pellet or wood?

I'd definitely put in a wood insert with your current set up, but youre asking on a wood burners forum so we're all a little biased over here. It'll have a blower running all the time so equates to the sound of a pellet stove in that sense.

It'll give you more heat for longer periods for less than bags of pellets. If you can muster up materials to do wood yourself, that's an added bonus, on top of getting heat from it in outages.

You need something in the parlor cause I don't think you'll feel the insert's heat much there. Yet, if you go with the right one, it'll surprise you how much heat wood gives! Like others have said, think twice about the Harman. I have friends of the family who have an insert of theirs. They hate it for it is very fickle.

Good luck and either way, you'll find warmth in renewable heat

Well if its $ you want to save don't get a wood stove unless you lock down cutting your own firewood.

Older folks around here are switching over from cutting wood to pellets... you can get a better price by buying them in bulk in the off season. It's a much neater operation too.

Whatever you decide I'd properly work it into the existing fireplaces.

mtnhiker70 said:

We recently bought a new house. It's less than 10 yrs old and in a rural area of MA, prone to lots of snow. The house is 2,800 sf, and has 2 fireplaces with one chimney, 2 flues. The fireplace is in the cathedral living rm on the 1st floor (see pic). The 2nd fireplace is beneath it, in the (walk-out, unfinished, but insulated) basement.

The house has a large 2-story foyer. The master suite is on the opposite side of the house from the fireplace, over the garage. The 1st floor has 9' ceilings. The 2nd floor has 8' ceilings, and vaulted 10' ceilings in the master.

The house has a hydro-air oil heating system. It's is rather cold & used a 1/4 tank of oil less thsn 10 days! I'm looking for a cheap heating supplement. I like the idea of pellets, but pellets were $6/bag here this winter and oil was $2.30. We have access to some free wood from our land, but it's off- site and we don't have a truck.

I'm researching wood & pellet burning inserts. I definitely need something that would work when the power is out (we get storms).

We are in our 40s, and I'm not enthused about the idea of cutting & hauling wood in, though it's easily available.

And right now, I'm the only person home during the day to keep a fire going. I can't lift more than 40#. The garage is slightly over-sized, so we could carve out a 4'x6' area for fuel storage, but the garage is at the opposite side of the house.

In addition to the masonry fireplaces, there is one exterior corner in the dining/kitchen where we could put a pellet stove. See pic. Im also open to the idea of buying a pellet stove AND an insert (if I can do it affordably). I think my budget for an install this summer wiuld be $3500-ish.

We used the fireplace for the first time last night - it wasn't warm & smoke detectors went off. Needs a cleaning I think.

Any advice would be appreciated.
View attachment 156477 View attachment 156478

Click to expand...

If you have to ask, go pellet. It's way cleaner and way easier.

mtnhiker70 said:

2nd flr ducts are routed thru the attic

Click to expand...

How well are the heating ducts in the attic insulated? How well is the attic insulated? Might want to invest $$ in insulating first then look at options for supplemental heat.

Our home sounds like yours, except ours is 100 yrs old, in that there is no easy way to have a single wood stove or pellet stove heat the entire space. So...we did what some others have mentioned- energy audit which led to insulating attic, air gaps and basement. Then we installed a pellet stove (Quadrafire Castille) at one end of the house in a fireplace. Then we installed a Morso 3610 wood stove in our kitchen through chimney at that end of the house. Cathedral ceiling in that room, too. By using a thermal fan, we can move the heat in that half of the house quite well with the wood stove. If I had to do it again, I would get another wood stove instead of the pellet stove for the other half. This is mostly because wood heat is really easy once you have mastered the stove and any nuances from draft and layout. Plus, it works when you need it to and is quiet. We also use a combination of biobricks and hardwood. Biobricks tend to heat up really fast which is nice when you need to take the edge off quickly.

I use both. Well, I will next year. I was heating with pellets exclusively but the price of pellets is so inflated it doesn't justify using them anymore. Im putting in a 240,000 BTU wood stove in the basement. I will fill the propane tank this year. First time in 7 years. I have a tone of pellets left over to burn next winter and probably wont buy any more. I am also going to get a ton of corn to burn. I will use all of these to heat next winter.

mtnhiker70 said:

How are the wood furnaces vented?
The double flue chimney is NOT located near the boiler or air handler.
.

Click to expand...

Just to add more choices,a pellet furnace is also an option you may want to look into. It vents like a pellet unit so you could locate it close to your current duct work. Most can go a few days before you have to fill the hopper.

You have received a lot of info. As you can see lots are biased towards what they use. To me I would go with a wood pellet furnace for the ease. Your home with the cathedrawl ceilings won't work too well with a space heater although it works well for me as you can see from my signature. Still with a pellet device there is some maintenance involved but this will keep you warm without heavy lifting; you mentioned you are able to lift 40 lbs. Good luck in your decision.

Wood is the way I would go. Once the stove is installed and you buy the tools... woods free if your willing to put some work in. I probably put 80hrs a year between cutting, loading, splitting and stacking. It's worth it... it's cheap, its warm, and most of all it's relaxing.

Wood you can store outside without concern, not so with pellets.

As well, pellets are usually hard to find after October... so that means buying your winters worth late in the summer and storing the entire time. My BIL went pellet stove, has two, and literally has an old broke down van in his yard he stores them in, and the rest in his mud room which is teeny... basically his entire place is sucked up with storing pellets... me, I have several wood stacks and a shed.

mtnhiker70 said:

I grew up with a fireplace & then a (cheap) wood stove. As a kid i did carry wood
in. It was dirty, and in our living room.
Not a fan... and I have allergies.

Click to expand...

If that is how you feel already, I'd probably skip over wood as an option. I have a similar house, still a little fuzzy on how we all classify square footage - about 2400 I think finished living floor area but closer to equivalent of 3,000 if you look at the area. I have a large cathedral great room, open to the upstairs hallway. But also my house is old and poorly insulated/drafty. I'd been burning 2 wood stoves prior, but with my schedule trying to maintain 2 wood stoves was an exercise in frustration. This year I replaced one with a pellet stove. On a very mild day spring/fall, the pellet stove may heat the whole place ok with a little over a bag. For most of winter, burning along with the woodstove I used ~2 bags a day, and on the coldest below zero days I was at about 3 bags a day, and that's with burning the wood stove also. In the woodstove I was burning a mix of ash and eco bricks. Burned a cord of ash and about 2 tons of eco-bricks over the year, though the first couple months I only used pellets.

It's a lot of work either way. Pellets may be a little easier to handle and less messy though, but your still lugging 40 pound bags around daily. The main reason I went with the pellet stove was since my schedule was very limited and had long days, the pellet stove gave me the option of refilling whenever (120 lb hopper) and not having to mess with it while I got ready for work. I had a lot of problems with mine though, and it still needs a complete shut down every 1 to 3 days to clean out the burnpot, and a deep cleaning opening the exhaust chambers up and cleaning the back parts of the stove and venting out about every 3 weeks I think. So its not like they are hands off either.

You might want to start looking around to see what pellets are going for (and wood also, perhaps craigslist). I hear up in New England paying well over $300 a ton is normal. And nearly that much for wood too.

BTW as you can probably tell I am a Mnt hiker as well.

Yes pellet dust is a serious issue. I have often wondered what that is doing to our lungs. We will probably know 30 years down the road, Who know what some of these pellet manufactures are putting in this stuff. Some people clean their pellets before they use them. They use the same thing people who clean corn use. So, there is that option.

"should"

Might also want to check out incorporating a mini-split heat pump.

begreen said:

I would also look at the Hearthstone Clydesdale if it will fit.

Click to expand...

Are you recommending an insert that can't load 16" pieces N/S?

mtnhiker70 said:

Pellets here have been $350 ton for over 8 months. And some places were out of stock.

Click to expand...

Take a look at the following prices:

http://pelletsdirect.com/Wood Pellets Pricing.htm

I think its more like $300, and lesser if you are OK with slightly more ash content. However, I do get what you are saying. I myself have gone back and forth too many times between pellets and wood burning stove. Right now I am more inclined towards wood since cost of pellets seems to be going up too much compared to cost of cord of wood. If you have some space, you can get more savings by seasoning wood yourself (but that also means buying the supply of wood much earlier).

wood is a commitment, pellets cost $$$, you need to choose what's best for you, I heat with wood, but I also like the life style of cutting, hauling, splitting, dragging it inside. I personally wouldn't feel right with just loading pellets and calling it a day, I deal with wood 365 days a year, whether its planning, or actually using it.