Wood burner vs pellet
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Both require constant work and maintenance. Pellets are arguably cleaner both indoors an outdoors, and require less maintenance, but you can't get the fuel for free. Pellet requires a smaller vent pipe, but have electronic parts that can fail. Either one can keep your house at 80F and "feel" better than a heat pump.
I have both, and they're not even close to the type of work, preparation, and maintenance involved. They're not the same animal.
As I'm sure you know with Wood Stoves you're spending time year round finding, cutting, splitting, stacking and drying firewood. Carrying it into the house, stack the box, and of course the science of getting and keeping a fire going optimally.
Pellet stoves.... You get the pellets, you dump a bag, hit a button, and walk away until you walk over to shut it off. Big thing with Pellet stoves are the parts, price of the parts, and troubleshooting should something fail or go wrong, or even losing power. Parts are expensive, and proper upkeep of the stove requires learning somewhat specific knowledge to your particular stove. You're working with many electrical components.
I prefer the wood stove to the pellet, but as far as ease of use goes, it's the pellet stove by far.
As I'm sure you know with Wood Stoves you're spending time year round finding, cutting, splitting, stacking and drying firewood. Carrying it into the house, stack the box, and of course the science of getting and keeping a fire going optimally.
Pellet stoves.... You get the pellets, you dump a bag, hit a button, and walk away until you walk over to shut it off. Big thing with Pellet stoves are the parts, price of the parts, and troubleshooting should something fail or go wrong, or even losing power. Parts are expensive, and proper upkeep of the stove requires learning somewhat specific knowledge to your particular stove. You're working with many electrical components.
I prefer the wood stove to the pellet, but as far as ease of use goes, it's the pellet stove by far.
I have both and at my age I prefer the pellet stove. Maybe next year I'll feel different but right now I'm giving myself a much-needed rest from all the work involved and the wood stove.
Poindexter
Minister of Fire
Both are a mix of convection and radiant heat and both are going to feel different.
Obviously you aren't going to get the same heat out of a small pellet stove and a 3.5cu ft wood burner. I think you'd have to look at burn rates to compare them. Pellets should be denser and have a lower moisture content, so should give out more heat per lb of load, but thats getting into more detail than is needed. On average, they most likely burn and run more efficiently too.
But if you dumped 40lbs of pellets into a clean hopper, and put 40lbs of wood in the firebox of a stove and lit it, you could convert that load of firewood into heat faster than the pellet stove could run through that hopper. So I think you could feel more heat from a woodstove.
Obviously you aren't going to get the same heat out of a small pellet stove and a 3.5cu ft wood burner. I think you'd have to look at burn rates to compare them. Pellets should be denser and have a lower moisture content, so should give out more heat per lb of load, but thats getting into more detail than is needed. On average, they most likely burn and run more efficiently too.
But if you dumped 40lbs of pellets into a clean hopper, and put 40lbs of wood in the firebox of a stove and lit it, you could convert that load of firewood into heat faster than the pellet stove could run through that hopper. So I think you could feel more heat from a woodstove.
I was introduced to the heat from a proper running wood stove a couple of years ago. I have natural gas it the furnace does plenty fine heating the house. However I would never run my furnace to get the house to the temperature of what a stove can do.
I installed a pellet last summer (this is my first season with it). I can say I am extremely happy with the heat from it. There is nothing better than the feeling of solid fuel heat in my mind.
My brother also installed a wood stove last year (he has property with trees, I do not). The heat is very similar.
The main advantage to the wood stove if you don't have property and equipment to process firewood is the look of the fire. Wood stove fires are far more enjoyable to watch than a flame from a pellet stove.
I would likely agree to this but it will depend on OP's setup. My pellet stove is likely a little oversized for my house and it can certainly cook you out of the house quickly.
Size of area trying to heat?
Independent of heat:
Do you have property that will produce firewood or will you have to source it?
I could buy firewood but I want it to go in my basement which is 1400 soft. The piping that would have to go above my roofline would cost probably 5k at least that's why I'm going either pellet. I seen a very small pellet stove that I would like to buy.
Check on the specs of your stove/vent pipe to make sure this is allowed. To me it seems this wouldn't be but I don't know your whole setup.
My house is roughly a 1200 sqft ranch with a basement. My stove is on the main floor and is a 50k btu unit. A lot of times basement stoves don't have the effect you may be hoping for from what I've seen.
You may well want a larger stove in the basement.
I have to wonder if the engineered blocks available now blur the distinct lines between the stoves a little. A fuel is now available for purchase that is wrapped in plastic so minimal mess, and storage. If you wanted to you could stop at tractor supply every day and buy enough to get you by until tomorrow. They are pretty much a 10 lb pellet. They quite effectively bring the best of both stoves together. The convenience of the pellet stove and the flexibility of the wood stove.
This is something I had considered. A small part of me wishes I had gone this route but the convenience of the pellet stove is really nice. Had I not got my Harman for $600 I probably would have considered this much more.
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