Posted on 07/05/2008 12:19:44 PM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
Nick Sylvester is a father of two small children who uses wood pellets to heat his home.
"I am a fan of the pellets, I don't have the time to stoke," Sylvester said. "I want a thermostat and be able to walk away. There is no overheating, or it shuts down."
Sylvester is also the product manager for Superior Hearth, Spas & Leisure with stores in Southington and Avon.
With home heating oil expected to reach $4.75 to $5 per gallon, homeowners are flocking to get a closer look at fireplace inserts, pellet and wood burning stoves to heat their homes. According to Sylvester and others, the savings can pay for the stove in a single season.
"We're really getting hammered," Sylvester said. "We saw the weather changing and the price of oil, and we allocated 50 percent more than what we sold last year."
Sylvester has had one customer who turned over his deposit on a spa tub to put down on a pellet stove.
"This is about needs versus wants," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at myrecordjournal.com ...
Up here in Alaska I saw on Craigslist an old high voltage finned transformer that was turned into a wood stove. It was pretty big about 3 foot tall and the cooling fins helped it to radiate heat, an interesting idea but would be Satans witchcraft if done in Kalifornia.
In Spokane WA, wood burning stoves and fire places have been banned. Only pellet stoves are allowed if they do not smoke in any way. Any smoke seen coming from chimneys has a violator hot line to call. Of course they are every bit as Liberal as Portland and Seattle and Environmental crimes are soon to get the death penalty in these crap holes.
I’ve heated with both pellets and wood.
We started with the pellet stove, because it seemed less troublesome, and cleaner. It was tough to store a ton or two of pellets, and, to get any heat out of it, the internal electric fan must be running. It probably consumes 100 watts or more.
It was 40,000 btu, and the house was never warm.
We added a good quality wood stove insert upstairs, and even with the extra work of starting, and stoking, found the rich warmth worth it.
The basement was still cold. :-(
Replaced the pellet stove with a cheap wood stove in the basement, which offered great heat, but no staying power.
When it went out at 2 am, there was no residual heat.
By 6 am, we were freezing.
Replaced the cheap wood stove with a good quality cast iron one, and now we heat for less than 2k a year.
It is a LOT of work, and not for everybody, but I hear of people here in Ontario paying $800 a month for heat, and we have to heat at least 5-7 months a year.
Dec.- March temperatures are almost always below zero, and often -10 to -20. Sometimes, -40.
LOL!
Not exactly. Hay is any type of mowed grass such as alfalfa, timothy, clover, etc. Straw is what’s left after grains, such as wheat or oats, have been harvested. It’s coarser.
I did the same thing. I put in a natural gas insert in the fireplace when it was cheap. I too have a couple of cords of wood cut, stacked and dry for this winter. I can cut a bunch more wood.
Another clueless statement from Rightminnow.
My inlaws have heated with wood for years in a very cold upper Midwest state. People are happy to give them storm felled trees — supply has never been a problem. Their boiler sits 50 yeards from the house and the hot water flows underground.
Do you ever get out of your urban apartment???
Why would anybody believe anything you say after this navel informed statement?
We need to pellitize cow chips too.
And liberals...
but I repeat myself
Thanks for the insight. We’ll think of you when it’s 50 below this winter.
Happens nearly every winter, why should this winter be different?
This winter will be different for the oil burners, which is most everybody here. I can go back to wood at any time although it has been several years since I relied exclusively on wood. Since we got electricity, in fact. Can do without that, too, kept the old manual typewriter.
A cord is over $200 here, Virginia. I’m sticking with it because I cannot go out back and cut pellets. The convenice would be nice.
I hope you were being sarcastic. Super poplars grow to 10” at chest height in ten years. I’ve cleared a 1/4 acre of oak, left the small ones, and will now interplant super poplars. Clean, renewable, self sufficent energy, on 3 CONSERVATIVE acres!
I put a blowerless blue flame heater in the basement, propane, 99.8% efficent, no vent. Works great.
Same. Tons of blow downs from storms. Been cutting and skidding them up to the house for the last week.I Plan to have it all split and stacked by fall,enough for two years...refilled the oil two months ago at $3.83 a gallon, probably more now. Deleted the summer hookup last month,have cheap electric, so went with an electric hot water heater.
Secret Agent Man, I got home, saw your comment/question and went to the website below:
http://www.valleyair.org/recent_news/News_Clippings/2007/In%20the%20News%2010-31-07.pdf
It’s a four page document, which I haven’t read through yet. But I’m sure it will answer your question and then some.
Good grief! Fireplace Nazis!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.