New to Pellet Stoves, have some questions

[Kiwadian]

Hey all,

I've had a wood stove for years so am very familiar with fires in the home.

I'm looking at setting up an off the grid Yurt camp and would like to use a pellet stove in it but have some questions about how they operate. Hopefully you guys can help!

1. Electricity. I will be running a solar set up with a Goal Zero solar kit. I know Pellet Stoves require electricity but am unsure whether I can make it work with a battery or not. Has anyone had experience doing this? Is there a stove anyone would suggest that would work best in this setup? Looking at the stoves I see two power requirements, Ignition and Continuous. Is Continuous only when burning or even when the Stove has switched off when it has reached temperature? (if that's even how it works)

2. How does ignition work? Is it a light once for the season or when it reaches a temperature does it turn itself off and reignite automatically when needed?

3. Multifuel. There is a company in Canada that makes Stoves that also run off of Grain's (Peas, Wheat, Corn etc). Has anyone had experience with these? Thoughts?

Thanks for taking the time, hope someone here can help,

Regards,

Caleb

 

[bags]

1). Pellets stoves always require electric to operate. At minimum the exhaust blower is going even if the distribution blowers shuts off along with other electric needs etc; The igniter pulls some heavy juice but after that I have seen the electric requirements compared to running a 60 W light bulb. I'm sure different stoves pull electric differently at time depend on make, model, and conditions. There are folks that have battery setups to keep them running if their electric remains out but as for getting and igniter hot enough I don't know. You could always light manually with a torch (propane or map gas is suppose.

2). This depends on the stove also but most have auto igniters. Some shut all the way down and relight on an as needed basis. This would also depend on which mode you run in for example with a Harman that would be room temp or stove temp. None are ever light once for the season. They need to be shut down for periodic cleanings.

3). Yes, SBI Environ makes multi-fuel stoves in Canada.

Bonus round). Pellet stoves are likely not the answer nor solution you are looking for because they are fairly dependent on clean electricity at all times really. For example the circuit boards or control boards require clean juice flow due to delicate internals etc; This includes generators. A generator must push clean electric and not all do so. Use the search here and look up running pellet stoves on a backup generator. Many discussions and also the same for battery bank backups.

 

[bags]

There are non electric pellet stoves known as Wiseway but they seem to be problematic and hard to deal with. Busting wood might be your best option truthfully.

Google wiseway pellet stoves and read up but also search about the problems they have had. I thought they were cool and too good to be true and evidently they are the latter. I only know what I have read or reviews on them. Maybe someone has figured them out and has a decent review but most of what I've seen was pissed off owners and regret.