Pellet Stove Pros and Cons « Multi Fuel Stoves

March 5, 2010
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Pellet Stove Pros and Cons

This article will outline some of the major pros and cons with using a pellet stove.

Pellet stoves, meaning any appliance which burns small pellets which look a great deal like rabbit feed (often about 3/8 to 1 inch or 100-254 millimetres in length). This alternative fuel is created from sawdust, chips of wood, agricultural crop by-products, waste paper or other types of organic material which has been compacted tightly in order to burn slowly and efficiently. Some pellet appliances can be fuelled by burning nutshells, corn kernels or small chips of wood.

Pellet Stove Pros

These heat sources are really easy to operate and their high combustion and heat efficiency ratings are a big advantage of traditional wood-burning stoves or standard fireplaces. Because of this, very little pollution is created. Pellet burning stoves are actually the cleanest solid fuel powered residential heat sources available today.
The efficiency ratings can be as high as 78 to 85% and they are exempt from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) testing requirements for smoke emissions. Pellet burning stoves are readily available with heating capacities in the range of 8,000 to as high as 90,000 BTU per hour, making them perfect for small apartments, condominiums or large homes.
Appliances powered by pellets are frequently more convenient, cleaner and even safer than many other types of wood powered heat sources.
The reduced air pollution, the need to normally refuel just one time each day, and the convenience of compressed fuel which is bagged, clean and easy to life makes the pellet stove great for almost any residence.
Pellet appliances remain relatively cool on the exterior during use, except for those with glass front enclosure doors), so that accidental burns are rare. The efficiency of the fuel ensure little creosote build-up in the flue, reducing any potential of fire as well as the frequency of chimney or stove pipe cleaning, when compared to traditional wood-burning stoves.
The initial investment in the pellet stove will likely cost between $1,700 and $3,000 but it is likely to be less expensive to install than a standard heater which burns cordwood. Ye the benefit of pellet stoves is that they can be installed with direct vents and require no expensive chimney or flue. This causes the overall installed cost of the system to be significantly less than that of a conventional wood-fuelled stove.

Pellet Stove Cons

There are only a few points which should be mentioned as less appealing.

These pellet powered appliances contain more complex hardware and more expensive components which can fail. They do need electrical power to operate fans, controls and automatic pellet fuel feeders. Fortunately, with normal household use, the electricity required is likely only to total around 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power each month, translating to about $9 monthly. If the electric power fails, the stove cannot operate unless it has a backup power source. This could cause some smoke to accumulate inside the home interior during power outages.
The Fire created by a wood stove is very intense and not as attractive as a wood or even gas stove. You will not be spending hours on end watching the pellets burn like you can with wooden logs.
Pellet stove will require more maintenance than other fuel source stoves and it’s likely that you will need a professional clean each year (however this is recommended for all multi fuel stoves.)
You can purchase pellet fuel for your stove in 40 pound (18 kilogram) bags at prices of around $3.00 to $4.00 each, amounting to $120.00 to $200.00 per ton of pellet fuel. You can generate a good estimate of the amount of fuel you will need for a heating season by noting that one ton of pellets generates as much heat as about 1.5 cords of seasoned firewood. For most average homes, if the pellet appliance is used as a main heat source, it will generally require between two and three tons of fuel in pellet form each heating season. It is easy to see why the pellet fuel stoves are often much less costly to operate than propane-burning or electric resistance heating appliances but they are not cheaper than wood stoves.