Pellet stoves

18 years ago

Here's another question:

I just posted in a different message that we live in a 3 story townhouse in northern california. The townhouse was built in the late 70s and has all electric appliances, including radiant heat in the ceilings (not the floors!). Strangely it does have a working fireplace in the living room on the second floor and a gas line plumbed to it, but that is the only gas line in the home.

Our electric bills go up by about $100 a month during the four or five colder months of the year to keep a few rooms of the home moderately comfortable in the evenings and during the weekends. We plan to stay in the home for at least ten more years so we are willing to invest in a cheaper form of energy to use in the winter.

I've looked into changing to a gas insert for the fireplace, which would cost me about $3K to $4K, but I've heard that while gas prices heating is still probably cheaper than electric, I am one of those people that believe that natural gas is going to continue to go up, in relationship to electricity, possibly closing the price gap.

I was over at a friend's house and she had a small pellet stove and was very happy with it, based on the cost of running it. I've done a bit of research and it is seems that the fuel costs per BTU are significantly cheaper than electricity or gas so I am attracted to it. The cost to purchase and install a pellet stove is approximately the same as a gas insert, $3K to $4K, and maybe a bit cheaper.

The only things I see as a downside are:

1) My wife and I would have to carry many lbs of pellets up the stairs during the winter when we would use it - we both pay for gym memberships so this could be seen as just more exercise, hopefully.

2) The fireplace is located near the TV. The one pellet stove that I've seen working seems somewhat noisey. Actually pretty noticable. Are there ways to make them quiet, like better bearings in the hoppers and better designed fans?

3) How often do they need to be cleaned and what does it require?

4) We have somewhat limited space in the garage for huge amounts of pellets.

5) and one strange question: would it be possible to mount it in the laundry room on the first floor, not by the second floor fireplace and instead use some forced air ducting system to move the air to all or at least most of the house? That would be ideal, as the noise would not be a problem and the pellets could be moved from the garage to the laundry room easily.

Can some of you pellet stove owners advise me on this? (I also intend to talk to some sales people too but I'd like to hear owner's opinions.)

Plus, I am inclined toward this for environmental and oil depletion worries.

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Comments (6)

zl700
18 years ago
You have a lot of questions but I would like to add two more to the mix.

The stainless steel double wall venting is very expensive and will probably play a big part in where you locate the unit and how it will be vented (direct vent sidewall versus chimney type venting).

Locating a pellet stove in the laundry room will require fireproofing floors and walls per code requirements that should be considered in your overall costs besides the venting.
fsq4cw
18 years ago
Perhaps you may consider this multi fuel stove...

SR

Here is a link that might be useful: Dell-Point Europa
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bikesr2tired
18 years ago
I personally can't say that I like the idea of a pellet stove in a laundry room and like z1700 said, it may be cost prohibitive. As far as fire codes go, I'm not going there except to say, Why would the codes be different in a laundry room as opposed to any other part of the house?

The noise generated by a pellet stove is because of the air passing through the blowers & not the mechanicals of the blower itself. My stove has a feature where you can turn off the inside blower which makes it much more quiet. It will come on if the firebox temperature reaches 160 degrees however. actually we were watching TV with the stove running and it really isn't that distracting. It also depends on how high you have it set. It's really nice to sit and relax with the flames going and be toasty warm too.

So you take a load of pellets up to the 2nd floor and take a day off from the gym. Sounds like a plan to me! The bags are 40# and not that hard to move. 5 trips up and down the stairs for each of you will keep you going for about 10 - 15 days. Probably be done in 15 minutes! Piece O' cake!

Cleaning depends on the brand of pellets. Softwood pellets seem to burn cleaner and depending on the brand, your stove may require cleaning only once a week. A shop vac works good for this. I bought a little vac from Wal-Mart and it works great for everything but the stove. The Hepa filter hates ashes and plugs up instantly.

I don't know about California but here in Wisconsin pellets are sales tax exempt. Hope this helped.

Jim
regfman
Original Author
18 years ago
The next step for me is to find a few installers and get their opinions. The Dell Point looks interesting with the idea of being able to burn different fuels, but I live in the SF Bay Area and I don't see much corn husk or switch grass supplies around, But I've never looked. In fact I've never noticed the 40lb bags of pellets while at home depot or orchard so the whole thing will be a learning experience.

Anybody in my neighborhood know of a good installer? (I'm basically just going to find one with an online search otherwise.)
moto
18 years ago
I know there are not many members yet...but here's a new forum for just such discussions and advice.

http://pelletstoves.forumup.com/

If you have experience or questions please join and help get this off this new forum off the ground.

If you are spending $100.00 a month on heat currently, a pellet stove might not save you much money. One bag of pellets is $5.00, so a bag a day would cost you $150.00 a month. Burning one bag a day is not difficult to do.

But you might be warmer.....

Here is a link that might be useful: pellet stove discussion forum
bikesr2tired
18 years ago
Regfman,

How much is a bag of pellets at home depot in SF?? There are a lot of variables as to how many pellets you will burn. How well is your house insulated, the average outside winter temperatures, the quality of the pellets and how many cubic feet are you trying to heat are factors that determine how fast you set the feed rate. Right now Lowes where I'm at is getting $3.13 a bag for Pennington wood pellets if bought by the ton and $3.48 a bag for less than a ton. If I had to pay $ 5.00 a bag like Moto said, I think I'd crank up my floor heat and turn off the pellet stove.

Jim