Newbies--(3 or less years burning) How/Why a pellet stove???

[khenault]

I got a used Big E that I thought was in good working condition for $600 with 250 lbs of pellets. Got her home, installed it, and had some smoke. Pulled it out to check things out, and realized the over-temp switch had been bypassed. That was scary to think about. Reconnected the still working over-temp switch, cleaned up a few things, and it's running perfect.

Oh, and that smoke I mentioned, it was because I didn't caulk the thimble. In my hurry to get her fired up i had decided I could do the siding and caulking later. Lesson learned.

Ken

 

[JoeP]

Simple: Less $$$ money to heat my home compared to fuel oil ,Gas or propane. Cleaner than Wood & less work.

 

[the pony boy]

i bought a house with a wood stove in it and thought it was the greatest thing.for the first few years i didnt even have to pay for wood i got it free from friends and what was leftover from the previous owner. than i saw a neighbors stove and heard how it was set up with a thermostat and ran like a regular furnance and i was hooked. i did some research and as propane prices soared (4.55 a pound) i pulled the trigger and now have a warmer house and dont have to split wood any more. with my total investment for the stove and current propane prices the it should pay for it slf this year! phil

 

[jtakeman]

I wish I had this resource some 12 seasons ago. It would have helped a lot when I was a newb! There is so much info for the new burners here.

Make sure you tell your friends. ;-)

 

[roadrunnermoore]

I had heard about pellet stoves, but didn't know a whole lot about them. My house is all electric, I have a heat pump with electric back up, which of course means when the heat pump can't keep up, I might as well be plugging in a giant toaster. Then, in September of last year, we were at our county fair and 2 of the local distributors had displays. Well, as soon as I saw the M55 insert, I was hooked. I went to the fair 3 days, and all 3 days I probably spent 2 hours of the day at the pellet stove display, asking any question I could think of. After another month of doing research, I came back to the M55 insert, and have been warm and toasty ever since. Last years 30% tax credit didn't hurt either. Then to help even more I got solar panels this summer, so my electric bill has been nowhere near what it had been.

 

[twojrts]

j-takeman, thank you for sharing all your knowledge with everyone. Even if you had to learn first hand, it means so much to the newbies to be able to come here and have the help they need and to learn.

I tell everyone I talk to about pellet stoves about this website and how great everyone is about sharing their knowledge and experiences. The best part is that no one talks down to anyone and are so very willing to help others.

THANK YOU each and everyone of you!!

 

[kmapsrule]

It was desperation to reduce the Average of $3800 a year to heat this dump into a more reasonable number.
Even with working on sealing up airleaks and adding insulation as much as possible, the bill never got better.
also I grew up in a house heated primarily by a wood stove ( a Vermont Castings Defiant, parents now have a Quadrafire something ),
and I missed having a central point of heat to huddle around, although I don't miss splitting,stacking and re-stacking and re-stacking...etc firewood.

I was in the midst of researching and I found the stove on ebay for $700 which enabled me to put the stove in with cash on hand instead of having to credit card or finance up the stove. And I've already saved the cost of the stove in propane even with the mild weather. Normally once the heating starts I have a propane fill up (2x200gal tanks) every 3 to 4 weeks through the winter. Now with the stove I filled up the propane At the beginning of October and will not need to fill up again till Mid January.

This site was instrumental in getting through the install and first baby steps in operation.
Thanks to everyone!

 

[Murphy118]

John, did you ever resolve this problem? ThermGuard by Bear Mtn designs works great for these situations:

Yepper,
Being the maint. manager at a USDA food Service plant, we use all kinds of timers, relays, switches and all sorts of devices on our machinery and building. It wasn't too hard for me to make a 1 hour timer that trips a double pole relay for 4 minutes every 20 minutes, (3 times/hour) that simply closes the the 2 house zone t-stats for that time, allowing furnace to run to keep the pipes from freezing. I may be using a bit more NG with the furnace running that much, but it's a very small price to pay for not haveing a frozen zone or worse yet a burst pipe in the crawl space! and NG has come down again,,,,, now Pellets have to only go to about $8.00/bag before it becomes a wash with the NG price/BTU but you don't get to sit all cuddled up with your Mrs de jure in front of a NG forced hot water furnace in the living room!!
I have it all powered from a wall switch at the top of the basement steps and only need to turn it on when temps get in the teens and it's gonna be windy.
BTW, I made/installed this before I was aware of the therm guard unit, but with the cost of materials I hav in it, (about $60), and the fact that I would have needed 2 therm guards, I think it's gonna be OK.

John

 

[nhredbird]

When i heard what the monthly buget for propane was going to be back in June.
I started internet searching pellet stoves and furnaces.
Opted for one in the living room. Did all the work myself with help from sons.
Most of what i learned was from this site.
Thanks to all here and have a great holiday