Do I take the plunge?

on average it cost me around $800 per yr. my house is only a single story and 1400 sq ft. there is very little hassel with my stove, I spend around 1/2 hr per week cleaning it. once a month I do a indepth cleaning, removing all of the insides and cleaning the vent pipe.

I have a 2400sf house built in 87. I use about 5 tons of pellets and it's my primary heat source. I run an avalon astoria and love it

treadmillman,

Welcome to the forum.

My wife and I spent some time a few years back in the mountain area of western NC looking to relocate. Beautiful part of the world!

Premium or super premium pellets have lower ash content and will reduce maintenance. Well worth the extra cost per ton IMO.

I spend 5 minutes a day doing a quick vacuum and glass cleaning ( Not necessary, but I like clean glass.) and 30 minutes each week or two doing a more thorough cleaning. The exhaust vent should be cleaned every ton or so burned.

I believe your dealer is fairly close on payback estimates.

We have been buying 2 to 3 tons of pellets a year for a typical sized NE Cape Cod, but we also burn some wood and use the oil furnace some, so it would be hard to compare to your projected useage.

I do find the pellet stove a very enjoyable source of heat.

Do you currently have a backup system for electricity? As you know, pellet stoves require electricity for blower fans and igniters.

Good luck with your decision and keep us posted.

Ranger

You have to keep the propane system in place for central heat if you ever want to sell your home and for insurance reasons.

I am in upstate NY and I heat my home 1800 SF two story home with the pellet stove and electric as now the backup. I run through 2.5 to 3 tons per year and that is at most 750 per year.

Yes better pellets make for better burning but all of our stoves are different and our instals are different so one pellet works for one person and may not work for another...

You will certainly save money but you need to scrape the burn pot eboue ever day or every other (5 minutes) Clean the front end of the stove Burn pot, heat exchanger, ash pan ect. once a week (30 minutes) and a full deep cleaning (1 hour ever 50 bags of pellets).

I have estimeted my savings as about $1200 per year based on lower electric usage and an estimated basline. This pays for my stove and modifications to my house in 3 years including the rebate from uncle sam. Note: my install was extreemly intense and required significant modifications to the home and I was able to cut cost by doing it myself.


Good luck but remember nothing is free you will need to do more thanjust turn on the heat....

Saving $$$ is the only reason and that savings is realized mostly because you're downgrading from an automatic propane furnace to a manual pellet Space Heater.

During the heating months:

1. Load the stove with one bag of pellets in the morning and 1 bag at night
2. Empty the ash pan weekly
3. Vacuum the stove bi-weekly

A major cleaning is required annually but you probably do that with your propane furnace as well.

Treadmillman said:

I currently am using hot water baseboard propane boiler to heat my house. I have had a conversation with a salesman who sells Enviro pellet stoves. I am considering adding a multi fuel pellet stove to use instead of the propane. Propane has cost me $2,200.00 per winter to heat my house for the last 2 winters. The salesman told me I would see enough savings by using a pellet stove over the propane to pay for the stove. So here are a few questions

How much on average are people spending per season to heat with a pellet stove? (cold climate, as we are in the mountains of NC)

How much hassel is it to use a pellet stove? I have read that there is less hassel if you use better pellets.

Other than possible savings any reasons to go to a pellet stove? I am would leave the propane as a backup and vacation heat.

Click to expand...

$2.200 sounds like you are heating a large home! What is the square-footage of you home? And what is the BTU rating on the present furnace?

The 1st question has lots of variables involved. Without more details we would only be guessing things. Insulation content of the home and square-feet.

#2, Going from a no touch propane furnace to a pellet stove has more work as the furnace was set and forget. You will need to do regular cleanings and probably have to get used to a schedule. There is going to be a learning curve. But once your used to it you will find its rather easy to do!

#3, Heating with wood(in this case wood pellets) is considered carbon neutral. Its also renewable in a sense as it doesn't take millions of years to reproduce the fuel. You will find that almost everyone is selling wood pellet fuel now, Even super markets!

Heating with wood pellets for over 10 seasons and still enjoying it. I use about 3 1/2 tons per season with a near 2K sqft house. This house has electric heat so I am saving a lot(electric is high in this area). We previously heated with cord wood and the wood pellet are a lot less work. The house is also kept a more stable temp with wood pellets. Because there less than the Electric heat was we have the house kept warmer. No sitting on the couch with blankets to stay warm for us.

Another thing you could consider is a pellet boiler to sister into the propane furnace. Also an energy audit to see if there are other things you can do to cut the cost of heating. The biggest payback is getting the home more energy fit.

I am going into my third winter in upstate NY with my stove, englander 25pdvc. I figure with the original cost of the stove,$1500 and the 6.5 tons of pellets I have used in 2 seasons so far, that I have already saved more than is invested. Home heating oil is around $3 a gallon here and I used 600-650 a year. I usually take an hour or so on Sundays to do a good vacuuming and cleaning and clean the vent pipe twice during the season. The annual cleaning only takes a couple hours. It is not all that much work but you need to stay on top of it to get the most out of your stove.

Treadmillman said:

Thanks for the replies. We have 2000 heated living space on 2 floors that I am trying to heat. The stairs are open with a vaulted ceiling in the forier so the heat will rise up to the 2 beadrooms up stairs. We have R19 in the attic and I am getting ready to add R13 to it.
The hot water radiant heat is comfortable, but it is more expensive than forced air or other types of heat.
I am looking at the pellet stove idea because of the tax credits, both federal and a NC credit. This will off set 60% or more of the cost to purchase.
I understand the time and trouble issue, and it is something to be concerned with. If the savings are great enough it will be worth it.

Click to expand...

That is a good deal! It would be hard for me to pass that up.

Wow,
That is a lot of cash for heating. We heat our house almost exclusively with the pellet stove. about 2300sqft two story colonial. Last year we burned through almost 3 tons of pellets in a very harsh winter with several nights dipping below 0. Tons and tons of snow (over 100") and lots of cold nights and days. It pretty much ran all the time except for cleanings in between tons and shut downs for a problem we are having with the stove.

A typical year which is probably a lot worse than a NC winter we go through about 1 to 2 tons (closer to 2 tons) and spend about $300 on the pellets.

i'm still a rookie i've been heatn w pellets for 1 year and i wont go back
the cleaning is no big deal 1/2 hr every sat. 1 bag in the a.m. 1 in the p.m.
wife is warm and happy so that makes me happy 3tons last year never
turned on the heat last winter

russ79 said:

I figure with the original cost of the stove,$1500 and the 6.5 tons of pellets I have used in 2 seasons so far, that I have already saved more than is invested. Home heating oil is around $3 a gallon here and I used 600-650 a year. .

Click to expand...

It really depends on where you live. I remember a few years back the month of Jan NEVER got above zero. I was using around 450-500 gal of Kero, not to mention the 600 gals of propane. (hot water and cooking stove) plus a couple ventless propane space heaters. I am spendind over 3000 a season to stay warm. remember though, we heat from late sept to end of April. with an annual snow fall of 245" for me it's a mater of trying to get away from all the before mentioned.

What was the cost of your propane per gallon? What is the efficiency of your furnace? How efficient did the salesman say the pellet stove was? Ask him how much pellets cost (and call around to Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Lowes, etc as ask).

Then use a calculator such as at:
http://pelletheat.org/pellets/compare-fuel-costs/

You can then calculate how much you would save with pellets.