Pellet Heat

Well, we have been accused by some of being "country folk," but the pellet stove insert is in, and we love it! For those of you who have never heard of a pellet stove, basically it is a small freestanding stove (or fireplace insert in this case) that burns wood pellets. The wood pellets are made from scrap sawdust, and are basically a way of using waste material from the lumbering process. For those of you who'd like to read about the technology, see an overview at Wikipedia (pellet stove). Anyway, I first got hooked on the idea when I visited Kelly and Marty's house in Nevada. They have an all electric home, so they are using a pellet stove for their primary source of heat. I vowed that when I moved from Minnesota to Seattle that I would seriously consider a stove as an option.

Anyway, Seattle is a bit quirky in that natural gas isn't as popular as the Midwest. In 1926, our home was built with a coal furnace. In the 1950s or so, many of the city homes changed to heating oil - that is our main source of heat now (another blog to come on the EnerRoyal, our funky little oil furnace). Our house has always had a masonry fireplace, although by the time that we got here, the firebox was shot (the chinking had fallen out). So it was repair the firebox or put in an insert.

To get a gas insert, we'd have to pay for hook-up. A wood insert was an option, but that meant splitting wood. So, the pellet insert was ideal for us - the warmth of a wood or gas fireplace, without having to pay for gas hook-up, and without stacking/splitting wood. We just pour the pellets in and go. It is self-igniting, and we have a remote control programmable thermostat.

I did this big pellet survey, and I found that actually the best deal for us are the Blazer pellets from the Home Cheapo. They're made in Oregon. I bought a few bags to try them out, and will have 2 tons delivered next week. That should get us through the entire year!

The greatest thing about this stove is that you can choose it's heat output - anywhere between 8,000 and 28,000 BTU per hour. So, in comparison to the furnace that can either be fully on or off (blasting out 68,000 BTU per hour) we can run the stove continuously at a low level. It heats the whole main floor, and it makes the living and dining rooms ever so toasty. Jane is just going to love it!

Drawbacks? Well, it is more work than gas - you have to clean out the fly-ash every few weeks (takes 10 minutes or less), once a year you have to clean the chimney out, and you have to haul around pellets. It is much easier than wood, however! Besides, I like to tinker, so it makes me happy.

Some people do claim that pellets are "carbon neutral," although I don't think that this is quite the case. There is some energy expended in the manufacturing process as well as transportation. It probably is better than using the oil furnace, I guess. Also, while it is very clean burning, there is a small amount of ash that makes it up the chimney, so that is a factor as well.

All in all, the pellet stove has been a great addition - I'm looking forward to winter - it will be a welcome addition!

Would love to hear your comments, so please post away! Mike (and Marc)

PS I found a cool pic of the cross-section of a stove so that you can see its innards. Click on this LINK.