Pellet stove for just using cottage on weekends in harsh winters?

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also im thinking if heating just 2 small rooms with radiant heat, or electric heated floors all week instead of 3 days of pellet stove (for the entire cottage) then 2 days of radiant heat in the 2 rooms, would this ultimately be cheaper? If I ran just the radiant heat in the two rooms all week, is there anyway I could start the pellet stove from home so the cottage would be warm when I arrived? or even another system for that matter, wirelessly from home?
Sure, if you have wifi access. You can use a Nest or any other type of wifi thermostat setup. Or, if you're always going to be there Friday at 8pm, then you can use a timer to set the stove to start Friday at 4pm.
 
Sure, if you have wifi access. You can use a Nest or any other type of wifi thermostat setup. Or, if you're always going to be there Friday at 8pm, then you can use a timer to set the stove to start Friday at 4pm.

cant get wifi there, but I do use 3G on my iphone when im there...if that means anything.

Electricity is not the way to save at all

agree and Im starting to think that only heating two water rooms and not the rest of the cottage aint going to be kind to my cottage, floors, siding etc, I can only imagine what a cottage goes through going from -40 to 68 back and forth all winter. Will suck up the hydro costs for 2 days a week, im thinking a self cleaning, 120lb hopper, wife approved (pretty) will give me 4 days in a cottage that small, fingers crossed.
 
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Electricity is not the way to save at all, but its cheaper than propane, and about 2x expensive as wood pellets. Whoever is paying the bills won;t be looking pretty if you go electric or propane.. Look at this propane related recent article.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thund...ce-frustrates-thunder-bay-homeowner-1.2532349

1 bag of pellets has 336000 btu
1 L propane has 24603 btu
According to that price 1 bag of wood pellet= 13.66 L of propane x 1.19= $16.26 which is about 3x the cost of the pellets you get for $5 a bag. Not counting any delivery costs or %efficiency of heating appliances.

I'd say your back to anything wood related:) that the wife approves...
 
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Why not install a few convection heaters and set them to 7C during the week and use the pellet stove on weekends? Convection is my backup and the price isn't too bad, especially at a low temp.
 
Why not install a few convection heaters and set them to 7C during the week and use the pellet stove on weekends? Convection is my backup and the price isn't too bad, especially at a low temp.


THis also depends how well insulated the place is, if its poor they would run constantly on a cold day...Electricity is to go up also by 40% in a few years. I did the math with present pricing a bag a pellets is about the same as 5 cents a kwh. Not sure what he is paying for hydro up north..
 
to go up also by 40% in a few years.?

its this 40% that's got me shopping around for different options. I have a neighbor at the lake that uses convection type heaters, convectair I think, I will ask him how economical they are. Im curious if theyre cheaper than electric baseboard heaters?
 
Next question, would you be mentally OK with leaving a pellet stove/furnace/propane, etc operating all by itself for a week?
 
I guess so, if people are ok leaving theirs running for a weekend getaway, especially if its a self cleaning one. I don't think 3 or 4 days would bother me, especially at a low setting, just to keep the water...watery.
 
I guess so, if people are ok leaving theirs running for a weekend getaway, especially if its a self cleaning one. I don't think 3 or 4 days would bother me, especially at a low setting, just to keep the water...watery.

Another consideration, most of the pellet stoves dont have any air filters in them, but the pellet furnaces do. Is anyone really fussy about dust?
 
its this 40% that's got me shopping around for different options. I have a neighbor at the lake that uses convection type heaters, convectair I think, I will ask him how economical they are. Im curious if theyre cheaper than electric baseboard heaters?
Do not look to save any money by going to different electric heaters,not going to happen.Nothing wrong with leaving a properly installed gas device on.Cannot comment on dust,as I live in the mountains,log cabin,dirt floor basement.
 
Do not look to save any money by going to different electric heaters,not going to happen.Nothing wrong with leaving a properly installed gas device on.Cannot comment on dust,as I live in the mountains,log cabin,dirt floor basement.
I'm sure there's no gas available.
 
I have went almost 9 months,24' square cabin,3 floors,one year when I did not burn but maybe 1/2 ton pellets,and cook with gas.If you kept the place at 70 you couldn't.I am at 6500',but I do get good sun.Brother in law uses 100 lb tanks,throws in back of truck when one runs low.
 
How reliable it the power? Might need some kind of back up. Have you also looked into passive solar? It might fill in when the sun is out.
 
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Would you happen to know the cost to fill 500 gal? After taxes and fees you would be close to $3000.. You could almost buy a stove...lol
 
Next question, would you be mentally OK with leaving a pellet stove/furnace/propane, etc operating all by itself for a week?

this post has me worried now. Arent these stoves relatively safe, especially a self cleaning one? If people are ok leaving them running all day at work, should I be worried 3-4 days at a time?
 
20 * 16 is very small. Any idea what it would cost to put in 1500w of baseboard and set the thermostat to 45F. I think anystove would constantly cycle in such a small place and not be very efficient.
 
Why not just use a pellet stove on the lowest temp auto room temp setting and use an electric convection heater a few degrees below the pellet stove setting that will kick on when the pellet stove runs out of pellets. You could get a P43 with a hopper extension as well. This would be fine running until it runs out of pellets.
 
this post has me worried now. Arent these stoves relatively safe, especially a self cleaning one? If people are ok leaving them running all day at work, should I be worried 3-4 days at a time?


If its a self cleaning one 3-4 days i don't see an issue, as long as you follow the maintenance schedule, for a full cleaning and flue cleaning. Just in general most stoves you cant go 4 days without a cleaning.. All the stoves have built in safety's if something goes wrong, did not mean to scare you..
 
should I be worried 3-4 days at a time?

My Maxx-M has now burned 3/4 ton of low-ash pellets and I've only opened the door to look at it and clean the glass. Running on 3 (of 5) it's burning one bag in about 10 hours, it has a 3 bag hopper. Set on 3 it heats the room it's in, about 24x18, to 85degF in no time (ambient outside at 25degF), the problem at my house is moving the heat around. Sorry it's too cold right now to try the lower settings as a test run for you, just turned the oil off hopefully for the season. I have no idea what to expect keeping your cabin +80degF (at a little over freezing) over the ambient outside - good thing it's small!

Best,
- Jeff
 
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