Pellet furnace and still keeping oil as secondary

[nammysu]

Hi all,

This is my first post here. I did try to search for my answer but couldn't find it.

I moved into my house almost a year ago here in New England where it's COLD. There's no natural gas here and currently my furnace runs on oil. I was planning to get a pellet fireplace insert, but then I thought about a pellet furnace. So here's my question...

I'd like to be able to put in a pellet furnace. But is it possible to keep my oil furnace as a backup/secondary heating system?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[maple1]

Furnace (hot air) - or boiler (hot water)?

Either way I think the answer is generally yes - but we don't know much about your system or house.

 

[nammysu]

It's a forced hot air system.
3,000 sf feet.

What other information should I provide here? I'm sorry for being such a newbie!

 

[maple1]

I'm out already - I know next to nothing about furnaces, and not a whole lot about pellets.

Maybe a pellet boiler would be something to consider - it could do all your DHW, and you could likely add in a heat exchanger to your plenum or ductwork somewhere to heat your house easier than you could duct in a second furnace. Maybe. There are some very nice pellet boilers on the market, I'm sure you'll get more input from others.

 

[heaterman]

Are you in Maine by any chance? They have some serious $$ available for pellet boiler installations.