Pellet stoves??

[golfgal]

Corn stoves are popular around here, same principal but use corn vs pellets. My in-laws have one. Originally they put it in to heat their basement but discovered it provides quite a bit of heat for their upstairs. They use very little propane in the winter now. They have the corn delivered. They live in an older house that has a coal room complete with the old coal shoot so that was handy for them. No shortage of corn to worry about around here either.

 

[Mermaid02]

they do need electricity, but the newer models can be purchased with a standby battery backup.

This thread is very timely as DH and I spent a good portion of yesterday researching pellet stoves.

The one we are getting has battery back up- but like I said, we RARELY lose our power and when we do it isn't out long.

What kind of stove are you guys looking at??

 

[Boo'sMom]

The one we are getting has battery back up- but like I said, we RARELY lose our power and when we do it isn't out long.

What kind of stove are you guys looking at??

we haven't really started the process of picking out a model. We're trying to narrow down the choices based on the features we really want. We lose power fairly regularly (at least a few times a year), so a battery back up is a biggie for us.

 

[Mermaid02]

we haven't really started the process of picking out a model. We're trying to narrow down the choices based on the features we really want. We lose power fairly regularly (at least a few times a year), so a battery back up is a biggie for us.

Some of them are VERY ugly and I said to my dh "If I'm going to be looking at that thing every day it's gotta be prettier than that." and there are some more attractive ones out there. I'm really excited to get it.

 

[stamper]

My DH called from work to tell me that he had talked to a co-worker with a Harmon. He heats his whole house and has changed over to an electric water heater (which we are considering!). It would be nice to disconnect "from the spicket"! Anyway, this co-worker said he had recently heard that oil might be more like $6/gal. None of the companies are "locking in" yet because it's so unstable that they just can't guess at where it will stop!

 

[stamper]

I read in the paper yesterday that a new pellet plant also just opened up in Athens (Maine).

Yes, we had heard that as well! Good, I'd much rather have my $$ go to a Maine owned company for a Maine product instead of for oil!!!

 

[Boo'sMom]

Some of them are VERY ugly and I said to my dh "If I'm going to be looking at that thing every day it's gotta be prettier than that." and there are some more attractive ones out there. I'm really excited to get it.

definitely an issue if you have to look at it each day. I think ours might be going in the basement family room, so it can be as butt ugly as the neighbors dog.

 

[Mermaid02]

My DH called from work to tell me that he had talked to a co-worker with a Harmon. He heats his whole house and has changed over to an electric water heater (which we are considering!). It would be nice to disconnect "from the spicket"! Anyway, this co-worker said he had recently heard that oil might be more like $6/gal. None of the companies are "locking in" yet because it's so unstable that they just can't guess at where it will stop!

I believe it. I would much rather pay a Maine business than Irving Oil!!

 

[Sharon G]

Another Mainer here!

We also went out last weekend pricing out pellet stoves. Don't forget to figure in the cost to vent it outside if you are not putting it into an existing chimney. It's going to cost us about $1,000 for the supplies, and thats with DH doing the installation.

We also like the Harman, looking at the P68 model with the hopper extension so it can hold almost 2 bags worth of pellets.

 

[tiggger1]

my sister has 2 of them. One heats the whole house, the other one is in the 3 car garage and heats that end of the house(need warm trucks in the morning!)

They LOVE them and now my parents are installing one in there home. Both of them live in NH.
At Lowe's a bag of Pellets goes for 1.50 and a ton is 150 so price wise that seems pretty good!

how big are the bags? around here a 40 lb bag goes for about $4.65 a bag...( i buy them for bedding for my horses..)

 

[Sharon G]

There are different grades of pellets. Premium pellets are around $4.50 for a 40 pound bag here in Maine.

 

[Mermaid02]

My husband priced out the piping at about $400 to vent it outside our house. We bought it Saturday and it's sitting in our dining room/den (soon to be anyway). I'm excited. My best friend got her budget payment plan from Webber last week..... $395 a month!!

 

[aprilvaca04]

We usually get our pellets in July. That seems to be when they aree cheapest for us.

Mary

How long does a ton of pellets last and what is the average cost? How are they stored?

 

[nealymouse]

Another Mainer here'ah ayah..... I just found this web page that lets you calculate your heating costs against another source.

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

We heat with coal and have for over 15 years. It just made since to us because our home is so big. When oil was cheap we used oil but now I cant see us going back ever again.

Our coal stove is piped into our forced hot water system so it runs just like our oil boiler and if the coal goes out the oil just kicks in. I love this system and our house is so warm.

I paid the most I ever have last week for 4 ton of coal. $305.00 a ton and we burn 8 ton a winter if we use it only, but we will still save over 3,000 a winter by doing so if oil goes to $5. a gallon.

 

[DizznyChick]

i was thinking about getting a pellet stove also. right now i have a wood burning stove and electric heat. when we 1st moved in we were very exicted to save on the oil that we had in our last house, but lugging and chopping the wood is a lot more work than we thought. even though it is MUCH cheaper than oil. the stove is in the basement and i'm always cleaning up wood chips through the kitchen and i'm always so dirty from carrying the wood. the pellets would be much better i think.

 

[stamper]

Well, we reserved and pd. for 4 tons of pellets this weekend! We don't have the stove yet, but wanted to get the pellets before the price goes up.

My understanding is that one ton = one tank of oil. Not sure how accurate that is, but I guess we'll find out!

Just got our "cap" price from the oil company and it's $4.899/gal. I need to cancel the program so I don't have to pay all winter! We are thinking about putting in an electric water heater so that the only time we use oil is when it's really cold! We'll see.

 

[Mermaid02]

Well, we reserved and pd. for 4 tons of pellets this weekend! We don't have the stove yet, but wanted to get the pellets before the price goes up.

My understanding is that one ton = one tank of oil. Not sure how accurate that is, but I guess we'll find out!

Just got our "cap" price from the oil company and it's $4.899/gal. I need to cancel the program so I don't have to pay all winter! We are thinking about putting in an electric water heater so that the only time we use oil is when it's really cold! We'll see.

Have you looked into any of the particular stoves yet?? I should take pics of ours and post them....

 

[stamper]

We have looked at both Harmon and Lopi. We have an existing fireplace so we'll go with an insert. It would be cheaper to get a free standing stove, but I don't have a "free" outer wall to put it against!!! We have someone coming to do a site check and measure our fireplace so we know which model will fit, etc. Until then, we'll go look at a couple other shops and compare prices, knowledge and service.