Does anyone have experience with a pellet furnace? I don't really have a place in the living area of the house for a stove. I am looking to supplement oil heat. Harmon PF100 and USStove Co. have models, any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
pellet furnace
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eernest4
New Member
Theres a company in canada that makes a hot water pellet boiler, 150,000 btu for $5,800.oo
I nearly bought one. Probably cost 2,000.oo- 3000.oo to have it plumbed into your hot water radiator system.
They also make hot air pellet furnaces.
I dont have direct experience of owning one, because I got a 2 ft x 2ft x 3ft --1/4" plate steel wood stove for $350.oo that I stuck in instead that has been doing the job for 2 years now.
It puts out between 100,000 to 150,000 btu/hr depending on how I load it & with what wood.
These units do work & work well, but, all pellet stoves are very picky about being cleaned out frequently, Mine demands it , every 2.5 bags of pellets. When it gets dirty, it throws a wood burning smell out & its time to shut it down & clean it out.
So, you might need to keep a alternate source of heat available to you for clean out time.
You will need to shut it down for 12 hours & let the ashes cool off, so they dont burn up your shop vac.
I put water in the tank of my shop vac, about 20 % full, and use double filters, the corrigated paper filter with the paper filter bag around the outside of it.
The paper filter bag gets filthy but the inside filter stays fairly clean. Clean enough to blow off the dust & reuse.
You will find you opperate your pellet furnace at one tenth the cost of the oil furnace, but will still need the oil furnace on clean out day.
I have 1 years experience on my pel-pro 50,000 btu pellet stove, which is basically just a 1/3 scale verision of a basement pellet hot air furnace.
So yes, I bet you have to do clean out every 3-6 bags of pellets. Dont forget outside cold air
kit, very important so you dont pull in cold outside air into basement. Make sure the cold air intake pipe is large enough.
You may want to go to the mfg website and download & read the owners manuel of the furnace you are interested in. pdf download, use acrobat reader.
I always do that before choosing a stove or furnace.
Be sure you are comfortable paying 5.00 or 6.00 or even 7.00 a bag for pellets. They will go up as more people cant afford to heat with oil & turn to pellets.
They used to be 3.00 a bag in 2002
Most users buy their yearly supply in sept when stores are overstocked & willing to cut a deal.
I nearly bought one. Probably cost 2,000.oo- 3000.oo to have it plumbed into your hot water radiator system.
They also make hot air pellet furnaces.
I dont have direct experience of owning one, because I got a 2 ft x 2ft x 3ft --1/4" plate steel wood stove for $350.oo that I stuck in instead that has been doing the job for 2 years now.
It puts out between 100,000 to 150,000 btu/hr depending on how I load it & with what wood.
These units do work & work well, but, all pellet stoves are very picky about being cleaned out frequently, Mine demands it , every 2.5 bags of pellets. When it gets dirty, it throws a wood burning smell out & its time to shut it down & clean it out.
So, you might need to keep a alternate source of heat available to you for clean out time.
You will need to shut it down for 12 hours & let the ashes cool off, so they dont burn up your shop vac.
I put water in the tank of my shop vac, about 20 % full, and use double filters, the corrigated paper filter with the paper filter bag around the outside of it.
The paper filter bag gets filthy but the inside filter stays fairly clean. Clean enough to blow off the dust & reuse.
You will find you opperate your pellet furnace at one tenth the cost of the oil furnace, but will still need the oil furnace on clean out day.
I have 1 years experience on my pel-pro 50,000 btu pellet stove, which is basically just a 1/3 scale verision of a basement pellet hot air furnace.
So yes, I bet you have to do clean out every 3-6 bags of pellets. Dont forget outside cold air
kit, very important so you dont pull in cold outside air into basement. Make sure the cold air intake pipe is large enough.
You may want to go to the mfg website and download & read the owners manuel of the furnace you are interested in. pdf download, use acrobat reader.
I always do that before choosing a stove or furnace.
Be sure you are comfortable paying 5.00 or 6.00 or even 7.00 a bag for pellets. They will go up as more people cant afford to heat with oil & turn to pellets.
They used to be 3.00 a bag in 2002
Most users buy their yearly supply in sept when stores are overstocked & willing to cut a deal.
I have a pf 100 it holds 4 bags of pellets which should last you 2-3 days depending on how well your insulated. You only need to empty ash about 2 times a heating season. Every time i fill i use the chain shaker to clean the heat exchanger (takes like 20 secs) once a week i clean the burnpot out which only takes 5 mins and you do not have to turn off furnace. Once a month or month and a half you should open the furnace and scrape out the inside this only takes about 20-30 mins and you should turn off switch on furnace after a burn cycle. And every summer i vacuum the furnace out and take the vent apart and clean it so i do not get creosote buildup. I love this furnace its saving me over 200 dollars a month over heating oil or natural gas.
stoveguy2esw
Minister of Fire
150,000 btu
?????? let me see... at 8500 btu per pound thats a shade over 17 pounds of pellets an hour. or 1 bag per 2.35 hours, how accurate is the claim they give for btu output (reminder the 8500 btu is if the unit is 100% efficient, at 78% which is epa default , the btu output from a pound of pellets rated at 8500 btu would be 6330 btu/lb which would require 23.69 lbs/hr to achieve. somthing just aint right here, are pellets the sole fuel for this boiler?
?????? let me see... at 8500 btu per pound thats a shade over 17 pounds of pellets an hour. or 1 bag per 2.35 hours, how accurate is the claim they give for btu output (reminder the 8500 btu is if the unit is 100% efficient, at 78% which is epa default , the btu output from a pound of pellets rated at 8500 btu would be 6330 btu/lb which would require 23.69 lbs/hr to achieve. somthing just aint right here, are pellets the sole fuel for this boiler?stoveguy2esw said:150,000 btu
Apples & oranges.
original poster asked about pellet furnaces, and the reply was about a _wood_ furnace
stoveguy2esw
Minister of Fire
"Theres a company in canada that makes a hot water pellet boiler, 150,000 btu for $5,800.oo
I nearly bought one. Probably cost 2,000.oo- 3000.oo to have it plumbed into your hot water radiator system.
They also make hot air pellet furnaces"
this is what i was reacting to, a wood furnace with that output i could believe, but not pellet would use an enormous amount of fuel
I nearly bought one. Probably cost 2,000.oo- 3000.oo to have it plumbed into your hot water radiator system.
They also make hot air pellet furnaces"
this is what i was reacting to, a wood furnace with that output i could believe, but not pellet would use an enormous amount of fuel
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