stove qoute and some quesions

[deadeye316]

Hi everyone. I was looking for some help. We built a new house 2 floor 1900 sqft in upstate NY. Currently we have a oil furnace that heats the house and water. Due to a new member of the family and the rise in OIL prices we are looking at pellet stoves. Even with the furnace going at 70 it feels cool in the house. With the rise in oil we are looking at about $2700 this season. I am looking at a HARMAN P-61A. I heard good things about harman and this unit caught my eye. We went to a local dealer and I got a quote. The unit $2935 not including the Trim kit $159, louver $40 and ext hopper $159. They are charging $1049 for the floorboard, piping, 1 ton of pellets and install. So im looking at $4342.00. Dont include tax because my dad is getting a P38plus installed for $2900 installed so they gave us both 15% off. So my questions are

1. Do you think with it being a newly built house the stove will heat the house. If not pay for itself by saving on the oil.

2. Is that a good price for the stove after install?

3. Are there any other qustions that I should be asking and do you have any suggestions.

 

[webbie]

I think you should do a few things.....

You should spend some time on the Forum and other areas of the site to learn about fuels, their costs, their ups and downs and everything else. There are a lot of reasons that a person might want to spend $4500 on a Pellet stove, but actually saving that $4500+ might not be the #1 reason.

Let's take a scenario where you are going to use 800 gallons of oil per year, and assume you will average $3.00+ per gallon. Yes, it will be higher and lower, depending on contract and time of year, but so will Pellets. Let's assume a price of $250 a ton for Pellet delivered to your home ($225 plus $25 ton delivery) - again, you may pay less, you may pay more, but this is a good figure to use.

Given a newer house and relatively efficient oil system, we can consider that the comparison will be something like this:
800 gallons of oil = 112 million BTU input
7 tons of Pellets = (7x16 million BTU per ton) = 112 Million BTU

The 7 tons of Pellets would cost $1750, so you will save $700 a year over 800 gallons at $3.00....

Now for all the qualifiers.....

A. Can a space heater from one area heat your house with it's current layout?
B. You will still need to run some oil in some weather and for Hot water, so that will be at least a couple hundred dollars per year.
C. Space heaters can be more efficient than central - if you are living in the rooms near the heater - so you probably will not burn 7 tons. But you will burn 4-5 and you will not heat the far rooms like the oil will - are they zoned? Does it matter if they get cold?
D. The Pellet stove will need loaded, tending and service.

This is just the start of the questions you want to ask yourself. From a financial point of view, I think Alan Greenspan would say when all is figured in, doing it for just the money (against oil in an efficient unit) may not be a good investment. But we get asked this same question all the time, and the answer sort of remains the same, that being:

If you want a Pellet Stove for numerous reasons (warmth, renewable fuel, seeing the fire, a family "hearth", a toy, a gadget or "green living"), then Get One. However, if you are borrowing money to do so....and if saving money is the #1 concern....and given a new house and efficient furnace....I would say that it may not represent a fast payback.

Hey, a big screen TV and power windows in the car don't pay for themselves either, but most of us have them anyway!

Another question - you mention "furnace" and then hot water from it. Do you mean a "boiler"? In other words, do you have hot air or hot water heat? What about the babies room? Is it near the stove?

Not looking for you to give me answers....just for your continuing research, etc.

 

[deadeye316]

We have baseboard hot water heat. During the day we keep the house at 70 and it still feels cold. We went to our friends house who has a pellet stove the harman 61a and it was so comfortable. So its not just money or savings. I just want my family to be comfortable. I also wanted to know if that was a good price i was quoted.

 

[webbie]

Prices and services sounds good. It is my opinion that Harman are some of the heaviest-duty pellet stoves out there, so you are buying something that should last a long time.

I hope you took the time and expense to zone your baseboard heat so that you can get the most out of the space heater (pellet). If you can keep the heat off in the main living room, but have a bedroom zone for the little one (and you), you will be ahead of the game. Also, make certain that none of your baseboard heat pipes run in places where they might freeze if you don't use them during cold weather. This can be a concern for some.....of course, boiler anti-freeze is a solution also.

You will be more comfortable and warmer with a space heater, although hot water heat is usually good also! Our newer house in a similar climate feels relatively warm at 62-66 degrees, because newer houses are tighter - less drafts.

 

[Xena]

Hi everyone. .... I am looking at a HARMAN P-61A.
I heard good things about harman and this unit caught my eye. We went to a local dealer and I got a quote..................

Are there any other questions that I should be asking and do you have any suggestions.

Hey congrats on being a possible future pellethead!

One additional thing that is important is dealer reputation.
Seems that many of them like to sell stoves but drop the
ball when it comes to what most would consider quality service.
Not sure how you'd go about it, but you may want to
try to research the dealer you intend on purchasing from.
Hope everything works out to your advantage.