My head is exploding- wood stove or pellet

[lexybird]

just nail up a big picture of a roaring fire on your wall ,just below it hang a hair dryer now set it on high so its good and noisy and you will have all the radiant heat and virtual atmosphere of a pellet stove.

 

[Wet1]

just nail up a big picture of a roaring fire on your wall ,just below it hang a hair dryer now set it on high so its good and noisy and you will have all the radiant heat and virtual atmosphere of a pellet stove.

While I agree with the decision to go with wood over pellets (assuming the OP is good with the required amount of work this will take to maintain it, and it is a lot of work), your description of a pellet stove is very exaggerated and certainly not accurate. I have a couple of pellet stoves, and I can tell you they are not nearly as loud as a typical hair dryer on high! They also have the potential to put out a hell of a lot more heat! One of the nice things about pellet stoves is they can be dialed back to put out minimal amounts of heat (with very low noise), or be cranked up for more serious output. I've never seen a hair dryer that can put out well over 50,000 btu like pellet stoves can.

 

[Highbeam]

Look for the largest stoves available from any of the many great manufacturers. You are into the "jumbo" category with 3000 SF to heat.

 

[lexybird]

just nail up a big picture of a roaring fire on your wall ,just below it hang a hair dryer now set it on high so its good and noisy and you will have all the radiant heat and virtual atmosphere of a pellet stove.

your description of a pellet stove is very exaggerated and certainly not accurate. I have a couple of pellet stoves, and I can tell you they are not nearly as loud as a typical hair dryer on high! They also have the potential to put out a hell of a lot more heat! stoves can.

sorry ,it was a colorful analogy and i realize the pellet stoves fan and auger arent that loud

 

[mjbrown]

i burnt wood for years...matter of fact i grew up on wood heat. nothing like it.last year i had to switch to pellets as my back couldnt take the beating anymore for one, the wife being upset with the mess for two, and finding out my daughter developed respitory issues and the smoke was way too much...everything we took out of closets and the jackets we wore smelled of smoke.

since i went to pellets, life has been much better. i was able to adapt the pellet stove to the metal bestos chimney i had for the stove, so the only reall big dollar sign was for the stove and i did the install.the wife doesnt want to beat me for dragging a mess in the house, and the stove is alot like a showtime(set it and forget it), and the house is a constant 73 deg. all the time. also not running to find the daughters inhaler constantly.

mike

 

[mjbrown]

forgot to add...the fans are not an issue with my P38...the tv is. i am hard of hearing so the tv is ALWAYS turned up(that said there is no fan noise, just the wife because the tv is to loud) I CANT WIN 8-/

MIKE

 

[upinsmoke79]

MIKE,

Sounds like you had some chimney problems with smoke blowing back into your house. Also you must either have been using a "smoke dragon" or burning unseasoned wood. A properly run modern stove wouldn't produce any smoke except during start up. My clothes never smell like smoke and I've been heating my house all winter with only wood. Other than that your other reasons make sense.

 

[upinsmoke79]

CSHAMA,

It's kind of unfair to post this question on just the woodstove forum. You might want to put this on the pellet stove forum for the other side of the story. That being said, there's nothing like the independence that comes with burning firewood. No matter what (even if I had no saw gas), I would still have heat. Of course it would really suck cutting wood by hand, and I would probably have much bigger problems.

 

[ColdNH]

MIKE,

Sounds like you had some chimney problems with smoke blowing back into your house. Also you must either have been using a "smoke dragon" or burning unseasoned wood. A properly run modern stove wouldn't produce any smoke except during start up. My clothes never smell like smoke and I've been heating my house all winter with only wood. Other than that your other reasons make sense.

I agree, When i tell everyone I just installed a wood stove, they are all like "oh you must love the smell of the fire" or "the smoke must drive you nuts" or some other similiar comment.

In all honestly, i find myself taking a hot coal out of the fire and putting it on the ash pan to get a little bit of smoke IN the house because the stove burns so cleanly and we dont get any of that nice wood smoke smell in the house!

/sorry for resurecting a dead thread

 

[SteveKG]

For the OP, the decision, aside from cost and convenience, is also dependent on what you have scoped out for a wood supply. If you have it [on your property or someone else's who want it used], you will need chainsaw and chainsaw proficiency, splitting tools of some sort, storage for the wood indoors and out.

That being said, I love my woodstoves. However, I've never had a pellet stove. I have also never paid a dime for wood [except the costs of my saws and etc.]

It sounds as if the pellet path is much easier, physically and time-wise. But one cannot go out into the woods or neighbor's lot and shovel up some wood pellets. You buy them, every bag. Personally, though it is physically challenging, or can be, I prefer cutting my own wood. Wood stoves are a lot of work. If you don't mind that, they are great. I have a number of friends who would hate it, though they enjoy mine when they visit.

 

[woodsmaster]

If price is not an issue I would consider a gasifacation boiler. You could put it in the basement or an outdoor shed, Heat all the house hot water and still burn less wood than just heating the house with a normal stove.

 

[KB007]

We just put in a Regency I3100 and holy crap can it produce heat! I've looked at pellet stoves before and never really liked the fact that it's basically the same concept as petroleum, you're dependent on a very small number of suppliers for a specialized product, only in this case it's a really small niche market.

Wood - it grows like weeds most places!

 

[Flatbedford]

Pellets don't grow on trees.

 

[Fsappo]

If price is not an issue I would consider a gasifacation boiler. You could put it in the basement or an outdoor shed, Heat all the house hot water and still burn less wood than just heating the house with a normal stove.

With that size house, this is a good suggestion. Or pretend to like the look of soapstone and go with the Equinox.

 

[3fordasho]

In 2001 I installed a quadrafire castile pellet stove and operated it until I removed it in the spring of 2009. It was realitivly trouble free during that time requiring about a every 3-5 day cleaning cycle. Replacement parts consisted of an igniter and front door gasket. (both somewhat expensive from quad). I burned straight pellets or a 50/50 mix of pellets and corn to so the igniter would work (igniter will not start 100% corn). I didn't like the noise of the fans or the limited convection heat it is capable of. I also grew concerned with the high cost of replacement parts like the auger motor which started to have a problem once in a while. The Castile was capable of supplying about 80% of my heat needs if I keep the house at 62-66f with the Natural gas furnace kicking in on colder days. In 2007 I put an addition on the house and decided to try a woodstock fireview in the new area. Loved the look of real wood fire, quiet radiant heat and the wood gathering/preparation process. Sold the castile, replaced it with a 2nd woodstock fireview and have never looked back. Now I keep the house 70F+ all winter on about 2 1/2 full cords. Previously the Castile would require 3-4 tons of pellets/corn. 85% of my heating could be done with one fireview but due to the layout of my house and some of the extremes we get in MN I need to fire the 2nd stove about 15% of the time. If you can't tolerate the work involved with supplying wood for the cord wood stove then it is not for you.

Also- pellet & corn pricing became such that it was cheaper to run the natural gas furnace... Corn is back down to reasonable levels but pellets are not.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

/sorry for resurecting a dead thread

I was glad to read the old thread- found it pretty interesting.

I thought briefly about a pellet stove, but that was about 3 years ago. I'm incredibly happy I ended up with a wood stove. Cost was a big factor in my decision. I like an appliance which is very, very flexible as to fuel sources. Wood stoves are, pellet stoves aren't.

What triggered my entry into wood burning was (1.) a huge, dead Red Oak in my yard had to come down, and (2.) when oil prices spiked and I was getting price quotes from my supplier for No. 2 fuel oil at 5.05 per gallon, I knew it was time to make the move. I haven't regretted it. It's changed my life in mostly positive ways. (Yes, wood burning is a little messy)

Power outage? No problem, I'm still burning. Oil spikes again? No problem, I'm harvesting and burning free wood now. The first 3+ cords were pretty expensive, though, since I needed a tree service to drop that big Oak for me. ;-)

 

[Todd]

Around here the price of pellets and NG are about the same, probably a little cheaper to burn NG this year. But I can see how some people would rather pay a local small business pellet supplier over the larger NG company.