Going from Wood stove to pellet stove

[bigeclipse]

All,
My wife and I moved into our current 1600sqft house about 2 months ago (350ft is upstairs). It is an older house but does have some recent renovations, the windows are double pained and put in the 1990s and are still well sealed. The ceiling to the attic on the other hand is not so much (the roof gets warm enough to melt snow) but we also have very low ceilings in our house ( 6 foot 7inches as opposed to the standard 8) so I would say even with our heat loss into our attic we are probably still very similar to a modern home with regular 8 foot ceilings as far as needed heat is concerned. My wife and I are still debating which wood stove we will get (looking into the Harman P61a, P68, Absolute 63 and possibly XXV). I am trying to get an idea of amount of pellets we will likely go through. The previous owner claimed she would go through about 5 cord of wood through the winter, this would be enough to rarely have the oil furnace going. I know it would be a rough ball park but could anyone guess as to about how many tons of pellets we could expect to burn. I know this really depends on a lot of things but knowing the previous owner used 5 cord of mixed hard wood can hopefully provide some rough guidelines? thanks!

 

[bogieb]

As a rule of thumb, a ton of wood pellets is roughly equal to 1.5 cords of wood. However, I would plan on a ton = 1 cord just to be safe. You can always adjust from there after experiencing your first winter and seeing actual usage.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Looking around, it appears that one 40lb bag of processed heating pellets equals about one cubic foot. Using this chart, air dried oak is about 45lbs, and air dried fir is about 35lbs per cubic foot.

A cord of 4'x4'x8' =128 cubic feet, but with cut and split fore wood, an average found online equals about 85 cubic feet or close in the range.

So fifty 40lb bags of pellets equals about 50 cubic feet, and a split cord equals about 85 cubic feet.

Now you just need to figure out which medium puts more heat per cubic foot into your home. Having run wood stoves much of my life and still running one in the shop, but only coming up on two years of pellet stoves, given the choice, I will try to stay with pellets as long as I can. It has one major (to me anyway) convenience factor of being able to put a whole day's worth of fuel in at once and have the output be regulated to stay pretty even. This way I can fill the hopper with pellets and leave for the day, come back and the house is just the way I like it. But I would not be afraid of split wood either as the technology continues to improve to reduce the smoke and retain the heat.

That's my OPINION.

 

[alternativeheat]

Your cheapest investment will be to fluff up on the attic insulation, either roll in some batts yourself or have some loose insulation blown in. You can also rent the blow in equipment and purchase the loose insulation from Home Depot and do it yourself. Then assess heating costs ( hint, the cost will go down).

The attic insulation is a big factor , it shouldn't be ignored. About 20 years ago now I put in a folding attic stair way, while that hatch was open and I was installing the thing I couldn't get over how much more the heat was cycling on and off and I turned it down. And actually the old push out hatch had 6" insulation on top of it and the stairs non. The heat cycled more with the stairway installed but nothing like when the hatch was open. Corning makes an insulating tent that goes over those fold stairs.

 

[bogieb]

Deezl has an interesting way of figuring out the equivalence. I just Googled it

 

[articcatbill]

I just went from wood to pellets this year. I typically figured 6-8 cords of wood a year when heating with wood. The coldest winter I burned as high as 10. That included burning some wood in the fireplace. So I would guess in most winters I was running 6-7 cords through my wood stove for heat.

I am looking at using about 4-5 tons of pellets this year. There are definitely some efficiency gains in the pellets as far as regulating the heat with pellets. With wood for instance on a 40 degree day the house would get to warm. With pellets I simply turn it down or off. My Harman is in our basement so I run it in stove mode almost exclusively. So I am not wasting heat/wood by trying to keep a wood fire burning on a warmer day.

On the other hand during shoulder season I am much more likely to just turn on the pellet stove on a cool evening than I was to build a fire in the wood stove. Ours did not draft well and it required some patience to get it fired up without smoking out the house, this also caused me to keep it burning when maybe I didn't need it. So I think that I used the pellet stove a bit more then and honestly love that feature of the stove. Walk down, turn it on, a few minutes later heat, no fuss, no smoke, no time at all I have heat.

So for what it is worth I went from using typically 6-7 cords of wood to about 4-5 tons of pellets. The season isn't over yet, but I think I will be in that range of pellet usage. Of course depends on what happens the rest of the season.

So that is right in line with what bogieb suggested, which I found interesting that roughly 1 cord of wood = 1 ton pellets. With the efficiency gains I am in that rough range.

Oh and BTW there is another efficiency gain I had, my wood stove was a non EPA Kodiak wood stove. Not as efficient as today's wood stoves. Not nearly as efficient as our pellet stove.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

I just went from wood to pellets this year. I typically figured 6-8 cords of wood a year when heating with wood. The coldest winter I burned as high as 10. That included burning some wood in the fireplace. So I would guess in most winters I was running 6-7 cords through my wood stove for heat.

I am looking at using about 4-5 tons of pellets this year. There are definitely some efficiency gains in the pellets as far as regulating the heat with pellets. With wood for instance on a 40 degree day the house would get to warm. With pellets I simply turn it down or off. My Harman is in our basement so I run it in stove mode almost exclusively. So I am not wasting heat/wood by trying to keep a wood fire burning on a warmer day.

On the other hand during shoulder season I am much more likely to just turn on the pellet stove on a cool evening than I was to build a fire in the wood stove. Ours did not draft well and it required some patience to get it fired up without smoking out the house, this also caused me to keep it burning when maybe I didn't need it. So I think that I used the pellet stove a bit more then and honestly love that feature of the stove. Walk down, turn it on, a few minutes later heat, no fuss, no smoke, not time at all I have heat.

So for what it is worth I went from using typically 6-7 cords of wood to about 4-5 tons of pellets. The season isn't over yet, but I think I will be in that range of pellet usage. Of course depends on what happens the rest of the season.

So that is right in line with what bogieb suggested, which I found interesting that roughly 1 cord of wood = 1 ton pellets. With the efficiency gains I am in that rough range.

Oh and BTW there is another efficiency gain I had, my wood stove was a non EPA Kodiak wood stove. Not as efficient as today's wood stoves. Not nearly as efficient as our pellet stove.

Awesome reply.

 

[lsucet]

Well, I have both and i use both but i have to accept that i am more inclined to wood. for me is better. Pellets is no good if an outage, Augers can go bad and hard to predict when. if combustion fan goes out, then no draft, equal smoke. if room fan goes out, no heating, harder to diagnose if you not a handy person. Many parts to fail and is hard to tell which one to always have a spare. Noise, electricity consumption, more intense cleaning than wood to have it in a good working condition, etc.
Saying that, it is a good assistance to my wood stove in those real cold spells and help bringing the house to temp when i get there and the house is cold(i am just there most on weekends). wood stove are good including to do some cooking if necessary. But it comes down to what you want or like. By my observations i prefer wood. Now, wood, if you do you own CSS is intense labor plus if is a person with health problem,age,etc, i think a pellet stove can be better and win the contest.

 

[alternativeheat]

I have 26ft of vertical 4" vent, a power outage never puts smoke in the house with that. The natural draft pulls it out, it's not enough draft to support combustion but it is enough to draw the smoke out.. We have a generator I run the central heat in a power outage.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Well, I have both and i use both but i have to accept that i am more inclined to wood. for me is better. Pellets is no good if an outage, Augers can go bad and hard to predict when. if combustion fan goes out, then no draft, equal smoke. if room fan goes out, no heating, harder to diagnose if you not a handy person. Many parts to fail and is hard to tell which one to always have a spare. Noise, electricity consumption, more intense cleaning than wood to have it in a good working condition, etc.
Saying that, it is a good assistance to my wood stove in those real cold spells and help bringing the house to temp when i get there and the house is cold(i am just there most on weekends). wood stove are good including to do some cooking if necessary. But it comes down to what you want or like. By my observations i prefer wood. Now, wood, if you do you own CSS is intense labor plus if is a person with health problem,age,etc, i think a pellet stove can be better and win the contest.

Very, very good points made. Cant really argue with them much at all, except the fire wood labor. To compare apples to apples, the consumer at large does not make their own pellets, they buy them premade and prestacked. Therefore, the wood should also be purchased precut and stacked. That way split wood does not get the short end of the stick with it's labor intensity.

 

[lsucet]

I have 26ft of vertical 4" vent, a power outage never puts smoke in the house with that. The natural draft pulls it out, it's not enough draft to support combustion but it is enough to draw the smoke out.. We have a generator I run the central heat in a power outage.

I know there is some alternatives and we can make it work if that is the route we want to go. I just make some points of my observation and in any way i am against pellet stoves but is good to know the limitations of one vs the other and the simplicity. for some is less dust, less chance of bugs in the house etc with pellets. including for some old people is better for them toss a split in the wood stove than carrier a 40 pound bag and dump it in. In everything, there is two sides of the coin. Please don't get me wrong after all is just my observations but i can be right and can be wrong

Very, very good points made. Cant really argue with them much at all, except the fire wood labor. To compare apples to apples, the consumer at large does not make their own pellets, they buy them premade and prestacked. Therefore, the wood should also be purchased precut and stacked. That way split wood does not get the short end of the stick with it's labor intensity.

Very understandable and a good point. the thing is, a good percentage of wood burners at some point they decide to do their own CSS just to know that they have premium fuel.

 

[jatoxico]

The previous owner claimed she would go through about 5 cord of wood through the winter,

What was she burning the wood in?

 

[alternativeheat]

I know there is some alternatives and we can make it work if that is the route we want to go. I just make some points of my observation and in any way i am against pellet stoves but is good to know the limitations of one vs the other and the simplicity. for some is less dust, less chance of bugs in the house etc with pellets. including for some old people is better for them toss a split in the wood stove than carrier a 40 pound bag and dump it in. In everything, there is two sides of the coin. Please don't get me wrong after all is just my observations but i can be right and can be wrong



Very understandable and a good point. the thing is, a good percentage of wood burners at some point they decide to do their own CSS just to know that they have premium fuel.

Oh same here, after all I'm a coal burner at heart LOL !

 

[bigeclipse]

What was she burning the wood in?

She was using the quadrafire Millenium 3100 (the current one we are going to replace).

 

[UpStateNY]

Gravity feed Coal stove is another option.

 

[NYBurner]

They make the compressed bricks now that can be used in woodstoves......makes the labor portion a bit easier.

 

[jatoxico]

She was using the quadrafire Millenium 3100 (the current one we are going to replace).

OK just wanted to make sure it wasn't some old, highly inefficient setup.

 

[bogieb]

They make the compressed bricks now that can be used in woodstoves......makes the labor portion a bit easier.

There is that. If those had been common when I first started looking at pellet stoves, I may have opted to build a chimney and put in a wood stove. As it is, I put on a new metal roof the next summer after installing pellet stoves, so that is pretty much out.

 

[jatoxico]

There is that. If those had been common when I first started looking at pellet stoves, I may have opted to build a chimney and put in a wood stove. As it is, I put on a new metal roof the next summer after installing pellet stoves, so that is pretty much out.

Yes many use and like the bricks. Not trying to talk you (the OP) out of your plan but the stove you have is a a good one, won't cost you anything since it's already installed and will run in a power outage. So if you were already committed to the idea of buying fuel in the form of pellets you could buy bricks and still burn any wood that happens to come your way.

 

[bigeclipse]

Yes many use and like the bricks. Not trying to talk you (the OP) out of your plan but the stove you have is a a good one, won't cost you anything since it's already installed and will run in a power outage. So if you were already committed to the idea of buying fuel in the form of pellets you could buy bricks and still burn any wood that happens to come your way.

The other big negative we hate is the dust/ash/dirt from the wood stove that gets everywhere. I know pellet stoves aren't as clean as say fuel oil but will be much cleaner than the wood stove.

 

[lsucet]

Well everything depend in your approach, for cleaning, the pellets are better but not because of dust/ash/dirt issue. It just that it can cool down faster than a wood stove and i can vacuum it and do a quick clean up in no time. wood stove, takes longer to cool down cause of embers still glowing for hrs. I will give you that. But one is cold I can vacuum ashes from the wood stove also and the dust/ash/dirt issue is the same as with pellet stove. Ash vacuum are cheap and pellet stoves benefit more from one and can be also use in wood stoves.

Still i give advantage to the pellet stove here, cause i can go thru the cleaning process faster and start getting heat back sooner. I know some can tell you that they can remove ashes faster from a wood stove than the pellet stove, but can be possible that they facing the condition of dust/ash/dirt. Many just rake coals to the back and remove ashes with hot stove before reload.

It is hard to tell, everything comes down to what you want and make you happy plus perform for you. Good luck with your decision but what some are trying to tell you is that, you have a good stove there and maybe what you need is make some adjustment to keep under control those downsides from wood stoves that you don't like and save some money at the same time.

 

[bigeclipse]

Well everything depend in your approach, for cleaning, the pellets are better but not because of dust/ash/dirt issue. It just that it can cool down faster than a wood stove and i can vacuum it and do a quick clean up in no time. wood stove, takes longer to cool down cause of embers still glowing for hrs. I will give you that. But one is cold I can vacuum ashes from the wood stove also and the dust/ash/dirt issue is the same as with pellet stove. Ash vacuum are cheap and pellet stoves benefit more from one and can be also use in wood stoves.

Still i give advantage to the pellet stove here, cause i can go thru the cleaning process faster and start getting heat back sooner. I know some can tell you that they can remove ashes faster from a wood stove than the pellet stove, but can be possible that they facing the condition of dust/ash/dirt. Many just rake coals to the back and remove ashes with hot stove before reload.

It is hard to tell, everything comes down to what you want and make you happy plus perform for you. Good luck with your decision but what some are trying to tell you is that, you have a good stove there and maybe what you need is make some adjustment to keep under control those downsides from wood stoves that you don't like and save some money at the same time.

Understood. One of the key problems is every time I open the door to load wood ash definitely kind of puffs out. Not much but multiply that a couple times a day. Also, I find that the stove loses burn only after 4hrs and the house starts getting cold. We have animals at home which need heat to be above 65 so we set our oil furnace to 67 as back up. That comes on a few times during the day and night. Almost enough that I'd say between the cost of fire wood and oil, the pellet stove would likely be a wash as far as cost is concern and then couple that with ease of cleaning, lack of bugs, bark pieces, dirt, ash everywhere and ease of loading I think for me the pellet stove is the way to go. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[alternativeheat]

Understood. One of the key problems is every time I open the door to load wood ash definitely kind of puffs out. Not much but multiply that a couple times a day. Also, I find that the stove loses burn only after 4hrs and the house starts getting cold. We have animals at home which need heat to be above 65 so we set our oil furnace to 67 as back up. That comes on a few times during the day and night. Almost enough that I'd say between the cost of fire wood and oil, the pellet stove would likely be a wash as far as cost is concern and then couple that with ease of cleaning, lack of bugs, bark pieces, dirt, ash everywhere and ease of loading I think for me the pellet stove is the way to go. Maybe I'm wrong.

If you want to get away from that heating curve of a wood stove then pellets will do that, especially with a decent stove like you are looking at. The dirtiest part of a pellet stove is dust from dumping pellets in the hopper but being careful will minimize that.

 

[lsucet]

I love mine, I have two of them one at each end of the ranch house. When i get there the house is cold as hell, as mentioned before i go over there on weekends. pellet stoves are a big assistance to bring the house up to temp quicker but ones i get to that point the wood stove takes over for the rest of the time i staying. mine are not top end brand but i think they do a decent job. I feel the heat from the wood stove more solid, i don't know if that is the right definition, but for sure it feels better. is like it gets more into objects,walls, everything in general.

About opening the door and ash puffs out, i wondering if you have draft issues. I don't think i am experiencing anything like that. I open the draft wide open and let coals burn down and at the same time establish better draft for when is time to reload. maybe that helps to not have that condition but never put attention to that neither.

You are doing your homework and adjust everything to your needs. Nobody situations are the same.

 

[NYBurner]

A newer wood stove with a catalyst (ie Blaze king or others) can run LONG burn times these days.

Pellets are easy and clean to store but subject to market pricing...not particularly 'cheap' to run. Super convenient.
Wood are a bit more work, fuel is cheap.

both are/can be a pita to keep clean if you are pretty stubborn about keeping a clean stove.