My advice to anyone who is worried about heating this winter to check out the wood pellet burning

[madokie]

stoves such as these in this link http://www.lennoxhearthproducts.com/products/list.asp?mcatid=3#pellet

there are many different brands besides just this one, ok. we have the profile 20 now and love it. anyways I have a reply in this post talking about it. so I won't repeat myself anymore than I already have.
peace

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2363329&mesg_id=2363456

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2363329&mesg_id=2363329

[mod mom]

1. We put in a high efficiency soapstone wood stove this year which we love.

The soapstone heats up to 175 which is hot but will not burn (we have kids and dogs). It radiates heat for a long time.
Here is our free standing model (although ours is in soapstone):

[madokie]

3. thats what we were going to buy originally back in '91 but due to the fact

our temperature changes so drastically from day to day and time of day we decided to go with the pellet stove because the winter before we used an ashley wood stove and some days I or her would get home and the house would be hot and we'd have to open windows and doors to cool it off, too much hassle. The pellet stove can be stone cold and come on and in about a couple minutes and it will be blowing warm air and when it goes off in about 10 minutes its stone cold again so for that reason mostly we went with pellets. Now though I wouldn't even consider a regular wood burning stove as this pellet stove is so easy to live with. I will have to dump the ashes out this winter maybe 3 or 4 times the whole winter for instance. very little mess

[hlthe2b]

6. So, what so you burn in it? wood?

[madokie]

9. wood pelllets, hell even china mart sells them

I have a choice of probably close to or more than a hundred different places within a 35 or 40 mile radius to buy the pellets, I can buy oak which I buy but I can buy pine, mesquite some that are made out of grain stems ground up. lots of options

[mod mom]

13. We use wood but it is slow burning (high efficiency). We live on a lot with many

mature trees and have had to get rid of branches that die and fall off. The stove only burns on small log at a time and there is a dial to adjust the amount of air flow. Our house is very open so this is working very well for us.

Note: This stove company (Wittus) was introduced to us on the energy/environment forum. Our house is very modern so this free standing stove looks as it heats. I found a thread yesterday on the energy forum on how to dispose of the ashes (keep away from acid loving plants)

[kestrel91316]

15. Wood pellets. Some of them burn dried corn kernels.

[hlthe2b]

16. That looks terrific... are they really expensive?

[madokie]

17. we have the whitfield profile 20 and it cost us a little over 21 hundred bucks

but it'll pay for itself in only a few years in savings. our other options here is regular wood, propane or electric. We used to heat with regular wood years ago and it cost us about the same as the pellets did winter wise and a whole lot more of a hassle. always too warm or too cold only being just right as it passed the right temp as it when up or down. I was raised using wood heat so I am pretty used to it. No way would I go back to using a regular wood stove, I'd have to be forced to do it, tortured into it in fact;-)

[mod mom]

18. The soapstone model was...

(it also come in metal cheapest or ceramic tile). We paid ~ $5,000 for it.

We had looked into investing in solar panels but the payoff for us was going to be over 30 years. We don't use much electricity since our yard is wooded and we have great ventilation with windows around the perimeter of the house. Our big expense is winter heat-gas. Our payback on this was ~5.5 years.

We're still interested in solar but decided to wait until costs come down. We put in LED lighting when it first came out an now it's ~1/4 the cost. Learned the hard way.

note; my husband is an architect and design is extremely important to him. There are cheaper more traditional units available.

[hlthe2b]

19. Do any of you live in areas with wood burning restrictions?

Most of Metro Denver, including some of the mountain communities are subject to them on heavy particulate pollution days and I noted that San Francisco is thinking about banning fireplaces. Are these subject to those kinds of restrictions (I assume they would be). If so, how has that impacted your use?

[madokie]

20. I think both places you mention have no problem with pellet burning stoves

they are real clean burning never any smoke, if someone didn't see you carry in the sacks of pellets they would have no way of even telling how you heated. the pellet stoves uses a fan to force air through the firebox

[hlthe2b]

22. Yes.. I think you are right... I've just not taken the time to research

before. Now, seems a good time. Thanks all~!

[mod mom]

27. Here's info on the technology:

Technology - Behind its beauty, lies an advanced, sophisticated burning system, which has set new standards in the field of wood and gas burning today. The double-chambered burning compartment together with an adjustable air control, insures the utmost and cleanest burn from the wood (efficiencies range from 71 to 74%). With the single air control feature, it enables ease of use and optimal burning throughout its complex phases. The glass doors are kept clean because of the secondary air, which is drawn through the warm stove, heated, and then forced down over the ceramic glass. The gas products utilize the latest in burn technology, valves, and controls. Most Wittus products are manufactured according to the stringent ISO quality standards.


In addition, Wittus has been a member of the industry trade organization Hearth, Patio, & Barbeque Association (HPBA).

Safety - All the Wittus fireplace/stoves have been tested by OMNI-Test Laboratories, Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon. Wood burning models are listed to both the US UL1482 and the Canadian ULC S627 standards. They are convection stoves with double lined outside walls that enable faster heating and reduce clearances. Other safety features include stainless steel handles that were developed for user comfort and safety and are "cool to the touch". In addition they are MEA approved (#270-02-E for stoves and #328-01-S for inserts) for installation in New York City. All the gas products are tested to ANSI standards.

Environment - All the Wittus wood burning stove/fireplaces are EPA certified.
The firebox geometry and the computer designed baffle system control the correct mixture of air and smoke gases, which virtually eliminate (through secondary burning) any excess particulate (pollution) and produce a clean burn.

No restrictions where I live.

[hlthe2b]

33. This is really helpful... Thanks all...I will do the reading.

[BelgianMadCow]

2. But this is for one room only, right? Our house isn't "open" on the inside

I also wonder about the availability of the wood pellets here - am not sure. We seem to use coal pellets in this type of burners, and it all depends on the price of the fuel of course.

[madokie]

7. I'm sure someone sells the pellets near you.

these pellet stoves are whole house stoves. I put a return duct from the back of the house to the air that is circulating in the stove and being pushed back out into the front room and our bed room which is a good 35 or more feet away is only a couple degrees cooler on the coldest days and on the rest theres not difference in the temperature through out our house.

we'll be heating this winter for at the most 420 bucks for the whole winter if our past winters are any indication

[madokie]

12. Oops I don't know about belgium

but the pellet stoves are popular in some places in europe so I've read anyway

[DaveJ]

4. I guess that only works when people own their home

Not much good for people who are homeless / in renters' hell.

[Touchdown]

10. My place is on the top floor. My heater comes on rarely.

I own my condo though. You should talk to your landlord and see if you can't rent a top floor apt if it's available. You'd be amazed how much heat rises when you live on top. Summer is pretty bad though. The A/C runs non-stop for me.

[mod mom]

14. In grad school I lived in the top floor of an old building in Cincinnati w steam heat.

One winter break, I returned home to find my taper candles had melt from upright to bent like an upside down letter "U". I loved how warm it was!

[madokie]

11. the don't require a flu so you can run the 3 inch exhaust pipe out a window if you wanted

I have ours on an outside wall so I only have 2 ft of double wall 3" pipe straight through the wall.

[ORDagnabbit]

5. the only problem is pellets are manufactured and they can run out....

had that happen up in WA state and it sucked big time for my friends....

at least with wood stoves you can cut the wood your self and basically store it forever.

if you do use the pellet stove remember to keep a months supply on hand at all times.

[madokie]

8. oh yeah any thing is possible

we buy them by the ton and two tons will do us fine all winter. I'm talking about having the thermostat set on 74 or 75 degrees day in and day out nights too.
nothing compares with the pellet stoves for cost I believe.

[ileus]

29. that happened to us in 05, stock up early.

It was my fault, I always bought on ton in Sept and one in Jan or Feb. When Feb rolled around there were no pellets for 50 miles.

[LSK]

21. does this need a chimney or venting to work???

:shrug:

[Warpy]

23. Since I'm getting too dilapidated to cut, split and stack firewood

I'm considering changing over to a pellet stove once my supply of firewood is gone.

Thanks for the link. There are a couple of varieties there that will actually match my decor, such as it is, instead of swearing at it.

[madokie]

24. there are a lot of different brands, lots of colors to chose from too

Harman is another http://www.harmanstoves.com/

then theres quadra-fire http://www.quadrafire.com/

theres many more brands but these were the ones I pulled off the top of my bruised and battered old assed brain;-)

[Vinca]

25. We have a Harman stove and we love it.

It keeps the house toasty warm and is very safe. We mix our pellets with dried corn from a local farmer for additional savings. It actually burns a little hotter with the corn and is cheaper than straight pellets. We use a 50/50 mix. (Ok'd by the Harman dealer.)

[madokie]

26. corn cost too much for me to use here

the Harman advance is the stove we almost bought but it was a thousand bucks higher than the profile was so we decided to go with the profile but before I got home I told my wife that I sure wished we would have went with the harman, she agreed but at the time they were all sold out and we would have to order it. sure wished we would have bought the harman. our first pellet stove was an england brand and it had the feed auger pushing the pellets in from the back of the fire pit like the harman does and I had to from time to time clean the end of the auger, which wasn't a big deal mind you but I thought I wanted to buy one like we have that dropped the pellet into the fire pit. the pushing the pellets in from behind is the best way I say now that I have had both kinds. Oh well

[ileus]

28. I loved my Harmon pelletpro II at my old house....super unit.

I used it for 8 years with only one exhaust temp sensor failure. They take a little maintenance but they are worth the trouble. 250 bucks for 50 bags (1 ton) and I'd use two tons a year to heat 1850 ft with 26ft main ceiling. If I had a place I'd install on in my new home. They are a little noisy with a pusher/auger/blower and exhaust fan always running. You also need some kind of power backup in case you have a long term power failure. I used a med sized UPs just to keep the exhaust fan running until it could shut down.

[tammywammy]

30. Bookmarked for the future

I'm not in a financial situtation where I can get one right now, but hopefully I will be by next winter. My house doesn't have a fireplace and this would look nice and be a bonus for heat.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

31. Anyone have trouble with the exhaust fan when the power goes out?

My husband heard that these pellet stoves can have ventillation problems when the power goes out. Is this true?

[madokie]

32. well of course they do and if you live in an area that is prone to outages

you can put a pipe up on the outside to act like a flu so as it will vent the smoke out side. In all the years we've been using a pellet stove only a couple times has the power gone off here. I personally have an inverter as well as a welder/generator so in those cases we could use one of them for power. some brands have 12 vot motor in them just so as to make it easier to use alternate battery power. Last winter was one of the times we were out of power due to a big assed ice storm and all our friends came over here because I had what it took to keep the heat on and a few lights teevee and such.

[warren pease]

34. Besides the vent fan...

...do these stoves still use the auger feed mechanism, which was driven by an electric motor when I last looked at pellet stoves maybe a decade ago?

If so, does that built-in battery powered motor put out sufficient torque to drive an auger like that?

The power usually stays on around here, too, but it's always the coldest, windiest, nastiest days when it goes off and I'd hate to lose heat at those times.

Btw, I've got a basic wood-burner as a backup to central heating driven by a heat pump through a standard gas furnace, so I'm covered for power outages now. I'd prefer to switch to a pellet stove, however, for the efficiency and lower carbon footprint and hopefully use the heat pump less.

Just wondering about that auger. I could always call a retailer or look online, but why bother when the accumulated knowledge of DU is far superior to anything I could find elsewhere.


Thanks in advance,

wp

[madokie]

35. yes they do

you have to have electricity for any of the ones I've heard about to operate so in a power outage you'll be up shit creek without a paddle with them too. Sounds like you have a good setup and I would bet you would really like the convenience of the pellet stoves. buying wood or buying pellets won't be that big of a difference in cost and the pellets are a whole lots cleaner to deal with plus you can keep the house toasty warm with out costing an arm and a leg and in a carbon neutralway. I put a bag of pellets in two days ago and just a little while ago put in another, 48 hrs. It was 22 degrees here this morning btw and it got up to 62 for a high a little while yesterday and it cost me $4.20. I'll have to clean the ashes out somewhere around 4 times this winter if past winters is any indication, which requires pulling the drawer out and carrying it out to the garden and dump it, sliding it back into the stove and you can do it will the stove is running/burning if you want. going on 16 years and two different stoves and I can't say enough good about them. Check em out theres many brands and many different features and someone who sells the pellets near you I would bet.

[warren pease]

38. That's great information. Thanks a lot. n/t

[helderheid]

36. I have one and I love it. Clean burning too!

[madokie]

37. plus it makes a great winter time nitelite ;-)

With a Harman pellet stove if its nice and you don't really need a fire but you want the ambiance of a fire you can do it without getting too durn warm