pellet stoves..... who did it??
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KsWoodsMan
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They aren't supposed to be convertable from pellets/corn to cordwood. They have a small burn chmber and most of the area is fuel hopper, conveyor and blower.
For what they cost I would be money ahead to build one of these as posted in Mother Earth News.
I think I can figure out an ash pan to make clean out easier.
I just dont see what makes a pellet stove so expensive. It uses a thermactor controlled motor curcuit for the auger and has forced air for the burner. If I was serious about one I'd build it with 12v DC motors and use a deep cycle battery to ensure it continued to work for a couple of days during a power outage. Have the 12v heater blower drop to low when running on backup and I would be set. Sure all this may add to the initial cost but at $1500 a pop for the cheapest ones the peace of mind would be worth it for the added cost. If I actually thought I wanted to do this.
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Austin1
Addicted to ArboristSite
Ya I was thinking just hacking or I mean carefully cutting every thing you dont need out of the way lol then welding some plate over any holes you might have made. I made a wood stove out of 5/16 plate for my friends cabin I had found a nice door with glass in it at the dump,I modeled it after the one in my home. I should have given him the one in my home and kept this one!The hardest part was finding a 8'' chunk of heavy wall pipe for the exhaust. But I found it at the liquor store they had some pipes put in front of the store to keep smash and grabs down and had to cut a few inches off the pipe.But alas no ash pan, the old fashioned way using a small kids shovel made of steel works great though.
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my dads been using a pellet stove for prolly 15 years now. every year it gets worse and worse. cost i mean i see no reason to use one at all anymore over $7 a bag now its not cheap and as mentioned my wood stove will put out 20X the heat his pellet stove will. now when he started them he was really the only guy arround here with one pellets were $2 a bag. you couldnt beat that it was cheap easy heat for sure. he burned wood for over 10 years but got sick of the cutting and splitting. what bothered him most was the un even heat of a woodstove.
i tease him all the time when i go over, i tell him just to start a hair dryer and lay it on the floor and hell get more heat out of it. i try to get him to go back to wood as im setup pretty good now and i enjoy doing it, but hes never goin back im afraid. i would cut and split all his wood for him but that would never fly with my dad he dosent work that way, he would have to do it cuse its for his house not mine.
its too bad i would like to help him out for sure but like i said last time i was there "your a slave to the pellet"
i tease him all the time when i go over, i tell him just to start a hair dryer and lay it on the floor and hell get more heat out of it. i try to get him to go back to wood as im setup pretty good now and i enjoy doing it, but hes never goin back im afraid. i would cut and split all his wood for him but that would never fly with my dad he dosent work that way, he would have to do it cuse its for his house not mine.
its too bad i would like to help him out for sure but like i said last time i was there "your a slave to the pellet"
coostv
ArboristSite Operative
ssupercoolss
ArboristSite Lurker
i have happily used one for many years now. its great for heating my house when the temps are 40 and above....it works great. i have a small stove from quadrafire, and i dont recommend sticking your face infront of the air coming out of it. true, down at lower temps it becomes inefficient. true, pellet prices are really starting to go up....not just because of the "bandwagon" effect. you know, the economy sucks, which means theres not as much building going on.....not as much wood being produced, (have you seen the price of lumber?) therefore not nearly the amount as much sawdust to make pellets out of. i think sawdust is going for something else too, besides pellets. overall i am very happy with my stove, and have saved myself big bucks with it.
"thats what makes it so efficient" my buddy talking about his OWB. now thats a funny one.
"thats what makes it so efficient" my buddy talking about his OWB. now thats a funny one.
I have two multi fuel stoves and they serve their purpose for me. I have full in-floor radiant heat and the recovery time is slow so these stoves do well to raise the room temps up 4-5 deg within an hour or so. I will say they were much better for heating when I could afford corn. Corn burns so much hotter but dealing with the clinkers can be a pain the backside. My 50,000 btu unit will melt anything plastic in from of it on level 5.
That being said...I just installed a new OWB and I am loving it so far...even through working out the kinks.
That being said...I just installed a new OWB and I am loving it so far...even through working out the kinks.
Wet1
Addicted to ArboristSite
I know you won't find many pellet fans on this site, but I think they do have their place. I have a pellet stove to go along with my wood stove. They both have their pros and cons.
If fuel price is equivalent, pellets are the easy choice IMO. But, when wood is (nearly) free and pellet prices are high, pellets stoves obviously become less attractive. The key to burning pellets is to buy early or when prices are suppressed. Right now prices are high, but this year and 2005 were not the norm. OTOH, since oil and NG are so cheap now, combined with the record number of pellet stoves sold this season, my guess is this combination will mean very low prices next year... but we'll see.
Regarding the hair dryer comments, I agree when they are at a low setting, but they can really throw out some heat at the higher output levels. Which is another nice feature, they can be manually set to a certain feed rate, or even hooked to a thermostat. Not to mention you can dump a bag of pellets in and more or less walk away from them. At the lowest setting, my stove can run for over 48 hours on one bag of pellets w/o needing to be touched... very nice and maintenance free. There's also a lot less labor involved with 'harvesting' your pellets vs. wood, although I like processing the wood. OTOH, I do prefer the ease of use, and the clean nature of pellets.
Pellet stoves have their place, but they aren't for everyone.
If fuel price is equivalent, pellets are the easy choice IMO. But, when wood is (nearly) free and pellet prices are high, pellets stoves obviously become less attractive. The key to burning pellets is to buy early or when prices are suppressed. Right now prices are high, but this year and 2005 were not the norm. OTOH, since oil and NG are so cheap now, combined with the record number of pellet stoves sold this season, my guess is this combination will mean very low prices next year... but we'll see.
Regarding the hair dryer comments, I agree when they are at a low setting, but they can really throw out some heat at the higher output levels. Which is another nice feature, they can be manually set to a certain feed rate, or even hooked to a thermostat. Not to mention you can dump a bag of pellets in and more or less walk away from them. At the lowest setting, my stove can run for over 48 hours on one bag of pellets w/o needing to be touched... very nice and maintenance free. There's also a lot less labor involved with 'harvesting' your pellets vs. wood, although I like processing the wood. OTOH, I do prefer the ease of use, and the clean nature of pellets.
Pellet stoves have their place, but they aren't for everyone.
logbutcher
Addicted to ArboristSite
Nicely put, well balanced intelligent post Wet. +1
BTU for BTU pellets are more expensive than the equivalent CSD firewood.
The supply is the key if the reference is for ease of handling, and less mess.
We have a few elderly neighbors here in Downeast Maine who still harvest, and burn their own firewood. They are slowing down now in their 80's.
and just began buying about 1/2 of their wood for BOTH heat stoves and cooking stove. Amazing when I read here the complaints about "getting too old to cut" and they're in the 40's or 50's. "It's too much work." BAH 
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spike60
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Interesting thread here, because I met a friend for lunch yesterday, and the place we went to had a pellet stove going in the bar. It was putting out OK heat, but the fan was pretty loud. Not something I'd want in the living room at home.
I talked with the guy for a bit and asked him what he thought. He said it does the job he needed it for, as far as keeping the bar warm. And of course in that environment, the noise is not an issue. He said that pellet price and supply has been a bit of an ongoing thing to deal with.
Most people I talk to have pretty much the same complaints regarding pellets: Supply, price, and quality. And juggling those three variables seems to make it a less than enjoyable experience. They say that quality can vary widely, and that bad pellets can be a nightmare. This year, in addition to the big push for alternative heat increasing the strain on the pellet supply, reduced activity at most sawmills means less sawdust to make pellets with. Pellet production is in large part dependent upon sawdust that is a waste product of another activity: sawing lumber. So, building is down, lumber production is down, demand for pellets is up, and therefore they're going to cost more.
Overall the conclusions I see most people draw about pellet stoves are that they are OK as a supplement heat, but they fall short of a woodstoves ability to be the primary heat source in a home.
I talked with the guy for a bit and asked him what he thought. He said it does the job he needed it for, as far as keeping the bar warm. And of course in that environment, the noise is not an issue. He said that pellet price and supply has been a bit of an ongoing thing to deal with.
Most people I talk to have pretty much the same complaints regarding pellets: Supply, price, and quality. And juggling those three variables seems to make it a less than enjoyable experience. They say that quality can vary widely, and that bad pellets can be a nightmare. This year, in addition to the big push for alternative heat increasing the strain on the pellet supply, reduced activity at most sawmills means less sawdust to make pellets with. Pellet production is in large part dependent upon sawdust that is a waste product of another activity: sawing lumber. So, building is down, lumber production is down, demand for pellets is up, and therefore they're going to cost more.
Overall the conclusions I see most people draw about pellet stoves are that they are OK as a supplement heat, but they fall short of a woodstoves ability to be the primary heat source in a home.
coostv
ArboristSite Operative
Exactly my thoughts. Good post. The thing I hated about mine was the noise. The thing I liked was it threw out a good amount of heat, on a cold day you could still boil yourself out of the living room and it kept the upstairs reasonably warm. We set ours to 1 at night (digital 1-5), and I kicked it up when I woke up in the morning. Aside from us needing to heat the basement, the ability to have central heat with the OWB and hooked to a programmable thermostat is a huge plus for us.
Nicely put, well balanced intelligent post Wet. +1
BTU for BTU pellets are more expensive than the equivalent CSD firewood.
The supply is the key if the reference is for ease of handling, and less mess.
We have a few elderly neighbors here in Downeast Maine who still harvest, and burn their own firewood. They are slowing down now in their 80's.
BAH indeed. If it is too much work they are too lazy or can't be bothered by doing some physical labor. I get comments from co-workers like this, "you have to load it twice a day?" My response "Yeah, it is no big deal, especially for the savings". Or, "You have to cut split and stack all of that wood?" I get this one when I have a load delivered and I show off my log pile pictures on my phone, then I get the you're nuts look when I mention the fact that I do not mind the work. I'll stop cutting when I am either dead or in a home. Most people get zero exercise these days, I view it as my own personal fitness program.
Nice use of BAH logbutcher.
pellet stove
I heat my house with a wood furnace 2400sqft (propane backup), my shop with an old fireplace insert 1000sqft and keep my garage at about 45 - 50 with a pellet stove 1200sqft. I use one ton of pellets a year (200 dollars in my area). I used to heat the garage with a 85% efficient propane furnace avarage cost was about 500 per year. I have a quality pellet stove that runs off of a standard thermostat, I add pellets about evey 3 or 4 days, empty the ash pan once a week and clean the inside every couple of weeks. The pellet stove works great low maintance and will heat the garage to 70 in about an hour if we are having a party or something out there.
I heat my house with a wood furnace 2400sqft (propane backup), my shop with an old fireplace insert 1000sqft and keep my garage at about 45 - 50 with a pellet stove 1200sqft. I use one ton of pellets a year (200 dollars in my area). I used to heat the garage with a 85% efficient propane furnace avarage cost was about 500 per year. I have a quality pellet stove that runs off of a standard thermostat, I add pellets about evey 3 or 4 days, empty the ash pan once a week and clean the inside every couple of weeks. The pellet stove works great low maintance and will heat the garage to 70 in about an hour if we are having a party or something out there.
AOD
Addicted to ArboristSite
Another good use of a pellet stove could be to set it on LOW if you're going away overnight during cold weather to keep a normal furnace from kicking on. If I had one I would use it whenever it was above 40 out, and save wood for the real cold weather.
RuralCruiser007
ArboristSite Member
About 10 years ago our retail store(7000 sq ft retail space + warehouse) was spending $10000(ten thousand) a month on propane. This is at a rural remote location where all fuels were expensive. The propane furnaces were old and needed replacing. We had just started to sell pellet stoves and wood pellets. So as a selling feature, we had set up a pellet stove for showing to the customers. We started seeing the reduction in propane cost. Now over time the propane has been removed and two commercial wood pellet stoves have been installed to heat the building. The price is still far cheaper to run the pellets, that are shipped from the west coast to central Canada.
Now the location is where they harvest lots of wood, so that was an option. But since it is the primary heat source, had to be able to run 24 hours a day without major retrofit.
Things that were found was quality of stove and quality of pellets.
There are reasons for how we heat, you have to factor into all aspects of the differences and choose the best choice for your situation.
Glenn
Now the location is where they harvest lots of wood, so that was an option. But since it is the primary heat source, had to be able to run 24 hours a day without major retrofit.
Things that were found was quality of stove and quality of pellets.
There are reasons for how we heat, you have to factor into all aspects of the differences and choose the best choice for your situation.
Glenn
AOD
Addicted to ArboristSite
How exactly are pellets made? Can't they be made by grinding up and compressing wood chips? I see HUGE piles of chips from chipper trucks just left to rot!
RuralCruiser007
ArboristSite Member
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_pellet
The biggest thing that we have found is to look for a low ash content of wood pellets.
The biggest thing that we have found is to look for a low ash content of wood pellets.
