2 tons of shelled corn a year and I mix the corn and pellets in a 3-1 ratio, two parts pellets to one part corn. Pellets here are 215 a ton and my corn is free. I farm.

I would never consider electric heat for anything. Way too expensive. I heat my entire shop with in floor PEX and hot coolant. A 40 gallon HWH provides the heat for the PEX. Nothing beats a warm floor in the shop. I use about 800 gallons of propane every winter. My shop is 40 x 40 and the house is 1200 square feet.

oosik · Sep 17, 2020

Like any realestate agent will tell you - location, location, etc. Here, because of hydroelectric power - electricity is, far and away, the cheapest way to provide heat.

shooterdon · Sep 17, 2020

Make up a spreadsheet with your local cost d

Then look at your needs and how much effort you are willing to invest. The numbers are easy to pull together.

You live in NY.....think about the locations of those who offer their opinions.

5030 · Sep 17, 2020

Biomass isn't economical for me but we have it for localized heat (in the house) and it's nice to have a fire even though it's contained. It's a primal thing I guess. Penciling it out for me, propane would have to be $1.50 a gallon or higher to break even on biomass even though 1/2 of my fuel is field corn grown on my land. Getting my propane in the summer when it cheaper, I paid $1.05 this fill. I own my own tanks so I can shop around. Twin 500's filled to 85%.

Seems as though, the farther east you go, the higher the fuel cost becomes.

You might want to check out a forum like Hearth.com for advise.

dragoneggs · Sep 18, 2020

5030 said:
I typically burn 2 tons of pellets and 2 tons of shelled corn a year and I mix the corn and pellets in a 3-1 ratio, two parts pellets to one part corn. Pellets here are 215 a ton and my corn is free. I farm.

I'm a little confused. You are using 2T each per year but mixing at 3:1 ratio. Is this by volume not weight?

grsthegreat · Sep 18, 2020

oosik said:
Like any realestate agent will tell you - location, location, etc. Here, because of hydroelectric power - electricity is, far and away, the cheapest way to provide heat.

but even with my cheap electric, i heat the shop with propane heater. One of those box units 150,000 btu. Reason is because i can turn it on 5-10 minutes before i need to work in shop and thats all it takes to take the chill out. I can either leave it on while working or turn it off. Dont need it too hot in shop. Electric takes too long to bring shop up to comfortable level.

oosik · Sep 18, 2020

Totally agree - grsthegreat. I use a propane fired salamander heater out in my shop. Electric heat is in the house.

Frankenkubota · Sep 18, 2020

oosik said:
Like any realestate agent will tell you - location, location, etc. Here, because of hydroelectric power - electricity is, far and away, the cheapest way to provide heat.

And that痴 why the CLOUD is in eastern Oregon, relatively cheap power.

Frankenkubota · Sep 18, 2020

Pellet stoves were very popular in Oregon. I had 2 and loved them. For me it was so much easier than chopping and moving wood, much cleaner, probably cheaper after you factor in time and effort and it provided that warm dry heat you get from wood. Had a litttl e window for those romantic moments. My widow was dirty!

I also had 2 25 year old wood stoves. They both had to be removed before I could sell the house, environmental reasons. No problem with pellet stoves as they use forced air combustion, like a forge, burns much hotter so little emission problems, or so the realtor told me.

Question? I now live in central NC. I Should finish my house in 6 months? 6 months from when I知 not sure! Anybody in the SE use pellet stoves? When I ask around here I get blank looks!

Oh yea, in my area there were 2 kinds of pellets. 1 from soft woods and one from hard woods. Hard woods were better and of course, more expensive.

5030 · Sep 18, 2020

Really don't matter much, hardwood or softwood. Modern pellet (biomass) stoves are adjustable for combustion parameters and can be set to combust anything that burns. The one I have is 100% adjustable for all parameters and it's adjustable digitally. Eats anything (except oilseed ((Soybeans). You don't want to run any oilseed in one, burns way too hot. I have, in the past, mixed in some oilseed, but just a tiny amount or things get out of hand quickly as in over temp and shutdown.

5030 · Sep 18, 2020

oosik said:
Totally agree - grsthegreat. I use a propane fired salamander heater out in my shop. Electric heat is in the house.

I won't use a salamader in the shop because of two things, one, the stink and two oxygen depletion. Salamanders require lots of oxygen so that means leaving a door open which defeats the purpose of heating a space when it's cold outside.

grsthegreat · Sep 18, 2020

5030 said:
I won't use a salamader in the shop because of two things, one, the stink and two oxygen depletion. Salamanders require lots of oxygen so that means leaving a door open which defeats the purpose of heating a space when it's cold outside.

actually, the propane salamanders dont stink, and we used them on jobsites all the time. the kerosene ones sure do stink.

coobie · Sep 18, 2020

Burned wood pellets for 20 years.Wood pellets were cost affective way to heat back 15 - 20 years ago they were $100-$125 per ton now days $215-$250 per ton.I switched back to propane purchased 2 tanks 500 gallon.I fill up in august at 95 cents per gallon which will take me into to spring.