Wood pellet stove

I have a question for you guys. I have two uncles who live in our old farmhouse. They live in four rooms on the lower level of the house. Bathroom, kitchen, dining room and living room. They have beds in the living room so they don't have to navigate the stairs up to their old rooms. Their heating bill is really high as thy use heating oil. I have shut off the vents best as I could going upstairs but still heating bill was high. We don't want to spend big money to upgrade because when my uncles are gone we will bull doze house. Too many years of neglect. I know that sucks but I can't undo 40 years! My question is would a pellet stove save them some money? I'm thinking of buying a used pellet stove. It would be a easy vent because I could vent it right out the side of the house. I'm in in south east Wisconsin.

A pellet stove should do the trick, providing they're able to feed it and clean it. Also, I understand they're kinda noisy. Would that bother them?

There are sites to compare different fuel and there costs.I have a pellet stove it is not very dependable. Shuts down fills with pellets does not burn Luckly I can figure out the proplems Loose wires.bad sensores,ect If we keep it on manual it workks ok do your home work on depentability.No about the fuel costs,when LP was 2.50 a gallon it was great but now LP in central wi . is .85 a gallon so we filled our tanks up.

we had 1 that used corn and pellets when just pellets it took about 3 40# bags in 24 hrs -- now the really bad part is most need to be cleaned everyday or 2 that means shutting it down letting it cool clean it out then restart , if power goes out the rooms will fill with smoke -- we got a lp wall heater and it works real good -- my 2 cents -- gregger

I heat my entire house with a pellet stove in the basement.

Over all I save money over oil/electric (not sure about gas though)

BUT - it really is a lot of work.

If your uncles are old enough to have trouble getting up stairs, it's probably not the right solution.

For the life of me I can't remember if the bags are 50lbs or 40lbs - but either way - it might be a problem for an elderly person to be lifting and pouring heavy bags constantly.

My stove has a 300lb hopper, but all that means is I fill it less often, but still have to make just as many trips back and forth carrying the bags to the stove.

I constantly let it burn out, it's easy to miss it as it burns more or less wood depending on the heat level you have it set at. So to avoid that, I end up topping it off with a bag every day ANYWAYS - despite the size of the hopper.

The auto start feature stopped working after 1 year. So now I use a torch to light it, and it gets smokey.

You have to clean the ash out - if you do buy a stove, be SURE there's an easy way to clean it. Mine has no drawer - all you can do is either scoop it all out, or vacuum it.

If you're going to vacuum it - you have to either have a metal vacuum, or do it after it's totally cooled down.

Like a wood burning stove, it's a dry heat (though probably not quite as bad). But you may need some way to humidfy the air. If I lived in the basement I would - but as the heat rise, it seems less a problem throughout the house.

Then there are the constant pellets everywhere in the cellar from spillage and cleaning. Those need to be constanly vacuumed up.

THEN on top of all that - my stove just shuts down occassionally. Sometimes junk finds its way into the auger and I have to disasemble. Sometimes the fan motor sticks... Seems every year I have to operate on the stove to get it working.

If you've got the money to pay for service that's great - but then that eats right into any savings, eliminating the best part about the stove.

Blowers are noisy - but really depends on the stove. The big one I have heating the whole house is obviously going to be a lot louder than a one room type heater.

One final note - pellets aren't as available as you might think. There have been many times where I'd have to drive many miles to find some. And often times we end up going a week or two rationing them carefully waiting for local dealers to get shipments in. We usually get them delivere by the ton on pallets - but then you have big pallets of wood pellets in your driveway getting covered with snow and ice.

Not trying to talk you out of it - just relaying the reality behind owning one. There's a lot more to it than you'd think.

Jacksonduper: I would bet that old house is not very air tight. I would go with a vent less propane wall heater. I know some that will tell you that they are dangerous but I used one for years in an old drafty house without any problems. There is enough air leaks that the CO2 will never have a chance to build up. The one I have does not use any electric at all and is a flame type. The infer red ones don't work as well in a drafty house. You need to heat the air.

I have yet to find a good pellet stove that is trouble free. Most of them are cheap units that are high in maintenance. Either you have to clean the ash out of them daily or the sensors and such are failing. If you do buy a high end one then the saving is just about wiped out for several years because of the up front cost.

Trying to seal the old house up some would probably save you more heating money. An old neighbor here wraps the outside of his house every fall with plastic. He says it really cuts down on the air drafts and makes it heat easier. He just take it off in spring. He covers everything but the door. Goes right across the windows.

i really like my bro in laws pellet stove,but,two old uncles,that sound a little frail,personally i would consider propane. unless you intend to fire the stove and stuff for them.my experience is,that unless you grow/make/or produce your own fuel,the overall cost is fairly equivelent regardless of what the fuel is.I never have used or looked into fuel oil though. I have a good friend here who swears by those eden pure stoves. but our weather will be fifty degrees when yours is fifty below.LOL

The only stove to consider would be the Harmon PC-45 . It"s a multi fuel stoker noted for reliability and extended cleaning intervals.
As previously stated , nothing is going to do a decent job until a few cases of silicon chalking etc are used to fill in the air leaks.
The Harmon holds good re-sale value .

I have pellet stove you need to get a good that has a thermostat control or the pellet use will climb out of control.
I burn a bag a day on real cold days about 3.5 tons per year but we have cold days in the summer around here and use heat up till June or July.
They only need to be cleaned out about once a week on real cold days. And you don't have to let it cool off. Just shut it down wait a short time the open door and use a shop vac to clean it. Once a year they need a though cleaning. But you neve have to clean the chimney just shake it good and the clean out the trap door at the bottom. I have spent very little on repairs over the last 10 or so years on it.
Take another good look at the old house it has a better frame than anything you can build now a complete renovation would cost less than one of those crappy things they build now and out last them. My house was built in 1871 and still going strong. Although a window Paine fell out of the laundry door this morning. Well it over 100 years.
Walt

forget the pellet stove
spend your money on insulation, buy fiberglass batts and lay it down on the second floor 12" or thicker on top of house wrap
seal the staiway door off real well, after nailing a couple layers of foam board on the inside
see about having insulation blown in the outsiode walls downstairs only
then like has been said a couple cases of caulk applied to the outside of the house
have the upstair vents removed and any plumbing going upstairs drained
if you can stand the look have the house wrapped with house wrap it will last longer than you think
good luck
Ron

I have burned either corn or wood pellets for 8 years and tried several different model stoves including the Harman PC45, Quadrafire AE and Bixby. I settled on the Bixby as the best choice for myself. Having said that the PC45 is a very good stove and probably has the least maintence issues and can burn up to a ton of good wood pellets before cleaning. There is maintenence on any pellet stove but less with a Harman or a Bixby.
Considering your situation I would suggest a vented LP heater because it will not have cleaning problems and I will echo the other suggestions of laying plastic and fiberglass insulation on the second floor plus put plastic on the outside of the house preventing wind and drafts. I lived in a old two story house once for a couple winters and used just the first floor such as you are going to do and it made a tremendous savings. You will also be able to sell that LP heater when the time comes.

Wood pellet stoves are great, but can these guys pickup 40 lb bags of pellets? And add pellets everyday, plus clean up?

I would strongly recommend the plastic and fiberglass on the second floor as well, along with the non-vented catalytic propane heater. A fiend and I both have had those heaters for about six years. If the stairway has no door get a quilt or two from Goodwill and close it off.

I live across the road and would fill it up everyday when I feed my cows.

pellet stove ??? don't do it, as in previous post they say they burn a bag a day, around here it's close to 6.00 a bag that works out to 180.00 a month plus the trouble to feed it and clean it,..just insulate and get propane heater,..i had a corn and pellet stove and you couldn't chase me fast enough to give me another

Here is a fuel comparison chart. http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/Fuels/FuelCompare.htm

When figuring your cost for pellets, dont forget to lower the stock listing of 70% down to about 55%. Pellet stoves are just not all that thermally efficient unless you get one of the better stoves like the Bixby. You can even use your laptop to adjust how the Bixby burns to further increase its efficiency or make it burn better.

As mentioned, your best bang for the buck is insulation. Cover and insulate the un-used upstairs to take the load off the house heater, no matter what fuel you heat with.