Improving a Pellet Stove

[Diggin It]

If you have it. Living where we live in the boonies, NG don't exist so it's alternative fuels. We are lucky to have fairly reliable electricity. Why we have a 25KW diesel powered standby genset.

Uh-huh. And again, with a gas burner, you have electric costs to run the blower(s).

I used a pellet stove one winter in my house. The constant noise, auger jamming, my raised electric bill and the fact that a pellet stove rated for 2,000sqft could hardly keep my 1,300sqft house warm was enough.

You still pay for the convience of bagged fuel

Plus you have a bunch of bags to get rid of.

 

[Egon]

If you have to heat with no electricity the double barrel stove was very popular many years ago. I believe it was even quite efficient. Many shops used them.

 

[5030]

If you have to heat with no electricity the double barrel stove was very popular many years ago. I believe it was even quite efficient. Many shops used them.

Originally Sotz supplied the door, ash cleanout and barrel collars. Right down the road from where I used to live in Columbia Station, Ohio. Sotz sold them to the government for use in heating tents and barracks for troops in the field. I believe they folded years ago. Saw a reproduction by
'Vogelzang' what ever that is. I had one, think back then it was like 30 bucks for the double barrel kit.

Problem was, if you didn't line the bottom of the lower drum with firebrick, it would burn through pretty quickly.

 

[Gunny]

I've been using a double barrel stove in my shop for several years now, does an excellent job. The hardware is very durable and I have two extra barrels for when the need comes to change out the lower one.

I'd have one in the house if the wife would let me, but they aren't very good looking outfits, and that's why I have a pellet stove there. The pellet stove isn't as messy and dirty as a wood burner either.

 

[Diggin It]

Saw a reproduction by 'Vogelzang' what ever that is.

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Interesting (but weird) pellet stove: Wiseway 2, Sq. Ft. EPA Certified Gravity Fed Non-Electric Pellet Stove | US Stove Company

 

[Egon]

I've been using a double barrel stove in my shop for several years now, does an excellent job. The hardware is very durable and I have two extra barrels for when the need comes to change out the lower one.

I'd have one in the house if the wife would let me, but they aren't very good looking outfits, and that's why I have a pellet stove there. The pellet stove isn't as messy and dirty as a wood burner either.

Putting some concrete and refractory brick in the bottom of the lower barrel should lengthen the barrel life.

One could get inventive and use castable refractory in both barrels that would store heat and be formed to make a better burn pattern. Sorta like large mass interior fireplace stoves that are common in Europe.

 

[CobyRupert]

70 watts in continuous use over a period of weeks can add up.

If your buying electricity at (say) $0.13 kw-hr and running a 70W fan 24 hours a day, this would cost $1.53 a week. Over a period of a couple weeks this could top $3.06!!

 

[CalG]

Anyone know anything of this Non-electric pellet burner?
Wiseway 2, Sq. Ft. EPA Certified Gravity Fed Non-Electric Pellet Stove | US Stove Company

 

[5030]

A little bit. It's gravity fed and the heat output isn't even close to a run of the mill pellet burner or bio fuel stove. TSC sells them at a pretty good discount and finally, I think they are ugly.

 

[CalG]

Sometimes, high heat output is a liability, 36 hour burn on 60# hopper with that TINY fire box says it all.

I'll need to check the TSC price.

Beauty is in the eye of the BEER holder! ;-)

I'm looking for something to take the chill off the basement that doesn't take the labor of working up fuel wood.