Improving a Pellet Stove

[mike48130]

It depends on the burner if you can burn corn. corn is very acidic when it burns so it can do a lot of damage to the burner. The old burners had the auger go right thru the burn box, and the corn would eat them away till the rotted thru. The new styles drop the corn into the burn pot, so you can burn corn without and damage to the auger.

In MI you can get the cherry pits to burn. A bi-product of the cherry industry here. They are lighter, so more volume per LB, but I think they are rated a higher BTU. I use my burner in the barn (although I haven't hooked it up yet in the new house) and just leave it run on low 100%. Keeps it warm enough, and if I want quick heat I turn on the furnace. It really paid for itself when I was on LP, but when switched to NG, not too big of a savings.

There is a chart of all the BTU ratings for pellets if you google it. I would always wait for a TSC 10% off coupon, and go buy them. There was a guy around here that was buying them by the semi full, and selling them off, he was cheaper than TSC and no tax. He made money and got free pellets. If you have a farm or the space to store them would be a good deal. Also need to be able to load/unload 2K pallets too.

I also had the US Stove forced air wood burning furnace on the house. More work chipping wood, but cheaper over all for the heat it puts out. I had the stove in the attached garage, and piped it into the house duct work thru the wall, best setup you can do. You can load the wood anytime without going outside, and no smoke or ashes in the house.

I would say that with all the cleaning that goes into the pellet stoves with the exhaust fan and all, I don't know if I would put one in a house. They can be a mess. I think you get more smoke from the wood stoves, but with an ash tray, they are reasonably clean, and nothing to clean beside the chimney every year.

I just bought a wood burning insert used for $240. At my new house, the PO left piles of in split wood that I am trying to make use of before it all rots. It is small but, practically free. I am in the middle of rebricking my chimney, but once that is done, I want to get it set up and see how it works.

 

[mike48130]

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.

The pellet stove can put out a constant heat and run for days without touching it. That is the true benefit over wood. If you are putting it in abasement, a lot of people tire them into to cold air returns so the heat gradually rises thru the house, and when the furnace runs, it will pull it thru.

 

[5030]

The pellet stove can put out a constant heat and run for days without touching it. That is the true benefit over wood. If you are putting it in abasement, a lot of people tire them into to cold air returns so the heat gradually rises thru the house, and when the furnace runs, it will pull it thru.

When we run ours, I set the central furnace blower on manual and let the distribution blower circulate the heat throughout out hotypically I go through 3, 500 gallon bottles (@85% fill) a year, but my shop is floor heated (PEX) with propane as well. I keep the slab temperature at 72 degrees all winter. Nothing beats a warm floor under you feet.

 

[buickanddeere]

Most of the warning about coal is due to EPA regulation and certification of that particular stove model .

 

[5030]

Not sure but I don't believe any bio fuel stove will tun on rice coal. Maybe Harman will but not entirely sure.

 

[Oaktree]

The pellet stove can put out a constant heat and run for days without touching it. That is the true benefit over wood. If you are putting it in abasement, a lot of people tire them into to cold air returns so the heat gradually rises thru the house, and when the furnace runs, it will pull it thru.

But isn't that more a function of the mass of the stove as opposed to what's burned in it? A cast iron stove with firebrick or a soapstone woodstove would hold the heat a long time too.
edit: Maybe you're talking about filling the hopper and going away for a weekend. I guess that would depend on the size of the hopper and the temperature. If you live where a "cold" day is 45, yeah that'd work but not where it actually gets cold.

As far as the stove-in-basement thing, that works a lot better in theory than in practice. That having been said, if I had a pellet stove (and a basement that wasn't just a cellar) I'd put it there if for no reason other than they're noisy.

 

[5030]

No more noisy than out central furnace is. We have a condensing furnace and they are inherently noisy.

Just laid in 3 ton of hardwood pellets at $214 a ton and 3 ton of no germ seed corn in bags for nothing. That will cover me for the entire year.

 

[hawkeye08]

We had wood stove in first house, then went to pellet stove, brought pellet stove with us when we built current house, used it until I was traveling for work full time and my wife was taking care of house and raising 3 kids by herself, we switched to propane to make life easier for her (no loading pellets, no cleaning ash box, etc). We are still using propane and our highest propane bill was around $850, usually around $600. No mess, no fuss, just remember to get propane in summer when prices are low.

Our middle daughter that is building a new house "borrowed" the pellet stove for their new house.

 

[Oaktree]

No more noisy than out central furnace is. We have a condensing furnace and they are inherently noisy.

But a furnace isn't typically in your living space, a heating stove often is.

We had wood stove in first house, then went to pellet stove, brought pellet stove with us when we built current house, used it until I was traveling for work full time and my wife was taking care of house and raising 3 kids by herself, we switched to propane to make life easier for her (no loading pellets, no cleaning ash box, etc). We are still using propane and our highest propane bill was around $850, usually around $600. No mess, no fuss, just remember to get propane in summer when prices are low.

No argument, oil or propane are much easier, and relatively low maintenance. Which one you go with depends more on pricing and availability in your area. In this part of the country propane is quite expensive making it a poor choice, especially given that you can't price shop like you can oil. But that doesn't help you if oil isn't commonly used where you live.

I'm in the wood camp myself, but realize it's not for everyone. It's a lot of work, it's messy and if you have to buy it cut & split really isn't any bargain, though it is something locally sourced which other fuels generally aren't. It's biggest advantage is that if you can cut it yourself it's cheap heat.
Pellets make little sense to me.

 

[5030]

Candidly, I never pay the pellet stove any mind noise wise, nor the furnace for that matter. I burn quite a bit of propane in addition to wood pellets and corn. I heat a 60 x 80 shop (in floor PEX) plus 3 grain dryers and the house and use the pellet stove only to assist the furnace on bitter, windy days. Propane is cheap here for heat and even cheaper as dryer gas, because like off road diesel, there is no tax on it.

My typical propane bill (dryer gas and heat) runs about 2500 bucks a year, but unlike non ag users, mine is 100% a write off.

Pellet stove, for us is more of a 'feel good and toast your feet' thing than it is for primary heat. In fact, it's never been for that.