I am at a cross roads...

[AZ Pellet Heat]

...

I am hoping someone out there faced the same dilemma and can share your story and how it worked out. To give you perspective how on the edge I am - I told my wife last night that if someone called me today with a load of wood to sell, that I would buy it and go the wood route. But I keep going back to how easy it would be to set it and forget it, my only concern is that I dont want to go the pellet route and end up spending double the money to heat the house each winter...

I had a wood stove in my previous house and a pellet stove in my current house. I can't help with your primary concern of cost since I never switched stoves types in either house. But BTU's are BTU's, so the online calculators that others have mentioned should answer that question for you.

But the perspective I can offer is that my previous house was only 1300 sq.ft. and my current house is 3000 sq.ft. While I really loved the silence and ambiance of my wood stove, I couldn't handle the work needed to prepare that much wood for my current house.

And one other issue is that my wife was never able to start a wood fire. Believe me, I tried to teach her. But after filling the house with smoke a few times she was afraid of it. But with a pellet stove, she just hits the button. But there is still an issue because she is a very small woman and can't lift a 40 pound bag of pellets.

So if pricing is the only issue then an online calculator should be able to answer the question.

Marc

 

[bogieb]

And one other issue is that my wife was never able to start a wood fire. Believe me, I tried to teach her. But after filling the house with smoke a few times she was afraid of it. But with a pellet stove, she just hits the button. But there is still an issue because she is a very small woman and can't lift a 40 pound bag of pellets.

Bucket and scoop.

 

[Lake Girl]

The fuel cost calculator might help ... https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

This fuel cost comparison calculator has been moved to:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/calculators/fuel-cost-comparison

 

[Highbeam]

Early on the op said the all-in cost of replacing the current insert with t h a bk is same as moving to a harman pellet stove. I believe that to be false. I was at a bk dealer this weekend and the princess model is a sub 2500$ stove with same venting as the lopi he has. Harman pellet stoves are silly expensive like 4000$ plus new venting.

My bk princess burns 24 hours straight as well. Not all wood burners are the same.