Cheapest pellet furnace available?

[AK13]

I am wondering what is the cheapest pellet furnace on the market?

What is the cheapest that anyone has used and can recommend?

I would like to replace my oil-fired furnace with a pellet furnace. But I don't want to spend $5k on a pellet furnace. I only burn about 1 tank of oil a year. With a pellet furnace and the cost of pellets being closer to cord wood I'd use the furnace a little more and burn a bit less wood. But still a $5k cost is too steep for this to make any sense financially in terms of payback vs. just burning oil.

It doesn't seem like they should cost THAT much when I see pellet stoves that cost $1k or $1500. Since pellet boilers already have a blower it seems like we'd just be talking a slightly different design and a bigger blower.

My other option is an air source heat pump. The big advantage there is no solid fuel to lug around, no hoppers to load, etc. I already burn 5 cords a year and get plenty of exercise moving the wood around. The heat pump is going to run at least $5k before installation.

I'm not in a huge hurry on this and may sit on the sidelines for another few years waiting for the perfect heat pump or furnace to hit the market (and or for prices to come down).

 

[AK13]

Here is an alternative question that might get more responses: How much did you pay for your pellet furnace retrofit and what model pellet furnace did you install?

I found that it is difficult to google anything about pellet furnaces. All results point towards boilers. Even google doesn't know the different between a boiler and a furnace

 

[flyingcow]

Not s clue about pellet boilers, but with HP's you get billed after you heat your house. Just a thought.