Woodstove vs. Pellet Stove

[bradah]

Hi All,

I live in the Northeast and am currently running a Blaze King (w/ catalytic) in the basement along with a Rinnai Direct vent furnace on the first floor. It's a 30 year old house and could use some additional insulation. (I'll do this when I re-side the house).

Any way, I've been hearing a lot about Pellet stoves and wanted to get some insight. The problem is that I hear different things from different people. The latest is that it REALLY matters what kind of pellets you get and how the moisture content levels are. Also, I understand that pellet stoves can be VERY dusty and are quite a bother in this regard. Third, apparently there are "newer" stoves within the last few years in terms of the technology.

I like the idea of having bags of pellets ready to go in the basement. The work involved in splitting and stacking wood and then lugging it into the basement makes these pellets stove attractive. What are typical costs?

Thanks for any insight. :bang:

 

[Ductape]

I have a woodstove and a pellet stove. Personally, I prefer the woodstove for the main heat source...... and use the pellet stove to keep from burning much oil. I have, however, tried using the pellet stove as the primary heat source......... but was disappointed using it that way. First off, a pellet stove is a convection heater....... it heats the air in whatever room or area its in. The woodstove is a radiant heater, it heats everything around it.... not just the air. They both require work. Woodstove means cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. Pellet stove means lugging forty pound bags of pellets and stacking them. Both stoves need cleaning...... I think the woodstove wins here. I do use a vacum on the pellet stove, but to me the pellet stove is more work to clean. It definitely DOES matter what pellets you burn. Some are really crappy, and don't burn worth squat. Trial and error will tell you what your stove likes best. Remember that a pellet stove needs electricity..... no power during a storm, no heat ! Though I can't say exactly how much just the pellet stove costs in electricity to run each month, i'd estimate mine uses 30+ dollars a month in electricity. Another problem is the cost of pellets. Last winter , you may have been paying up to $340 per ton for pellets......... IF you could even find any to buy. If you have the room to store them, buy your entire winter's supply by July 4th so you won't get left in the cold. Any other questions........ fire away.

 

[husky455rancher]

my dads been burning pellets for 15 years. its not for me i can say that. pellets used to cost 2 bucks a bag back then. bars are 6 bucks each now. i havent burned any oil in over a year myself. imo i would thing if you heated 100% with pellets it would be comaparble to oil. im sure the oil would be a bit more but theres no stove or any work involved.

one other thing depends how much cutting splitting and stacking bothers you. i personally enjoy the work so its actually a plus for me. if you hate doing those things than pellets might be best for you.

 

[southpaw]

Hi, A good friend of mine who lives by lake Superior in northern Wisconsin use a pellet stove , says he spends about a thousand a year in pellets......his wife laughs and says they spend a lot more than that , anyways he has friend with a semi and they go once a year to somewheres in Michigan to buy his pellets.

He says the prices in his area are not real good for the pellets so I guess that would be something to ponder .........

 

[A. Stanton]

I would vote for the wood stove. I understand that pellet stoves are harder to clean. If chopping and splitting wood bothers you, you could also look at purchasing Bio Bricks or other composite bricks like Logike. I spoke with a saleman this past winter from Logike who had a display at the local farm/feed store. Seemed like a nice product for wood burning stoves. Clean and little ash. If you were unable to buy the bricks, you could always burn wood. With a pellet stove, you have no choice.

 

[dingeryote]

Pellets and corn stoves were good ideas when corn was cheap, and there was a housing boom.

Now the corn goes into the gas tank, and no sawdust to make pellets from, so costs are higher than just plain old dead trees.

Pellet and corn stoves also depend on electricity.
It kinda sux when the power is out and ya freeze while looking at a stove that COULD be burning wood.

Just sayin..

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Mike Van]

There's always FREE wood out there, if you look. On the other hand, I've never seen FREE pellets being offered. Two winters ago. the closest place had a 2 bag limit on pellets. You have to drive every day [or every other] just to get pellets? They may be a backup system for someone that can't do wood, but I can't see primary heat.

 

[TonyK]

I have both a pellet and a wood burning stove. The pellet stove is in the basement and the wood stove on the main floor. Both of them have their good and bad points.

Woodstove
Good: Cheap fuel (when you have your own supply), very easy to use (so easy cave men even mad fire), Nice to watch on a cold day, Gives the finger to the oil companies, Uses no electricity.

Bad: Can be messy (ash, wood bits, dirt, occasional bug), Is more expensive to install than a pellet stove.

Pellet stove
Good: It is a good heat source, Can be installed in places a woodstove can't go, convienent bagged fuel, Limited mess (I don't find the dust bad at all), Long burn cycles between feedings, (We fill ours once a day), A very controlled heat output (It has a thermostat)

Bad: Cost (pellets have gone through the roof in the past few years), Finding pellets (there was a shortage last year), Moisture (your pellets must remain 100% dry or they are useless), There is a big difference in pellet quality and you have to find one that works well with your particular stove, Storage ( a ton of pellets takes up a lot of space in my basement), Electricity required for operation, Noise (they make a racket with all of the blowers and pellets feeding into the burn pot)

Conclusion:
Both work well but if I was going to go into it from the begining and had access to my own trees and such I would go with a woodstove. They are cheaper to operate in the long run. You also get the added benefit of having to have all sorts of reallly cool toys for cutting, splitting and moving the wood.

 

[savageactor7]

Pellets work best in a well insulated house...they also require electricity. But since you also have a wood stove it's not like you'd be dependent on a pellet stove.

Also check out the pellet forum at **********
http://www.**********/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/22/

 

[logbutcher]

We do Wood Heat 101 programs including choosing stoves, harvesting, installing....the whole thing in a short day.

Some of the reasons why we do not recomend pellets ( except for the elderly who may not be able to fetch and carry splits ). Some other reasons were well covered here :

1. Supply. See above--the supply AND cost are historically unpredictable.

2. Heat/BTU . Pellet stoves of the same mass and firebox do not give out
the same heat as a wood stove.

3. Maintenance. Motor and auger need periodic cleaning, blockage, wear.
Yes, wood stoves and cats do also need work but mostly predictable
maintenace such as gaskets, cat cleaning, etc..

4. Noise. Noise. That auger feeding those pellets sounds like a shaking box
of cartridges. Hey, not very romantic.

5. Fuel Quality. Pellet quality varies depending on the raw material source
and the maker. You know wood.

6. Aesthetics. Compare the 'look' of a pellet fire to a nice warm wood stove
fire.

7. Cost. High quality pellet stoves are slightly more $$$$ than wood stoves

8. And, TA-TAAA, who wants to feed rat droppings into a hole ?

 

[whitemountain]

As my parents were deciding on a new heat source 3 years ago I tried to talk them into a new wood burning stove. Alas they had their hearts set on a pellet burner. Last year after visiting us in the winter, they bought a wood stove. They now use ther pellet stove for back-up, or when they go out of town. Theirs has a humungous hopper and can heat 3-4 days on one load when at a low temperature setting. It keeps the pipes from freezing.

My thoughts are:

Use a little electric heater for back-up, it has a thermostat and will be as reliable, maybe more than the pellet stove. Also barring power failure can heat for weeks at a time.

Wood heat just feels better.

Pellets are a great option for those unable to move wood. A little scoop of pellets is light and could be tranferred from anywhere in the house to the pellet stove.

If someone was starting from the beginning stages of choosing a heat source, and wood is a viable option (i.e. you don't live in the sahara desert, or urbanized area, allergies are not an issue) then you need to consider the renewable, cost effective option of a woodburner.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Good point's y'all.....pellet stoves do not work without power where as a log stove and or furnace will heat without power.
Caution...some stoves are not built strong enough to operate without a blower removing the heat from the firebox.

If you got a very efficient wood furnace the mess wood be less due to less wood being brought in also less wood to hump.
I load mine twice a day and it runs 24/7.So not having a liquid fuel bill my pay for loading last year was 3600$

Being self sufficient says I can always heat my home.I can always get my own wood logs.
Being dependent on others like the pellet sellers and manufactures says you pay what they ask.

 

[Kansas]

Good question and honestly both have their points here is my 2 cents.

Pellets burn the cleanest of everything and are the easiest heat not the most heat but the easiest. I rarely dump my ash pan more than once a month and the fireplace insert is a twice a day thing. On low I can run 24 hours on one 40lb bag of pellets and that heats one half of my house for $4 a day + electricity thats not too bad. The insert heats the other half for cheap.

It takes space to store at least a couple tons (100 bags) inside and thats how you want to buy it, if you buy as needed there wont be any anywhere believe me on that. I try to buy mine this time of year or early fall fwtw. Another thing to consider is a bushel of corn is 65# vs 40# a sack for pellets food for thought!

Wood is cheaper obviously and thats my main motivation to use it besides the excersize of getting out of the house in the winter and I like a wood fire like everybody else here. Corn got so high I didnt buy any last year and its still too high imo wait tll harvest and that may change.

I have burned corn for several years and it makes more heat than pellets and more ash, mine has to be throttled up or it desntt burn well at all hard to keep lit and it will run me out at times.

For that reason we started mixing pellets and corn at about 30% corn 70% pellets and that is a hit it works the best of all we can run the stove on low and get more heat and the ash is not nearly as bad as straight corn.

Pellets all by themselfs are easier to regulate. You also need some kind of grain cart on wheels to bring corn home from the coop or the field, I dump it out of the cart into 5 gal buckets and carry them in the house works great wish we could buy bulk pellets.

I recommend a multifuel pellet stove if you are buying something that way you have choices, now if you ask me if I have saved any money buying stoves, inserts and chainsaws and grain carts etc no probably not but its fun and the gas company isnt getting any of it! hth

Kansas

 

[husky455rancher]

one other thing bad about pellet stoves. they can break down. my dad spent 3k on his if i remember right. it was down for a couple weeks a couple years ago. took a while for the dealer to get the part that broke. he ended up buying some of those electric oil filled heaters.


on a side note those oil filled electric heaters are great! i always said i was gooa buy one or two of em. then i remember i have a woodstove lol. screw you oil and electric company lol.

 

[Highbeam]

I have a woodstove and use it to heat 100% of my home all winter and I use permanently installed electric wall heaters as back up. As a DIY type guy, firewood will always be superior to pellets.

If I did not have natural gas (I don't) and if I could not burn firewood for some reason then I would buy a multifuel pellet stove. Pellet supply is relatively stable in my area and the prices are historically very consistent and good with 200$ per ton being the norm for the last several years.

The pellet stoves are thermostatic so you don't have to do anything but keep them filled up and many of the modern pellet stoves are very quiet, have very large hoppers, automatic electronic ignition, and require very infrequent cleanings. They are just like a little furnace in the room. There is a lot to be said for burning wood this way. It is still a renewable resource and carbon neutral and you can still stockpile a winter's supply in your shed. You need power, yes, but only a few hundred watts and how often do you really lose power?

Using a pellet stove is like running the furnace. They are superior to oil or propane in that they are not petroleum. They are a good choice for the tree hugger that doesn't really want to break her nail but does want a green source of heat.

Even if you have to grind a whole tree into pellets it is still wood fuel.

One more thing. In my area we have burn bans where you can't burn solid fuel appliances whether they are pellet, EPA, non-EPA, whatever. You can only burn petroleum or use electric to heat. The pellet stove is easier to burn without detection during these bans as the smoke plume is invisible and the chimney looks like a water heater.

 

[Kansas]

On the other hand...last winter we bought one of those infrared heaters not the Amish one that looks like a fireplace (they work good too I hear) but the one that uses some kind of quartz bulbs, comfort zone brand or something like that?

It has a digital thermostat and a remote and cost a small fortune to buy but hey it works GREAT and cheap to run we can leave it all day and the room is just right when we get home it turns on and off when needed.

Sometimes I just want to relax when I get home rather than wag chunks of wood all over the place and ashs and buckets of chips.


Kansas

 

[MishMouse]

As mentioned by other members there are +'s and -'s to owning both.

A key point being supply and ability.
If you have a good supply of wood and you are able to process it (cut it, split it, stack it, store it and haul it) then I would go with a wood stove. An alternative to using wood is bio bricks, though if you use the bio brick option you will have to find out if it is compatible with your stove. Some stoves depending on how their secondary combustion is designed "might" have an issue with using them.

For a pellet stove you are dependent on the supply of pellets and economic effects on its costs. You also need a supply of electricity to run the unit, you can get a battery backup system for it, but if the power is out of an extended period of time your battery backup will run out and you may have to run it off a generator.

A good alternative would be to do an all of thee above solution, using the wood stove as your primary heating source and just use the pellet stove to supplement the heat. aka: wood stove in basement and pellet stove in the main living area.

 

[logbutcher]

I have a woodstove and use it to heat 100% of my home all winter and I use permanently installed electric wall heaters as back up. As a DIY type guy, firewood will always be superior to pellets.

Always. :agree2:

If I did not have natural gas (I don't) and if I could not burn firewood for some reason then I would buy a multifuel pellet stove. Pellet supply is relatively stable in my area and the prices are historically very consistent and good with 200$ per ton being the norm for the last several years.

No consistent price or supply in the northeast.

The pellet stoves are thermostatic so you don't have to do anything but keep them filled up and many of the modern pellet stoves are very quiet, have very large hoppers, automatic electronic ignition, and require very infrequent cleanings. They are just like a little furnace in the room. There is a lot to be said for burning wood this way. It is still a renewable resource and carbon neutral and you can still stockpile a winter's supply in your shed. You need power, yes, but only a few hundred watts and how often do you really lose power?

Quiet, huh ? That tinkling sound ain't us going out for pee.
Infrequent cleanings ? None of the above--.
Now "carbon neutral" they're not. How do you think those tiny tiny balls get made ? There's what called a "binder" and the energy to press. Oh yeah, forgot, the transport of the raw chipped material.
And as for power outages: come visit during a Northeaster in February. The trees love to hug those powerlines. Like hunters here have large freezers, we also need generators, some roll-out, some auto.

Using a pellet stove is like running the furnace. They are superior to oil or propane in that they are not petroleum. They are a good choice for the tree hugger that doesn't really want to break her nail but does want a green source of heat.

Right on.

Even if you have to grind a whole tree into pellets it is still wood fuel.

Right on .

One more thing. In my area we have burn bans where you can't burn solid fuel appliances whether they are pellet, EPA, non-EPA, whatever. You can only burn petroleum or use electric to heat. The pellet stove is easier to burn without detection during these bans as the smoke plume is invisible and the chimney looks like a water heater.

Never thought of that. Nice . Maybe it's why we live rural.

 

[Highbeam]

Yes, the NE is a little different in supply issues with pellets. Not sure why, maybe it's your skinny little trees.

I do still think that pellets are as "carbon neutral" as wood heat at least to the extent that they're both a renewable resource from a tree grown in the woods while sucking in CO2. The tranport and processing of pellets uses fuel but so does the transport and processing of firewood. Yes, you need to add more energy to get the wood into the pellet form but that's splitting hairs. You have to transport oil too.

I did not know they used a binder in pellet fuel. Thought it was just high pressure.

There are now quieter pellet stoves. Not dead silent like my woodstove but way way quieter than the old blower on my wood insert. The tinking is model specific as some feed from the bottom with no dropping pellet. Some even have remote mounted blowers. You don't need to clean them anymore often than shoveling ashes, again model specific. You need to shop for features such as this if they are important.

I have a generator too. We are hunters and have freezers in the west full of wonderful things like elk but not much moose. If the pellet stove is your primary heat source then you should plan on a backup generator.

I think that there is a place for both types of stoves, maybe even both at the same time. I also believe that the home should always have a significant central source of heat that will work on a thermostat without atttention if I go on vacation for a week or two.

I got stuck in a stupid burn ban this year for more than a week straight during an "inversion". The fine for burning solid fuel was 1000$. Not cool. Yeah, it was hazy out but come-on these stoves burn clean and I live in a 10-acres per home density area. Countywide bans across the entire puget sound area.

 

[046]

pellet stoves are not real high on my list.... lets forget about function for a bit...

all you are doing is trading your gas/electric/oil heating bills for pellet bills. vs a wood stove... YOU are in charge of all but eliminating your heating bills.

heating with wood is one of the few places we actually can make a difference in operating costs. most will save $$$1,000+ per season.

it's my belief a wood stove has one of the fastest payoff benefit of anything you can do for your home.