Pellet Furnace Decision?

[rottiman]

At this point in my first year doing the pellet thing, I am starting to wonder if I might be better off switching to a pellet furnace. Up until I switched to pellets ,I burned 4 to 5 cords of hardwood to heat my 1800 sq ft ranch style house for the winter. So far this year, I have burned 251 bags in 2 pellet stoves and I figure I will be between 6 and 7 tons by the end of the heating season. At the going price in this area of 5 to 7 dollars a bag it ain't cheap. I love the convience of the pellets as opposed to wood, but would I use less if I were firing a pellet furnace as opposed to the two stoves? I was wondering if anyone out there has had simiar experience with this?

 

[jtakeman]

rottiman,

This really depends on the house setup and so forth. Amount of insulation also has to be considered. Can you give a little more info on how the house is layed out and do you have a DHW boiler or hot air furnace presently in the house? Where the stoves are located?

My stove is in the basement and I would definatly inprove my setup with a pellet furnace. Using duct work(or radiators with a boiler) to put the heat were I want it and not over heat the basement.

jay

 

[rottiman]

The house is a single floor ranch style with no basement. It has a high efficency oil forced air furnace which is located in the fully insulated double garage which is attached to the house via the laundry room. It is approx. 1800 sq ft. The insulation is middle of the road. As I had stated, in past winters I heated entirely on 4 to 5 cords of hardwood thru 2 Regency stoves, each one located in opposite ends of the house, and was able to keep the house in the low 70's even in below zero weather. Right now I have a pellet insert in one end and a stove in the garage on the other end. I have a thru the wall booster fan leading from the garage into the house. As well, I leave the door from the laundry room into the house open all of the time. When the temp is around 30 I can keep the house around 68 to 70. When the temp drops closer to the zero mark the house stays around 67 with the occasional assist of the oil furnace. My questions are, would the furnace give the same heat output? How much upkeep is the furnace (re cleaning) as opposed to 2 stoves? Would the furnace, hooked to the existing ducting give better heat distribution through out the house?

 

[jtakeman]

Wow,

You would think 1 stove would keep the living area warm enough and with the other just idling to keep the garage above freezing. If the garage has alot of expossed cement, It may be acting like a sink and sucking up all the heat on you. Or I'd suspect overall stove effiency is partially to blame. I heat approx. 2000 square feet with one stove and I only have to over heat my partially finished basement by 4ºF to get the desired temp for the upper living space

In that case if you got a pellet furnace, I would say you should save on some pellets. Really hard to say overall. You would have to go by amount of oil used as an example and maybe one of the pellet furnace members can advise.

 

[wil lanfear]

Another option for central heating is to purchase a pellet boiler, purchase a coil for heat such as in the link to install in your plenium, just have to copper pipe from boiler to plenium coil, you could even get your DHW from the pellet boiler with an optional DHW coil. Probably more expensive than a pellet furnace but the plus is that you could get DHW along with central heating.

http://cgi.ebay.com/22X22-Water-to-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45f05dffc8

 

[hossthehermit]

Just hit 125 bags today for the season. Burning 24/7, it's Maine, it ain't Florida.

 

[rottiman]

Wow,

You would think 1 stove would keep the living area warm enough and with the other just idling to keep the garage above freezing. If the garage has alot of expossed cement, It may be acting like a sink and sucking up all the heat on you. Or I'd suspect overall stove effiency is partially to blame. I heat approx. 2000 square feet with one stove and I only have to over heat my partially finished basement by 4ºF to get the desired temp for the upper living space

In that case if you got a pellet furnace, I would say you should save on some pellets. Really hard to say overall. You would have to go by amount of oil used as an example and maybe one of the pellet furnace members can advise.

The garage is usually hovering on the 73 degree mark with the Timberridge set @ 3/5 and using a bag a day. The air being pushed into the house thru the duct fan is also 73 degrees. Problem is that pushing heat thru the entire house on one floor appears to be alot harder then pushing heated air upward. I tried moving the heated air thru the duct work but it cooled off too much by the time it reached the far end of the house. By running the furnace fan in the garage I sucked the temp in the garage down from 73 to 76 degrees to 65 to 67 in about 10 minutes. I was hoping someone who has a furnace set up in a similar style house could speak to their experience. The way it is right now, I might as well buy 1800 dollars worth of oil as opposed pellets and do away with the daily maint of 2 stoves or go back to the 4 to 5 cords of wood, although the wife would hate to go back to the dust issue with that. Really don't know which way to turn.

 

[jtakeman]

Wow,

You would think 1 stove would keep the living area warm enough and with the other just idling to keep the garage above freezing. If the garage has alot of expossed cement, It may be acting like a sink and sucking up all the heat on you. Or I'd suspect overall stove effiency is partially to blame. I heat approx. 2000 square feet with one stove and I only have to over heat my partially finished basement by 4ºF to get the desired temp for the upper living space

In that case if you got a pellet furnace, I would say you should save on some pellets. Really hard to say overall. You would have to go by amount of oil used as an example and maybe one of the pellet furnace members can advise.

The garage is usually hovering on the 73 degree mark with the Timberridge set @ 3/5 and using a bag a day. The air being pushed into the house thru the duct fan is also 73 degrees. Problem is that pushing heat thru the entire house on one floor appears to be alot harder then pushing heated air upward. I tried moving the heated air thru the duct work but it cooled off too much by the time it reached the far end of the house. By running the furnace fan in the garage I sucked the temp in the garage down from 73 to 76 degrees to 65 to 67 in about 10 minutes. I was hoping someone who has a furnace set up in a similar style house could speak to their experience. The way it is right now, I might as well buy 1800 dollars worth of oil as opposed pellets and do away with the daily maint of 2 stoves or go back to the 4 to 5 cords of wood, although the wife would hate to go back to the dust issue with that. Really don't know which way to turn.

I would think the pellet furnace sistered to the duct would handle the task. Most of the furnaces are much higher BTU's blowing through the duct work. The radiant heat from the furnace may keep the garage warm too. Then you would only need to maintain 1 burning appliance. Will it save you any pellets? I am not sure. One would assume you should, But no true way of knowing until its installed and you see the final result. Too many variables to make a call. But not heating the garage to 72ºF to 74ºF should save something. Just heat the house if you want to save money.

 

[wil lanfear]

I love the convience of the pellets as opposed to wood, but would I use less if I were firing a pellet furnace as opposed to the two stoves?

I first fired my boiler this heating season on 9/12/09, it is used for heat and DHW for 6 people and to date I've burned 191 bags of pellets. I'm heating around 2400 sq. ft. including my workshop, it was built around 1970, not over insulated by todays standard. IMHO, using central heating, less pellets will be burned and you will have a even heat throughout your home.

 

[MCPO]

The house is a single floor ranch style with no basement. It has a high efficency oil forced air furnace which is located in the fully insulated double garage which is attached to the house via the laundry room. It is approx. 1800 sq ft. The insulation is middle of the road. As I had stated, in past winters I heated entirely on 4 to 5 cords of hardwood thru 2 Regency stoves, each one located in opposite ends of the house, and was able to keep the house in the low 70's even in below zero weather. Right now I have a pellet insert in one end and a stove in the garage on the other end. I have a thru the wall booster fan leading from the garage into the house. As well, I leave the door from the laundry room into the house open all of the time. When the temp is around 30 I can keep the house around 68 to 70. When the temp drops closer to the zero mark the house stays around 67 with the occasional assist of the oil furnace. My questions are, would the furnace give the same heat output? How much upkeep is the furnace (re cleaning) as opposed to 2 stoves? Would the furnace, hooked to the existing ducting give better heat distribution through out the house?

The first thing I`d do is super-insulate the attic and new insulated windows if not already installed. Secondly I`d not be heating the garage.
6-7 tons is a lot of pellets and a pellet furnace isn`t cheap. Running 2 stoves for 1800 sq ft sounds like overkill.