Doing my homework to purchase a wood pellet burning stove...

Welcome to the forum! You're in the right place for your question.
Best tip I can give you is, if you get a stove, install it where your
family spends the most time. Imo it's wasted heat if you put it
in the basement but spend more of your time in the main portion
of the home.

There is a section of stove reviews here on hearth.com.
---->
https://www.hearth.com/ratings/search.php

zeta is right. Very little heat will probably travel up. You can search this forum for stoves installed in the basement and you will get mixed reviews. As far as individual stove reviews, I found my stove by going to all the manufacturers sites and reading the specs on their stoves. You will need to spec out what your needs are, square footage, BTUs, esthetics, how much automation do you want, etc. The best thing to do is to determin a few models that meet your specs than try to narrow it down by searching for reviews on google and right here at this forum. And, make sure there is a local dealer who will not only sell the stove but who is knowledgable and will service it.

best bet is to install on the first floor for better performance

There are many valid posts on here explaining why not to put a stove in the basement. There are also posts from folks who thought better and ended up moving their stoves after the fact. Bottom line is your stove's energy is wasted on trying to heat the surrounding walls before the heat rises.

Think of a pellet stove as a big space heater. You will want to place it in the area you spend most of your time. You will likely be unhappy putting it an an unfinished basement, most of the heat will never make it to where you want it to go.

dsimono said:

I apologize if I am not in the correct place posting this question, please feel free to point me in the right direction. I am looking to purchase a wood pellet burning stove. I have read a lot of the postings on this site and I think I am closer to deciding to purchase a stove. I have a 1200 square foot house. I would place the stove in the unfinished portion of my basement under the bedrooms. Do I need to incorporate it into my existing ventilation system or will enough heat work it's way to the first floor? Also, where should I look for specific model reviews? (sales people please note I will be looking to buy locally).

Click to expand...

If you're in the same situation as I am, where cellar installation is all that's practical, and you already have a forced hot air system in place, look at pellet FURNACES. I installed mine and tied into the existing ductwork, 3 or 4 others on this forum have done the same, so far we're all pleased w/ the results. Not promoting any brand, but St. Croix and Harman both make FURNACES. If you have a hot water baseboard system, there are pellet BOILERS out there, as well, if you're interested, check out the Boiler Room on this forum. Also, some of these are multi - fuel and will burn corn, cherry pits, and other bio-mass fuels. Do your research, with oil at the price it is right now, you may be able to avoid the big (panic) rush that many of us went through this year w/ shortages, slow deliveries, etc. Good luck, keep us posted.

I would take with less than a grain of salt what your cousin claims.
Example: I have a friend who keeps her thermostat at 60F.
She is comfortable with that. Me, I'd be whining and cold if
my house were set at 60F. 72F for me (at least) or I'm not comfy..
The point I'm trying to make is, your cousins experiences
may be far different than the results you may get in your home.

If your gf is always cold, and you want the heat in the living
area of your home, best bet is to consider installing
a stove in the area of your home where you want the heat.
I would almost bet that a basement install isn't going to keep
that girlfriend warm. Ducting a pellet stove into existing
duct work isn't going to provide much heat from what I've read here
on this forum. Do a little reading around the forum and you
will see what I mean.

[quote author="dsimono" date="1226996679"]Thanks guys for the replies! I am investigating incorporating new stove to the current duct system in the house. I am prepared to not be 100% efficient, especially since I will be wasting energy carrying the pellet bags into the basement. My cousin has a stove in his basement not attached to duct work. He says he RARELY runs his furnace. On the coldest days he burns through an entire bag of pellets. Also he runs his furnace as backup.


The big question is if Cousins basement is finished or not?

dsimono said:

Thanks guys for the replies! I am investigating incorporating new stove to the current duct system in the house. I am prepared to not be 100% efficient, especially since I will be wasting energy carrying the pellet bags into the basement. My cousin has a stove in his basement not attached to duct work. He says he RARELY runs his furnace. On the coldest days he burns through an entire bag of pellets. Also he runs his furnace as backup.

Some of my assumptions are that:
I would need to buy a stove and pellets for year 1 @ approx. $3000.
My current costs are (Nov - April plus 1/2 of Oct & May, utility bill @ average of $300 per month) $2100.
Question: Will there be a 40% increase in natural gas approx. equaling ((2100 * 40) /100) = $840.

Benefits:
I will spend $3000 this year on a stove and future years will be a bonus. I am not home during the weekdays. I only need to heat under the bedrooms while I sleep and the weekends. My girlfriend who is always cold will always be warm. And this sounds like an adventure.

Click to expand...

As others have mentioned, I would not recommend installing the pellet stove in your basement. I have my Englander in the basement (mostly finished) and I can tell you from first hand experience that you will go through a lot more pellets then you would if it were located in the main living area, a LOT more. I will also tell you a bag of pellets burnt in the basement will hardly put a dent in your heating needs upstairs on the coldest days. It will make a difference, but you will find that when you add up all the costs (initial install, pellets, electricity to run the stove and distribute the heat, hassle, etc.), it isn't worth the little gain you'll get out of it.

If you are hell bent on buying a pellet stove to install as you planned, consider buying a second hand stove to lower your initial cost. It will take forever (if it's even possible) to recoup the cost of a new stove install in your unfinished basement.

Looking over your assumptions, I see you have NG. I'm not sure why you would expect a 40% increase this year in NG cost as NG prices have been rapidly dropping. In fact, I just ran the numbers (see the Gas sub-forum) for what it will cost me to run NG for this year based on today's numbers, and I can tell you it's significantly cheaper for me to heat with NG than it is for me to burn pellets (at $205/ton)... and this is with the stove located in my living area and doesn't even factor in the cost of the stove or my time.

Regardless, if I were in your shoes, I'd look into creating a separate zone for your bedroom (or whatever area it is you want to space heat). This way you can heat that area while leaving the rest of the house at the lower set point. You could also consider installing a NG stove in this area as well. I believe there's a thread in the gas sub-forum about this as well. I'm sure this would be far more efficient and economical than buying and installing a pellet stove in your basement!

Glad to hear NG rates in your area are going down. Ours were raised 3 times this year with the latest 32%.

hossthehermit said:

dsimono said:

I apologize if I am not in the correct place posting this question, please feel free to point me in the right direction. I am looking to purchase a wood pellet burning stove. I have read a lot of the postings on this site and I think I am closer to deciding to purchase a stove. I have a 1200 square foot house. I would place the stove in the unfinished portion of my basement under the bedrooms. Do I need to incorporate it into my existing ventilation system or will enough heat work it's way to the first floor? Also, where should I look for specific model reviews? (sales people please note I will be looking to buy locally).

Click to expand...

If you're in the same situation as I am, where cellar installation is all that's practical, and you already have a forced hot air system in place, look at pellet FURNACES. I installed mine and tied into the existing ductwork, 3 or 4 others on this forum have done the same, so far we're all pleased w/ the results. Not promoting any brand, but St. Croix and Harman both make FURNACES. If you have a hot water baseboard system, there are pellet BOILERS out there, as well, if you're interested, check out the Boiler Room on this forum. Also, some of these are multi - fuel and will burn corn, cherry pits, and other bio-mass fuels. Do your research, with oil at the price it is right now, you may be able to avoid the big (panic) rush that many of us went through this year w/ shortages, slow deliveries, etc. Good luck, keep us posted.

Click to expand...

Do have to agree, though, with the majority, that a PELLET STOVE Won't do you a lot of good in an unfinished basement, unless you keep your girlfriend chained up down there while you're gone all week.

zeta said:

I would take with less than a grain of salt what your cousin claims.
Example: I have a friend who keeps her thermostat at 60F.
She is comfortable with that. Me, I'd be whining and cold if
my house were set at 60F. 72F for me (at least) or I'm not comfy..
The point I'm trying to make is, your cousins experiences
may be far different than the results you may get in your home.

If your gf is always cold, and you want the heat in the living
area of your home, best bet is to consider installing
a stove in the area of your home where you want the heat.
I would almost bet that a basement install isn't going to keep
that girlfriend warm. Ducting a pellet stove into existing
duct work isn't going to provide much heat from what I've read here
on this forum. Do a little reading around the forum and you
will see what I mean.

Click to expand...

I agree with Zeta 100%....put the stove in the room you want to keep warm the most. These stoves are meant to be, at best, space heaters. If you can move some heat from room to room using some fans, fine. otherwise, the basement isn't the way to go.

I agree with the others- If you put your stove in an unfinished
basement, you will be disappointed with the results.
Put the stove where you spend the most time.

dsimono said:

Thanks guys for the replies! I am investigating incorporating new stove to the current duct system in the house. I am prepared to not be 100% efficient, especially since I will be wasting energy carrying the pellet bags into the basement. My cousin has a stove in his basement not attached to duct work. He says he RARELY runs his furnace. On the coldest days he burns through an entire bag of pellets. Also he runs his furnace as backup.

Some of my assumptions are that:
I would need to buy a stove and pellets for year 1 @ approx. $3000.
My current costs are (Nov - April plus 1/2 of Oct & May, utility bill @ average of $300 per month) $2100.
Question: Will there be a 40% increase in natural gas approx. equaling ((2100 * 40) /100) = $840.

Benefits:
I will spend $3000 this year on a stove and future years will be a bonus. I am not home during the weekdays. I only need to heat under the bedrooms while I sleep and the weekends. My girlfriend who is always cold will always be warm. And this sounds like an adventure.

Click to expand...

https://www.ruralking.com/Store/SearchBrands.aspx?BrandId=2858

You said you will spend $3000 on a pellet stove this year? Check out the deals that Rural King has. I am looking at a Breckwell Big E myself, because my friend got one and loves it. I dunno how Rural King does it, but there list price is much lower than that of other resellers. I used the link above to get info on the pellet stove I am looking at. I have called the 1 800 number a few times and asked the internet store manager a few questions, he seems like a knowledgable person. He told me that you can get a surprisingly low freight quote because of their fedex discount for having so much business with fedex. Last time I called, they were out of stock, but I just called a day or two ago and they have plenty of stock again. Hope this helps save you some money.