Taking the Plunge - Pellet Stove Help

[jalden]

I'm considering taking the plunge a purchasing a pellet stove insert and using it as my primary heat source. Live in a 2000 sf cape in Nh. Open concept down stairs. Last year we used approx 1000 gals of fuel oil for heat (baseboard) and hot water.

The stove I'm considering is the Mt Vernon AE. My question is if the stove is worth the $$$. Seems higher priced than most others. In my opinion it does offer some nice benefits such as multiple fuel burning ability, highest BTU I've been able to find in and insert, and the Mrs likes the looks of it.

Any advice on this stove, other stoves, or pellet stoves as a primary heat source is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Pellet stove inserts are not designed as PRIMARY heat sources. Pellet stoves (period) are supplemental heat. Yes you will save money but know what you are getting into.

Eric

 

[MoeB]

Except on the 10 degrees and minus days, I pretty much use my pellet stoves (Harmons) as my primary heat source. Even then, I only run the furnace to take the chill off the far bedrooms and the basement from time to time. As long as you have the furnace or boiler operable for those times, depending on the layout of your house, you can do it, too, probably. My avatar is a picture of my husband and I back when we were heating with only oil. :coolsmile: Best of luck to you in your purchase of a new stove, if that's the way you go.

Moe

 

[jalden]

Thanks for you input....I am very conflicted over this. I know I'm preaching to the choir but I just see oil prices going up and up and want a way to "get of the junk". The issue I'm struggling with is if it is worth spending the 4k to get the stove. Or am I just throwing good money after bad. (i.e. is it worth the extra money to have a multi-fuel stove?)

I did find something new today (this whole pellet stove thing is my new obsession). It is a retrofit for the oil burner in my furnace that burns pellets. Anyone have experience with it? (broken link removed)

 

[mlwschultz]

For what it's worth, we just ordered a Harman XXV free standing pellet stove (for the same reasons you've cited). Yes, I think it's worth the price. This stove was $2,950, plus installation, hearth pad, etc. I figure we'll break even in 2-4 years. I'm very afraid of the current heating oil prices, they aren't going down in summer like they usually do (it's not summer yet, but heating season is pretty much over), so what will they be like when it gets cold? I don't see as we have any alternative but to install a different heating source (whatever your choice may be).

 

[stoveguy13]

Most important thing you can do to make it worth it for youself is make sure the dealer is good and will take care of issues that may come up.the mt vernon is a complicated machine and you need a good dealer.

 

[JDenyer232]

Thanks for you input....I am very conflicted over this. I know I'm preaching to the choir but I just see oil prices going up and up and want a way to "get of the junk". The issue I'm struggling with is if it is worth spending the 4k to get the stove. Or am I just throwing good money after bad. (i.e. is it worth the extra money to have a multi-fuel stove?)

I did find something new today (this whole pellet stove thing is my new obsession). It is a retrofit for the oil burner in my furnace that burns pellets. Anyone have experience with it? (broken link removed)

Pellet conversion burners do work, but they don't work all that well with modern oil fired boilers, especially the pinned type heat exchangers, they are simply to restrictive. The fly ash plugs them up pretty fast. They are a good option for some of the older boilers that have wider passages. We have a 1250 sq ft home here in midcoast Maine. Prior to installing our first pellet stove we used 600-800 gallons of oil per year. The first year we had our pellet stove we cut that down to 300 gallons. This year we cut it down to 200 gallons. We installed a larger pellet stove this year and we are hoping to get down below 100 gallons of oil per year. We also generate all our hot water needs with oil so you need to factor that in. I burn through roughly 3 tons of pellets per heating season. At $4.00/gallon my cost this year would have been $2400-$3200 for oil. I paid $260 per ton for pellets or $520 for the heating season, add in the 200 gallons of oil and I spent a total of $1320. I saved between $1080 and $1880. We use our oil heat as a backup and our pellet stove as a maine source of heat. Hope this helps.

 

[compressedwoodsupplier]

Most manafactures dont recomend using a pellet stove as primary heat but i used my pellet stove to heat my house for all of the cold season and used only 4 1/2 ton with a cost of about $1200.00 for the season not bad i figure for what the cost of heating oil is. I currently sell pellet stoves and and very happy know the price of oil keeps rising that just mean more people will be saving money over time by using pellets. ALSO just heard from a few manafactures and retailers like my self the price of pellets may go up this year so buy early.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

actually a "primary" source of heat is ok , but it shouldnt be used as a "sole" source of heat a backup heat source is encouraged , perferrably one for use during power outages.