Converting from Wood to Pellet

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Heem

Heem

Member
Hearth Supporter
Dec 13, 2008
178
Connecticut
Hey gang, Been burning wood stove for 10 years, and I think it may be time to give up the game and switch to pellets. Currently, my stove exits the house through a 5" pipe, into the wall, and out to a 18 foot double wall steel chimney.

I'm wondering can I vent my pellet stove through that? I want to be able to leave the option to switch back to wood some day if that's a choice I or someone else chooses, and would like to keep modifications to the house to a minimum as it's a 200 year old building.

Let me know your thoughts.
 
You will have to pick a pellet stove or a couple of stoves that you think will meet your needs.
Size it accordingly with the BTU rating of your wood burner, as long as that size heated what you needed.
Look at the install manual(s) & see if you can use the venting you have with an appropriately sized liner.
That liner will probably be mostly 4" in order to run that far from the new pellet stove.
 
How much are pellets down there? And electricity?

We just put new mini-split heat pumps in, and I did some numbers a few times. No matter how many times I did the numbers, pellets always come up way more than those, fuel-wise. Like double. Would likely be different in a colder climate, but thinking CT isn't cold cold? I could be wrong there. Actually I think pellets are the most expensive fuel choice here, aside from resistance electric.

I might check those out while leaving your stove as-is for some supplementing?
 
When I switched from a wood insert to pellet a few years ago I simply connected my pellet insert to my 6” liner (inside a brick chimney) via a 4” to 6” adapter. I have now used 2 different models (Whitfield and Harman) with this setup and both worked well.
 
maple1 said:
How much are pellets down there? And electricity?

We just put new mini-split heat pumps in, and I did some numbers a few times. No matter how many times I did the numbers, pellets always come up way more than those, fuel-wise. Like double. Would likely be different in a colder climate, but thinking CT isn't cold cold? I could be wrong there. Actually I think pellets are the most expensive fuel choice here, aside from resistance electric.

I might check those out while leaving your stove as-is for some supplementing?
Click to expand...


Electricity here is nearly the highest in the US, and while we don't get as cold as some further north, we do spend a good month in the 0-teens Fahrenheit . Pellets here are around on par with wood, if you buy it by the cord (i have been since I've not the time anymore for doing my own cutting)
 
Tim_M said:
When I switched from a wood insert to pellet a few years ago I simply connected my pellet insert to my 6” liner (inside a brick chimney) via a 4” to 6” adapter. I have now used 2 different models (Whitfield and Harman) with this setup and both worked well.
Click to expand...

this is what i was hoping. I wonder if Inserts function differently than stand-alone stoves though.
 
Heem said:
Electricity here is nearly the highest in the US, and while we don't get as cold as some further north, we do spend a good month in the 0-teens Fahrenheit . Pellets here are around on par with wood, if you buy it by the cord (i have been since I've not the time anymore for doing my own cutting)
Click to expand...

We had a full day at -14c here last week, and my energy monitor (likely not exactly accurate but a decent guage) said we used about 20kwh for the day with them. Ours is about 0.18/kwh. That is two units in a 2700 sq.ft. two story house.

With pellet prices here, that would buy me not much more than a half a bag of them. Which wouldn't go very far heating this place at -14c.

They might not be for everyone, but I was pleasantly surprised. Was planning to only use them down to maybe -5 to -10c or so. But they do lower pretty good. Plus will a/c in the summer. Something my wood pile won't do. :)
 
maple1 said:
We had a full day at -14c here last week, and my energy monitor (likely not exactly accurate but a decent guage) said we used about 20kwh for the day with them. Ours is about 0.18/kwh. That is two units in a 2700 sq.ft. two story house.

With pellet prices here, that would buy me not much more than a half a bag of them. Which wouldn't go very far heating this place at -14c.

They might not be for everyone, but I was pleasantly surprised. Was planning to only use them down to maybe -5 to -10c or so. But they do lower pretty good. Plus will a/c in the summer. Something my wood pile won't do. :)
Click to expand...


we're at about 27 cents per kwh. I've wanted one of those split systems for summer a/c for a while - am not convinced it will be enough heat in the winter though.
 
Ouch - I think that has to be the highest rate I've seen.

I didn't get mine for winter heating exactly. Moreso winter backup, shoulder heating, and summer a/c.

But they impressed me the other day when it was -14c out. They (Daikin) were still putting out really good heat. Using more juice, of course. But that balances out to when they hardly use any when it's around or above the freezing mark.
 
Last edited:
I switched from Blaze King "King" in April for this year's heating. I have found my Trane X13 is the cheapest way to go when the weather is above 30 at night or close to it. I use about 4 dollars of electricity per 24 hours (.05 Kilowatt). I have been running it since Sep, except for couple weeks when it was broken. I wanted to make sure everything was good to go for Winter when it can get down to -20f (Harmon XXV). I had it professionally installed, they used the 8" pipe with adapter.
Harmon XXV

Harmon XXV

  • Media owner Dataman
  • Date added
Harmon XXV Setup
Harmon XXV

Harmon XXV

  • Media owner Dataman
  • Date added
Harmon XXV Setup

Happy that I ran it when it was not needed, it needed the bugs worked out (Buzz, screws impacting distribution fan).
Big downside is my wood was FREE, I bought 5 tons of Pellets, 3 Tons 1st Delivery and another 2 later on (did not think 3 would cover it).

One of the things I factored in was power outages. I picked up AIMS 1250w Inverter and 100ah battery. Which will run it for 6 hours (Real world test twice). I have available another 2 batteries if neeed. One off Car and 30ah one for Generator. If we suffer power outage I can charge battery with generator. Still plan on small inverter generator in the future for plan C (long term power outage, like 2008).

Where I went wrong. Harmon XXV is 50k Btu same as my wood stove. If I bought today I would have got Harmon P68 (more BTU). You can dial down pellet stove, it's nice to have reserve capability. Real Winter yet to come. Wood stove handled -20f with ease, I have my doubts about the pellet stove.
 
Tim_M said:
When I switched from a wood insert to pellet a few years ago I simply connected my pellet insert to my 6” liner (inside a brick chimney) via a 4” to 6” adapter. I have now used 2 different models (Whitfield and Harman) with this setup and both worked well.
Click to expand...
Did the same as you: wood to pellet stove....connected it to existing 6" vent pipe inside chimney . Went legal with permit. Building inspector told me I was illegal and required me to install 4" piping to top of chimney . Had to hire someone to do it. Cost me big bucks.
 
Jake86 said:
Did the same as you: wood to pellet stove....connected it to existing 6" vent pipe inside chimney . Went legal with permit. Building inspector told me I was illegal and required me to install 4" piping to top of chimney . Had to hire someone to do it. Cost me big bucks.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I had professional installers for both of my inserts and neither thought there were any issues with the setup. Also, when I installed my free standing pellet stove in the basement the installer simply connected the 4” pipe to a 4” to 8” adapter, and then joined that to the existing wall thimble. The thimble feeds into a 8” clay-lined 25’ exterior brick chimney. This has worked well for 8 seasons. It seems there are a lot of different rules and opinions out there when it comes to venting.
 
I don't know what it's like in Canada, but in the U.S., local codes can vary quite a bit from one town to the next. There are also inspectors who like to throw their weight around, while others take a more relaxed view of things.
 
The building inspector said he was doing me a favor...kind of like peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining. He got a verbal bums rush out the side door. They sent a second inspector...a different one, when the job was finished.
 
I heat with a ech 65 2300 square foot home we have had some -13F cold snaps here in Vermont and it’s heating well about 2 bags a day
I have no other heat I might add I do have a back up propane Monitor if something brakes on the pellet stove but it is off and don’t use us unable to get home owners Insurance with just a pellet stove

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I would run the numbers on the mini-splits again, especially since you need to purchase a stove. Wood or pellets are not competitive against mini-splits. Mini-splits are efficient to -20 (some say -15).

Is wood your primary source of heat? If so, welcome to the world of high efficiency electric.
 
I would run the numbers on the mini-splits again, especially since you need to purchase a stove. Wood or pellets are not competitive against mini-splits. Mini-splits are efficient to -20 (some say -15).

How big is your house? Do you want an American made stove (i.e., think $3-5K) or are you OK with a Chinese one (i.e., $1,000)? How much are pellets in your area? What price will you pay buying in DEC? Have you thought about adding a free standing stove and keeping your wood burning stove? That way you will have coop, if you loose electric. My parents had a 1920s wood stove that was fully refurbished. I would rather have that and a pellet stove elsewhere. You can not beat the heat retention of wood and coal stoves. Do you have indoor storage for your pellets? Is it at a location that is close to your stove? Are you OK with hauling 40lb bags around constantly?Is the wood stove your primary heat source or just aesthetics?

Is wood your primary source of heat? If so, welcome to the world of high efficiency electric.
 
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