Anyone running a wood stove and a pellet stove at the same time?

Just curious in general if anyone actually does this, or is it too hair brained of an idea? With this recent cold spell, and my increasing need for sleep, I've been thinking about this. Our oil furnace is on its last legs for some time, and no way to afford a new one (let alone find an oil furnace for mobile homes around here). My sister in law actually suggested that I can have her pellet stove that was never installed, but it's a dinosaur.

But more importantly, do people run a wood stove and a pellet stove, specifically in a mobile home? Would it mess up the heat transfer? Is this just stupid? I honestly don't know. I see these "mini" pellet stoves and thought even running one on low overnight would help tremendously. Here's an example of one of these smaller pellet stoves.

Alpine by Comfortbilt- Space Saver Pellet Stove HP40/ Free Shipping to USA and Canada
Enviro P3

I know a big pellet stove would eliminate the need for a wood stove, but I never want to be a slave to only buying bags of pellets to heat, when I can literally walk out my door and find stuff to throw in a stove.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

Not in a mobile home, but I have a pellet stove and wood stove and occasionally fire both at the same time.

Pellet stove is in basement. Yes, you're correct, it easily runs all night, even on the highest settings. Mine's super old as well, but the hopper's large and it runs like a champ.

Wood stove is on the first floor.

Both share the same masonry chimney, but each have their own flu. The stove flu has an insulated liner, the pellet stove's does not. In my house, running both only makes more heat, no negative consequences. Can't speak to a mobile home, though.

I love having my setup.

 

I’m in the works of swapping out a gas fireplace in a 4 season porch with a pellet burner. And run a wood stove in the main part of the house. I don’t see any issues. I hope.

I do have a buddy that has a wood stove and a pellet stove in his mobile home. He says he is too old to deal with firewood anymore. I don’t think he has run both but I’ll ask.

 

There was a guy on that other site that had a big ole leaky house and he was running a wood furnace to carry the base load, and a large pellet eater to make up any shortage, and also provide "proper thermostatic control"...it was a big one, a P68 maybe?

 

Well, if at least one other guy has done it, it's not too crazy

My main concern is how or if it would screw up the "convection flow" if that's a thing. When I run my wood stove, it heats up the general living room/kitchen area where the stove is, and also the warm air makes a convection loop, hot air shoots down the hall to the cool end of the shack, and the cold air back there races along the floor to the warm area. My only concern is how that would be affected. I suppose if there's heat at both ends, it might meet half way and just peter out, but with 2 sources of heat it might not matter anyways, and make it toasty everywhere. I'm just thinking out loud.

As for size, I know big everything heats everything easier, but at a cost. Down to -20 or -25C here, my stove alone does pretty good, but I need more jam on the cold nights or simply to sleep. When you need to use the hairdryer to warm the oil furnace, things just aren't going smoothly lol

 

His stoves are at the front of his house and he always has had issues keeping the master at the other end warm…

 

Oh, okay...I had planned to combat this with one at each end, which would be a totally different situation.

 

He just text me, once he installed the pellet burner he was done with wood. Seems crazy to me not to use both when it gets real cold but he heated with wood for many decades and decided he was done.

a stove at both ends seems like a great solution to me.

 

I'd say it's fine - if they run on outside air. I believe that's code for mobile homes anyway, but in particular the pellet stove will suck a lot of air out of the room otherwise. And you don't want your wood stove (leakier flue connections, even if having outside air) to belch gases while you sleep.

 

Nothing wrong at all with having multiple independent heaters that use different fuels. Seems like a great idea if you have the room. Lets you use the cheapest fuel, backup if one breaks, or combine for more power.

Most of our homes have some kind of thermostatic heat for the same reason.

 

We have a quad Mt Vernon AE pellet stove in living room and a rn 2500 wood furnace/ stove in basement that is tied into our heat pump ductwork. When it’s 35-40 and above we mainly use the heat pump along with the pellet stove. Then when temp drops below freezing we primarily use the Harmon wood furnace from the basement. The pellet stove will auto ignite if the wood stove doesn’t keep up or if we want the extra heat. It has worked well for us for 16 years. I debate putting a Woodstock ideal steel in the living room eventually but the pellet stove is so easy to use during the shoulder season with the auto igniter and we can load pellets and forget about it most of the time. We typically only burn about a ton of pellets a season along with maybe 3-4 full cords of wood.