New Member Needs Advice

First thing we like is a heat loss calculation, that way we know what your up against.

Pellet stoves are pretty flexible as far as venting goes.

Many here use it as their primary source.

Also some pictures and description of your layout.

Many members here willing to help.

Probly even help ya out with a self install.

smoke show said:

Many members here willing to help.

Probly even help ya out with a self install.

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I cannot travel to Maryland to help install...
Thanks for volunteering me though!

Bill

it will not work you will have the windows open all winter from the heat. As he was walking out he saw the eden pure heater in the living room, and said just buy a few more of those.
(sorry ain't figured out how to grab a quote yet)

What's wrong with a little fresh winter air? Seriously I don't think you'll over heat, I know my stove set on room temp will stay plus or minus 1 degree of where I have it set. Don't want to upset anyone but IMO I think electric heat is all the same no matter what shape box you put it in. Only so many BTU's in kilowatt can't cheat mother nature.

Where in MD are you, Brokenwing?

Listen to Smoke Show and send in the description of the layout of your home. Ranch, two story, etc?

These guys on here are the best and will gladly help you with what you need. Don't give up!

Stove location is important, most savings are realized when centrally located on the level that is most frequently used. Closed bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms and hallways will be cooler. Fans/heat pump may be needed if you want even heating. Basement installs can work but are often disappointing.
The pellet stove will probably not be as quite and clean as your Eden Pure heater, may have to turn up TV volume a notch. I notice an accumulation of dust from pellets and ash although I am not too careful when cleaning and filling the stove. Being able to “do it yourself†for repairs is beneficial (FORUM) even if dealer serviced and installed. I have only had two minor occassions that I fixed myself in 4 years, some have more difficulties however.

bill3rail said:

smoke show said:

Many members here willing to help.

Probly even help ya out with a self install.

Click to expand...

I cannot travel to Maryland to help install...
Thanks for volunteering me though!

Bill

Click to expand...

C'mon Bill help a brother out. :lol:

I meant advice, long distance internet advice that is. ;-)

Might be worth the cost of the chimney for the wood stove if you have free wood available long term. If you need to purchase firewood, Its not going to save much over wood pellets.

The wood eater will not be controlled by a stat. So if your not home alot, You are probably going to need to scurry home to fill and fire it up. Where a pellet stove will be running when you get there. Pellet stoves and stats go hand in hand. Use a programmable stat to offset the fuel cost like oil/gas/electric. Drop the temp when your away and sleeping and have it warmer when your home awake/active.

Definitely go with the multifuel stoves. Less pellet picky and burn the cheaper fuels with less user effort than a standard pellet eater. imacman burned over a ton and didn't need to open the door. I have burned over 40 bags and never touched mine. Although not recommended as its better to keep it clean as they push more heat and are more efficient. I always recommend multifuel to the new buyers. The little bit extra cost up front doesn't take long to recoup in fuel savings.

Take a look at the am/fm stoves on ebay. Very nice deal on referbs which are basically new. imacman and many others here went that route and seem very pleased with what they recieved.

I am pretty new here myself, but thought I would throw in my 2 cents.

We use our freestanding pellet stove exclusivly as our only heat source since we bought it in December.

We bought it on Craigslist and installed it ourselves.

We have a large 2 story farmhouse built in 1870 of about 1800 sq feet with 9' ceilings. The pellet stove keeps us warmer for tons cheaper than our oil furnace ever did.

With this years oil prices we would have been paying $350 - $400 a month for oil to heat. We burn about 10 bags of pellets a week. prices here are aound $170 - $200 a ton. way cheaper!

We have our pellet stove set up on a thermostat. It works just like the furnace thermostat did, gives less heat when needed or shuts off and restarts automatically.

so far we are loving it!

OK

For starters, the clowns that came to tell you that a chimney is wrong, a pellets stove is wrong and all manner of other BS, Just forget these pukes and lets get on with heating your house on a budgit.

First off, let me say this.
I have been using Pellet stoves for over 20 years and would not use anything else.

A 1600 foot house can be heated easily with a small to medium sized pellet stove.

The cost can be very modest, especially if you shop like I do. "CRAIGS LIST"

I purchased two used whitfield stoves a couple years back and did two installs, one with a complete corner makeover and all the $$$ counted spent less than $1000 for two installs.

Find a suitable wall, corner or whatever that you can get close to an outside wall.

You need to vent through the wall with an approved pellet vent, be 4 feet from a window that can open.

The pellet stove install manuals will give you the clearances and such.

A hearth pad/floor protector is needed to sit the stove on.

Locate your possible area, using a stud finder (hardware store item) locate two studs that the vent can go out between.

Make sure you stay above any electrical wiring in the wall (many stud finders can sense electrical current flow.


Just make sure any outlets have something plugged in and running so the Stud finder can sense current flow.

Once you find a possible spot, go outiside and check out to make sure there are no issues out there that would preclude installing a vent.

Most pellets stove will run happily on a 2 to 3 foot direct vent.

As I mentioned, Craigs List can yield some great buys.

An automatic lighting stove is great if your area is small and your stove is larger.

Many stoves will work with a thermostat and work well.


My place has a daylight basement with a 1000 ft apartment down there and is heated totally using a Quadrafire 1000

This stove will heat over 2000 ft easily but with the thermostat the little apartment can be kept comfortable easily.


Small stoves made by one of many manufactures can be found used and put into service easily for a very modest cost.

again my two stoves cost me less than $1000 fully installed.

Here is a piccy of my family room install.
The stove is an older Whitfield Advantage 2T I paid $200 for the stove off Craigs list
The hearth project cost $200 or so to do and the vent system pipe (new) was about $75

Under $500 did this entire setup.

Here are a couple pix of our little whitfield "Prodigy2"

Paid $200 for the stove and the hearth pad.
Bought the pipe from a dealer. The pipe had been painted for a HOME SHOW demo and I got it cheap as it had paint on it.

Total cost of the little stove up and running $275

The total cost numbers are rounded off, but close.

You DO NOT have to spend a fortune to get a nice pellet stove in your home.

Many pellet stoves come up for sale because people do not understand them and dont want to clean or take care of them as they should.

The greatest amount of pellet stove isues are due to people who do not clean the units as per the manufs instructions.

I clean mine either weekly or biweekly depending on the useage (little stove likes biweekly, big one weekly)


OH BTW I use hazelnut shells in my two Whits and the total cost to heat my 2400 ft home will be under $200 for the entire season from Oct to June

Pellets are more costly for sure, but if you shop around you can make some great buys.

Back during my stove install crusade. I bought several stoves and tow of them came with varying amounts of pellets too.

I kept the pellets and fixed up and sold the stoves I did not want.

All together I kept nearly a ton of pellets and stuck probably $350 in my pocket towards the final two stoves I kept.

So my total cost estimate of under $1000 was likely around $700 for the two stoves shown in the pix.

You have many inexpensive options here.

I have seen some nearly new stoves sold on Craigs List for Pennies on the dollar of new price.

Locally a nearly new St Croix sold last week for $400.

Another thing. You can easily do most pellet stove installations yourself with some simple hand tools.

Hammer, some screw drivers, an electric drill (cordless is fine) a key hole saw (to cut the sheet rock) tape measure, pencil to mark stuff.

Green masking tape (easy removable stuff) works well to lay out the area to be cut, so you dont mess the wall up with marks and such.

A 10' long 1/8th or 3/16th drill bit is sweet to make the first piercing of the wall from inside out.

Once you have this point of reference, its off to the rodeo.

Good luck

Snowy

Free wood, than go with a wood stove but prepare for the stacking, loading and cleaning that goes along with it. Nothing is free. Pellet is way easier to keep and live with. BUT you have to decide if you can install yourself, if a used pellet stove is worth the trouble it might be, or if new is better. I'm new to this as well, did a Lopi Pioneer install the first week of January. Stove, exhaust piping, OAK kit was right at $3K. Homemade hearth board and two hours to install the simple direct vent straight out exhaust. I couldn't be happier. FWIW, Lopi Pioneer is just about right for 1600sq/ft, as that is the same sq/ft I have, with electric supplemental heat. Do your research, there are plenty of options and pitfalls but pellet stoves are definitely worth it. RT

bill3rail said:

smoke show said:

Many members here willing to help.

Probly even help ya out with a self install.

Click to expand...

I cannot travel to Maryland to help install...
Thanks for volunteering me though!

Bill

Click to expand...

hey bill i saw a cheap stove on craigslist

http://longisland.craigslist.org/mat/2811719141.html

what pellets you burning

Brokenwing: " My other question is for those of you running a heat pump, has the pellet stove actually saved you in electrical costs."

I have a 2 story home just under 2000 sq ft and we used to use 2 heat pumps to heat our home. last December 2010 we used 3026 kwh at a cost of $545 to heat the house to a " warm" 65 degrees. Dec 2011 we used 1268 kwh at a cost of $232 to the electric company, we used 1 bag of pellets per day at $4.87 per bag =$383 total cost for electric & heat with an average house temp of 70 degrees. I couldnt imagine what the heat pumps would have cost to heat the house to 70 degrees.

We are very happy with out pellet stove. I empty the ash pan every other day (small pan capacity), brush & vac the stove 1x a week and after every ton I clean the vents. at end of season I do a complete clean and vac.

I'm confused on these "Chimney" companies you are referring too. Have you been to a stove shop and looked at the pellet and wood stoves in their showroom? Might want to try that. It will help to take some pictures of your house so they can get a better idea on the install.

GrahamInVa said:

I'm confused on these "Chimney" companies you are referring too. Have you been to a stove shop and looked at the pellet and wood stoves in their showroom?.....

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I think he means stove shops.

IMO, besides using AM-FM Energy to get a good refurbed Englander, he should list the brands of stoves he can go see in his local area, and also what his $$ budget is for the WHOLE stove/pipe/install.

I'm with imacman on this one. What stoves shops do you have locally, who is selling what and at what price. A layout diagram would be good as well as an outside pic of that wall the stove will be up against. What kind of siding on the house? Any reputable stove shop will be able to set you up with all the specs you need, the stove, venting, etc. If they don't have the answers you are in the wrong store. If you choose to go used, then read all you can here, find someone to help you locally, etc. I bought new and this really helped since I was doing it all myself. Its a leap of faith buying anything used if you have no idea what you are looking at. RT

Brokenwing said:

Hey everyone, i know you all get asked a million times for advice, but im really frusturated at this point and stuck. We have had a heat pump for 20 years plus, and I have had enough. So I decided on a woodstove, because for me the fuel would be free but that fell through, hear is the reason why. The first company that came out told me a chimmney would not work, so he said a pellet stove would work for a cost of around 4500 dollars. The 2nd guy on the phone told me $4500.00 for a chimmney, and so I asked about a pellet stove, he told me he does not reccomend them, there more trouble then there worth, and wanted to charge $80 to come out to the house, I told him no thanks. Last but not least the 3rd chimmney guy showed up, and he said a chimmney would be to expensive. So I asked about a pellet stove, he said mechanical problems, expensive fuel, and your house is only 1600 square feet, it will not work you will have the windows open all winter from the heat. As he was walking out he saw the eden pure heater in the living room, and said just buy a few more of those. So at this point and with months of research in diffrent heating options, I am lost now. I really wanted a pellet stove if the woodstove was not going to work. I have a guy that will put the vent in for 500.00, and I want to get a multi fuel englander stove, so that will kepp me under 3k. I would like to hear some suggestions or opinions from you all. Thanks again, and sorry for the long story. By the way thanks to everyone this site is worth its weight in gold, with all the information.

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Hello

The 1st one I got works so well to heat my house, I got one cheap from craigslist to heat the new shed See pics

I've been burning pellets since 2004. We have a 1.5 story cape cod, with a great room that the pellet stove sits in so it pretty much heats our entire house. We have two heat pumps, one for the upstairs and one for the downstairs, but with the pellet stove running, the heat pumps don't even kick on unless the temps fall to the mid 20's or below.

We originally bought a Quadra Fire Santa Fe back in 2004. It's probably the lowest priced Quadra Fire stove, very simple in design and works great. Most of the dealers in this area charge $500 to $750 for a basic pellet stove install, and the Santa Fe runs less than $2000 - so that would put you under the $3,000 price range.

We replaced that stove with a Harman Advance in December. The auger motor is a little noisy but otherwise it's a great stove, built like a tank, and puts out a lot of heat. But it's much more expensive, close to $4,000 just for the stove alone.

If you wanted a brand new stove, you might get a price on the P38 or P43 Harman, or the Quad Santa Fe. If you don't mind going used, keep your eye on Craigslist, as has been mentioned before. A couple weeks ago a local seller in my town had a Quadra Fire 1200 Classic Bay, with pellet pipe and a half ton of leftover pellets, used one season, for $1500. That is a fantastic deal, I kind of kick myself for not buying it even though I don't need another stove, lol.

See this thread:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/90877/

Shows a diagram of how well a pellet stove heats my home, and I burn about 1.3 bags a day. It's been nice & toasty and I haven't had to open a window all winter.