Pellet stove vs wood stove

[cheseapeke]

Okay, I'm trying to decide do I really pull out my pellet insert and put a wood stove in its place? The pellet is just not giving out quite enough heat below 40 to keep the oil furnace off. But I'm a little fearfull with wood that if I have to go out for a few hours that my house will be freezing. Any advice from anyone else that has gone through this or even preferences? I need to make a decision soon. Thanks.
Deb :coolsmile:

 

[jtp10181]

might want to tell us what insert you currently have, and what wood stoves you are considering.

 

[cheseapeke]

Oops! I currently have a Harmon Accentra insert it is suppose to get approx. 44,000 BTU's. We are looking at a Regency F3100 which is suppose to max at 80,000 BTU's. My big fear is of massive temperture swings. Any help making up my mind would be great. THanks!
Deb

 

[drizler]

Rather than ditch the stove you might be better off just trying to minimize the oil use and call it a day. I make the Countryside go all winter but when its bitter cold with a wet wind blowing or the place just needs warming up quick just bite the bullet. Buy your oil in July and minimize the use. I doubt that most folks are able or really want to completely heat with any solid fuel stove. It's the dream but hey sometimes you gotta do with what you got. I have horses but would be go to hell before I would ride one to work. If you aren't using one already I would recommend hooking up a thermostat set well back from the stove. Using a stat tames many of the issues with mine. I go through about 250 gallons of oil nov through march with heating water for 3 and minimal use of the boiler for heat.

 

[cheseapeke]

Well, we still use the oil with the pellet stove running. The problem is it doesn't give off enough heat on its own to heat the area we are lookin to heat. So far this winter we have use 900 gallons of oil. That is maintaing about 65 degrees in the room the after the room with the pellet sotve. I would like to cut my oil use by at least 1/2 of that. We also use oil to heat our hot water.

 

[begreen]

If you like the convenience of pellets, have you considered going with a larger pellet stove? It may be a much easier installation. Perhaps your Harman dealer would give you a trade-in credit?

 

[cheseapeke]

Actually where we are pellets are way more expensive than the wood. We got the biggest we could get to fit our fireplace opening which is pretty huge. We actually have a metal plate that extends about 10" above the insert. Our thought is that if we put in a woodstove, we will get more heat and heat during a power outage which we seem to have alot of. We will then put the insert into a room we have not opened up to use. The only problem is the fireplace in that room is not deep enough so I 'm wondering if we can build something between the wall and unit so we can use it there. We already use a wood insert in one living room wing so I'm use to the wood and like the heat it gives off better. I also hate the noise the pellet stove makes.

 

[GVA]

A stove is still a zone heater regardless of what it burns, my advance heats the house fine (40,000BTU) Perhaps your home needs some more insulating done.
Or better placement of the zone heater.
Before I would tell you to get a new stove, I would want to know your layout..... How much of an area are you trying to heat? What are your settings what kind of pellets, stove maintenance etc. do you turn the temp down at night or when your not home.
Ya see whether it's 40,000 or 80,000 BTU they may not heat an entire house but they will heat the room they are in, What exactly is the problem that you are seeing others here may help you with distributing the heat around the house. If that is the problem (cold areas of the house).
Let us know..

 

[GVA]

Wow I type slow...
I gotta shut off the TV............. I started typing that at 3:30

 

[cheseapeke]

We live in a very, very old Greek Revival with very little insulation, we do have new triple paned windows through out the house. We bought it as a fixer upper, but it seems to mostly a downer! HA!HA! We are slowly improving things. Currently the pellet stove is in the kitchen which is approx 26 x 20 with 9' ceilings. That has three doors at opposite end of fireplace dining room-pantry-hallway. The dining room opens to another room both those rooms have 12 ft ceilings. Off of the front room is a living room that is on its own heat zone (this is the room we use the wood insert in 74 degrees right now and 25 out)That room has the least insulation of all. The pellet stove is set on 80 ish right now and its about 68 in here. There is another living room wing off of the hall which is currently used as storage that is where we thought we could use the pellet stove (we were origannlly going to use wood) instead of rehooking the oil up in there. The upstairs we heat with oil (on its own zone) it stays pretty warm up there and the heat is set really low. I've been asking around here people I know who heat with woodstoves in older homes and they all love theirs. I am home most days so I am here to maintain them. Sorry so long! If you every saw the money pit, that is literally our house!

 

[begreen]

OK, let's start from the beginning. What is the actual fireplace opening dimension? What is the FP depth at top and at bottom? What is the interior size of the flue? Is this an interior or exterior wall chimney? Once we have this information we can make suggestions. It would also be good to know what stove dealers are in your area. No point suggesting something that isn sold near you. What are some big towns in your region? (MD?)

As far as reducing temperature swings, one thing to consider would be a catalytic stove/insert or a soapstone stove.

Last, can you post a picture of where you'd like to install the stove?

 

[GVA]

Well regardless that stove should heat that room over 68*.....
How are you at cleaning it and the heat exchangers?
Are you in stove temp or room temp?
What's the feed rate set at?
Where's the Temp sensor located?
Where's the blower speed set at?
What do the flames look like?
I'm sweating right now and the stove is in the other room and in high burn so I'm gonna turn her down a bit.
If your flames are not hitting the top heat exchanger and your set at 80* and the room is 68* I think the stove thinks it's at or close to temp.
So If you are in room temp mode right now and the flames are low switch it over to stove temp mode and see if there is a change in the flame and feed rates.

 

[GVA]

Darn it............. You guy's are still faster than me :red:

 

[cheseapeke]

The width is 54 inches and it is 40 inches tall, as the flue I believe they installed a 4" liner for the pellet stove. We clean several times a month and I 've had the dealer here several times, just last week being one of them. I have it set at room temp, tried already switching it back and forth no difference. The feed setting is between 3-4 if I set it any higher I just get pellets spit out un burnt. I use Lignetics, which were the best pellets you can get out here. The woodstove we are considering the Regency F3100. They warranty your satisfaction for a whole year and the stove itself has a life time warranty. Including service. Oh, I live in upstate NY. Not to many dealers near us.

 

[restorer]

Tell us about the flue. Does the liner run to the top of the chimney? Do you have a block off plate, Is the chimney inside or outside the living area? Based on the size of the box, how big is the flue? My non-expert mind is thinking a lot of the potential heat may be going up the chimney.

 

[cheseapeke]

I really don't know the size of the flue or how high the liner goes, we had a professional install. I don't feel any drafts around the unit. or when we pull it out to clean it.

 

[cheseapeke]

OOps, the chimney runs inside the house. The room above is not used and has insulation on the floor. The bats take their summer vacation here.

 

[begreen]

Well the Regency is a good unit from what I've read, though the website has very little info. Here is a thread to read up on: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/1515/ Also do a search on Regency 3100 to read more reviews and opinions.

Good that this is an interior chimney, that's a big opening. You can put a very large stove in there. Is the Regency the only stove brand they sell? You might ask if they can get you a Pacific Energy Summit stove. It has a very good track record here. If on a budget, the Englander 30 NCL is a good stove, owned by one of the primary forum contributers and they have a tech support guy right here too. The stove will do fine for a few hours without tending. However, it will not be automatic, so the kitchen may be cold in the am depending on when the stove was last filled.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

how big is the house? high ceilings i see that robs ya a bit, insulation not great hurts too, i saw somthing about the portion of the house you want to heat not getting up to temp, is this what the pellet unit is supposed to heat? also if n room heat see if you can disable that and give the unit its head, let it eat. also although this will be a cost is it feasable to do a premanufactured chimney and installing a second unit?

 

[GVA]

also if n room heat see if you can disable that and give the unit its head, let it eat.

hh: huh? hh:

 

[cheseapeke]

We have the oil set at about 62 so it doesn't kick on when it is warmer out. There really is no other spot to install another chimney we have a ton of windows and doorways. The only other option for us is Vermont castings, Harmon or Morso(?), the Regency happens to be the biggest this shop sells that would sit out on our hearth and pipe up through the chimney. Even with that they will have to trim 3" off the legs so the elbow fits. The other dealer I have worked with also sells the Regency. The closest does the Harmon, but I really don't care for him and from others I talk to they always kind of look at you with a grimmace when you mention his dealership. I don't think there are any dealers of Pacific in our area. We had to travel about 30-40 minutes to get to the one were considering now. We kind of live in hick town. No offense.

 

[GVA]

We have the oil set at about 62 so it doesn't kick on when it is warmer out. There really is no other spot to install another chimney we have a ton of windows and doorways. The only other option for us is Vermont castings, Harmon or Morso(?), the Regency happens to be the biggest this shop sells that would sit out on our hearth and pipe up through the chimney. Even with that they will have to trim 3" off the legs so the elbow fits. The other dealer I have worked with also sells the Regency. The closest does the Harmon, but I really don't care for him and from others I talk to they always kind of look at you with a grimmace when you mention his dealership. I don't think there are any dealers of Pacific in our area. We had to travel about 30-40 minutes to get to the one were considering now. We kind of live in hick town. No offense.

Well I would stay away from that Harman dealertoo as your stove should be heating that room at the very least and if he was out last week and it's still not running right well either you have a window open or the stove is not setup or running correct...And the dealer should know what is wrong....
I'll leave it at that...

 

[begreen]

Can you post a picture or two so that we can see the fireplace and hearth?

The Regency may be fine, it's just that the website is really weak on information about the firebox size, emissions, etc. Don't go by the 80,000btus spec without knowing what they mean by that. It is a max number for marketing.

I don't particularly like the idea of cutting down of the stove legs. If you look at the Defiant or the Morso I think you will find that the legs do not have to be cut. For the VC dealer, the Defiant everburn is an exceptionally clean burning stove. If you visit the Morso dealer and ask about the 3640.

 

[jtp10181]

I agree with BeGreen about the legs. If you modify the stove at all and there is a fire, regardless if the stove caused it or not, if the inspectors notice it was modified they will be all over that.

 

[razor]

try a different brand of pellet. i wasnt very impressed with the lignetics .