Im trying to figure out how much a pellet stove will save me. I have electric heat, bill is $425 but only jan,feb. It might be $300 dec and march. My electric bill off season is $125. I read at the lowest setting min pallets use is 1 bag a day. $5x30 days is $150 a month in pellets. So I will only be saving couple hundred dollars 2 months a year. Not worth the price of unit to me. I live in Pa in 1500 sf house insulation is decent. Am I missing something? I made a homemade outdoor wood furnace last year. It got to house warm It cut my electric heat in half but after at least 8 cords of wood I exhausted my free wood supply. I dont really have an ideal place to put a fireplace or pellet stove inside but could if it saved enough money.
Trying to figure out how much money Pellet stove will save
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hyfire
Minister of Fire
Better off with a heat pump system, it could cut your electric cost 30-40% on the warmer days only. You still will need the pellet stove on cooler days.
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hyfire
Minister of Fire
hyfire
Minister of Fire
P61A is brand new, only used it for a wee bit in March. The house is an R2000 home, very tightly sealed and easy to heat, the main source of heat is electric Convectair units, they are very good and when I initially put them in(2008) it was very reasonable. But the rates going through he roof as we know I needed to do something. Hope it works out.
hyfire
Minister of Fire
Go with maybe a large ductless split system with multiple heads. The payback would be huge. Most of these units have a COP at moderate outside temps of 2.5-3. Which means for every watt used you get 2.5 -3 watts of heat out.
Not sure if you're talking to me hyfire, I do have such a system from Mitsubishi, works nicely down to -17c, I will use both it and the stove in combo and see what happens.
hyfire
Minister of Fire
Sorry, yes I was refering to you. I guess you will see how the bills come in this winter, which is supposed to be more brutal than the last.............
NHcpa
Minister of Fire
Hard to compare a central heating system to a space heater. Im sure you would save some money. Pellet stoves are space heaters the room its in will be 70+ while far ends of your house may be 60. The min of 1 bag a day is with the stove on all the time. It will cycle on and off and your pellet usage may be less depending on temperature. Your electric usage seems low but you quoted your monthly bill not kw used. You can easily extract your btus used per month using your summer months as a baseline.
Jason845845
Feeling the Heat
Deromax
Burning Hunk
Oh, that is describing my situation so nicely, I think I'm gonna adopt this quote as my sig!
I have the chance to live in a place where the electricity is plentiful and cheap (about $0.07 per kw/h, fixed price year long). I expect using pellets or even wood, will generate almost no saving over baseboard electric, let alone a heat pump. The expensive stove I just got will most probably never be paid for by the savings. I decided on pellets for the fun factor, the comforting feeling of a real flame in the living room and to a lesser extend, some autonomy in case of power outage.
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TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
Pellets have cut my heating costs in half. The warm glow of the fire in a corner of my living room is a nice bonus.
Oh, that is describing my situation so nicely, I think I'm gonna adopt this quote as my sig!
I have the chance to live in a place where the electricity is plentiful and cheap (about $0.07 per kw/h, fixed price year long). Using pellets or even wood generate almost no saving over baseboard electric, let alone a heat pump. The expensive stove I just got will most probably never be paid for by the savings. I decided on pellets for the fun factor, the comforting feeling of a real flame in the living room and to a lesser extend, some autonomy in case of power outage.
You Quebec people with affordable electricity, I hate you...........just kidding
...I would not wish Ontario on anyone, this province is a complete mess.
Deromax
Burning Hunk
Swedishchef
Minister of Fire
I live in Quebec but will be moving to NB soon. I was looking at a pellet stove setup. Hmmmm...I am gonna do some calculations myself too!
Andrew
Andrew
Swedishchef
Minister of Fire
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
Math is our friend... Here's one calculator from Efficiency Maine and another from this site (just click on the words). Update the prices to reflect what you pay locally. Happy calculating. It's just a matter of how many BTUs at the price it costs to generate them. Humidity and drafts make a difference in terms of comfort, of course, and I personally enjoy watching the stove more than a heat duct. But to each their own...
Oh, and to the original poster, all but the oldest stoves are generally operated with a thermostat. Thus, except in the coldest months they will not generally burn a full bag of pellets per day.
Oh, and to the original poster, all but the oldest stoves are generally operated with a thermostat. Thus, except in the coldest months they will not generally burn a full bag of pellets per day.
Just because the lowest setting burns a bag per day does not mean that's what it will use.
My Traditions stove turns itself completely off and on by thermostat. By doing so it is a very good shoulder season stove.
However, if you heat for less than $1000/year you won't save a lot with pellets.
If you have an older hot air system with ac, an updated heat pump system will save money year round.
My Traditions stove turns itself completely off and on by thermostat. By doing so it is a very good shoulder season stove.
However, if you heat for less than $1000/year you won't save a lot with pellets.
If you have an older hot air system with ac, an updated heat pump system will save money year round.
But you have affordable alchool over there! It cost an arm and a leg here!
No way, not beer anyways. Wine maybe?
Swedishchef
Minister of Fire
alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
If what you pay for heating is what it cost me I would not be buying pellets. It once did not but the again back in the Jimmy Carter days dollar value it also once cost more. We burned coal then and now that the costs are high again we burn pellets now. In between we were on oil only, it was cheaper then. When you find yourself paying astronomically higher prices and yet lowering your house temp it forces you to look at something else to heat your house. So now instead of a house at 65-67 deg f and costing $700 a month in the cold of winter, we heat to 73 or 74f for a little less. Ambiance is a plus too. So be it. Savings alone is not the goal, we like to be warm !!
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We never really burn ours much anymore once we had a central heating system put in that was cheaper. The pellet stove just seemed like a pain. I think last year I fired it up at most 5 times. I think the only reason my wife has not asked me to get rid of it is we have nothing we can use if we lose electricity besides the pellet stove.
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