Pellet Stove?
The fire box in my fireplace is shot. I need to rebuild it — not cheap, but acceptable — or put in a wood or pellet insert. I like WBFs and I’ve never thought that wood stoves were an elegant replacement. Actually, I’ve always thought they were a little hippy and a pain in the…
The fire box in my fireplace is shot. I need to rebuild it — not cheap, but acceptable — or put in a wood or pellet insert. I like WBFs and I’ve never thought that wood stoves were an elegant replacement. Actually, I’ve always thought they were a little hippy and a pain in the ass.
But there are positives: The fireplace is huge and the insert could fit flush and not stick into the room, it’s in a large room and I’m sure I could keep the heat lower if that main room was warm, it’s cheaper than rebuilding. This is for a weekend house so it might also be nice to fire it up while waiting for house to warm up.
Pellet stoves seem to have a couple additional positives. Greener, cleaner, etc.
I spent two hours last night watching LOST and googling “pellet stoves”. Should I be spending two hours googling pellet stoves?
My mom has had one of these in her old, drafty New England house for two winters now. She loves it. She does not have a smoking problem, although she kind of obsessively cleans the window where you can see the flame. She gets her pellets delivered in bulk – she has a two-car garage and only one car, so that works out for her. She’s never had a problem getting the pellets, although the price fluctuates.
I personally LOVE sitting next to it and reading. Very cozy.
I don’t know about the smoking issue… when the pellets ran out in my stove, it just got cold. 🙂
The pellets are burned to almost nothing. There’s no residue to be on fire to smoke. Maybe it’s an older ignition system. Mine was electric. It started the fire like a BBQ grill (without the clicking) and pellets tinkled into the firebox from the hopper.
(I think they poured in using a motorized version of those kid’s beach toys — http://bk.ly/rT1 )
Tyburg, they say that’s a pellet insert. I’m sure real life is different than the picture.
Thanks for all that information. Maybe I’ll skip the central heating and go full pellet! (um, probably no…) I heard it smokes if it’s on and out of pellets. That was why I’d want to turn it off. Maybe that’s old technology.
For me one of the pluses is that it’s not too hot. I have little kids and have spent weeks in vacation rentals yelling “FOR THE LAST TIME — STAY AWAY FROM THE WOOD STOVE”
My kids are possibly not all that bright…
Ringo —
In my house, the living room (where the stove was) was a cathedral ceiling so that helped avoid that room being crazy hot. But in the other rooms, there were ceiling fans (on low, and in the winter direction… I always forget if that’s drawing up or blowing down… I think it’s drawing up and pushing the warm air down along the walls, or something like that)
Anyway, the fans circulated the air around very nicely. The extreme back wall of the house (farthest away from the stove) was cool-ish. But if you didn’t lean against the wall, you didn’t notice. If you don’t have ceiling fans, you should look into some sort of fan that moves the heat. There are a lot of options. In my house growing up, we heated primarily with two wood stoves (MUCH bigger house… like 4,500 square in two “wings”) The stoves were in the cellar and the heat was captured with a big “cone” over the stoves and moved around with ducts. Two enormous trucks of wood arrived each autumn.
I also went to a school that was heated with solar and wood stoves…. We had to collect wood and such as part of our required chores at the school. Apparently, much of my life has been heated with alternative methods.
You mention you wouldn’t run it if you weren’t there… well, you don’t have to worry about that. The hopper will run out in a day or two and it will just go out. 🙂
It’s a different “experience” though. The stove doesn’t really get hot, because all of the heat is blown out. Efficiency and all that. What is nice is that you can heat up a house almost instantly!
I wonder what fuel choice is in that picture you linked to on the Quadfire website. It’s definitely not wood pellets. The flame is much smaller. Or perhaps the Quadfire models have some sort of design to disperse the flame and make it look bigger.
That’s a nice unit, Ringo.
I have this…
http://www.vermontcastings.com/products.asp?model=defiant
Yes, I have lots of garage space. I wouldn’t use it when we’re not there. It’s easy enough to turn on and off, right? I wouldn’t want it running/burning when we’re not there.
Tyburg, people online rave about heating their whole house with pellets. But we know people who write online are nuts, right? How does the heat circulate thru the house? I get it for a big room but otherwise, I dont see how it works.
DIBS, I like the modern kind but for this space I was looking at something more like this:
http://www.quadrafire.com/Products/MT-Vernon-AE-Pellet-Insert.aspx
I didn’t see the “weekend house reference.” That would change my concern about the local availability of pellets.
In my weekend house , I have a large open fireplace that I burn wood in the room that would be called the kitchen or keeping room. it is also where we dine.
In the living room, I have a wood burning Vermont Castings stove and I do like the look of that in the room. The house is essentially 18th century decor and I wouldn’t want a flush mounted modern looking stove.
I have a pellet stove upstate. A few years ago there was a shortage but the past two no prob. Lowes and Home Depot carry them, upstate that is, $6 a 40 lb. bag, which can last through the weekend. Love the pellet stove. Minimal cleaning and works great..
Dave, thanks for recommending Greg from Allied some time ago. We just had a sliding patio door installed replacing a single door. Great work!!
Yeah — it’s the availability of pellets that will be the problem. You said it’s for a weekend house? Does it have a shed or garage for storage (delivery)… or a seed/feed store nearby with pellets?
If that’s not a problem, these are good thing. Make sure you get an “automatic” model that feeds the pellets in with a thermostat and electric ignition. The older models are a little more effort and aren’t as efficient.
I lived in a house with a pellet stove as the primary heating source… well, it had electric heat but that was very expensive. About a bag a day (1-1/2 when it was very cold) for a very toasty house. About 1,400 sq feet heated with the stove.
It was an added chore, but just a few minutes a day. The little anemic flame throws a lot of heat, but it’s nothing (visually speaking) compared to an actual burning log of wood.