Pellet stove questions

Kirk · #1 01/02/11, 03:02 PM

I'm considering buying a pellet stove to reduce my heat bill. A wood stove is out of the question, I have no access to free or cheap wood and my health prevents the amount of labor needed to split and stack firewood.

My first question is will I be able to keep my house warm with it. My house is about 1100 sq. ft. and the only place I can put it will be the utility room. Should this radiate/circulate heat to the open door-ed rooms of a house this small? The ones I'm looking at are supposed to be able to heat 1500-2000sq. ft.

Next question, can I safely haul a full pallet of pellets in the bed of a 1/2 ton truck?

Final question, how long is a typical payback period for putting one of these in?

Because I know it is relevant, I'm located in Michigan's lower peninsula.

Jyllie63 · #2 01/02/11, 03:15 PM

Kirk...I can answer a couple of the questions. Your truck should be fine to haul the pallet of pellets. We haul ours in our Ford F-150 with no problems. As far as keeping your house warm. The WHOLE house will not be warm. Ours is about 1200sq ranch. The family room is where we have the stove and it stays VERY warm. The other rooms are pretty cold, so we have to use space heaters in the bedrooms. Our house is pretty old and drafty though so you might have better luck than we do. We buy between 2-3 tons of pellets per winter and another option is to get the one that also burns corn. The corn is a bit cheaper and works well. You have to clean it out a couple of times a week if you are burning it constantly and that involves turning the stove OFF and letting it cool down to vaccum it out. This heat is much warmer than our fuel oil heating system was AND in the long run it has been much more cost effective. Hope this helps a bit!

Billie in MO · #3 01/02/11, 04:28 PM

We had a pellet stove when we lived in CO. Loved it! Our house was about 1000 sq ft and the stove was located in the living/dining room. It was directly in front of the hallway leading to the bedrooms. Kept everything warm but the bedrooms were a shade cooler but that was fine with us as we liked to sleep in cooler temps. We had a programable thermostat plus the stove had 3 speeds for the blower.

We also had a 1/2 ton truck and hauled the pallets on a flat bed trailer. We would buy 2 tons and typically we would use about 1 1/2 tons a year. It was our only heat source and I never felt cold in the house.

Wish I still had that stove. Hope that helps you.

**Tiempo** · #4 01/02/11, 04:32 PM

Ours is in the living room, the house is about 1000sf (maybe a bit less).

This is our third winter in this house (in lower Michigan) and we've never turned on the furnace.

oregon woodsmok · #5 01/02/11, 04:42 PM

When I had one, it was in an old farmhouse and it heated the entire house. Actually, I've had two different ones, both houses about 1200 square ft, both houses old and not too weather tight.

You will need to have some sort of low speed fan set either near the ceiling on near the floor in one end of the house. That will set up convection currents and move the warm air through the house. Ceiling fan set for winter and on low works perfect.

Also, warm air doesn't go through closed doors, so the doors have to be open before the heat gets into the room.

I don't think they are cheap to run, and they are noisy. They do, however, provide heat and the pellets are a lot cleaner and easier to use than fire wood.

A pallet of pellets should weight a ton. Whether or not your truck will carry a full ton depends upon your suspension. The manufacterer of the truck should be able to tell you what the weight limit is for your truck.

oregon woodsmok · #6 01/02/11, 04:44 PM

Additional advice: Be very careful about buying used. The fans (at least 2 of them), motors, and augers wear out and are all expensive to replace.

rambler · #7 01/02/11, 04:45 PM

I think you will be disappointed with the stove in a utility room and only open doors to other rooms. Your utility rroom will be very warm, rest of house will be cold.

Fans can help, but probably not be real happy with it unless you set up a fancier heat curculation deal, or run your regular furnace blower fan to move the heat around?

Best to put the stove in your family/ living room in the middle of the house, and let the heat spill a bit into adjoining rooms. It won't travel well at all to a 3rd room on it's own.

Square feet don't matter as much as heating load needed, how tight the house is, how much insulation.... If your house is very leaky, the heat in the outside rooms will leak away faster than it will convect overthrough other rooms to heat that room. If your house is well insulated, then he heat inside will stay inside, the far corners won't cool down so fast.

Hum, not saying that well, if your house loses a lot of heat it is gonna feel cold on the far rooms. If your house is tight, the far rooms won't feel as drafty & cold - the heat will drift over faster than it leaks out....

--->Paul

Backfourty,MI. · #8 01/02/11, 04:53 PM

We Love our Pellet stove. We bought it in Feb. 2007 to ofset our propane costs for heating as it was costing us a fortune at that time 1.39 a gallon, we haven't had our propane tank filled since Feb. 2007 our pellet stove heats our whole house & we have 2300 sq. feet.
I will say do alot of checking to make sure you get what you really want, cheaper is not always better. We did alot of research & bought a Quadra Fire Mt. Vernon stove. Have never regretted it & would buy the same stove if we had to do it over.
Be careful where you buy though, we bought from a place in Midland, Mi. & I will say their service was CRAP once they got our money. I finally found a guy close to us that sell's & services them when I need it. Normally though all that's needed is I clean it once a month when it's burning hard, takes about 1 bag of pellets per 24 hours to heat our home, the ash pan needs dumping about every 3 days too. The only thing that has every happened that needed service is the ignightor went out & had to be replaced which was covered under the warranty, now after watching the service man I think I could change it myself if I needed to again.

Our stove stakes wood pellets, sunflower seeds, corn or wheat & has a thermostat on the wall that regulates the heat just like a furnace would. When & if they come out with a new type of pelleted fuel they can program our thermostat to take what new comes out as well.
We have ours centrally located in about the middle of the house so it stays nice & toasty & I have it set at 69 degree's even this time of year. It just vents out the side of the house so no special chimney or anything like that is needed & can go in any room. It looks like a wood burning stove so it looks nice in any room setting.

I always burn wood pellets because that is cheaper for our area & corn has such a big sugar content that there's more scraping to get the stove clean plus you have to be careful that where you buy your corn that it's clean. Alot of farms have pretty dirty corn I've found & I don't want all the dirt gumming up my stove either.

Backfourty,MI. · #9 01/02/11, 04:56 PM

Oh & we do carry a ton of pellets in our half ton pick up at a time we are just really careful of course about stopping, etc. We have a half ton chevrolet also.

And we do not use any fans or blowers to circulate the heat at our house. Ours has a blower on it & we don't think it's noisey at all.
Just do your homework is all before buying.

Where about in Michigan are you located?

tamsam · #10 01/02/11, 05:02 PM

A lot depends on the layout of the house. Our old house must have been built with a heater in mind , but not for the kitchen. The heat does go upstairs really well but the kitchen is kinda off to the side. I have a fan on the ceiling to move the heat from the corner and another aimed into the kitchen. Hope this helps a little. Sam

HOTW · #11 01/02/11, 05:53 PM

We sue a pellet stove toheatour house fortheexact same reasons.Wegot itabout 3 years ago. It is in the basement (there wasalready set up for a stove down there) and the basement is usually about 72 degrees the first level is in the mid 60's, the the second levelis in the low/mid 50's(bedrooms) I justgot the gas bill and we usedabout 20ccf last month and tht was mostlyfor thwater heater. Our average gas/electric bill is about $120-200 a month whereas when we put the stove int he winter bill was about $400/month. It has been a gret investment and in 3 years we have just about paid itself off( as it is we pay more for delivery charges every month than supply charges!) We did ay a lot for ita littl eover $4500 installed.

Billie in MO · #12 01/02/11, 06:49 PM

Ours was also a Quadra Fire and I did not think it was loud at all. Ours was only $2500 installed and that was in 2005.

Kirk · #13 01/02/11, 07:23 PM

Love this site, so many replies in such a short time.

Had not thought about using the furnace fan to circulate the heat if needed. Great Idea. Our house is an early seventies ranch on a crawl with an on-slab addition the full length of the back. The house is pretty tight, replaced all windows and doors added an inch of foam and Tyvek over the T-11 and vinyl sided it, also insulated the attic to R-30.

Backfourty, I'm near Ludington about fifteen miles inland.

Thanks everyone, I think I go shopping tomorrow.

Our Little Farm · #14 01/02/11, 07:31 PM

We have one and do not find it noisy at all.

melissa78 · #15 01/02/11, 07:33 PM

We got ours about a month ago for our 1200sf, and it has really been a saver for us. One bag of pellets ($4.90) is supposed to provide the equivalent of 2 1/3 gallons ($7.50)of home heating fuel/kerosene. We live in a 12x70 mobile home that we have added onto 3 times so we have pretty unique floor plan, so to speak. Ours is in the living room also. It is a little cool during the day way down in the bedrooms, but at night under the covers it is just fine. It was in the 40's here in Vermont this weekend, and I don't think the furnace came on at all during the day, and we have it set on 72.

Drizler · #16 01/02/11, 10:32 PM

You don't live far from corn country so go multifuel for a stove. Then you can use whatever is cheaper. I have had one since 04 and used lots of both. For me just go with what's cheaper and it all shakes out pretty much the same. You can locate one on any outside wall but they heat best located in the center of the house. Not many people can do that with modern layouts myself included. You can easily transport a ton of pellets in a half ton truck or a ton or 2300 approx pounds of corn from a feed lot. Corn is easier but you need a tarp on the tailgate area at least so it doesn;t leak out. They will tell you you can't load a pickup from a feedlot 14' chute drop. Utter bullpoo, done it many times and the windier the better as it cleans it.
Multifuel stoves have a bigger burn pot and sump or ash drawer. This makes cleaning them easier or less often which is better. You can move air around the house somewhat using fans sitting on the floor pointing TOWARDS the stove. It works but is a pain as you trip over them in the hall and it's hard to find quiet fans.
We leave heating the bedrooms to electric blankets and a one of those oil filled electric radiators in each. Doing this costs us more electric but lets me turn the stove down to 5o F during the night hours which saves a lot in pellet fuel. Using a remote thermostat stove is an absolute must. Any one will do but it will save you big on pellets, believe it. A programmable will let yours come up to temp before you get up as these stoves are notoriously slow to heat up a cold house. Call it an hour in real terms.
There are a couple places that discuss these stove pretty well. Try iburncorn.com (yes pellet types are here too) and "The Hearth Network". This is one of those sites that google hits everything else but what you want so searching a bit is in order. Dig around in there and get aquainted. Too bad you didn't get one before the tax year expired as there was quite a tax credit on many of them which qualified.

7thswan · #17 01/03/11, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirk

Love this site, so many replies in such a short time.

Had not thought about using the furnace fan to circulate the heat if needed. Great Idea. Our house is an early seventies ranch on a crawl with an on-slab addition the full length of the back. The house is pretty tight, replaced all windows and doors added an inch of foam and Tyvek over the T-11 and vinyl sided it, also insulated the attic to R-30.

Backfourty, I'm near Ludington about fifteen miles inland.

Thanks everyone, I think I go shopping tomorrow.

They have them on sale at Tractor Supply.

Darren · #18 01/03/11, 08:50 AM

I would add the suggestion that anyone owning a pellet stove purchase a spare circuit board. Some manufacturers have gone out of business. That means when there's a problem with the board and the feeder doesn't work, the old heater has to be replaced.

The other possibility is findng someone that can troubleshoot and repair the board. In these days of throwaway products that's a rare skill. It's like finding someone who can troubleshoot and repair a mother board in a computer. With the prices of computers continuing to fall, it isn't worth it. Unfortunately the price of heaters isn't going to drop like computers.

Backfourty,MI. · #19 01/03/11, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirk

Love this site, so many replies in such a short time.

Had not thought about using the furnace fan to circulate the heat if needed. Great Idea. Our house is an early seventies ranch on a crawl with an on-slab addition the full length of the back. The house is pretty tight, replaced all windows and doors added an inch of foam and Tyvek over the T-11 and vinyl sided it, also insulated the attic to R-30.

Backfourty, I'm near Ludington about fifteen miles inland.

Thanks everyone, I think I go shopping tomorrow.

I was just wondering because I thought on this side of the state I might be able to help you with good places to look at a number of different stoves.

I would definately go to a place that has alot of different brands & models & can have some burning there on site for you to check out, hear & ask ALOT of questions!

Mark Twain · #20 01/03/11, 11:12 AM

I have a Harman P61 and it heats our 2000sf log home in Colorado at 9000' with no problem. When it gets really cold (-25 below) I will use two bags of pellets a day in order to keep the house at 65 but considering I only use 3 tons of pellets ($600) to heat over 7-8 months per year its great saving me $2400 a year over propane. I've had my Harman for 6 years and only had to replace the ignitor once, total repair $100.
Our farm back in Missouri has a unlimited supply of firewood so I will go back to burning wood when we retire but I sure will miss a pellet stove that lights itself and regulates the temperature via a thermostat.
My only suggestion: Keep it clean ( Scrape it every two days )