Would a pellet stove suit this application?

[Esprit]

Hi all. New guy here. I'm looking for advice to determine if a pellet stove would work for us. My wife and I live in a 1600 sq foot 2 story century home. Our primary source of heat is a 15000 BTU Fujitsu wall mounted heat pump. It does a great job keeping our house warm unless outside temps are colder than -22C (fairly rare here-perhaps 5-10 days during the winter). On those days when it's colder we will sometimes run our oil furnace for about 20 minutes every 2-3 hours just to "take the edge off". We want to get rid of the oil furnace (due to age, tank needs replacing, high cost of oil here etc) and were initially thinking of getting a wood stove however we now think that perhaps a pellet stove might be a better solution. Our reasoning is (from what we understand) a pellet stove can be fired up almost instantly and shut down just about as quick whereas a wood stove would take longer to get up to operating tempurature. We assume that since we'd only use the stove on only those days where it's extremely cold (and for only a couple of hours per day) we'd not use a lot of pellets each season. Plus we wouldn't have to worry about storing/seasoning firewood (not to mention good firewood is getting harder to find here in Prince Edward Island). The only negative points to a pellet stove would be the fact we'd be using electricity to run the auger (any idea what kind of power these stoves draw?) and the fact we have about 3 acres of forest on our property. With a woodstove I would use dead wood from our property.
If a pellet stove is the way to go, what size do you suggest as a secondary source of heat?
Thanks!
Todd

 

[Ctcarl]

Well the pellet stove does not use much electricity if any. As far as what your saying a few hours here and there. IMO I don't think the pellet stove investment would pay off for a while. Rember you have to store pellets as well.Yes pellet stove is easier turn knob on the turn off . However I still do a good 7 day cleaning. Also after a ton of pellets being burned another more thorough cleaning is needed.Im thinking a wood stove is what your looking for. Also the fact you have wood in Your land. If you do decide to get a pellet stove look at the Harmans. I love mine. Good luck

 

[alternativeheat]

A pellet stove won't use electricity anything like your heat pump does. Most people with heat pumps who buy into a pellet stove find the pellet stove taking it's place. A 40,000-50,000 btu stove will heat your entire house all season, including the .-22 deg days. Neither the heat pump nor the oil burner are likely to be needed unless the house has open gaps to the outdoors. If it's anywhere near insulated well and has decent windows though, no problem. But that part is your call. And too, it depends where you want to put the pellet stove as to the result you will get from it.

Pellet stoves are not hands off heating machines , in fact quite hand on as already mentioned. A free standing gas stove is pretty much hands off, if you have NG near your land, think about that as well as pellets, then decide.. Do not go propane though !

 

[olddawgsrule]

A lot of good information above!

I have both, a wood stove and a pellet burner.
The wood stove is in the parlor and the main heater
The pellet burner is downstairs and does what I want it to do.

I also have 3 acres to draw from and 5 acres next door of Green Space that I maintain.
It's still not enough to give me a full season, every season of wood (mostly pines)
I still buy some green when it's priced right (not to mention the effort, equipment and area to store)

Your situation may not lend nicely to buying 'green' cheap.. so you may need to supplement with bio-logs
Bio-logs are not cheap and IMHO work out to about the same cost per ton (if you shop them)
Again you situation may differ because of location and more folks use pellets than bio-logs, so finding well priced bio-logs may be tougher for you.

For me, they both have their place and very happy with each!

 

[hoverfly]

Does your heat pump have a coil in the furnace or is it mounted inside your home on the wall? Also do you heat the basement as well? Right now with the info aviable a pellet stove will use less electricity then your heat pump, when you compare the two make sure you include the cost of the pellets. If you are only using a 15,000 BTU heat pump a pellet stove in the 30000 to 40000 range will work just fine as a pellet stove works like your heat pump, constantly running at longer times provides maximum efficiency. Your oil furnace probably runs at least 80,000 to 100,000BTUs for a short time.

 

[chken]

Hi all. New guy here. I'm looking for advice to determine if a pellet stove would work for us. My wife and I live in a 1600 sq foot 2 story century home. Our primary source of heat is a 15000 BTU Fujitsu wall mounted heat pump. It does a great job keeping our house warm unless outside temps are colder than -22C (fairly rare here-perhaps 5-10 days during the winter). On those days when it's colder we will sometimes run our oil furnace for about 20 minutes every 2-3 hours just to "take the edge off". We want to get rid of the oil furnace (due to age, tank needs replacing, high cost of oil here etc) and were initially thinking of getting a wood stove however we now think that perhaps a pellet stove might be a better solution. Our reasoning is (from what we understand) a pellet stove can be fired up almost instantly and shut down just about as quick whereas a wood stove would take longer to get up to operating tempurature. We assume that since we'd only use the stove on only those days where it's extremely cold (and for only a couple of hours per day) we'd not use a lot of pellets each season. Plus we wouldn't have to worry about storing/seasoning firewood (not to mention good firewood is getting harder to find here in Prince Edward Island). The only negative points to a pellet stove would be the fact we'd be using electricity to run the auger (any idea what kind of power these stoves draw?) and the fact we have about 3 acres of forest on our property. With a woodstove I would use dead wood from our property.
If a pellet stove is the way to go, what size do you suggest as a secondary source of heat?
Thanks!
Todd

One, pellet stoves use very little electricity; mine uses 25 watts for the augur, 20 watts for the combustion fan, and 40 to 80 watts for the room fan. Usually, it's pulling about 100 watts total.

Two, your furnace has ducting and registers, seems a waste not to use them, so perhaps a pellet furnace would be preferable to a pellet stove. You'll get far more even heat if you heat thru your registers.

Three, you use your furnace so little, it seems overkill to get a pellet furnace which tend to be pricier than stoves.

Four, does your Fujitsu allow you to add a 2nd unit? A 6000 or 9000 btu head unit could supplement your existing 15000 one. I'd check the Fujitsu options first before considering a pellet stove. I've thought of buying a home in PEI before, and I was wondering if there are any pellet supply issues given that you have to get them over the bridge.

 

[Esprit]

Thanks for the replies. We can add a 2nd head to the heat pump (it's a wall unit). A 2nd unit won't help as the only time we need to supplement the heat pump is when it looses efficiency at temps below -22 or when the humidity is so high the unit goes into defrost every 45 minutes (for 15-20 minutes).
We are lucky in that we have two staircases in our home. There is one in the center of our house that is quite open to the second level. We "aim" the airflow from the heat pump to that staircase at night. There is a small staircase leading from one of the bedrooms to our living room (where the heat pump is located). We open the door to that staircase at night and that really helps create good airflow to the second level. Our upstairs is usually 69 degrees F at night.
We've had a really cold winter this year. The heat pump has increased our electrical bill by about $140/month.
Oil is expensive ($1.19 / litre). It's not uncommon for the average home owner to spend $3-4000 per winter on heating oil here!
Seasoned firewood runs about $250/cord
Pellets are $5.99/bag at Home Depot. I am unsure of any bulk suppliers here in PEI.
Our Heat Pump is 18000 BTU, not 15000 as I mistakenly mentioned in my original post.
It would be nice to have the ability to use the pellet stove if the power goes out. I've heard mention of 12 volt battery packs to run the augers. Are they available for most brands of pellet stove?
Thanks
Todd

 

[chken]

Thanks for the replies. We can add a 2nd head to the heat pump (it's a wall unit). A 2nd unit won't help as the only time we need to supplement the heat pump is when it looses efficiency at temps below -22 or when the humidity is so high the unit goes into defrost every 45 minutes (for 15-20 minutes).
We are lucky in that we have two staircases in our home. There is one in the center of our house that is quite open to the second level. We "aim" the airflow from the heat pump to that staircase at night. There is a small staircase leading from one of the bedrooms to our living room (where the heat pump is located). We open the door to that staircase at night and that really helps create good airflow to the second level. Our upstairs is usually 69 degrees F at night.
We've had a really cold winter this year. The heat pump has increased our electrical bill by about $140/month.
Oil is expensive ($1.19 / litre). It's not uncommon for the average home owner to spend $3-4000 per winter on heating oil here!
Seasoned firewood runs about $250/cord
Pellets are $5.99/bag at Home Depot. I am unsure of any bulk suppliers here in PEI.
Our Heat Pump is 18000 BTU, not 15000 as I mistakenly mentioned in my original post.
It would be nice to have the ability to use the pellet stove if the power goes out. I've heard mention of 12 volt battery packs to run the augers. Are they available for most brands of pellet stove?
Thanks
Todd

LOL, what was I thinking?!? Of course a 2nd head unit for your heat pump makes no sense, since you are talking about supplementing your heat when it's extremely cold.

Heating oil is very expensive here too. It wasn't all that long ago when the avg home here in Maine used about 1200 gallons a year, now the avg is down to 800 gallons.

There are plenty of people here who have UPSes backing up their stoves, for outages. The largest ones, may have enough power to last about an hour. There are even some people here who have setup their own systems with 12 volt batteries for longer outages. You may have to search for those threads. The only pellet stove that I know that has a built-in battery is the Thelin Tiburon.

Personally, I would reconsider your original idea of the wood stove. If it's only supplemental heat for 5 to 10 days a winter, you could get a cord of wood and not have to worry about electrical outages.

 

[hoverfly]

Personally the heat pump costs to much to run as a main heating unit, I would just save if for cooling. The pellet stove could be your main source of heat and the heat pump as a back up. As for a back up for the stove, the best way is to buy as small generator like a Honda or Yamaha. But be aware in my personal experience is that storing gasoline is a pain in the butt and having large amounts on hand is not good idea. So a singe 5 gallon can will be all you need for a small generator.

Now I just thought of a few more options, there are pellet stoves that do not require electricity two come mind. There are also baskets made to work with a wood stove to burn pellets. You would have the option of burning wood when available. The down side is the efficacy decreases, more pellets for the same amount of heat in the home but its still cheaper.

 

[Esprit]

How many bags of pellets do you figure an average 1600 sq foot home would use in a month? Less than $140 worth? That's what the heat pump costs to heat my house per month.

 

[hoverfly]

It all depends on how well insulated your home is. The newer the home the better insulated it will be the less fuel you will need.

 

[chken]

How many bags of pellets do you figure an average 1600 sq foot home would use in a month? Less than $140 worth? That's what the heat pump costs to heat my house per month.

Obviously, your home is pretty tight, as $140 in electricity for your heat pump at your latitude is excellent!

 

[hyfire]

Does it hurt to have a bigger stove to run on a lower setting I'm not sure? I would stay with Canadian products for quicker parts and service, such as Drolet, eco-35 or 45 come to mind for your setup. Free shipping is always a bonus too

http://www.costco.ca/Drolet-ECO-45-Pellet-Stove.product.100002990.html

 

[hoverfly]

Does it hurt to have a bigger stove to run on a lower setting I'm not sure? I would stay with Canadian products for quicker parts and service, such as Drolet, eco-35 or 45 come to mind for your setup. Free shipping is always a bonus too

http://www.costco.ca/Drolet-ECO-45-Pellet-Stove.product.100002990.html

I would not think a stove on the "larger" size will be an issue. When I run my Mini at the max the vent gets very warm, there is a lot more heat leaving my house for sure.

 

[rwthomas1]

For your use of 5-10 days a year, a wood or a pellet stove would seem like an awful lot of trouble and expensive too. Wood and pellet stoves seem better if run on a more continuous basis. My pellet stove runs pretty much 24/7 once the weather turns cold. The NG furnace and aux electric heat pick up the slack when needed, which is only during the coldest periods. My business partner heats with wood, same deal, 24/7 once the cold arrives. Both houses about 1600sq/ft, he uses 3-4 cord and I use 3 tons or so each winter. Pellet stoves, like most mechanical things seem to like to be used, not sit dormant. Most here I think will agree that the stove would need a good cleaning if an extended shutdown is expected. So factor in that extra work. Both will required cleaning of the ventpipe/chimney as well A wood stove being a lot less complex is likely to be easier to just walk away from. Do you have a chimney? If so, advantage wood stove in addition to not needing electricity to operate. Hard to believe that a heat pump is that efficient but I know that technology has gotten much, much better. It might be fairly cheap to add some electric heating to supplement when you need it. Provided your electric panel can support it, purchase and installation can be inexpensive compared to pellet stoves and only needing it 5-10 days a year would make operating costs tolerable? Tough choice really.