Pellet Stove Use In The Northlands.

self | 10/13/14 | self

[Little Bill]

I was wondering how many of you in the Northlands, Portland, Maine West.

I was wondering how this affected your heating bill and how you have prepped for the coming freeze.

[4yearlurker]

Yes pine has pitch which can lead to chimney fires. Also stay away from burning plywood which is loaded with glue that is not good for your chimney. Burning older pressure treated wood is also a no no. The ashes are toxic.

[Little Bill]

Global warming must account for the fact that my Uncle used to use 4 to 5 tons of coal in Eastern Utah, the snow got rather deep there also.

[Chickensoup]

My stove using about 3i/2 cords of wood per season. Keeps the downstairs warm and the bathrooms good and warm. I use mattress pad heaters in the bedrooms. A joy!

I have one floor in my home that is out of wood stove range and a living space over my 3 car garage that I heat with oil along with all the hot h20..That takes about 3K.

[gorush]

That’s the zeitgeist unfortunately. We live in interesting times when it is good to be old.

[rstrahan]

We had an Earth Stove, which is essentially a sealed Franklin Stove with brick liner. Used standard wood but would heat the home very cheaply as we cut our own firewood. Furnace would finally kick on about 2-3 am. Saved us big bucks every month vs our neighbors.

[vpintheak]

Unless the electricity goes out. That’s why I like wood heat.

[vpintheak]

I use wood. I could buy a cord of wood for anything from $150-$275. Or I can get it myself for nothing but fuel and my time. I’ve heard that a cord of wood is equal to ~150 gallons of home heating oil.
Home heating oil in Fairbanks is only lately dropping below $4/gallon. So Worst case scenario, 1 cord of wood for $275 = $600. Worth it.
Won’t convert to Pellet because if the electricity goes out, no auto-feeding into the pellet stove.

[Little Bill]

Tesla in vented the Generator.

[Sherman Logan]

I have been over to his house and the only complaint that I have is that it tends to “dry out” the house.

This is a myth. Any source of heat will produce an equivalent amount of dry air, unless of course it releases combustion gases inside the house.

The cause of the dryness is outside cold air infiltrating and then being heated up, which creates very, very dry air. The difference between houses is not the source of heat, it's the amount of cold outside air that leaks in.

Heated with wood for 12 years in CO and NM. My wife used to just keep a pot of water boiling on the stove and no problem with dryness.

[Psalm 73]

"Isn’t it sad that the politicians have taken us back to the 1800’s method of heating homes?"

Yes, the Pols and the Greens want to take us back even further - wind and solar is Bronze-age technology.
Can't use coal. Or oil. Or nuclear. Gas is OK, but only to bridge us back to the age of sails and windmills....

[vpintheak]

I’ve heard the same thing. The cost of energy to heat our homes has gotten so expensive that people are returning to burning wood/pellets/coal themselves instead of what used to be cheaper heating oil/propane/LNG or electric heat.
Sad indeed.

[Doc91678]

Yes, I forgot to mention those nasty items. I cut 6 cords of wood this year to get ready for winter. Most of it dead fall. Got 60 acres mostly woods and keep it fairly clear. Getting ready to harvest two deer. Already have a hog in the freezer with close to 15lbs. of bacon.

[4yearlurker]

I have been burning wood for about 20 years in the same house. My large burner in the basement is connected to the oil burners cold air return . The wood heat rises naturally and comes up through the cold air return vents. Warms the house in about 20 minutes. This is the first year I have been stopping and picking up dead wood along the country roads in the woods. I got a cord this year so far mostly walnut nice and seasoned. I cut about 25 wood pallets and they burn great for the Autumn season. Just have to clean the nails out of the wood burner.

[Augie]

I had an outdoor wood furnace installed when we built our house a few years back. The mess and stink stays outdoors.

I buy sawmill scrap from an Amishman about 30 miles from my house. He charges me $45 for a trailer load, which is just shy of 2 cord, and they load it.

I use ~12 cord a year, heating a 2500sq/ft home and 1200sq/ft workshop.

Located in central Missouri. I normally fire it up in mid October and it stays lit until mid April.

[Little Bill]

Those are know as Russian stoves up here, the commies have restricted new ones.

[barmag25]

I have looked into pellet stoves several times. The one thing that stopped me is that I own some wooded acres and so do a lot of my friends, so firewood is abundant and free. Pellets I would have to purchase.

[Rodamala]

I lived with a guy that in theory wanted to save the planet, but in practice would leave all the lights, TVs and Tube Amp radio on in the house all night long. He would open the doors of the house to the sunporch with jalousy windows in the summer and turn on the central air... to cool down basucally a greenhouse. ANYWAY... he bought a pellet stove and put it in the basement. I rigged the central air's air handler to move the hot air from above the stove to the first floor of the house as the upstairs did not have central AC (old stove farmhouse). The "goal" was to minimize the oil consumption for the baseboard heat...

The unseen cost was the 2 hour complete teardown and cleaning every 3 weeks. I wasn't working at the time and so I did that sorta stuff in place of rent. At the peak of winter, we would be burning 120 lbs of pellets/day (3 bags), offsetting about 80,000 BTU/hr of the oilburner's 135,000 BTU/hr rating.

[taxcontrol]

Actually it is not a myth. Even a modern home will draft and heating the house causes the draft to exit from the upper portion and draw in air from the lower portion. Trust me, Colorado mountain air in the winter time can be very dry.

[panaxanax]

“..took out my pellet stove (loved it) and replaced with a wood stove.”

I took out our woodstove and bought a Quadra-fire pellet stove 18 years ago. The only problem we’ve had was the igniter went south. $15.00 and 30 minutes of my time and it was back in action. I cut enough wood to sell from our woodlot to buy pellets for the winter. Have a generator for when the power goes out.

It’s nice not to have to worry about chimney fires. Clean- burning and efficient and set the thermostat at 55 and take off for the weekend. Also, don’t have to worry about Mrs. panax loading up too much wood and burning down the house. Love it! Would never go back to wood. We burn about a ton per month here in upstate NY and the house stays 70-75 all winter. That sure feels good when you come inside after blowing snow when it’s -10 below!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There might be an even better way. Whether or not you like these as a technology, they are some gorgeous pictures.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/12/tile-stoves.html

http://www.inspirationgreen.com/masonry-heaters.html

http://www.rvharvey.com/kachelofen.htm

I would love to see some design engineer create one of these that was multipurpose, good enough for a home to be designed around, and craftily insulated to maximize efficiency. I can imagine a cooking oven, a drying oven, and a drying closet for clothes.