Pellet furnace or new oil boiler

[JustinTyme01]

Hey guys, I’m new here but have been reading for a year or so. Lots of good information on this site and a lot of knowlegable people. For starters I’m from PA, about 40 minutes north of pittsburgh.

I bought my house last year and my oil boiler broke in January. When I moved in the boiler wasn’t used by the last owner very much and he had a wood furnace vented out of the same chimney. This led to the liner going bad and needing replaced and I actually had a chimney fire when the boiler broke and i was forced to use my wood furnace.

After the chimney fire i ran a new SS chimney up the other side of the house and moved the wood furnace. Now the wood furnace is an entry level Vogelzang Norseman 1500. Works well enough but the thermostat is broken so I go through a ton of wood right now.

Now to my question, I either need to replace my oil boiler and fix the chimney or do something else for a primary source of heat when the wife and I are at work or sleeping. I have been thinking of a pellet furnace like the US stove model 8500 and just running a new chimney for it inside of the old damaged chimney. I’m pretty sure I can tie into the duct work I ran for the wood furnace and we would have the pellet stove runnin 24/7 unless we are home and using the wood furnace. What do you guys thing is the better option? Thanks in advance for your replies and any advice!

 

[JustinTyme01]

On a side note I also thought of an electric heat punp run into the same duct work but I believe that would be more expensive to run although a cheaper install.

 

[UpStateNY]

I have a pellet stove in living room since 2008. I still have a boiler hot water baseboard for vacations during the winter when we leave the house for a week or more.

There is flexible stove liner that may be inserted into an existing chimney. Get a quote from a reputable chimney company on flexible chimney pipe installed into your existing chimney. You could then buy the same flexible chimney online and install it yourself like I did. It was relatively easy.

A few years later I got rid of my fuel oil boiler, 40 gallon hot water super store tank and 275gallon oil tank from the garage. I replaced it with Propane boiler with on demand domestic hot water that sits on the wall of the garage. I removed the chimney completely. The space saving in the garage is huge. Also where chimney went upstairs through the kitchen I now have room for a second kitchen pantry. It looks something like this. As you can see it does not take up much space and the propane tanks are outside. The PVC intake and exhaust pipes run through the wall. No chimney required.

 

[JustinTyme01]

Thanks for the reply, my wife refuses to get propane but i think I am going to install that flexible liner you mentioned.

I was leaning toward a multi fule furnace. Wood/electric but they won’t sell in the US anymore. What pellet stove do you have? I think I’m going to put one in my basement and one in my living room.

I have to fix or upgrade my wood furnace for next year. The Vogelzang was here when I moved in and has some problems.

 

[UpStateNY]

I purchased the chimney liner from these guys
https://www.rockfordchimneysupply.c...exible-stainless-steel-chimney-liner-only.php
https://www.rockfordchimneysupply.com/smoothwall-flexible-custom-kits.php
The top plate has a clamp that keeps the liner for sliding down the chimney.

I have 2008-2009 Harman Advanced. The glass in the doors looks nice. The problem with the advanced is it has 7 parts that need to be removed for every cleaning. I would recommend a Pxx Harman which is easier to clean. Since 2008 I only had to replace the the igniter. Its been a great pellet stove.

 

[UpStateNY]

I had a 15 year old 275 gallon fuel oil tank in the garage that leaked about 5 gallons of fuel oil on the garage floor after an oil fill up in the morning. I noticed it when I came home and my wife says it smells funny in the garage. That was extremely scary. I had the oil company there 7:00am the next morning draining the old tank and replacing the oil tank.

I understand you got to make the spouse happy. If she is against propane then its a done deal.

 

[peakbagger]

There are oil boilers that can direct vent out the wall. The System 2000 low mass cold start boilers will save considerable fuel over a conventional oil boiler as it doesn't stay hot year round. A standard boiler is like a car that you leave running in the yard 24/7 in case you might want to use it. A cold start low mass boiler only heats up when you need it.

Realize heating with pellet stove means buying, storing and moving around a lot of pellets, meaning tons. Oil has about 130,000 btus/lb while pellets are about 8000 btu/lb. There are bulk pellet storage systems that can be installed on large pellet boilers but they aren't designed for a typical pellet stove. Like oil and propane, the pellet price varies depending on the heating demand and on occasion during cold spells the supply will run out. There is also required maintenance of the pellet stove. Salesman tend to understate this but expect you will be getting your hands dirty on occasion. Pellet quality varies and if you buy a bad batch you are going to be living with it for months and that usually means getting your hands dirty more often. If you slack off on the routine maintenance at some point you will get caught. More than a few folks give up after a season or two and other folks pick up their used stoves for cheap, clean them up and use them successfully as they are willing to keep them cleaned.

 

[JustinTyme01]

I have no problem getting my hands dirty, I did a lot of work on my boiler trying to get through the winter before it completely failed. I have two 275 gallon oil tanks in their own room in my basement. It would make a perfect room to store pellets for a pellet stove. The whole system is original to the house and there’s not many people willing to work on them around here.

I have a wood furnace as well and i believe pellet stoves would eliminate the huge hassel of bringing wood downstairs daily and not creating such a big mess.

I’ll look into the Harman stoves, the local dealer mainly sells breckwells. I just want to make sure my house is warm when my wife and I are at work. My wood furnace isn’t very efficient and I’m still in the military so if i go away for an extended period of time i can’t see my wife splitting wood and keeping a fire going well im gone.

 

[maple1]

You have an oil boiler - and a wood furnace? That's kind of an odd combo - usually would be both boilers or both furnaces. With one heat distribution system, either ductwork or hot water. Don't think I've seen an oil boiler using ductwork - have seen wood boilers doing it with a heat exchanger.

 

[JustinTyme01]

They are two separate units. I installed the wood furnace and the duct work. Always had an oil boiler.