Pellets vs Wood

[Willl]

I've got a small place but use nothing but a pellet stove to heat with, before that it was a wood stove. I'll never go back.

I have baseboard heat but refuse to 'em, they scare the dickens out of me. Had one spit sparks many years ago that almost cost me everything I owned.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Whistlepig, my stove is an 2000 model so suspect they are very sim in operation. Does yours have the manual 5 speed controller? If so, there are electrical adj pots on the front of the controller that can be adjusted to fine tune the combustion air flow and pellet flow. May not be needed but they are there if fine tuning is necessary.

If you've not done a through job of cleaning the combustion air passage in the stove, I'd suggest you do so this next year. Ash fines get trapped in the exhaust air box and has a big impact on performance.

Cleaning this out is not as straight an operation the first time as it could be. There is no direct way to clean the passage out and I'd do this outside. What I had to do is drill a hole on either side of the air box so I could get a 1/4" OD tube inside and then blow. Had the stove running so the exhaust fan could help get all the ash fines out. When done I close the holes up with self-taping screws. Next time it will go much faster. This is a dirty operation that is why the need to do it outdoors.

The time spent on this made all the difference in the world. Last year stove was operating very poorly, lot of ash build-up, hard to keep stove operating when set on low. This yr all is working like a new stove.

So far, never had an operation problem with the stove and expect it to run many more years.

There is a web site where you can compare various heat sources and determine what the cost is for 1M BTU's of heat. Sure makes helps make the decision on most economical heat source but then, fuel cost alone may not be the determining factor.

 

[charlz]

I don't use a pellet stove as primary heat. Just back up heat. Are some of you guys 100% wood or pellets?

I am about 98% pellet, the rest is propane. I installed the pellet stove when propane went through the roof. Pellets cost me about 45% of propane does on a btu to btu basis. I go through about 5-6 tons per year. When it is in the teens or lower I set the pellet stove high and let it run all the time, then I set the propane to what I really want the house at.

I think what I really need to do is insulate the floors... this house was built with the 'insulate the crawlspace walls' theory which doesn't seem to work all that well (cold floors in the winter). On the other hand I almost never turn my AC on in the summer so....

 

[charlz]

I would be be very skeptical about a metal silo outside with temp and humidity changes and condensation could turn that silo into a big bowl of porage.

As noted in other posts most of the Euro designs have a 'room' versus a silo. I'd be curious as to how well the pellets hold up to being blown in and then going through a couple of augers: pellet storage ->hopper->firepot

 

[Luremaker]

I don't use a pellet stove as primary heat. Just back up heat. Are some of you guys 100% wood or pellets?

I heat my shop 100% with my grain stove. My stove will burn corn, rye, wheat and wood pellets. I think a multi fuel stove is a better choice so your are not limited to wood pellets alone.

 

[westcliffe01]

Back when corn was $1.98 a bushel, I bought a St Croix Greenfield corn burning stove. The stove by itself was $3300. Then the expensive pellet vent (about 24 ft of it !). I got the stove home, did the install myself just before the first snow started flying. So out I go to get a stockpile of corn, and suddenly corn is $6/bushel !!! WTF ??? There goes any hope of a return on investment. The following year, corn went up close to $10/bushel so I stopped burning the stove.

Same year, installed a wood burning stove and scrounged some firewood. Total heating bill for the season was $135. And I bought a very nice Morso stove (made in Denmark) and it cost only $1500 compared to $3300 for the corn burner.

Now I will say that the St Croix heated my entire house (1300sq ft). What I didn't like about it was the lack of radiant heat, the inability to put a kettle on top of it to humidify the air (top surface is cold) and the fact that you must have 2 separate fans (combustion air and convection blower) running 24/7. With the wood stove I have peace and quiet, radiant heat in spades and I have a 1 gal pot boiling away day and night, which is about the only sound you hear.

If you think it is messy, get a proper "ash vac". If you vacuum up every time there is an ash spill, it stops the migration of the dust right at the source. Costs $90.

I later replaced the Morso with a Pacific Energy stove (built by Canadians who live in the frozen north) and it is truly a superior stove. It is the first stove I owned that allows you to load wood up to 18" long end first instead of across the stove. This makes loading the stove so much easier, with no risk of anything rolling into the glass or trying to fall out of the stove when you are trying to pack as much as you can in the firebox.

Something to bear in mind if you are not familiar with the new EPA certified woodstoves, is that they are no longer "air tight". If your install will have a decent long chimney running straight up from the stove and out the roof, you will almost certainly need to install a damper in the stovepipe or else the stove will tend to "run away" when loaded to the gills on a cold day. Since I added a damper to my install, it has "tamed the beast" and I no longer need to worry about the flue temperature hitting 1000F and more with the air control fully closed...

For those with woodstoves who are not up to splitting and have problems storing large amounts of firewood, try the pressed wood logs that are available by the ton on a pallet. They are clean and take up a lot less room that a woodpile and are consistent in having a low moisture content, so you should get long steady burns. It is more expensive than firewood, but consistent in quality and no mess. And you would have to burn an awfull amout of it to make up the purchase price of a new stove and chimney system (maybe 10 seasons worth ?).

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I like pellets over wood, easier and cleaner. I love my Harmon XXV stove, totally automatic, dump the ashes about every ton burned. My old pellet stove was not as easy to use, had to clean out every few days, manual light, etc.

If I had wood available to cut, I would burn wood (I still have my old woodstove), but having to buy wood at $150/cord it's not worth it.

 

[dave1949]

If you think it is messy, get a proper "ash vac". If you vacuum up every time there is an ash spill, it stops the migration of the dust right at the source. Costs $90.

.

Another solution is to buy a HEPA filter for your shop vac. Good for ashes, soot, drywall sanding dust, concrete dust, etc. A flexible hose with a smooth exterior is also great for stove and chimney cleaning. The deep flex grooves on a typical shop vac hose are a PITA to get soot out of.

Watch out for hot embers!
Dave.

 

[soulasphil]

I would be be very skeptical about a metal silo outside with temp and humidity changes and condensation could turn that silo into a big bowl of porage.

We plan to use a small room with a V shaped raised floor preferably to a textile container, none of the makers proposed a metal container, none suggested to build it outside the house. But we have high humidity on the seaside and I will express your doubts to the builders.
That part of the buildings is in the shape of a right angle and the silo or "reserve a granules" would be at the point of the angle.

 

[whistlepig]

Whistlepig, my stove is an 2000 model so suspect they are very sim in operation. Does yours have the manual 5 speed controller? If so, there are electrical adj pots on the front of the controller that can be adjusted to fine tune the combustion air flow and pellet flow. May not be needed but they are there if fine tuning is necessary.

If you've not done a through job of cleaning the combustion air passage in the stove, I'd suggest you do so this next year. Ash fines get trapped in the exhaust air box and has a big impact on performance.

Cleaning this out is not as straight an operation the first time as it could be. There is no direct way to clean the passage out and I'd do this outside. What I had to do is drill a hole on either side of the air box so I could get a 1/4" OD tube inside and then blow. Had the stove running so the exhaust fan could help get all the ash fines out. When done I close the holes up with self-taping screws. Next time it will go much faster. This is a dirty operation that is why the need to do it outdoors.

The time spent on this made all the difference in the world. Last year stove was operating very poorly, lot of ash build-up, hard to keep stove operating when set on low. This yr all is working like a new stove.

So far, never had an operation problem with the stove and expect it to run many more years.

There is a web site where you can compare various heat sources and determine what the cost is for 1M BTU's of heat. Sure makes helps make the decision on most economical heat source but then, fuel cost alone may not be the determining factor.

Mine has a 5 speed blower motor and 5 speed heat output (rate of pellet feed). The only other adjustment is the damper control. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by electrical adj pots. This stove works extremely well even on the low setting. I don't think it has been used that much. We use it for backup heat because I can run it off my portable generator. Also when the wind chill is -25 degrees we fire it up for comfort. In the three winters we have been here we probably have run it less than 30 hours. I love the stove. Not something I would have bought but it came with the house. Once you have one you are addicted. Does yours have the handle that cleans the heating chambers? I don't know about hauling it outside. It's pretty darn heavy.