After spending well over $1,000 in Heating this winter, I've decided to try something different, Fuel prices are not going down and from what I've been told, a wood pellet stove could cut my costs in half and the heat is great... Anybody got one? How do you like it? Pro's, Con's, cleanup, maintence...etc And just for reference I know some of you guys live in ALOT colder regions than I do, what do you average on heating costs per winter? To be more specific, I'm getting the "Furnace" type, not the water stove type. It will sit in the basement and tie into our current oil furnace duct work. The Heat will come from the pellets themselves, not radiated water.
Why not just get a wood furnace? Those pellets get expensive and can be hard to find from time to time.
Well, we have a wood furnace, the chimney needs to be re-lined to be able to burn wood again... where we were told the Pellets won't. My wife hates how everything smells like smoke from a wood stove, I've heard the pellets aren't as bad. The pellet stove would actually be replacing the wood stove. The Pellets are way more efficient, less labor, easier to clean and store, all from what I've read. Wondering if anyone had some "real life reviews" Definitely Pro's and Con's to both, I just got to get away from this oil. Basically 2 tons should cover a winter here... that's less than $500. Where wood may be slightly cheaper, I'd rather pour a bag in over swinging a wood maul anyday. :D
In years past I'd spend $3,000 on heating my house alone (LP). I have a wood boiler now that heats my house, garage, shop. This year I put In an electric boiler In my shed where I park my milk truck. This has been a very cold winter. The last 2 months my electric bill for heating the shed has averaged $800.00 a month and that's off peak. Bad Investment there so far. I plan on doing some Investigating on my shed this summer.
I have a Harmon pellet stove at my house. They are very popular in northern NY, and I love mine. My current stove is in my basement, and I don't have it tied into my duct work. Because of that, I'm not getting the type of efficiency I should, so I won't even share what it costs me. I will say I about break even compared to using my natural gas furnace. My in laws have a pellet stove setup properly in their house. In a 1200 sq/ft home that is fairly well insulated, they are burning 4ish tons of pellets a year. With that said, they keep it in the mid 70's in that house all winter.........way hotter than I prefer. I'm sure you could probably burn probably 2-3 tons of pellets depending on your house size, insulation, and temps. Our temps up here average in the teens all winter and go well below zero for sometimes weeks at a time. My recommendations are two things.......buy good quality "Premium" hardwood pellets, and buy yourself the $200 vacuum made for pellet stoves. The premium pellets will produce much less ash than a crap softwood pellet, and require much less cleaning and maintenance. I can burn mine for a week and a half straight before having to empty the ash pot when using good pellets, but crap pellets force me to clean it every 3ish days. The vacuum has special filters on it that prevent the ash from blowing through the vacuum. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but I promise if you try to clean with a normal vacuum, everything you own will be covered in ash dust. This vacuum produces no dust whatsoever and makes it easy to clean.
We have a wood stove and we never have problems with our house smelling like smoke. The only time we do have smoke coming back instead of flowing out is when the creosote gets built up in the pipes/chimney. We usually only have to clean the pipe and chimney once a winter though. However, if you have to go through the trouble of re-lining the chimney then I guess it might be worth it to go with the wood pellet route. I'm not real sure on costs to have a chimney re-lined
anybody who's lookin to do wood furnace setups, would they consider geothermal exchange/heat pump configs?? in the far north you'd probably need to dig your trench 8-10' deep (maybe more) but they seem to operate to the tune of about $1/day (or so) year round as they also act as cooling in the summer... thoughts??
I went with a Harmon also... This is the particular model... http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/details.asp?cat=central-heating&prd=forced-air&f=FURPF100 It has a ash pan that only needs emptying after 2-3tons of pellets... Our house is a poorly insulated(except where remodeling has occured i.e. kitchen,dining, living), 40-50's 1.5 story with I think around 1300-1500 sq. ft.
After using both, I have a wood stove. I just like wood. I have some land, and it feels good not wasting the wood. I like splitting, and doing the work to some degree. Now, the pellets are more controllable. But what I don't like about pellets is you got to store them in a dry place. Moisture makes em swell up. To get a good price, you need to buy them by the ton. And I don't want my garages filled up with pallets of pellets myself. Thats me. Also the price of those pellets usually shoot up with oil shoots up. Used to be real affordable. But the price of my wood does not. To each his own I guess.
That's what I was thinking, when my electric bill is much over $100, I'm looking for ways to save energy...lol.
If you have to buy fire wood then you might as well buy pellets, but as with cold temperatures we seem to lose electrical power at the most optimal of times, thats when the wood stove shines as we heat and cook without concern.
Reminds me of when we bought out house back in '95. It was the winter that was around -60 in Tower or Embarrass. We were told less than $100 per month on electric and the 265 gallon fuel tank would last 2-3 months. In reality, we were burning through the tank in one month and our electric bill was through the roof. Combined, we were paying over $400/month to heat the house. Needless to say, I replaced our 1950's fuel stove and electric water heater with high efficiency natural gas models. I got our utility bills down to under $150 combined for a winter. But, as prices have been skyrocketing, we're now at about $250/month during the winter and $150 during the summer because of A/C. Constantly looking for ways to reduce the bills without spending an arm and a leg on the house because we're looking to move soon.
