electric use?

[cac4]

something I haven't seen discussed much: how much electricity do pellet stoves use, compared to "conventional" furnaces?

I have an oil-fired forced hot air furnace. no chimney, so it has a power vent...which adds to the electricity use. exactly how much it uses...I don't really know. I do know, as an RV owner, that fha furnaces are a BIG consumer of electricity...they can drain a deep-cycle battery overnight. (I won't use mine unless I'm connected to shore-power; only have 1 battery).

So I guess the question is, if you had/have "forced hot air", and you put in a pellet stove, did your electric bill go up, down, or stay the same?

I understand that most pellet stoves use 2-250 watts or so; The only one I'm aware of that uses significantly less is the Thelin; are there any others?

 

[webbie]

There is an earlier thread here discussing this in length....do a forum or site search....
you basically have it right - most use 200-300 watts on a constant basis, the Thelin being an exception. I don't know of any other current very low wattage units....but some are lower than others.

Oh, here is the last thread about it:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/18662/

With electric rates ready to skyrocket (going up over 20% in our state), this is something to figure in when comparing the total cost.....especially against a wood stove or gas unit. BUT, they certainly use less...or at most the same....as a central furnace....so that is a wash or better.

 

[cac4]

must've missed that one!

good to know. I think my particular setup (with the power-vent) probably consumes even more than average...those blowers draw alot of juice. but its hard to tell just how much, just by looking at the tags, because they cycle on and off. I've noticed that in the coldest weather, my power vent isn't off for very long. By the time its done w/ its "purge", its time for more heat.

Those Thelins look interesting. They seem to be the only ones that draw significantly less. I would think that would make them attractive in places that are prone to power failures. (last longer on a battery). I don't really have a big problem with that, where I live. Woodsy as it is, we have a local power company, so when there's a problem, they're on it quickly. in 14 years, the longest outage we've had was 8 hrs. even short outages are rare. no waiting around for mass-electric, or "nstar", or whatever they're calling themselves this week.

 

[MCPO]

must've missed that one!

good to know. I think my particular setup (with the power-vent) probably consumes even more than average...those blowers draw alot of juice. but its hard to tell just how much, just by looking at the tags, because they cycle on and off. I've noticed that in the coldest weather, my power vent isn't off for very long. By the time its done w/ its "purge", its time for more heat.

Those Thelins look interesting. They seem to be the only ones that draw significantly less. I would think that would make them attractive in places that are prone to power failures. (last longer on a battery). I don't really have a big problem with that, where I live. Woodsy as it is, we have a local power company, so when there's a problem, they're on it quickly. in 14 years, the longest outage we've had was 8 hrs. even short outages are rare. no waiting around for mass-electric, or "nstar", or whatever they're calling themselves this week.

10 years ago (shortly after installation)I shortened the purge run time on my Fields power venter. It ran longer than necessary.
John

 

[cac4]

I'll look into that. Mine was just replaced last winter. (original lasted 13 years...the motor was replaced at least twice, though). I know when I've had my periodic "tune-ups", they've checked the time on it. I wasn't there when the guy did the replacement, though, so I'm only assuming. new one is stainless, so it should last a good long time. original was not. its amazing that it lasted as long as it did. it was literally falling apart.

 

[Wet1]

There is an earlier thread here discussing this in length....do a forum or site search....
you basically have it right - most use 200-300 watts on a constant basis, the Thelin being an exception. I don't know of any other current very low wattage units....but some are lower than others.

Oh, here is the last thread about it:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/18662/

With electric rates ready to skyrocket (going up over 20% in our state), this is something to figure in when comparing the total cost.....especially against a wood stove or gas unit. BUT, they certainly use less...or at most the same....as a central furnace....so that is a wash or better.

got numbers written on my stove & can BET that no more than 150w for max draw on my old englander with 2 auger motors,room blower motor & exhaust motor....no ignitor.....from old kill a watt.

I don't know exactly what they draw, but I did notice Mike mentioned in another recent thread that they draw about 300+ watts. The older and the newer stoves (25-pdvc) are all basically the same with the exception of the auto ignite feature (which draws more when used), so I doubt that accounts for a 150w discrepancy.

I did borrow an inverter and tried running mine on a single deep cycle battery to see if it was a feasible solution for power outages... Based on what I saw, I'm guessing Mike's figure is much closer to reality as it didn't take all that long to run the battery down.

 

[MainePellethead]

something I haven't seen discussed much: how much electricity do pellet stoves use, compared to "conventional" furnaces?

I have an oil-fired forced hot air furnace. no chimney, so it has a power vent...which adds to the electricity use. exactly how much it uses...I don't really know. I do know, as an RV owner, that fha furnaces are a BIG consumer of electricity...they can drain a deep-cycle battery overnight. (I won't use mine unless I'm connected to shore-power; only have 1 battery).

So I guess the question is, if you had/have "forced hot air", and you put in a pellet stove, did your electric bill go up, down, or stay the same?

I understand that most pellet stoves use 2-250 watts or so; The only one I'm aware of that uses significantly less is the Thelin; are there any others?

Cutting through all the fancy figures etc.......i can say.....i burned my stove 24/7 during the winter and my stove raised my light bill approx. 10-12 bucks....not to bad considering my pool and AC in summer raises it much more. also my furnace when i ran it for heat raised it higher than the pellet stove.