Pellet stoves?

[Van Chocstraw]

I'm talking carbon dirty. Yes, gas puts out new C02. Wood is carbon neutral.

[Tony]

If I bought a pellet stove I'd also buy a 12vdc deep cycle battery, float type charger, and an inverter. I think most stoves you can turn off the external fan, then the internal fan, auger feed, and electronics doesn't use too much power. On second thought, maybe I'd just run the generator and a few portable heaters and forget the pellet stove?

[Bob F]

But the wood smoke is a far dirtier. It contains all kinds of pollutants. If everyone in the city used wood, many would be sickened or die. CO2 is at least a far less immediate problem.

[K]

Electricity in our area has been very reliable - I can only think of one winter outage that lasted more than an hour. The pellet stove obviously went out, so I started a log fire in LR fireplace. If long winter outagges are common in your area, then your stove dealer will probably recommend a UPS with power enough to run the stove for several hours. It's probably more likely that he'll sell you a wood stove. Most other heating systems require electricity for ignition and/or heat circulation.

Keith

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: [e-mail] ---

[Robert Neville]

I agree. There are lots of heating fuel price comparison web sites around. Be sure you use a legit one. Or you can use a spreadsheet like this one from the US DOE:

I've found that pellet fuel is tied to the cost of the dominate fuel in the area, so you aren't going to be saving massive amounts by using it. Factor in the cost of the stove and payback is a long time coming. Then realize that the pellet sources, while more plentiful than they have been in the past, are still limited.

[Caesar Romano]

On Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:51:30 -0700, Robert Neville wrote Re Re: Pellet stoves?:

Nice one. Thanks.

[Van Chocstraw]

It's not that dirty with the new efficient wood stoves. It's not like the 19th century when everybody burned coal and your clothes on the clothes line outside turn black from the soot. Probably your lungs too.

[Tony]

Due to severe wood stove pollution in various places in Australia, one of the many laws will fine you for selling wood that isn't dry.

Biggest problems I see here are people with stoves that are too big. You can't keep a little fire in a big stove going without it smoking a lot. Not to mention it builds up creosote much faster with a small smoldering fire. Get a smaller stove and run it hot. And do controlled creosote burns every day or two. If they are done often they don't build up and aren't dangerous. After two or three years, maybe more, even with me burning a lot of scrap pine, the chimney sweep said I didn't need him.

[Phisherman]

The cost of the pellets makes it not too practical. A wood burning stove makes a lot more sense and some folks have an almost endless supply of free wood. I added another 10" of insulation to the attic floor over 10 years ago and that has saved me a bundle.

[Bob F]

It's still a lot dirtier than natural gas. There's a reason they have burn bans, which sometimes include even EPA certified stoves.