does anyone heat with a pellet furnace?

[mamasfatty]

title says it all,,looking for info on wood pellet furnaces,,not the fireplace inserts or free standing stoves,,but pellet furnaces that are hooked into your actual ductwork. how do you like it,,how much fuel do you use,,clean out,would you buy another.... thks don

 

[Stevie]

Have a free standing pellet stove...not a 'furnace' with ductwork. But we do heat the entire 4 bedroom house with it(it's a big one).

Takes approx. 100 40 pound bags(2 pallets full)...a really cold winter and we may get into a third pallet of fuel.

I try to pre-book my fuel for a $1.00 a bag discount.

My neighbor..a rather handy fellow..added some ductwork to the front of his fireplace insert stove..and ducted part of the heat into the back of his house. I just put a fan in the hallway and blow heat down the hall.

 

[novalty]

My brother has one that was made in England. He is heating a our Grandmother old 3 story farmhouse, which he & his wife have renovated. The thing cost a small fortune, has a 500lb hopper. He has it hooked to the old cast iron radiators that were in the house, and some base board. Think he ordered 7 tons of wood pellets for this winter. He seems to like it. I on the other hand don't like being an appointed furnace sitter in the middle of winter when he goes away to visit his inlaws, and the low temps got the furnace eating through pellets. He switches his house over in the spring in the fall to monitor heater and electric water heater. These are the pros & cons I have about it:

Pros:
1. No having to buy oil & worrying about fluxuating prices.
2. Can burn up to 3 different types of pellets.

Cons.
1. Initial cost is ridiculous (though I am sure there are model in price range of a tradition oil furnace.)
2. Needs to be monitored frequently.
3. Needs electricity to feed auger. (my wood stove doesn't)
4. We live in the country, cutting up 2 big trees that fell during hurricane Irene--can't burn them in the pelletstove.
5. Wood pellets have to be stored in a nice dry safe place. Get the pellets wet, you can kiss them goodbye.
6. All wood pellets are not created equal. Be prepared for wonderful new terms like "Clinkers"

Another pro for me about him having a pellet furnace, any trees that fall on his property, I can cut up for my wood-stove.

 

[Stevie]

yeh..I forgot about the maintenance...pellet stoves..furnaces..whatever will require constant attention..cleaning out the burn box(clinkers)..and hauling off the ashes. Plus the stoves like I own(a big Lopi) only hold so much fuel..and fueling from 40# bags ain't that big a deal..but if you run out in the middle of the nigh..you wake up cold and looking for pellets!

I would imagine a pellet stove may not be the heat source of choice in really really cold winter locations.

The above mentioned 'keep your pellets dry' has considerable merit..they will turn right back into saw dust if wet.

Fuel does vary in quality..price and availability..the year I moved into my house pellets were in short supply..I had to do considerable scrounging to get through the winter

One major advantage with my setup is a simple portable generator will easily power my 120 volt stove if the power goes out..the stove just plugs into the wall. But then your burning gas and pellets at the same time..better than freezing however!

 

[slumpy]

I had one for 1 winter, wouldn't do it again, sold it, I won't say anymore.

 

[moosedog]

My friend bought one last winter against my advice.
I wasn't there when this happend so I only go by what he told me. He experienced a problem with the feeding of the pellets and it over loaded the furnace.
When they finally did ignite, it caused a small explosion.
Both him and his brother, who is a volunteer fireman, were there when it happend. He told me that if he wouldn't have been home when it happend, it could have caused a fire in the home. He took it back and got his money back.

I burn regular wood for over twenty years and highly recommend that route.

 

[mamasfatty]

right now i heat with propane,,cost me almost 3 grand to heat the house last year,,im sure prices will be up this year,we built our house 15 yrs ago,,triple pane windows,,rolled insulation in all walls,,blown in in ceilings,,insulated basement walls,ect.....i just put a 97 per cent effeciency furnace in,,but i bet it still cost me a fortune to heat this year...

 

[roundgunner]

We have had a pellet stove for 3-4 years. It has saved use a lot of money that we would have spent on fuel oil. That is also money not being sent to the countries the finance the terrorist who are trying to kill our sons and daughters.

It gets pretty cold around here at times and my wife has some problems that are exasperated by the cold. Our stove is in the living room of our single story 38 X 46 home. The “primary” heat is oil and we have 2 zones. We run the pellet stove with the thermostat set at 75. The oil thermostats are set at 70 & zone 2 is about 68.

I run a ceiling fan in the same room as the stove and I have a small window fan hung from the ceiling between the kitchen and living room, it gets the air moving in a circular pattern around the house. I have cut the top corners from our bedroom doors for the quarter round fans you put in the door frames. That way heat will go in if the door is open or closed. The bottom of the bedroom doors have cat door holes in them to help circulate heat & cats.

We burn about a bag a day when it is cold, less in the spring and fall. The oil comes on to heat zone 2 on occasion and to heat our water. I have bought the better quality pellets for the last couple years and it has really cut down on maintenance. I hate to think of how much we would be paying to keep the house this warm with oil, gas or electric.

I really think burning waste wood in the form of pellets is the best option for many of us.

 

[roundgunner]

My friend bought one last winter against my advice.
I wasn't there when this happend so I only go by what he told me. He experienced a problem with the feeding of the pellets and it over loaded the furnace.
When they finally did ignite, it caused a small explosion.
Both him and his brother, who is a volunteer fireman, were there when it happend. He told me that if he wouldn't have been home when it happend, it could have caused a fire in the home. He took it back and got his money back.

I burn regular wood for over twenty years and highly recommend that route.

Maybe one of you scientific fellas could explain to me how an electric coil under a cast iron pot can heat up wood pellets enough to explode.

I can’t even get all the firecrackers in a pack of Black Cats to explode.

 

[mamasfatty]

Maybe one of you scientific fellas could explain to me how an electric coil under a cast iron pot can heat up wood pellets enough to explode.

I can’t even get all the firecrackers in a pack of Black Cats to explode.

lmao I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!

 

[BarbC]

I had a pellet stove. Buy a good one (ours was a Harman) - it's worth the extra investment. Also, duct it to receive fresh air from the outside. They're very economical to run. As far as power outages, we had it hooked up to an old computer battery back-up, so it could run long enough to get the generator up and running.

 

[novalty]

If I have to make a change to my heating arrangement in the future due to escalating prices, it is going to be an external wood boiler, build an additional out-building or garage, place it in there, so I can heat that with residual heat. With the external wood boiler you can burn any wood you want in it as long as it burns, short chimney, takes larger logs, holds a greater capacity, and I can get fallen soft-wood for virtually free all year round.

 

[Pete99004]

If I have to make a change to my heating arrangement in the future due to escalating prices, it is going to be an external wood boiler, build an additional out-building or garage, place it in there, so I can heat that with residual heat. With the external wood boiler you can burn any wood you want in it as long as it burns, short chimney, takes larger logs, holds a greater capacity, and I can get fallen soft-wood for virtually free all year round.

I am also looking at this style for my place.

Had a pellet stove once - wouldn't go there myself. All it takes is a glitch in the power and you have a mess to contend with when you come home, plus a cold house.

Pete

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

When winter comes we just turn off the the AC at night

 

[novalty]

When winter comes we just turn off the the AC at night

When winter comes I turn off my refrigerator.