Dear Experts,
With help from this forum, I was all set to buy a $3000 soapstone wood stove. Thank you, great help! Just then, a good friend urged me to by a pellet stove instead! From the wood stove purists, can some of you please explain the benefits of a wood stove over a pellet stove?
Dave,
I went though the same issues of which was best, but I had the advantage to weigh out which was best for my needs when my wife's cousin moved from California to North Central Texas back in 2007.... I did laugh at her when she said she brought her Pellet Stove in her SUV while sleeping on the floor, waiting for the power company to turn on the house's account, and for the movers to bring her household in a moving van. Then, I saw the glitch in the "Pellet" stove: electricity and pellet supply.
A neighboring state had a large furniture company to close up shop, for good. The local pellet makers suddenly found themselves short on hardwood to make their pellets. A rather large stove dealer is just 20 miles away, but because of the pellet shortage, he was only selling to his stove customers he'd sold stoves to. When the cousin went in to buy pellets, there were none for her....
The stove vendor survived the shortage and now sells to all pellet stove owners in a rather "creative" way. He will sell pellets by the pallet full. In the slow days of hot summer, at somewhat of a discounted pricing, he brings the pallet, or pallets, of bagged pellets when he sends his Installer out to clean the flue and take apart to clean the pellet stove, itself. He says a pellet stove must be cleaned at-least once a year.... That's a larger view of the cost and pellet supply worry of a pellet stove that offsets the big "Plus" of convinence/away from home for work of living with it.
I chose a woodburning fireplace insert with a dual blower. With the variable blower speed on full, it is noisy, but unless the temps are below the lower 20's, the blower isn't always run full speed. I am still young enough to cut my own wood, so that's a plus. I live a mile from a city park that's filled with tall and old Pecan trees that do come down when a bad storm. The park supervisor is glad not to have to deal with the large pieces, and I get free wood for the cutting.... The word "Free" means I'm still out about 3 gallons of fuel/oil mix, 2 gallons of bar oil, and the cost of sharpening three or four 20" chains, but it's nothing like $180-$225 a cord....dumped delivered and usually not a full cord. Also, because I'm building my own solar electric system, I bought a $25 meter called a "Kill-a-Watt" meter to measure different appliances and their wattage draw. I found that the dual blower running on high actually pulled low wattages. So, to still be able to get the most BTU output on a full load of wood, and prevent any worry of over-firing the insert, I bought a 400 watt 12v to 120v battery inverter to run the blower in case we lose grid power.
Lastly, should some health issue become a problem for me, and I can't cut my own wood, I've seen a special grate you can buy. If the economy doesn't crash in the coming 3 to 9 months, and pellets are still available at the local stove vendor or Walmart, this unique grate is designed in such a way that you can burn a pile of wood pellets and add more pellets as needed, inside your wood burning stove or insert.... Goggle to find it as I can't remember its name.
Do what's best for your needs,
Bill