Pellet Furnaces

[vandalay714]

I am considering the Harman pf100 furnace as a supplement to our current heating systems. We have an oil fired furnace which pushes forced hot air and heats our water. We primarily use a wood stove insert to heat the house and turn on the furnace in the morning until I get the fire going again. We live in upstate NY and have a 2650 sq ft house. The wood stove is alot of work and I want to ease the workload on my wife during the day while I'm at work. Our chimney sweep recommended the pf100 by Harman. I understand that a coal furnace would be cheaper both for the unit and the fuel but I am reticent to use coal for a variety of reasons. My questions are:
Are there coal furnaces that have automatic ignition and a hopper that requires less constant maintenance?
Do the auger motors in pellet furnaces stand up to the workload?
How difficult and costly is the maintenance on pellet furnaces?
How much does a yearly clean and check run for pellet furnaces?
Is the three speed blower necessary on the pf100?
Do they tend to get many fines and feeding issues?
Is there a high incidence of blowback fires in the hopper?
Are the pf100s easy to adapt to a current forced hot air system?
Should I be worried about pellet availability and price fluctuations in the future?
Any thoughts on the electronic performance of pf100 models?

I realize that these questions may be very subjective but I thought I would get some viewpoints before proceeding.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[vandalay714]

A couple more questions.
How many tons of pellets should I expect to use if we burned 6 cords of wood last year?
Oil is relatively cheap now. What is the outlook for the coming winter as far as oil prices?

 

[vandalay714]

So I guess the stove salesman was full of it when he said two maybe three tons of pellets for my 2650 sq ft house in central NY. Wow, thanks.

 

[AndrewChurchill]

Vandalay,

In theory 1 ton of pellets is equal to 120 gallons of fuel oil. So if you divide the number of gallons of oil you burn on average by 120 that will give you the number of tons of pellets you will need. However, I am a conservative type of person so I would recommend using 100 as your divisor instead of 120.

 

[webbie]

A couple more questions.
How many tons of pellets should I expect to use if we burned 6 cords of wood last year?
Oil is relatively cheap now. What is the outlook for the coming winter as far as oil prices?

You can lock in oil prices if you like...most oil dealers offer this.
If you burned 6 cords of wood...well, there are a lot of variables, such as the type of stove you have now and the exact species of wood.

But let's say you have a 60% efficient stove now and the pellet stove you get will be 70%.

And I will guess you burn a medium density hardwood....well seasoned.

In that case, it would probably take from 1 to 1 1/2 tons of pellets to replace each cord of wood.

 

[summit]

A couple more questions.
How many tons of pellets should I expect to use if we burned 6 cords of wood last year?
Oil is relatively cheap now. What is the outlook for the coming winter as far as oil prices?

minimum six tons/ year... most of our customers with the pf100 run between 6 to 8 tons/yr.. that thing hits feed rates of 14 lbs/hr, so expect to burn thru a few.. a freestanding stove will burn 3-5 ton a year, but is not best suited to a basement install. all that being said, it is a very easy unit to clean/operate.. and also very tolerant of many grades of pellets... one of our customers managed to run about 14 tons thru his pf100 over 2 years and never cleaned out the pipes and heat exchanger (said he meant to, just never did).. the thing finally plugged up on him on the 14th ton, but it is a testament to how bulletproof this thing actually is... I have never seen a burnback with a harman unit... usually the stock 1000cfm fans are adequate for most houses, and they are easilly adapted to your current ductwork setup(to answer the initial questions on your 1st post).
I wish i had my magic turban to tell you about future oil vs pellet pricing, but johnny carson took it with him..

 

[timberr]

I left oil and went to wood not becauase of price so much as a I am sick of the amount of money we Americans send overseas to people that want us dead. I much rather give a local logger or company that makes pellets my money. It keeps Americans working and keeps OUR economy strong. We have an abundant supply of wood in this country, we don't even come close to harvesting what we grow in a year.

As far as I am concerned everyone who switches to oil makes America stronger and Safer.

Take a Stand!

 

[vandalay714]

Thanks for all the input! Now I'm looking at the Harman sf-2600ss. It will replace my 20 year old lennox oil fired furnace. The 2600ss burns coal, oil, or wood.
Does anyone have any experience with this unit? It is rated for 3200 sq ft so should be fine for my 2650 sq ft house. We have about 1200 sq ft of unfinished basement that we will eventually finish off (after new siding. Had new roof installed last week).
I'm assuming that the optional domestic hot water coil replaces the hot water heater which is currently connected to my oil fired furnace. I'm meeting with the salesman on thursday to check out my basement and ductwork.

 

[vandalay714]

Anyone here ever install or use the Harman sf-2600-ss? Thoughts or comments?
Thanks.