Pellet Stove Efficiency

[mtbphoto]

Hello, I am in the market for a new pellet stove pretty soon. My home currently has a Castle Serenity and I have been pretty happy with it. I am replacing a wood stove in one of my Airbnb rental units with a pellet stove, and the guests usually like it real toasty so I would like a more efficient stove. Efficiency ratings are all over the board. The Castle stove is 69%, I was also looking at Comfortbilt 77%, Quadrafire Castile 70%, and a PelPro Cast Iron at 88%.

Does this mean I could literally use about 18% less pellets if I went with a Pelpro over the Quadrafire Castile?

 

[FirepotPete]

Are those rating of efficiency from the manufacturers? If so you need to go to the EPA site that has ratings for pellet/multi-fuel stoves.
They recently had to re-certify with the EPA and meet a higher efficiency than before or they can not be sold, so those numbers would be more in line with true efficiency.
I'll try and find the link.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I never worry about efficiency. I just shovel it in and remove the ashes, but then my fuel is basically free. I don't believe any of them in the real world are over 75% efficient. Maybe in a controlled laboratory burn but in your home, I don't believe they are.

 

[girevik]

I've been wondering about effencies lately. Supposedly my Whitfield is 77-78% efficient but doesn't seem like there's been significant improvement since the mid 90's.

Guessing it's like HVAC. Any significant improvement would come with serious additional complexity and 2x-5x the cost.

 

[SidecarFlip]

In my opinion, they are already getting too complex. Safety switches and ignitors and all sorts of stuff to fail eventually. me, I don't have any of that. Don't want it either.

 

[girevik]

No ignitor for me.... Happy to manually lite.

 

[johneh]

Choose a number as far as I am concerned that's your efficiency
My stove is a 2002 enviro everything is manual it does have the original igniter
no wifi no stat just user input. But at my age, it is all I want. When I retired
at 60 on my way home I stopped at one of the many bridges that I cross took
my sim card out of my phone and tossed the phone into the river. The best
thing I ever did no rings, no tings just complete silence no texts no upset customers
no anal boss LOVE IT. Now my face and ear are not glued to that little screen
Sorry for the rant

 

[SidecarFlip]

Think I would have left the sim card in it....lol

One thing about having electric ignition is, it goes a long way to automating a stove because it can shut completely down (no fire) between heat cycles, instead of going to low fire like mine does when the remote T'stat isn't calling for heat. That is pretty inconsequential to me anyway. When I run the stove, I WANT heat, not a stone cold unit. I look at a Cal-Rod igniter as just another failure part to be replaced, like a hopper lid safety switch. I see no point in one of them at all.

My buddy has a Quad with auto ignition and his is always troublesome. It's touchy. I've fiddled with it numerous times in the past.

 

[Washed-Up]

I’ve yet to have to replace an igniter...knock on wood
And I think that’s due to being anal about how clean I keep my stove

 

[clancey]

For a rental you need something simple for the guests and if I am correct the efficiency rating would give you a tax deduction if it is over a certain amount or a rebate or something as well...but something really simple to operate for you might have a guest like me that knows nothing about these things just make it pretty..lol

 

[SidecarFlip]

I’ve yet to have to replace an igniter...knock on wood
And I think that’s due to being anal about how clean I keep my stove

Don't work for corn, at least I don't believe they do.

 

[Lordtimothy200]

For a Rental, I would be more interested in hopper size and auto ignite than efficiency. Simplicity and low daily amount of maintenance would come before cost of pellets if I was doing it.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Again, I'm totally against ANY solid fuel appliance in any rental because renters (short term or log term) are ill equipped (and don't care) about even cleaning the ash out. Then, there is the insurance issue. Most insurance companies won't insure a dwelling with a solid fuel appliance in them where the owner is absent.

Have a buddy with an Airbomb rental. He has a chunk wood stove in his own home and the Airbomb rental is heated with a conventional forced air gas furnace.

Not something I would ever consider. The chance of loss is way too high.

 

[Lordtimothy200]

Fireplace is a requirement if we are doing a Airbnb. We would settle for a pellet stove if we had to. Just adds to the appeal of staying there. Otherwise it is just another motel room.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Fireplace is a requirement if we are doing a Airbnb. We would settle for a pellet stove if we had to. Just adds to the appeal of staying there. Otherwise it is just another motel room.

Expensive motel room...lol Think I'd install a gas log set instead. Myself, I don't do Airbomb. Never would. I own 4 rentals and none of them have a solid fuel appliance and never will. Just too much liability. I know how renters are, been dealing with them and their abject stupidity for 30 years.

 

[mtbphoto]

Thanks for everyone's input. Pellets are pretty expensive here $8-10 a bag with tax, so if a certain stove is more efficient I could see the savings. User friendly is extremely important and why I would never put in a Comfortbilt or Castle Serenity, the settings are super confusing. No gas in my building and propane here is extremely expensive ($4 a gallon).

I manage a bunch of Airbnb rentals and most of them have wood stoves or pellet stoves, Our cleaners clean them out every time so that helps. My long term rentals all have wood stoves and they love them, this is a mountain community so they know how to use them really well. I have a studio apartment on electric heat that I manage for Airbnb and the owner said he sees electric bills around $600 a month in the winter!

 

[Lordtimothy200]

I am renting my place. Not a good renter. I insist on fixing most things myself. It works out great, the farmer gives us cheap rent and he never hears from us unless money is needed for repairs. After the first time the landlord came to fix something I decided, NOPE, we are not fixing everything with baling wire and duct tape. So we came to an agreement and both of us are quite happy with it.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Fireplace is a requirement if we are doing a Airbnb. We would settle for a pellet stove if we had to. Just adds to the appeal of staying there. Otherwise it is just another motel room.

Interesting comment. I called my buddy who rents Airbomb and he said nowhere does the Airbomb contract say anything about fireplaces... Nada, nothing. he has a couple Airbomb short and long term rentals in the Bar Harbor, Maine area. All forced air or Mini Split and no fireplaces or solid fuel appliances in any of them. gets colder in Maine than Nebraska I suspect. More snow too. he's always booked solid btw.

 

[Sailrmike]

Interesting comment. I called my buddy who rents Airbomb and he said nowhere does the Airbomb contract say anything about fireplaces... Nada, nothing. he has a couple Airbomb short and long term rentals in the Bar Harbor, Maine area. All forced air or Mini Split and no fireplaces or solid fuel appliances in any of them. gets colder in Maine than Nebraska I suspect. More snow too. he's always booked solid btw.

No offense but Bar Harbor ME is water, beach, etc, so I wouldn't expect a solid fuel burner. Op is from Mammoth CA wich is ski country, mountains, snow, solid fuel burners. When I rent ski places in VT, they all have a wood burner, it3part if the experience.

 

[SidecarFlip]

No offense taken Maine is cold half the year and gets a ton of snow, even on the shore. Just posting what my buddy Jerry told me when I asked him about Airbomb rentals and his contract. Nothing more.

 

[Lordtimothy200]

I have stayed in a couple where the fireplace was the only heat source besides a space heater. It was enjoyable for a day or two to keep a fire going in the ole wood stove. When we were gone for the day the host would pop in and keep the fire going. Also stayed at a few that just pissed me off because it said "Fireplace" and it was just a crappy space heater with the fake flame thing.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Never styed in one and don't plan to. I don't stay in motels either. Why we have an RV. We take the 'house' with us.

 

[Highbeam]

Hello, I am in the market for a new pellet stove pretty soon. My home currently has a Castle Serenity and I have been pretty happy with it. I am replacing a wood stove in one of my Airbnb rental units with a pellet stove, and the guests usually like it real toasty so I would like a more efficient stove. Efficiency ratings are all over the board. The Castle stove is 69%, I was also looking at Comfortbilt 77%, Quadrafire Castile 70%, and a PelPro Cast Iron at 88%.

Does this mean I could literally use about 18% less pellets if I went with a Pelpro over the Quadrafire Castile?

Yes, it means you could use 18% less pellets. That is why the epa test and list provides this unbiased information to consumers directly.

Do not consider, trust, or depend on what the manufacturer puts in their brochures. They are lying if they have a number different than the epa list.

High efficiency and low emissions are both great but the appliance may still be a low quality turd. If a very dependable stove is a few points lower in efficiency it might be worth the cost.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Efficiency ratings as well as particulate emissions are based on a new clean stove used in controlled conditions, not one in an end users dwelling that is most likely in need of a cleaning and burning the least expensive pellet available. reading along on here (this forum), it's apparent that a good percentage of issues are directly attributable to poor maintenance habits and poor maintenance lowers efficiency and increases particulate emissions.

In reality. once the firebox, HX gets a coating of fly ash on it, it's being insulated from heat transfer and consequently the unit requires more fuel to produce adequate BTU output so I don't buy into the 18% fuel savings because to achieve that, any unit would have to be kept squeaky clean as in daily careful maintenance and that isn't gonna happen in the real world, least not from what I see on here.

It's a pie in the sky assumption at best.

 

[Highbeam]

No, it’s relative. If both stoves suffer a 10% loss in efficiency due to fly ash accumulation then the 18% difference is still there. The epa list is the best thing we have for unbiased efficiency information using standardized tests. It may not be perfect but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.