Your Personal Experiences

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
Status
Not open for further replies.
Last year was my 1st year heating with pellets.I live in a split level and instaled the stove in the downstairs family room which is on a slab.This room was always nice and warm but go up 3 steps to the living room/dining room and kitchen it was 10 degrees cooler.
I hung a fan on the top of the steps to try and move the heat up it helped but you do not get an even heat away from the stove and there are lots of cold spots.This year I am thinking of putting an oil filled rad In the dinning rom to even out the heat.Stove cost me $3450 installed and 2 ton of pellets $700 total$4150
Oil 1000 gals @4.5 total $4500
Paid for itself 1st year I prefer the eveness of oil heat but cannot afford its cost
 
Since I put in the stove I was still heating my hot water with oil this was to costly so last month I had a plumber come and put in an electric water heater to bypass the furnance cost 1400 installed.I have not turned the furnance back on and hope to get thru the winter with the quadra fire mt vernon a strategically placed fan and 1 oil filled elec radiator to even out the cold spots.I just had 3 tons delivered cost $900.I figure 1 fill of my 275 gal oil tank is over $1000 and I usually get 3 to 4 fills per annum.So $900 is not so bad I am thinking of putting in floor registers to get some heat upstairs but I do not want to destroy the look of the house plus it may be against fire code.
 
The savings from a pellet stove in many cases must undoubtedly show up because of the fact that it heats less space than your central system (oil or electric) normally would. In most applications pellets heat the main living areas while leaving the less used spaces to be cooler since you can turn the central system thermostat down or off.
That`s probably good for the majority of users and a significant savings might be realized with this scenario.
This isn`t to say pellets are actually much cheaper to heat with since less space is being heated but a real dollar savings can be possible by using this type of space heater .
 
Gio said:
The savings from a pellet stove in many cases must undoubtedly show up because of the fact that it heats less space than your central system (oil or electric) normally would. In most applications pellets heat the main living areas while leaving the less used spaces to be cooler since you can turn the central system thermostat down or off.
That`s probably good for the majority of users and a significant savings might be realized with this scenario.
This isn`t to say pellets are actually much cheaper to heat with since less space is being heated but a real dollar savings can be possible by using this type of space heater .

That is exactly how I'm thinking I can save money with a pellet stove. We live in the family room and kitchen area of of colonial. The living room/dining room get used once or twice a year. The bedrooms (upstairs) get most of the heat from downstairs. I plan to keep the family room and kitchen warm and don't care about the living room and dining room as no one is in there, thus using half the fuel (in pellets), somehting I can't do with a single zone of baseboard forced hot water (oil) heat. The bed rooms will use oil heat the AM only to take showers.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.