Good evening all. New to the forum and pellet stoves (been lurking for a while.) I've pretty much decided on the Castle Serenity, but have a couple questions...
My home is a 1400 sq ft cape. Newer home, well insulated, tight... Centrally located stairwell, mostly open downstairs, 2 bedroom upstairs. My hope is that by installing the pellet stove I can offset my oil consumption and heat the home with the stove when I am home and have something nice to look at in the process. The stove will be installed in the living room, and I'm thinking the air will naturally move throughout the first floor and up the stairwell (approximately 15 ft from stove location) and into the upstairs bedrooms.
I currently turn the heat down to 60 while away at work, and when I get home I'll turn it up to 70. I dont really care for it too warm, even in the dead of winter. When I go to bed, I drop it back down to 60 again. I'm thinking with the pellet stove installed, I'll be able to turn the thermostat for the boiler (essentially) off, and only rely on the pellet stove for heating the house, keeping it on it's lowest setting while away at work.
Is this wise? I don't want to end up paying for two sources of heat, and I've heard two different schools of thought on heat recovery time vs savings, etc. I'll always be tied to oil so long as I have a boiler. but am hoping I can cut back to using that exclusively for hot water needs only. I'm thinking my pellet consumption *should* be fairly low if i'm only cranking it up for 5-6 hours in the evening during the week then all day on the weekends. This being the case, I should be able to heat the house fairly inexpensively, correct?
Oil in my area is currently $1.98/gal, which isn't too bad. Maybe even cheaper than pellets when broken down into a daily cost. I'm just sort of on the fence whether it'll all be worth it (cost of stove, pipe, making a tile hearth pad, and then pellets) or if I'd be smarter to just stick to oil and run the thermostat a little higher.
I'd really appreciate input from those who may be in the same situation. Thanks a ton in advance!
Matt
My home is a 1400 sq ft cape. Newer home, well insulated, tight... Centrally located stairwell, mostly open downstairs, 2 bedroom upstairs. My hope is that by installing the pellet stove I can offset my oil consumption and heat the home with the stove when I am home and have something nice to look at in the process. The stove will be installed in the living room, and I'm thinking the air will naturally move throughout the first floor and up the stairwell (approximately 15 ft from stove location) and into the upstairs bedrooms.
I currently turn the heat down to 60 while away at work, and when I get home I'll turn it up to 70. I dont really care for it too warm, even in the dead of winter. When I go to bed, I drop it back down to 60 again. I'm thinking with the pellet stove installed, I'll be able to turn the thermostat for the boiler (essentially) off, and only rely on the pellet stove for heating the house, keeping it on it's lowest setting while away at work.
Is this wise? I don't want to end up paying for two sources of heat, and I've heard two different schools of thought on heat recovery time vs savings, etc. I'll always be tied to oil so long as I have a boiler. but am hoping I can cut back to using that exclusively for hot water needs only. I'm thinking my pellet consumption *should* be fairly low if i'm only cranking it up for 5-6 hours in the evening during the week then all day on the weekends. This being the case, I should be able to heat the house fairly inexpensively, correct?
Oil in my area is currently $1.98/gal, which isn't too bad. Maybe even cheaper than pellets when broken down into a daily cost. I'm just sort of on the fence whether it'll all be worth it (cost of stove, pipe, making a tile hearth pad, and then pellets) or if I'd be smarter to just stick to oil and run the thermostat a little higher.
I'd really appreciate input from those who may be in the same situation. Thanks a ton in advance!
Matt
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