Re: Wood pellet stove

Posted by JRSutton on July 27, 2012 at 08:06:35 from (75.130.109.233):

In Reply to: Wood pellet stove posted by Jacksonduper on July 27, 2012 at 07:21:45:

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.

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