We have a woodburning stove now but want to upgrade to a pellet stove

[Grannyof7]

Right now we are using a wood burning stove as our main source of heat. Our house was built in 1917, and we have only had it a few years so no upgrades yet. Central heating/air is not an option. Hubby and I are getting older and not able to cut and split wood all year long so we are looking at pellet stoves. I want to know what the pros and cons are of pellet stoves and what you recommend.

 

[begreen]

Pros: Run on store bought fuel, can be thermostatically regulated, ease of operation,

Cons: More complex with more maintenance, requires power, fuel must be stored in dry area, some are noisy

 

[bogieb]

I came from a wood burning house to a place where it was not practical to install and use a woodstove (termites in area, very humid during summer, no room outside to store firewood because of swampy ground etc).

Pros:

• No bark/wood droppings in house - although there will be dust
• No critter mess brought into the house (overwintering ants/wasps/insects), nor any mouse smells.
• (related to above) Pellets can be stored inside without worrying about insects like termites/ants or rodents.
• Can be thermostatically controlled from a different room (or use built in monitor on the stove). This means temperature is self-regulating.
• Self-feeding so only have to make sure that hopper is full and it can run from 24 hours or more (depending on outside conditions.
• As long as you get a pellet stove with an ignitor, it will start by itself without any attention - instead of using coals/kindling and having to pay attention to starting a wood stove.

Cons (some mentioned previously):

• During power outage you need a power source
• Need a dry area to store pellets
• Wood stove heat can be more btu's and is radiant instead of pushed out by a fan
• At times there there may be pellet shortages (happened twice in my area in the last 12 years)
• Moving parts on pellet stoves mean at some point there will be costs involved - the better quality stove you buy, the more likely that the costs will be many years down the road.
• Your existing exhaust / chimney for the woodstove will not be compatible with a pellet stove, so there is added cost besides the stove itself.
• Pellets usually come in 40 pound bags (you may be able to find them in 20 pound bags). So, loading up a pellet stove with fuel is more physical than loading firewood (where you could carry just a few logs at a time.

Depending on the pellet stove you acquire, the cleaning can be anywhere from daily (during cold weather) to monthly. I clean my stoves about every 3 weeks. Just as an FYI, cleaning is not just removing ashes as it would be for a woodstove.

If your house doesn't have very good insulation and/or is drafty, a pellet stove may be disappointing. Depending on the size of your house, or configuration, you may need two pellet stoves to heat the whole thing. My house isn't very big (960 sq/ft on main floor, plus basement). The P61a in the basement should easily heat the whole house (and does for some people). Unfortunately, the configuration and lack of air dynamics on the main floor made it so that I had to put in a smaller stove up there.

I love my pellet stoves and am able to store pellets in the under-house garage and basement so they are handy all season long. I am able to do most maintenance myself (I've only had someone else replace an exhaust fan/motor for the P43). But, I also recognize that a pellet stove may not be the best option for some people.

In your case, I'm wondering if it would be cheaper, easier and more desirable to just buy pre-split wood and hire someone to stack it for you. I base this entirely on the assumption that your house is drafty and not well insulated, so could be wrong. Also, that doesn't take into account some of the positives I listed, which may be very attractive for your circumstances.

 

[Ricks]

The dealer I use for pellets sells several products that are similar to pellets but are meant for wood stoves. These other products look like wooden blocks or dowels.

These products would allow you to keep you existing stove but use a cleaner and easier to handle supply. No idea of cost since I don’t use them.

 

[begreen]

Yes, one can buy decent quality highly compressed sawdust logs for a more convenient and predictable fuel supply. If there is a Tractor Supply in the area then their Redstone compressed bricks are decent.

 

[bogieb]

The dealer I use for pellets sells several products that are similar to pellets but are meant for wood stoves. These other products look like wooden blocks or dowels.

These products would allow you to keep you existing stove but use a cleaner and easier to handle supply. No idea of cost since I don’t use them.

That is an excellent observation. I believe they are sold by the ton just like wood pellets.

 

[Dataman]

I did this in 2018, switched to Pellet Stove (Harmon XXV). This spring supplemented it with Low Temp Heat Pump (-20f it says it will run, Midea Evox G3). Have yet to burn bag of pellets (3 fires couple hours to warm up living room to 74f).

When we put Pellet Stove in we got Inverter/Charger. One 100ah Battery for running when power goes out. Had one 10 hour run without power. 1 Battery was not enough. Got 2nd Battery. Replacing batteries next Season I hope. I keep 1k Clean Power Portable Generator for longer run times. Main 7kw Generator is not clean power we have. Have yet to do more than test both.

Biggest downside with pellets over wood is 40lb bags. In the future if I am 80+ can I lift 40lb bags? They do come in 20lb bags at least. Will cross that bridge then.

So far this Very Warm Season Heat Pump is doing great. I sense it struggles below 9f more than 30f. Kw used so far at worse is 200kw. But we have 5kw Shop Heaters. 2 in Shop (See pic it's on right, one on left out of pic), 1 in Garage and 1 in Old Shop (Part of Garage but door to it). Plus 2 Refridgerator and Two 20cf Upright Freezers.

Did test turning off all the Shop Heaters when it was 30f at night. 9kw is best estimate the Heat Pump used.

I would consider Saw Dust Logs in the future if you can get them at good price or having wood cut smaller. I used to buck it up smaller and split (Log Splitter). Plus use any limbs worth burning for starting and shoulder season (Not too Cold). If you go Saw Dust Logs be careful easy to get too much fire and over temp your stove.

Inverter AIMS 1250
Pellet Stove Harmon XXV
Heat Pump Midea G3 Evox

 

[begreen]

To lighten the load, pellets can be transferred from the 40# bag to a coal scuttle (hod) and carried to the house in partial loads. More trips, but lighter lifts. Or put wheels under the bag by using an appliance dolly to move them.

 

[Whitenuckler]

To lighten the load, pellets can be transferred from the 40# bag to a coal scuttle (hod) and carried to the house in partial loads. More trips, but lighter lifts. Or put wheels under the bag by using an appliance dolly to move them.

I do something similar. I have them in my garage. I have two 5 gallon buckets I fill out there. Then I can carry them down to the basement. I also find it's better when filling the hopper. Less dust too in the house.

 

[Highbeam]

Posters in this thread were able to connect their pellet stoves to the existing wood stove pipe. You can reuse your wood chimney for pellets.

 

[mellow]

The biggest issue for me coming from stick burning to pellet is QC. With stick burning I could control my quality with what wood species I bought and let it season on my timeline. I lose that control with pellets.

I had to convert a shed into pellet bag storage so it would be covered and I could get a ton at a time at lower prices. I would say that if you have a farm supply that some of them will allow you to buy a ton at a time and they hold them and you can pick up a couple bags at a time if you don't have storage space.

I had a nice top of the line blaze king wood insert at my previous house so I was accustomed to fan noise, but the blower on these pellet units (at least mine) is louder and you have to deal with the auger noise.

I run my pellet stove from 6am - 9pm and I can turn on/off anytime I want from my phone, couldn't do that with the stick burner. Maintenance is more since I also clean the pellet stove out every night, not needed but it makes me feel better.

I let my heat pump run the overnight hours since we like the rooms cooler at night anyway, sounds like you will be burning 24/7 and will need to figure out a downtime schedule to clean the stove.

 

[Dataman]

You can also get Pellet Basket for Wood Stove. How long it will burn is the major Q. https://pelletbaskets.com/

 

[begreen]

You can also get Pellet Basket for Wood Stove. How long it will burn is the major Q. https://pelletbaskets.com/

There was some chatter on these in the past. They work after a fashion. Brotherbart got one and wrote about using it many years ago.