Switched from Wood to Pellets

We decided to replace our Regency I2100 insert with a Harman Accentra insert.
Before:

Regency removed:

Rough field stone hearth and pass through wood bin demoed:

New veneer stone hearth being built:

All done:


I have 1 ton of Energex Canadian, 1 ton of Hamer's, and a full skid of Spruce Pointes. I hope we like the switch.

jtakeman said:

Very nice job! But its missing something fella's!

We need to see fire!

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It's supposed to be 41º here tonight...there will be fire soon enough.

DexterDay said:

Looks awesome.. What happened to the cuddy hole next to the Hearth? Looked like a good place to stash some pellets or push through from garage.

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It worked great for firewood, but I needed the room to reconfigure the garage. My work bench now sits where the wood bin was, so that I could put 3 pallets of pellets in one of the bays. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to carry in a bag of pellets once or twice a day. Plus, now we can use that wall space for furniture in the living room.

save$ said:

Perhaps for the better to have that sealed off. From what I understand in my very limited knowledge about codes, is that there cannot be any openings or passages that can provide a path for any fumes in the garage to off gas into the house.

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The box was built in to the garage with a door on the garage side. As long as it is sealed up and fire rated I don't see any difference between that and a man door.

velvetfoot said:

It's a very nice looking insert, but can I ask why you switched? Was it just for the convenience, or did the 1.6 ft3 of firebox not put out enough heat? Did you have problems with it?

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I liked heating with wood, but we switched for multiple reasons. The big ones were the work load, the mess, and ease of use. I work 24 hour shifts, and it's a lot easier for my wife to just dump in a bag a day of pellets then have to reload the woodstove every few hours. It will also be nice to have a constant level of heat and not have the temperature swings that came with the wood stove. No more bugs, spiders, bark, and dirt in the house. My kids were also having some allergy issues and I'm hoping that not having to empty the ashes twice a week will help.

We also considered a Blaze King wood insert with 24 hour burn times, and more consistent heat output. But, the other benefits of the pellet stove prevailed.

wilburg said:

You won't need that gate with a Harmon, only the glass get hot, the rest of the stove stays cool to the touch

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We have a 1.5 year old and a 3 year old so it will stay on for a few years. It's more for preventing one of them from falling in to it when they are horsing around than for stopping intentional touching. It also prevent them from falling on the sharp edge of the hearth stone.