Adding a pellet stove. Already have a wood furnace.

[Mustang71]

So I've been on Facebook market place looking at cheap pellet stoves to heat the garage when I'm out there. After messaging 2 people with a low ball amount it's got me thinking. If I added one in my dining room to heat durning the day until I get home to light the wood furnace could I save the 600 I spend on propane a year. Or at least cut it in half. I live outside buffalo ny. I keep the propane at 64 and no one maintains the furnace other than me so could I keep a pellet stove at 68 and not use propane for less than 300 a year? Night time I dont care its 70 when I go to bed and the heats set at 62. During the day someone is always home with my kids. It's a small 1700sqft ranch built in the 70s.

 

[babybart]

That would only be about a ton of pellets so 50 bags. A friend heated his house roughly the same size as yours on 5 tons or so a year but that was his only source of heat. I think your usage would be a wash with your propane a year. My old Whitfield in the garage would not be efficient enough to do it. Maybe the newer stoves are better.

 

[Mustang71]

So it's probably not worth the time and effort.

 

[babybart]

I think you will burn more than 1 ton so you would be over your $300. It will be better looking than your propane furnace though

 

[NSMaple1]

Around here pellets are one of the most expensive fuels.

 

[Mustang71]

Its 250$ a ton. So I guess the only way it would be really worth it is I only use 1 ton a year. And that would have to be the only heat when I'm not home or the house cools off at night. As for garage heat I think a few bags would last a long time since my current set up keeps the garage in the 50s or 40s when it's real cold.

 

[Highland_hunter]

I'll chime in. I have a 70's 1500ish sq ft raised ranch in NH. I have natural gas as my "primary" cooking, drying, domestic hotwater and backup when I go away during the winter. I am in the southeast portion of New Hampshire so probably about the same type of climate. I purchase 3 tons of pellets each year as there s no way I could get the wife to feed a wood stove or outdoor furnace. My preference for bedroom temps while sleeping is around 62-64 degrees. All this said, when I get up and the bedroom is below 62* is when I fire up the pellet stove. I will burn the pellets until gone so generally start late Oct - mid Nov and can make it til mid-March maybe end of if not a brutal winter. 3 tons usually run be about $900/season. This equates to about one bad each day. All this said, propane here is expensive would I save the cost of the pellets, I think maybe a little. I believe if I ran a wood furnace as my primary and augmented with pellet when I wasn't home I'd get 100 heating days out of a full ton. YMMV

 

[Mustang71]

This new EPA furnace is a bit to complicated to try to explain to someone how to run it and it all depends on the outside temp and how to load it and shut the air down. I think if I had a wood stove in could get the wife to run it it but not my MIL who watches the kids when we both are working. Obviously I love the heat a stove throws and how it looks but need it automated. That's why I was curious about the cost of a pellet stove vs propane. It's really for everyone else because when I'm home I burn wood and its warm when I'm not its 64. I set it for 62 at night but I've forgot a few times and wake up even in real cold weather and its 58 in the house. I dont think the night time uses much propane.

 

[NSMaple1]

I think if I had natural gas here, I wouldn't use anything else. Except maybe have a wood stove for power outages.

 

[Mustang71]

I've gotten 2 years out of a tank of propane and then theres years I'm squeeking by. It all depends on the winter.

Side note it's been in the 30s all day I started one fire and it got up to 70. So since 8 am I've been propane free and now at 6pm its 69 in here and I've added no wood since the initial fire.

 

[Mustang71]

I think if I had natural gas here, I wouldn't use anything else. Except maybe have a wood stove for power outages.

If I were to ever get natural gas here I'd burn wood until all this ash was gone. I'd probably put a stove upstairs in place of the electric fireplace and enjoy a fire not depend on it. All though I will say the gas fire places we install work great.

 

[unclemoustache]

I make a fair bit of sawdust in my shop, not to mention sawdust from tree work. Maybe one of these would be helpful!

 

[Mustang71]

I make a fair bit of sawdust in my shop, not to mention sawdust from tree work. Maybe one of these would be helpful!

View attachment 780436

Yea that would be cool I waste a lot of wood in dust but that price tag is expensive.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Does your furnace not hold coals all night long, i.e. you have to start fires daily?

 

[NSMaple1]

Yea that would be cool I waste a lot of wood in dust but that price tag is expensive.

IMO that's one of those things that might seem like a good idea when you first think of it, but when it comes to actually using it, things don't work out so good. You'd need enough sawdust etc. to account for say 40lbs/day (a bag a day seems to be a commonly mentioned burn rate). Then you need huge time to turn it all into pellets, and I don't think those have a very high throughput. Then drying? Packaging/storing? And also assuming the machine always works as advertised and needs no maintenance or repairs.

 

[Mustang71]

Does your furnace not hold coals all night long, i.e. you have to start fires daily?

It holds coals but it's not like a bed of coals a day later. I have a hard time cleaning ash out because its mixed with coals. In the morning it's good to reload on thats what I do on weekends but durning the week I dont have time to get it going and cut the air down. I usually start a fire at 5pm and the next day do the same. No ones going to load or check on it other than me.

 

[ktmtigger]

Sounds like a great time to teach one of them and only one.

Sent from my E6910 using Tapatalk

 

[Mustang71]

Sounds like a great time to teach one of them and only one.

Sent from my E6910 using Tapatalk

It's funny they all had wood heat growing up but it must have been a man thing.. women watch the children and men work and make fire wood and heat. My wife works but I spend every day making heat at work and at home. The life of a hvac guy.

 

[Highland_hunter]

I think if I had natural gas here, I wouldn't use anything else. Except maybe have a wood stove for power outages.

The wife prefers the warm air coming from the stove, which ironically was installed a year before the natural gas became available. So at least for now we feed the pellet stove....

 

[Marine5068]

So I've been on Facebook market place looking at cheap pellet stoves to heat the garage when I'm out there. After messaging 2 people with a low ball amount it's got me thinking. If I added one in my dining room to heat durning the day until I get home to light the wood furnace could I save the 600 I spend on propane a year. Or at least cut it in half. I live outside buffalo ny. I keep the propane at 64 and no one maintains the furnace other than me so could I keep a pellet stove at 68 and not use propane for less than 300 a year? Night time I dont care its 70 when I go to bed and the heats set at 62. During the day someone is always home with my kids. It's a small 1700sqft ranch built in the 70s.

That's a good plan.
Sort of what I do here and I have a similar climate as yours.
I put in a pellet stove in my great room that heats the whole house while I'm out at work then I have an extra large wood stove in the center of the basement that I use when I get home and on my days off.
I figured out the cost to heat with oil, propane and electric and I have saved over $2000 a year with pellets.
The stove was not that cheap initially($3000), but the payback period was only 2 years so it was a no brainer to put one in.
I keep my pellets in my walkout basement to stay warm and dry.
I use about 120 bags a season here in Southern Ontario and burn about 2-4 cords of wood as well.
Works out to about $1200 CAD a heating season as compared to a buddy's similar sized house heated with oil at about $3500 a season.
So less than half the cost of other heat.