newbie question..

Please point me in the correct direction if i missed a prior thread. As i start my search for a pellet stove, what am i looking for?

Not asking brand questions, but there houses are are looking at are between 1200 and 1500 square feet A fame chalet style houses.

Features that i need to look for vs features i probably should have.

Thanks in advance.
Bruce

 

Well, what kind of budget ya got? $$$

 

.

 

The question is, what exactly do you want the stove to do for you? ex; heat all rooms? stove in upstairs part of decor? out of sight in basement? bedroom doors closed at night? even heat in all parts of the house? operates for long hours while away at work? finished basement? and the list goes on........
Welcome to the FHC pellet section of the forum

 

The problem with an A-Frame is that all the heat goes up to the top of the "A"....takes a while for that to work it's way down to the living airspace........bedrooms will be hot.

Welcome Bruce!

 

Pretty much any stove will heat that space. However, insulation and layout play a huge part and can make it hard to get the desired results.

Once you figure out how much you want to spend amd how much of a heating load the stove will do, we can all make somw recommendations that would suit your needs.

 

I would start looking at some big ceiling fans!

 

looking to heat the house, as most of them are all electric...
Budget to be determined, as i am selling 1 house with equity and purchasing a much cheaper house.
houses are mostly built in the 80's and seem to be solidly built

 

Yes, ceiling fans will be a must for this config.

 

We have (1) 36" paddle fan installed 10' from the upper loft entryway by the former owner, on the cathedral ceiling in the main living room.. (2) would be better, to distribute the heat more evenly at a lower setting, vs. pushing the single fan on a higher setting to move the heat below.

Temp differential averages 5-7* F hotter approx. (1) ft. from the (A)pex @ the ceiling (remote probe), vs. 8' below the paddle fan @ the landing to the upper loft (main thermometer unit) on a good day, with the paddle fan running at 30 to 40 %.

 

Many thoughts. These homes are one the small size, do they have fireplaces ? Are you better off with an insert? I have a insert because my home is small and we didn't want to give up any room for a stove when we rarely used the fireplace. Harder to clean and service a insert and the hopper is smaller but tradeoff from the footprint of a freestanding unit in our living room is worth it.
Exhaust configuration may impact where you are going to put the stove. Where will you place the exhaust ? With a A frame I would think through the wall.
Manual start with no or limited thermostat control ( cheap) or auto start with a thermostat. Nearly all quality stoves have igniters.
Looks. Where will the stove sit. I love to watch the flame in my stove as I sit in my living room. And since its in my main room my wife insisted on a good looking stove.
Service. I would get out and talk to the local shops and get a feel for how they run their business. Are you handy or will you need someone to service the appliance. Regardless you will eventually need parts. They are available on line of course, but are you willing to do the diagnosing and replacing? If not local service is important.
Good luck !!

Doggy

 

Welcome to the show my friend

Lots of good advice here all I would add is make sure it's big enough , so you don't have to run the stove hard . It's nice to have extra horse power when you need it for those super cold snaps .

 

To go with all mentioned above......
What are you heating the house with now? Forced hot air, Forced hot water, Solar, Wood, Coal, Electric, Gas, Propane......?
Are you trying to complement the existing heating system , replace it, or substitute it?
Without knowing the heat loss in the house now and what you desire for living conditions it's hard to give suggestions.

Pellet stoves (and insets) are a great heating idea as long as you understand the downsides.
Cleaning.....they need to be cleaned frequently. Most people in cold climates run their stoves 24-7 and only shut down to clean about once a week (takes about a hour). While you are shut down you will need a secondary source of heat (or warm gloves). Pellet stoves should also get "deep cleaned" after about a ton of pellets get burned (50, 40lb bags) this is much more intensive than a weekly cleaning (generally eats up an afternoon) and requires a fair bit of mechanical skill (or a fat wallet for the service tech).
Pellets and Storage.....For most of us in the northeast we will burn about 3-5 tons of pellets a season. That means you will need a retailer fairly close to pick up from or be willing to pay for delivery. Once they get delivered (by you or the retailer) you will need a dry storage area that can hold 3-5 pallets (as in 150-250 bags of pellets) Pellet bags are about the same size as a bag of fertilizer or topsoil so they can eat up a bunch of physical space. You also need to find a "good" retailer that supplies quality pellets that are not damaged. Most stoves in our area burn about 2 bags a day to keep the house heated in the cold weather. So, wherever you store your bulk pellets will have to be close enough to carry 2 bags a day the stove. Fine if you are 35 and in shape......2 trips to the pellet stash a day with a bad back gets old quickly. Also pellets now are running in the $200-$400 a ton range. At $250 a ton a bag of pellets will be $5.00 so X2 a day it will cost you $10.00 a day to heat the house. Up to you to figure if is worth it to you. And that is not counting the ROI on the stove itself and installation costs.
The Down and Dirty..... Pellet stoves burn clean and fairly efficiently but they get dirty on the inside. You have a bunch of moving parts that get hot and dirty for a week or more on end. Things breakdown or fail. They are not as common as say a coffee maker so parts can be expensive and sometimes hard to find. Also most pellet bags get moved around a bunch before they get to you....this causes bits and dust to break off the pellets. When you fill the stove hopper they can be a bit dusty.
Its a Space Heater.....While most of us heat our entire homes with our pellet stoves in reality they are only a space heater. Most insurance companies will not allow a pellet stove to be the primary heat source in the house. A functioning standby heat source is necessary. Additionally depending on your plumbing layout, by heating your living area with a pellet stove your crawlspace or basement will receive no heat. Is it naturally warm enough down there to keep piping from freezing? Sucks to find out the hard way.
Noise..... Most pellet stoves use 2 electric blowers and a 1 or more electric motors to operate. They do make some noise. My stove is in my living room about 10' from where I sit watching the TV. During heating season I have to turn up the TV a few notches to hear it. The more you turn up the heat level on the stove the louder it gets. Also the feed auger runs about 1/4 turn every 3-10 seconds so it can be heard rhythmically.


So if you are still interested in heating by pellet stove they can be rewarding. It is about a wash right now with the cost of Home Heating Oil to burn pellets for me. When oil is high or or pellets are cheap they can be economical to run. Also, it is nice to have a fire in the box in the living room. Brings out those primal caveman instincts in our brains. Pellet stoves can be cheap to run if you are willing to maintain them yourself and shop for pellets in off-season sales. It is also nice to see the oil man drive past knowing you won't be calling them 3x this year.

Good luck, hope this helps.
---Nailer---

 

If I had to do it over again Bruce, I would look for a home with a basement suitable for a pellet stove install, with stair access from the main home, and separate outside (bulkhead or door) access - a 'cellar dweller' install will give you real benefits, during the winter months.

 

Wow, lots of information here, thank you all a lot! the houses we are looking at are all electric baseboard, trying to supplement/offset the cost of electric. Most houses have no basement so that kills putting it down there. I figured already that ceiling fans are the key to circulating the warm air. i figured on burning at least a bag per day if not more.
I have looked at lots of threads here, and was planning on building a rolling coffee table/storage to put in pellets so they were accessible in the room with stove, plus could keep them inside and handy and help keep them stable in moisture content.

until we get this house under contact i am where i am, so this is a future project if its a free standing or insert stove, but i just do not see myself paying for electric baseboard heat in the pocono's. I assume that talking about a battery back up in case of a power failure is premature...

 

Moving to my neck of the woods , and No you don't want to pay for electric heat here that's why I have 2 pellet stoves
Any info about the area , let me know lived here for almost 30 years , more than happy to help .

 

Welcome to the site! What part of the Poconos? I have a small house we are renovating near Tobyhanna.

 

Will711 my wife was born and raised up there, and that is where her family is still located, MtDew it would be in Gouldsboro PA due to the school district.

 

Battery back-up will depend on length of time needed or you might just go the generator. When I used to work 12hr shifts I needed something to last me until I got home for the generator to take over, that's how I made my system to suit my needs. When you're ready, will talk some more