# Economics of Pellet Stoves



## DTrain (Mar 16, 2005)

We have natural gas heat. I've been thinking about a pellet stove. Not as our main heat, but just something to supplement in the evenings/weekends etc. We have a raised ranch house and I could put the stove in the basement and with a blower, blow heat right up the stairs into the main living area of the house.

I have access to wood that I could cut, but I really like the ease, cleanliness and efficiency of the pellet stoves.

I've even had that thought of cutting wood, selling it and using that money to buy pellets.

What I can't figure out is whether or not it's even worth it to begin with. Are pellets cheaper than Nat gas? Will I save money over the years on my heating bills?

Interested in any and all opinions...


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## Backwoods-Savage (Aug 28, 2005)

D, you might want to reconsider that stove in the basement. Most folks end up not liking the situation after installing. First, is your basement insulated. If not, the cement or blocks will soak up most of that heat. Second it seems that it turns out most people can't really move that much heat trying to get it to the main floor. (But remember that when moving heat, most times it is not right to try to move the heat but instead to blow the cooler air towards the heated air. That will set up a better air flow. Sounds backwards but it works.)

Other problems to consider is availability of the pellets. Some years it is diffucult to even find enough and you know what that does to the price. Also all pellets are not created equal. Some are good and some are....not so good. 

Do yourself a favor and look in on hearth.com/forums. There is one section of the forum that is stricktly for pellet stoves. 

As for me, I'll stick to wood stoves and I really do like putting up the wood. I do it all in the winter months and the exercise if great plus, I just plain like to be in the woods.


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## country350 (Jul 8, 2008)

DTrain - I was in the same boat about two years ago. Propane was killing me each winter with the insane prices so I did some research and bought a pellet stove. Before I was going through about 2 tanks worth of propane per winter at roughly 800 bucks a fill up. Now with my pellet stove I can heat my whole house for about $900. The pellet stove is my main source of heating. I only use my propane furnace as a emergency backup - ie I never use it. My house is a cape cod style and is about 2,200 square feet. The stove I bought was a Harmon that costs roughly $3,000 two years ago. If you have any more questions pm me and I'll be glad to answer any other questions you may have.


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## InTheRiver (May 15, 2006)

This guy I know picked up one for his house and loves it. He was paying about 800.00 a month for propane. Big house, dual furnaces, plus pull barn furnace. They use supplemental base board heaters in the bedrooms. He said it cost about 200.00 a month to heat with the pellet stove..


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## Paul Thompson (Jul 16, 2007)

Gezzzz, anything is cheaper then Propane. I would think the pellets would be cleaner, not as messy as bark, dirt and bugs. And you don't have to split it. I quit wood heat, just for the mess it made, the residue smoke that wifed out the stove door, turned the house black after a while. You never notice this until you repaint the ceilings white,, wow.


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## WALLEYE MIKE (Jan 7, 2001)

DTrain said:


> We have natural gas heat. I've been thinking about a pellet stove. Not as our main heat, but just something to supplement in the evenings/weekends etc. We have a raised ranch house and I could put the stove in the basement and with a blower, blow heat right up the stairs into the main living area of the house.
> 
> I have access to wood that I could cut, but I really like the ease, cleanliness and efficiency of the pellet stoves.
> 
> ...


My dad has been heating with a wood stove in the basement for years. Has a ranch house. Warm air travels up the stairs but most air gets to the rooms via floor vents. Warm air rises from the basement thru the vents. Just like the older house of yesteryear with one heater on the main floor. Power vents are also available.


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## Topshelf (May 24, 2005)

I picked up a pellet stove this year after burning firewood for ten years. I have about 1,000 dollars into mine which includes the vent pipe. I picked up three tons of pellets at TSC in September and have them stored in my garage. I pour in a bag in the morning before I go to work andf its set until the next day. Empty the ash about once every three four days and its back in business. 

This is hands down the best heating source for me. I have a propane boiler thats cost 600 plus per tank to fill. I'm expecting to only fill my tank once this winter as opposed to twice with wood. 
Reason is it can run 24/7 with zero down time due to the wife not adding wood in the old days. 

Low maintaince and cost is much less if you consider what your labor is worth to cut, split, stack and haul into the house every winter. The mess is 1% of firewood in the house and ash is 5-10% of the firewood ash. 

Love mine and wont go back to a wood stove


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## kingfisher 11 (Jan 26, 2000)

I hate to hi jack this thread so maybe someone can PM me with a answer. We looked at a house that had two furnaces. One was for the upstairs and the other was for the downstairs. Is this a benefit or a nightmare? They claim they program them so the lower level furnace turns down at night and the upstairs furnace turns up for the bedrooms. Then just the opposite for the day time.

Well buit house but big.


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## NoFairway (Nov 20, 2009)

kingfisher 11 said:


> I hate to hi jack this thread so maybe someone can PM me with a answer. We looked at a house that had two furnaces. One was for the upstairs and the other was for the downstairs. Is this a benefit or a nightmare? They claim they program them so the lower level furnace turns down at night and the upstairs furnace turns up for the bedrooms. Then just the opposite for the day time.
> 
> Well buit house but big.


In any situation, when you can get zoned heating/cooling, you will be more efficient. It is a plus as long as the separate heating/cooling elements aren't severely outdated.


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## Frantz (Dec 9, 2003)

I run my pellet stove in the basement. Usually though, once I fire it up for the year, I keep it running. Takes to long to heat up all the crap down there plus the walls. Once it is running for a day or two, I let it run for the season. I block most my cold air returns, open the basement vents and circulate the air upstairs by turning the gas furnace fan to ON and letting in run.


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## Ralph Smith (Apr 1, 2003)

WALLEYE MIKE said:


> My dad has been heating with a wood stove in the basement for years. Has a ranch house. Warm air travels up the stairs but most air gets to the rooms via floor vents. Warm air rises from the basement thru the vents. Just like the older house of yesteryear with one heater on the main floor. Power vents are also available.




Have a cousin that heats his house (one story ranch) with woodstove in basement all winter. He cut a section out of his cool air return, right near where stove is. Has a fan that blows heat from stove backward through cool air return vent up into house. Works great and only will turn on furnace at night if it gets below zero until he gets up to stoak the stove.


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## N M Mechanical (Feb 7, 2008)

OK did I miss something I thought he was heating with NATURAL GAS. If this is the case it would depend on the eff. of the furnace a 95% that quailifies for the $1,500 tax rebate and energy credits will be money ahead of a pellet stove and alot less maintance. My 1,700 sq home gas bill is at a high of $135 and that was last march. Just my .02


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## N M Mechanical (Feb 7, 2008)

question for those of you on propane and use a pellet stove how $much are you spending in pellets and how much time do you spend cleaning them.


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## WALLEYE MIKE (Jan 7, 2001)

Ralph Smith said:


> Have a cousin that heats his house (one story ranch) with woodstove in basement all winter. He cut a section out of his cool air return, right near where stove is. Has a fan that blows heat from stove backward through cool air return vent up into house. Works great and only will turn on furnace at night if it gets below zero until he gets up to stoak the stove.


Dad has electric heat. So the warm air in the basement would rise thru the vents naturally. Only problem now tho is he is 81 and my mother won't let him cut as much wood as he used too. So they are now using the electric more.


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## Topshelf (May 24, 2005)

N M Mechanical said:


> question for those of you on propane and use a pellet stove how $much are you spending in pellets and how much time do you spend cleaning them.


I have a propane boiler system. Probably would go through 3-4 tanks in a winter if I only ran propane. I WAS using wood stove to suplament my heat so I would use maybe 2 tanks. Switched to pellets this year.

I clean my stove once a week. usually only takes 5-10 minutes. I vacuum the excess ash, empty the ash drawer, clean the glass door. Other than that there isnt much maintaince besides adding pellets. 

I picked up three tons of pellets at TSC in September. roughly 750 bucks worth. If you buy them by the bag its +/- 4.50 - 5.00 per bag. Hopefully this will last me the winter +/-. If you buy in bulk you get a better rate obviously.

I figure I will go through one bag a day maybe more on colder days. 
right now I run my stove on a 1 or 2 setting on the auger and it goes +/- 1.5 days. Once it gets colder I will have to up the settings. My 1800 sq ft house is at 72 right now on a setting of 1 auger and 5 blower. 

One thing I did was buy a dual fuel stove. Mine will burn corn or pellets.
Corn can be had much cheaper than pellets ( maybe half the price) if you buy it right from the farmers.Next summer I will be stocking up on corn to burn. 
Corn is 3 bucks a bushel (56 lbs) compared to 4-5 bucks for 40 lb bag of pellets. I picked my stove up brand new from Ebay from Englander stove for 800 bucks. PM for more info


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## DTrain (Mar 16, 2005)

N M Mechanical said:


> OK did I miss something I thought he was heating with NATURAL GAS. If this is the case it would depend on the eff. of the furnace a 95% that quailifies for the $1,500 tax rebate and energy credits will be money ahead of a pellet stove and alot less maintance. My 1,700 sq home gas bill is at a high of $135 and that was last march. Just my .02


Right we are using Natural Gas. We've been on the budget plan (pay the same amount for a whole year) and for the past year it's been right around $73/month. So that's about $875 a year for Natural Gas and that's for our heat, hot water, and gas dryer. So that's why I am really struggling to determine if i'll have any savings with a pellet stove. Seems like it would take a while just to recoup the cost of the stove / installation.


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## buckshot-0 (Nov 14, 2005)

You can use this link to kinda figure it out yourself. 

http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

I have a Quadra-fire stove and they say it runs about 82% efficient. Pellets are around $210-250 a ton.


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## love2fish93 (Jul 22, 2007)

what kind of consumption are you seeing with the pellets?


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## Dave Lyons (Jun 28, 2002)

What about changing out your boiler to a 98% Weil Mclain Ultra and redo your system to handle 100 degree return water temps and rezone your house. 

From what I have seen in the field this is what I would do. 

Put in boiler mate and start saving money.


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