Pellets vs Wood

[Mickey_Fx]

Have posted this a time or two before to various forums but will do so again.

Compare Fuel Costs

Enter in the variables and you can compare the cost of one heat source Vs another.

 

[dave1949]

I make 80 cents for every bag I carrry in from the barn!

Quiet - someone will want to tax you
Revenuer's probably have web crawlers looking for words like 'make' or 'cents'.
Dave.

 

[whistlepig]

Sorry I've not responded sooner.

Look at the attached pic. At the top of the controller one can see the small pot near the top left marked as combustion air. Normally the slot is pointing vert. One can adj the blower speed to help fine tune the combustion airflow. Might be preferable over over dampening the exhaust airflow. Further down and on the right there is another pot that makes small adj to the pellet flow rate. If you have a t-stat connected you may need to adj the pot to insure when the stove is idling (room temp reached the set point) that pellet flow is just adequate to keep the fire going.

Not sure what you mean by handle that cleans the heating chamber. There is a rod under the pellet hopper lid. Pulling on it cleans the heat exchanger tubes. In my installation ash gets past the baffles in the air passage and a lot settle into the exhaust plenum. No easy way to clean out so that is why I took the stove outside, drilled a couple hole so I could get a tube into the area and blow. With exhaust fan running my stirring of the trapped ash, via blowing air into the chamber, made for easy clean-out. Needed to plug the holes afterwards.

I'm pushing 70 and did this myself with the aid of a handtruck.

Don't see the pic but I figured out what you are taking about. What you call a pot I call a screw. We are talking about the same thing with the rod that cleans the heat exchangers. What's the noticeable difference in adjusting this "pot" if the damper adjustment remains the same?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

POT = Potentiometer, ie adjustable resistor

 

[whistlepig]

POT = Potentiometer, ie adjustable resistor

Thanks. I honestly did not know what a POT was. In our part of the Ohio we would call this an adjusting screw.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Here is my pellet stove.

 

[charlz]

I suppose, but my Propane furnace is 95% effecient I don't think my pellet stove is anywhere near that.

In another thread someone said you have to/can also figure in duct loss for a propane furnace....can be up to something like 10-20%

 

[charlz]

We used to have a big Quadrafire, but by spring, the sound of pellets dropping into the chamber drove us nuts.

That's interesting. The first firepot I had in my Quadrafire rang like a bell every time pellets dropped in. Eventually the welds holding it to the bolt brackets broke. I think the thing was under stress from the day it was made. The new firepot does not make the same sound and has been fine for the last 4 years or so. Did yours make a ringing type sound?

 

[Steve C]

In another thread someone said you have to/can also figure in duct loss for a propane furnace....can be up to something like 10-20%

It could be if the ducts were located in a ventilated crawl space or attic. With large long runs it could probably be even worse.

Mine are in the basement, so the only heat that I lose to the outdoors is what goes out the plastic flue gas pipe. The little that I lose through my rather short runs of ductwork helps heat my basement.

 

[bellweather]

My primary heat source is pellets. I have a Harman PF100 pellet furnace. It's ducted so it blows warm air into the living areas, and has return ducts as well. I installed an optional outside air duct, so it draws cold combustion air, thus minimizing pulling air through gaps in doors, windows, etc. It's thermostatically controlled and will actually shut down/restart as needed. However, the thermostat is very basic and is not programmable, which would be nice. Overall, I'm satisfied with the beast.

Also have a wood stove in the basement family room for cozy TV viewing. Although pellet heat is more convenient/efficient, I do enjoy the whole wood burning ritual, including splitting, stacking and watching the fire.

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

We purchased a Harmon IIV pellet stove a few years ago after paying through the nose for propane. We also burned wood in the house that I grew up in so I know how much cleaner pellets are to wood.
One trick that I can say is we have a large "deck box" that we use to store the deck cushions in summer. I can put 12 bags of pellets in that box. The wife likes it because there are not bags stacked up on the deck. With that many bags of couse that lenthens the amount of time before I have to go to the garage and restock. I also use the FEL bucket to refill the box. With 9 bags in the bucket and three bags on top it's a match.
We have a 1300sf '30s farmhouse and this is our only source of heat. Of course the room with the stove will be warmer than the rest of the house which says around the mid 60s.

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

Update:
This year we put a desktop fan on top of the pellet stove, blowing into the other part of the house. It is doing a much better job of regulating the temperature in the rest of the house than the corner doorway fan did in the years past. Where it would be ~60F is now 67 or so. Plus, in the room with the stove you don't feel like you are going to roast either.

 

[charlz]

I like the vertical 'squirrel cage' type fans as they move a lot of air but don't make a lot of noise. In the north part of my house the rooms are connect such that they sort of form a U facing the room where the pellet stove is. Having a fan in one of the rooms blowing out helps pull enough air around to keep that part fairly warm. The positioning of the thermostat is such that this fan blows towards it. This helps keep the stove running until that part of the house is warm, not just the main room.