[Don Corleone]

Its 115 here in Tucson. Do those things cool too?

[Southerngl]

Hope they can afford the carbon footprint tax, coming soon to a northern town near you.

[Philo-Junius]

I’m probably going to get one myself, but has anyone calculated the ecological impact if everyone requiring winter heat tried to switch to wood-burning?

I don’t think it’s the final answer.

[Vince Ferrer]

From beetles to bucks (trees killed by beetles used for pellet fuel)

[dangerdoc]

If you have a little money to burn and some land, you can even “roll your own” pellets from hay, stover, etc.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I had a wood pellet stove for years & it was great. They require much less effort than a cord wood stove (much, much, less) & they are very safe, as only a few ounces of pellets are in the firebox at any one time. Also, they can easily be retrofitted into a home — even one without an existing chimney. They use insulated ducts, like a gas stove, rather than a chimney (although they can also exhaust through a chimney, if you prefer).

Pellet stoves are “carbon neutral” (for anyone who cares) & environmentally sound. They don't smoke like a cord wood stove & they consume waste wood.

You can also get pellet stoves that burn corn, or switch-grass pellets, etc. The corn burners are particularly good, as there's a lot of heat content and little ash in corn.

[elkfersupper]

They need electricity to work.

The plain old woodburners are better.

[theBuckwheat]

The problem for these stoves is that users must depend on fuel being manufactured and it mainly comes from sawdust, a material that the Wall Street Journal recently reported was in high demand because it is used for so many applications such as particle board.

If I had one of these stoves, I would make sure that I had next years supply of pellets secured as early in year as possible, IOW, before summer.

[o_zarkman44]

$285. a ton??????

I was a dealer for pellet stoves back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Pellets were $120. a ton, my cost, and I had a very small markup hoping to make up some profit on stove sales. didn’t work. Quit selling them. I see absolutely no advantage economically using pellets for heat. But they are green and save the environment.

The heat is nice. The stoves operate by themselves virtually. I even had one myself. After quitting business I had to pay retail for the pellets and at that time the breaking point economically compared to propane was $180 a ton. When I moved, my new home had a wood furnace and I sold the pellet stove. I can still cut my own wood and heat the whole house for under $200 a year.

compared to oil heat the pellets may be feasable. But a $1000 low emissions wood stove and wood at $150 a cord if you buy it is the way to go. Keep the part of the house you spend the most time in warm, and the ambient heat will keep the chill off the rest of the house.

[SengirV]

The price for wood pellets has skyrocketed over the past couple of years. Now that all these yahoos are buying them, they’ll be charging way more this winter. Soon, it won’t make sense to use this as an alternative.

[Rebelbase]

My mom/dad have a wood stove insert in the central mass fireplace. It gets so hot they only burn it when it drops into the teens at night. It will run you out of the house at higher outside temps.

[miele man]

bump

[gogogodzilla]

Why is everyone focused on wood stoves?

Wouldn’t a coal stove produce a more intense heat with less fuel... and at a cheaper price?

[djf]

Gettin-ready-for-winter wood pellet ping!!

Got a ton and a half coming on Monday...