Getting tired of the wood - not sure a pellet stove would save $

[dalspot]

We've had our Regency 3100 wood insert for about 13 years now, but we are also 13 years older, and our source of free wood has dried up in the last year or so. Tho we probably will have enough wood for the rest of this year and most of next still. Thinking about moving to a pellet stove insert, and a Harman 52i at that.

We've lived in our home for almost 19 years now, and in all of that time, we have never heated strictly with our natural gas heater, as we used to supplement with a kerosene heater prior to the woodstove. We have no idea what it would cost!

So, February 7, we decided shut down the woodstove until they read the meter around March 6. It's going to be really painful, as January's gas AND electric bill (we have solar) was only $61.84. The majority of that was from the gas - H20 heater is gas, bills run around $18 in the summer for the hot water, a bit more in the cooler months as the water coming out of the ground is colder. We don't run the woodstove all day, mainly just after work and into the wee hours of the morning.

Just looked at Harman's savings calculator and was really surprised to find out that according to that, a pellet stove will not save us any money vs. natural gas. We had a pellet stove in our old house, supplementing electric heat and spent about $380 a year on pellets (2 tons @ $170/ton + a few more bags). I would expect from talking to the local pellet store guys that we'd go through probably the same amount. But at a lot higher price.

Anyone else gone from natural gas to the pellet stove? I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be more economical, given the high cost of the Harman insert, to buy a couple cords of wood instead. Would love to hear some of your thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[moey]

NG is cheap even where it is expensive. That said if you want a fire and dont want to deal with cord wood in your case it may be the way to go.

 

[Bioburner]

My county has no NG available so only choices are Fuel oil, propain or electric. I figured the other day that the savings over off peak electric was close to 30% using corn-pellets. If NG was available would not use many pellets at this time.

 

[alternativeheat]

The real crux in all this is your free wood supply dried up !! Nothing is cheaper than free, next on the list for cold weather is probably natural gas.

 

[gfreek]

Wish I had NG and not propane, less pellets or none at all.. Don't think you'll see any savings..

 

[the cug]

`absolutely natural gas

 

[Bkins]

If I could have bills like you mentioned, with the solar and all, it would be a no brainer. Save the wood for the wood stove for when you want some extra warmth or the ambiance of a wood fire and use the NG. I wouldn't be doing any wood moving nor pellet bag moving and taking care of a pellet stove and it's needs.

Are you nuts. I would be burning NG even if I got my wood free as its a very dirty way to heat your home. I did it for many, many years and will not go back to it.

 

[3650]

I could have burned propane much cheaper then pellets this year. I just bought pellets out of habit. I havent bought propane in about 7 or 8 years. I was shocked how much it had dropped. I was too late because I had spent more on pellets per ton tho year then I ever have.

 

[Bioburner]

I could have burned propane much cheaper then pellets this year. I just bought pellets out of habit. I havent bought propane in about 7 or 8 years. I was shocked how much it had dropped. I was too late because I had spent more on pellets per ton tho year then I ever have.

What was the price of propain that it would have beat pellets? It is still around $1.50 here

 

[alternativeheat]

We just got a propane delivery last week, $4.85. It's just ridiculous around these parts, glad I don't heat with that.

 

[gfreek]

I'd keep the wood burning insert, if you run out of fire wood get the bricks of compressed wood, BioBrick. http://originalbiobricks.com/ Also if the power goes out you will still have some type of heat, even if the Regency has a blower..

 

[3650]

Last I looked it was $1.79. I spent $1800 on pellets. I haven't actually done any hard math but I think the propane would have been a better deal or at least less work. So I think that would have bought about 1000 gallons.....I probably would have needed a bit more but like I said less work. If pellets are this high next year I will go with propane. If propane is too high I will go with corn. If corn is too high I will go with wood. I'd really like coal but it's hard to get around here.

 

[johninwi]

Your test of running just the NG will tell you if your willing to live with a different type of heat, you may not like it. I'm a firm believer in quality of life, it's not just the dollars and cents, it's your home, you need to be happy in it too.

I have NG and still like the warmth the pellets provide, the pellets burn 24/7 at a lower temp keeping the basement nice and warm and the 1st floor floors very comfortable for bare feet. Above 20 or 25 degrees the furnace rarely runs, below that they work together. Before i had the pellet stove the house just wasn't comfortable with NG alone, and forget walking around without shoe's. My NG furnace is forced air, it's likely with a hydronic system i'd probably not know what a pellet stove is.

 

[Bioburner]

Corn is holding low pretty good and if this cold snap goes away soon with the combined pellets and corn stockpile wouldn't need much to get by next season.

 

[3650]

Yes that is true. Its been so long I forgot about how the furnace cycles. Pellet stoves definitely give a constant heat.

 

[Gavin641774]

Same with johninwi,I want to be comfortable and I also like to have a fire if your used to solid fuel heat you will probably just be cranking the thermostat up higher using NG,its all about your comfort.

 

[tjnamtiw]

You put up with a kerosene heater so you DON'T HAVE TO USE NATURAL GAS???????????????? WHAT???? Your bills are ridiculously low and there is no WAY you're going to save money with pellets, even if you supplement your diet with them. If you want to save anything, look to a high efficiency gas heater.

 

[SXIPro]

Pellet stoves are a PITA. If I could get NG that cheap, my stove would be on Craigslist tomorrow.

 

[Bkins]

I just put in NG and a new high efficient furnace. It is a 2 stage number. It is different from oil heat which we had before, but never used due to the cost. Well we did use it on very cold mornings to help bring the house up to a livable temp. My home isn't all that well insulated but so far we really like the gas heat. It's very quiet and cheap, in my opinion, to operate. Last year I burned 2 pellet stove and parts of the house were still cold. No more cold home. I'm still burning pellets in our family room which is where I spend a lot of my time. The room has a lot of tall windows and I have the thermostat set to 76. The gas heat is set at 68 and so far we are comfortable at that setting. We do turn it up when we have guests over as not everybody thinks 68 is warn enough but all I need to do is push a button and the whole house temp goes up. Imagine that.

NG for us works and the system is forced air and we don't walk around in bare feet, and never have even while snow birding in Florida.

 

[OPtaylor]

If I had NG I wouldn't touch a stick of wood, or a bag of pellets.

 

[SidecarFlip]

You put up with a kerosene heater so you DON'T HAVE TO USE NATURAL GAS???????????????? WHAT???? Your bills are ridiculously low and there is no WAY you're going to save money with pellets, even if you supplement your diet with them. If you want to save anything, look to a high efficiency gas heater.

NG will always be cheaper. Anything else is lunacy.

 

[Husky]

We've had our Regency 3100 wood insert for about 13 years now, but we are also 13 years older, and our source of free wood has dried up in the last year or so. Tho we probably will have enough wood for the rest of this year and most of next still. Thinking about moving to a pellet stove insert, and a Harman 52i at that.

We've lived in our home for almost 19 years now, and in all of that time, we have never heated strictly with our natural gas heater, as we used to supplement with a kerosene heater prior to the woodstove. We have no idea what it would cost!

So, February 7, we decided shut down the woodstove until they read the meter around March 6. It's going to be really painful, as January's gas AND electric bill (we have solar) was only $61.84. The majority of that was from the gas - H20 heater is gas, bills run around $18 in the summer for the hot water, a bit more in the cooler months as the water coming out of the ground is colder. We don't run the woodstove all day, mainly just after work and into the wee hours of the morning.

Just looked at Harman's savings calculator and was really surprised to find out that according to that, a pellet stove will not save us any money vs. natural gas. We had a pellet stove in our old house, supplementing electric heat and spent about $380 a year on pellets (2 tons @ $170/ton + a few more bags). I would expect from talking to the local pellet store guys that we'd go through probably the same amount. But at a lot higher price.

Anyone else gone from natural gas to the pellet stove? I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be more economical, given the high cost of the Harman insert, to buy a couple cords of wood instead. Would love to hear some of your thoughts.

Thanks!

Just did this exact thing you are thinking about this year. I have natural gas and supplemented with a wood stove insert for the past 11 years. Up until the last 5 years I had access to free wood but have been buying about 3-4 cords a year. This past spring, at the end of the season, my wood stove (30 years old) finally broke down structurally. I was going to replace with another wood stove but after much research and visiting local wood shops decided on a pellet stove. What I took into consideration was the cost and my age. The wood stove and pellet stove were going to cost me just about the same. This made the cost irrelevant to me. Since I have been buying my wood, the cost of fuel is almost equal but pellet are going to cost me a little more. I could buy wood at $210 a cord and spent about $840 a year on a cold winter. I estimate now that I will go through 5 tons instead of the 4 ton I figured on, of pellets this year. At $ 230 a ton I am going to spend $1150 for this season.

I like you am getting older and thought if I am going to make an investment in any stove I will be using it for many years to come. Approaching my 50's soon I started thinking about whether I want to be stacking, moving and hauling wood for the next 30 years. I quickly came to the answer of, no thanks. My son who helps will be out of the house and off to college in a few years and it will be just me doing the work.

Now from what I have learned this year. My wood insert could put out more intense heat than my pellet insert but I would have to tend to it every couple of hours to keep that kind of heat going. My pellet stove put out pretty good heat but can maintain that heat for as long as I want it too. I fill it and don't need to worry for the next 12-14 hours. The trade off in physical work of moving, loading wood and the several weeks of moving seasoned wood and stacking new green wood, is replaced with a bi-weekly general cleaning that takes me about 10 minutes, and a 30 minute thorough cleaning every 2 tons of pellet usage.

I don't really have a stove to save money but enjoy the warmth of a stove and being in our family room with temps in the 75-80 range. If I was to use my furnace we would never have the family room at those temperatures. It probably would be cheaper for me to keep my house at 68-70 using natural gas only but myself and family wouldn't be as happy. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

ID use the gas and just use the wood stove when you get the urge and have the time. There are lots of part time burners here, myself included. Ill probably put a gas unit in soon so i can go away on vacation in the winter once in awhile.

 

[Tonyray]

Just did this exact thing you are thinking about this year. I have natural gas and supplemented with a wood stove insert for the past 11 years. Up until the last 5 years I had access to free wood but have been buying about 3-4 cords a year. This past spring, at the end of the season, my wood stove (30 years old) finally broke down structurally. I was going to replace with another wood stove but after much research and visiting local wood shops decided on a pellet stove. What I took into consideration was the cost and my age. The wood stove and pellet stove were going to cost me just about the same. This made the cost irrelevant to me. Since I have been buying my wood, the cost of fuel is almost equal but pellet are going to cost me a little more. I could buy wood at $210 a cord and spent about $840 a year on a cold winter. I estimate now that I will go through 5 tons instead of the 4 ton I figured on, of pellets this year. At $ 230 a ton I am going to spend $1150 for this season.

I like you am getting older and thought if I am going to make an investment in any stove I will be using it for many years to come. Approaching my 50's soon I started thinking about whether I want to be stacking, moving and hauling wood for the next 30 years. I quickly came to the answer of, no thanks. My son who helps will be out of the house and off to college in a few years and it will be just me doing the work.

Now from what I have learned this year. My wood insert could put out more intense heat than my pellet insert but I would have to tend to it every couple of hours to keep that kind of heat going. My pellet stove put out pretty good heat but can maintain that heat for as long as I want it too. I fill it and don't need to worry for the next 12-14 hours. The trade off in physical work of moving, loading wood and the several weeks of moving seasoned wood and stacking new green wood, is replaced with a bi-weekly general cleaning that takes me about 10 minutes, and a 30 minute thorough cleaning every 2 tons of pellet usage.

I don't really have a stove to save money but enjoy the warmth of a stove and being in our family room with temps in the 75-80 range. If I was to use my furnace we would never have the family room at those temperatures. It probably would be cheaper for me to keep my house at 68-70 using natural gas only but myself and family wouldn't be as happy. Good luck with your decision.

Approaching your 50's? Good Lordy..
I'm a Baby boomer and we never get old.... 67 yrs young.
Stack [with help] 5 tons pellets in our basement in the summer..couple hours [plus goofin] and done for the season.
carry a bag sometimes 2 every day up the basement steps.Not everyone young or old has a basement..
full stove cleaning every 2 weeks. [piece of cake if you have a free standing model..]
few more steps with an Insert...
20 seconds scraping the burn pot once each morning
you have years and years to go to be able to use a pellet stove..
even is this cold as heck weather, 14-16 hours in between dumping another bag in and walking away...it's all taken care of 24/7.. Especially if it's a Harman.

 

[Husky]

Approaching your 50's? Good Lordy..
I'm a Baby boomer and we never get old.... 67 yrs young.
Stack [with help] 5 tons pellets in our basement in the summer..couple hours [plus goofin] and done for the season.
carry a bag sometimes 2 every day up the basement steps.Not everyone young or old has a basement..
full stove cleaning every 2 weeks. [piece of cake if you have a free standing model..]
few more steps with an Insert...
20 seconds scraping the burn pot once each morning
you have years and years to go to be able to use a pellet stove..
even is this cold as heck weather, 14-16 hours in between dumping another bag in and walking away...it's all taken care of 24/7.. Especially if it's a Harman.

I see you are agreeing with me then. I hope to be able to do this pellet thing for many years to come.