Wood pellet heaters

[The_Truth]

The masonry heater looks like a good option, but I am worried about the expense and extra foundation cost involved. Love the way they look and how they operate though.

A fried of mine at work has had and used a wood pellet heater and he swears by them. Thermostat controlled, automatic feeder, clean burn and pretty good heat. Looks like it doesn't require the additional cost to put it in. Anybody else have experience with the wood pellets?

Thanks,
The Truth

[Andythompson]

My parents have had a pellet stove in their home for about the last twelve years. They too, also swear by the pellet heat source. They bought a Whitfield Brand that has given them very few problems. It seems that during those twelve years they have only had one service related call (other than the yearly maintenance). My brother also has owned a pellet stove in his home for the past five years and feels the same.

Both my brother and parents live in the Sacramento area where winters are relatively mild, but they do get several days a year when the temp will dip below freezing. But these stoves have no problem keeping their homes comfortable and are used exclusively as the heating source for their home which are in the neighborhood of 2000 sq ft and single story.

My parents are actually looking to replace their pellet stove as I post this reply. Their first stove was purchased before they were thermostatically controlled and isnt as efficient as the newer models.

One thing to consider is the availability of the pellets. My parents have always burn a premium quality pellet which their service man highly reccommends to avoid problems (I believe it's the Golden Fire brand).
This past season a ton (or full pallet/50ea 40lbs bags) was selling for $230 in the Sac area. They burned about a pallet and half this past winter, but that was with the older, less efficient stove. I can get that same pallet and brand of pellets in Klamath Falls Oregon for $169.

One last thing to consider is the convenience. Like most people, I prefer a wood fire. But a wood fire is a pain in the butt and a friggin mess, not to mention the grief of securing the wood whatever your source. In a pellet stove you just fill the hopper about every day and a half or so and throw away a plastic bag............NO Mess, NO wood chips all over your living room and patio, NO spiders in your house etc.

When I finally get to that point I'm sure I'll be putting at least one pellet stove in my loghome.

Hope this helps.

Andy T.
Chiloquin, OR.

[ponyboy]

The only bad thing I can see about the pellet stove is that if you lose power your stove won't work ( the auger that feeds the pellets into the stove stops working ) I know awhile ago they were working on some kind of battery backup or a thermal device that converts heat into electricity to run the auger.

They need to build a pellet/wood stove hybrid so you can watch a nice wood fireplace when you feel like it and then switch back to the pellets for efficiency. :D

[Andythompson]

An excellent point which I had forgotten to point out. That is why I will probably have a pellet stove in my walkout basement as a primary heat source and a more traditional woodstove on the main floor providing backup and atmosphere for company and visitors (what would Christmas be w/o a burner while you open gifts).

I consider the power issue only really a problem if your substantially rural. But then again I wasn't raised in an area where ice storms, hurricanes, and tornandos where somewhat common. In the Sac area if the power goes down it might be down for an hour or two at the most. This season up here in Oregon we lost power twice this winter for 12 hours each time and at least 4-5 times for about 5-6 hours. So needless to say I will be putting in a generator backup system.

[The_Truth]

I will be going solar and will have generator backup so losing power shouldn't be much of an issue. I agree with the asthetics problem but with the ones I have seen on the Net they are not too bad to look at.

[ponyboy]

You can also get a pellet stove that burns corn. If your near someplace that grows it, you might be able to get the corn cheaper that wood pellets.

http://burncorn.cas.psu.edu/

http://www.goldengrainstove.com/

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=6970&productId=434180&R=434180&cm_ven=TL&cm_pla=DF&cm_ite=heater

[ChrisAndWendy]

I have been told that you can burn a mix of corn and pellets in any pellet stove. I have not tried it yet but I think I will this next season. Plus I have a stove (one of four) that runs on 12Volt, just hook up a battery and go. Chris

[chadfortman]

Hey Chris
Its been a year now since we been in class whats new?
If you buy the boiler i know you can buy the attachment for the pellets and corn. My relatives are in ohio when i go back and i got my boiler i plan to load up on cheep corn at the local feed place its very cheep there.
Hey did you leave Marland yet and did you build the sheep cabin yet?
Ok seya :wink:

[eparks]

I've been running an Englander Pellet stove for about 6 years. I like it for the most part but there are some issues with the one that I have that is making me look at the pure corn burners. First, it does make quite a bit of noise. The blower is very noisey and the auger makes noise every now and again. I use it as my primary heat so I get used to it but I'd prefer a quiet heat source over what I have. Secondly, there is a tendency for things to wear out. I replaced two auger motors, a exhaust blower motor and an auger.... Well the auger was due to an experiment.

I tried to burn corn one time as I was curious and had no experience with it. Curiousity killed the cat right? What happened was that I added a 50% mix of corn to the hopper and let 'er rip. Well, what I didn't know was that the corn was going to shoot through the system much faster than the wood. The other thing that I didn't know was that corn burns much hotter than wood. As a matter a fact, it burns so hot that it made the auger turn red..... Now that's hot.... It warped the auger a little bit and probably contributed to the auger motor going bad as it got pretty hot. The motor is too close to the end of the shaft where the fire is. The heat travels up the auger to the motor and melts the grease in the motor. It's all down hill from there.

On the up side, the heat is awesome. It is way hotter than wood. The price is right as corn is cheaper than wood. Especially this year when the wood pellet mfg's couldn't keep up and the price went through the roof. I had to actually put my name in and wait for a special pallet of pellets to be ordered with a 3 week lead time. That was a first. Usually, they were putting them on sale in the fall.

So, if you are thinking of corn or wood, I'd definately look really hard at corn. The price is fairly stable as corn is sold as futures and it is available almost anywhere at anytime. At least if you have feed mills in your area. If you want to get real low maintenance, you could install a feed bin, have the corn delivered and auger the corn right into the furnace. All you would have to do then is clean the furnace once a week which is no big deal.