Wood-burning vs pellet stoves?

[Timothy Murphy]

Any views on the merits of wood vs pellet burning stoves? The old-fashioned wood-burning stoves look much nicer, to my eyes, but are they much more trouble?

Or likely to be more expensive?

[NT]

far cheaper from what I've seen. Get or build a big'un and you dont need to chop the logs.

NT

[dom]

Last time I checked, pellets were not (yet) a cheap form of fuel - weight for weight compared with logs (and you loose the option to burn your own timber scrap etc).

[Tim W]

[e-mail] wibbled on Sunday 15 November 2009 02:42

I might be missing something, but I thought the main point of pellets was for auto-fed systems like boilers?

Regarding the log stoves - I would think logs are the best bet vs pellets. With the wind we just had, if you are quick you might reap some of your fuel for free (not many fallen trees round these parts are left long enough for the council/HA to deal with. Couple of cars with trailers turn up, out come the chainsaws and road clear in short order...

Logs will probably look nicer to burn if you're after the cosy effect - and you can lob on all manner of other scrap like offcuts and bits of pallet.

In my case, my firepace is very narrow (50cm) so allowing for 100mm total clearance, I'm reduced to almost the smallest stove available. I can't even get logs on mine, unless they're virtually twigs, so I'll be burning anthrathite mostly and some scrap wood.

Which bring me to mention - consider getting the coal kit (if it's a separate optional part - sometimes it is) then you have a full range of options. 1 ton large nut anthrathite comes in at about 370 all in if you search around t'internet.

[Timothy Murphy]

First of all, I should confess that I am looking for a stove in Italy ...

The local supplier has a large range of modern pellet-burning stoves, together with a few very ornate wood-burners.

According to the lady I was speaking to, you have to choose between convenience and beauty.

Most of the stores round here (Tuscany) sell 15kg bags of pellets for around ?6. (I may have that price wrong.) The lady said that an average stove takes about 1kg/hour.

I imagine it is fairly easy to buy logs, as there are many fallen trees. I wouldn't like to help myself, as I am sure one has to have several forms filled in in triplicate.

[Tim W]

Timothy Murphy wibbled on Sunday 15 November 2009 10:09

Not sure about the burn rate vs coal, but the price/kg is fairly comparable with smokeless coal.

It's Italy... I'm sure there are a 100 forms, but does anyone take any notice? It's normally the Brits that get hung up on not ignoring stupid beaurocracy - I thought the Italians had that bit cracked. Ask your Italian mates what the done thing is.

[Stephen Mawson]

I installed an attractive but not ornate wood-burning stove in Italy (Lake Como) from an Italian manufacturer called MCZ; the model was called 'Orion'. I chose it over a pellet stove because the latter are more expensive and they depend on mains electricity for their fans -- if there's a power cut the stove stops and you're left in the cold. Logs (beech) round here are 11 euros a quintal (100kg) cut to size and delivered.

Stephen

[The Natural Philosopher]

Nah. You just bribe the carabinieri.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Think we pay about £200 a tonne for logs. Of course there's water in that as well as wood. That eqautres to about £3 a 15kg, which is in the same ballpark.

[Timothy Murphy]

Very OT, but I'm pretty sure the carabinieri, at least in Tuscany, are no more corrupt than the police in the UK, or in Ireland. In fact I would say all three are more or less interchangeable.

[Timothy Murphy]

Thanks for the info. I looked at MCZ's web-site; they have an outlet near here, in Citta di Castello. I must say your Orion looked rather modernistic, to me. I'd really like one of those stoves Maigret used to warm his hands at. I wonder if they exist any more?

[Steve Firth]

Umm woodburners are cheaper than pellet stoves and pellet stoves are rubbish. There's no real difficulty in making a decision betweent he two. Pellet stoves appeal to people of a certain age who have never lived with open fires/stove before. They appear to offer the convenience of oil/gas boilers and promise eco-weenie credentials.

The fuel is expensive, low density and hence you need to keep filling up the hopper. You also need a source of supply that will deliver on a regular basis. And you're tied to fuel in pellet form.

If what you want is unattended running for central heating then IMO you need the bigger and uglier boilers that run on chipped wood rather than pellets. You also need a wood chipper, somewhere to dry and store the chips and, preferably, a large outbuilding close to the house to install boiler, chipper, storage etc in. Workable on a farm or large rural property - difficult to impossible in suburbia.

[Steve Firth]

Hmm, I'm further south that you and that price sounds very high. They do sell pallets of bags at our local Castorama and also at the local farmers' merchants (known in the family as "Scattos" for reasons obvious to anyone from Surrey/Hampshire) where there is always a wide range of stoves and boilers on sale.

We have several log burners, some with back boilers, and we burn olive wood prunings in them. This provides lots of heat. Some neighbours have chipped wood boilers which have a huge store to one side for 500Kg of wood chips.

I want to get an Stanley log burning cooker or one of the cheaper Italian alternatives but I'm facing some resistance from the female side of the family.

[Steve Firth]

Forms are the least of it. There's also having to stand in queues at some local bureaucrat's office for three days or more.

[Jules]

JOOI does building your own cause any problems over in the UK? That's one of the few things I *can't* do this side of the Pond, because no house inurance company would insure a property with a homebrew stove (and there'll be a get-out clause in any policy if they weren't told beforehand that a wood stove was present).

Of course it's all timber-framed buildings over here though, which tend to burn a lot better than brick, so there's a lot of paranoia about house fires...

cheers

Jules