Pellet Furance questions

[Aaron Frasher]

My parents have a 2500 sq foot house with a unfinished basement. Basically a 1 floor rancher. They are wanting to put in a pellet furance. Can you all give me some model #. And like how much pellets you use. Maybe some pro and cons. They live in southern Ohio.

 

[Gypo Logger]

Can't help you about the stove, but there seems to be a real shortage of pellets in eastern Canada.

 

[Redbird]

My parents have a 2500 sq foot house with a unfinished basement. Basically a 1 floor rancher. They are wanting to put in a pellet furance. Can you all give me some model #. And like how much pellets you use. Maybe some pro and cons. They live in southern Ohio.

try your question here http://www.**********/talk/forums/the-pellet-mill-pellet-and-multifuel-stoves.14/

 

[Relex]

Right now my primary and only heat I've been running is a pellet stove in my 1600 square foot house. It puts out pretty good heat but also comes at a price...right now I'm on my 3rd ton of pellets and the going price for those in my area right now is about $245 a ton.

Pros:
clean burning
clean it once a week
refilling is quick and easy

Cons:
it doesn't take long for the cost of pellets to add up
everyone I know that burns a pellet stove has it serviced before every burning season which can be a couple hundred dollars

Needless to say, I'm waiting for the englander nc30 to go on sale at home d. I don't mind burning pellets but right now the price difference of burning wood is worth it enough for me to switch over.

 

[Dirtboy]

Around here pellets have gone up $40 a ton since last year. There was also a mass shortage of them last year with the bad winter we had. This year they are hard to find, most places ran out in December. The deliveries (when they come) are small, and gone in no time.
Pellet stoves may be convenient to use, but don't keep you warm without the pellets.

 

[cantoo]

Canadian tire had them on sale today but I never noticed the price. Likely a little pricy there though. I thought the great plan with pellets was to buy them in the off season at "give away" prices? Need somewhere big enough to store a few tons might be a problem. How about a hopper in the attic? Local guy here makes them but I've heard they are dirty, I assume this means he has more bark in them? Would be nice for back up but the price of the stoves is insane for that use.

 

[pennsywoodburnr]

My neighbor runs a pellet stove exclusively throughout winter and it does a good job of keeping his house toasty. There are two downsides to it I don't like though. 1. There are motors that must move in order to feed those pellets into the burn chamber. If they go, you're dead in the water......which is exactly what happened to him Saturday night. Now he's stuck waiting for a new motor to arrive by mail. That problem could be offset by having a couple spare motors sitting around waiting to go, but it still doesn't solve the dilemma of reliable moving parts for long term use. My fireplace has one moving part, the flue control, and that's it. Not much that can go wrong with that! And 2. if the electricity gets cut for whatever reason, he's got himself a nice fancy 300 lb living room decoration. No power will be going to the motors, blower, control panel, etc. So now he needs a backup generator to keep it running, which kind of defeats the purpose entirely. I like the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach to heat in the winter. Less moving parts and no electricity needed for it will always trump convenience in my view

 

[flotek]

My old employer ran a us stove pellet furnace for one week and sent it back in disgust . Yes it did the job in his 2500 sq ft housbut to maintaine a respectable comfort level he was going through 4 bags a day which is about 25 bucks .. Which may not sound too bad but after one month your talking 750$ plus the added electricity costs . My next door neighbor heated his house exclusively on pellets but last year he burned through 7 tons at 220$ a ton plus electricity costs and headache of loading and cleaning . can't think of too many situations where pellets pay off. . They used to but with shortages electric costs and bags going for about 6$ the savings isn't really there these days. 2 years ago a ton of pellets at our Home Depot and tractor supply were going for 189$ .. Now they are 249$ and that's if you can find them before they are snagged up !

 

[dancan]

Yup , pellet shortage and I don't think it will change , awful competition for wood fiber out there .

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1184083-ns-wood-pellets-bound-for-europe