Wood over pellets

[JTRock]

I have both in my home on main floor of my open floor plan colonial 2100 sq .Pellet Stove is in corner of one living room (Lopi Leyden) rated up to 2250sq. PE Summit insert in fire place of other living room rated up to 3000sq.

There is no way the woodstove whips the pellet 5 to 1 not even close. Especially right now on a Sunday morning when I come down the stairs and I don't have to re fire after an overnight lol!

Of course we don't know anything about the neighbors house, stove capacity etc..

 

[firefighterjake]

Go Patriots!

 

[DougA]

Oil and gas are fully renewable, just not in our lifetime. Probably not in the lifetime of any human the way humanity is headed. My family will evolve back to the snakes from which we came.

 

[JTRock]

Go Patriots!

I wish I can say go Giants! But they wouldn't know what to do with positive thoughts

 

[Highbeam]

The BK's are exceptional performers. I think they have the VERY best air control system on the market. I noted that BK does throttle the secondary air. Pellet stoves are such different animals, with the ability to continuously vary the fuel feed rate. The newer pellet stoves do claim efficiencies 80% and more. Very comparable to wood and of course EPA compliant so they do get secondary combustion one way or another.

Congrats on your BK King. Top of the line stove!

I like my bk too but there is no secondary air, much less one that can be throttled. The pe line has that on their mid size stove?

 

[mass_burner]

Oil and gas are fully renewable, just not in our lifetime. Probably not in the lifetime of any human the way humanity is headed. My family will evolve back to the snakes from which we came.

I'm not so sure oil and gas deposits will ever form again in any significant amount, will it? If that were possible, wouldn't there be a continuous supply coming all the time? I'm not sure, I need to look this up.

 

[F4jock]

I'm not so sure oil and gas deposits will ever form again in any significant amount, will it? If that were possible, wouldn't there be a continuous supply coming all the time? I'm not sure, I need to look this up.

Notice that we keep finding more . . . . . .

 

[mass_burner]

Notice that we keep finding more . . . . . .

But is what we're finding as old as stuff we're extracting? Are we just getting better at finding it?

 

[F4jock]

But is what we're finding as old as stuff we're extracting? Are we just getting better at finding it?

Well. . . . . If it's younger that proves it hasn't stopped generating and if we're getting better it makes for more efficient use of existing resources. Either way, or both, it's a win.

 

[OK_Bill]

I like my bk too but there is no secondary air, much less one that can be throttled. The pe line has that on their mid size stove?

Sorry, poor technical linguistics. I meant to refer to airflow thru the cat. The secondary combustion flow is throttled. As opposed to my VC Encore which runs a dedicated secondary air feed that's unregulated.

 

[Highbeam]

Sorry, poor technical linguistics. I meant to refer to airflow thru the cat. The secondary combustion flow is throttled. As opposed to my VC Encore which runs a dedicated secondary air feed that's unregulated.

I don't think you understand, there is NO air supply for the cat on a BK. Only the primary air wash air.

 

[OK_Bill]

I don't think you understand, there is NO air supply for the cat on a BK. Only the primary air wash air.

I get that. Primary air only on a BK - but that's throttled with the device shown below. BK does this better, actually lots better, than any other competitor on the market.

The problem with my original post was using the language "secondary air", which I meant to refer to the products of combustion while passing through the secondary (CAT) combustion plenum. All modern EPA stoves have to do this.

VC also throttles the primary/wash air. BUT on the VC, there's also a dedicated secondary air plenum fed directly to the outside and it has no controls on it at all. Its an unregulated open hole about 1x4".

That's the difference I wanted to point out.

 

[Highbeam]

Ok... so this then does what?

Take the throttle plate out of this thing so it runs wide open, feed all that air into the secondary chamber (ie to the cat) and you have VC. That's the difference I see.

That is the primary air control. The only air control on the stove. All air comes into the stove through that flapper and then heads forward through steel tubes to the window where it rolls down the window into the fire as the airwash air. There is NO secondary or cat air supply on a BK as there is on other brands.

 

[OK_Bill]

I just edited the above post - removed the pic.

Thank you for the clarification. I don't want to derail this thread.

 

[Woodheat192]

Haha i didnt expect quite so many replies... I should have clarified a little more... I was using 3 rounds of seasoned birch so i was getting a pretty long burn time. What i meant by small was not like big chunks that i had to stuff in the firebox... I cant give exact demensions as some have asked, wood is burned sorry. I had this wood on my property, so i thought it was cool that i basically got it for free while he was paying for bags of pellets. Anyways i have no problem with pellets. Just glad we can all save on the old gas bill.. keep up with the wood heat everyone

 

[TimfromMA]

There are pros and cons to both pellet and wood burning stoves. Your personal situation will dictate which way the scales tip. For me, I love not having too cut, split and stack wood. I love being able to light my stove with the push of a button and maintaining the temperature in my house to within 1 degree. I love having 2 full season's worth of heat piled nice and neatly in my basement. I love that refueling my stove is as easy as cutting open a bag and pouring.

 

[velvetfoot]

While I'm still using a wood insert for most of my heat, it is nice to have the even, whole house heat that a boiler provides. The whole area heater concept lost favor at some point with the advent of central heating.

 

[prezes13]

My main problem with a pellet stove is shortage of pellets. I don't have a pellet stove although I am thinking about installing one in my rec room downstairs and use it when my daughter wants to play there. Any how the reason I say shortage of pellets because yesterday I stopped at my local supplier to get few bundles of eco bricks and they were already limiting sales to 10 bags per car per day. On the other hand I am sure that pellet stove is more convinient if you don't mind paying for pellets, unless you have a BK stove. Did I mention I want a princess insert?

 

[TimfromMA]

Due to restrictions on the transporting of firewood caused by invasive insects, wood is hard to come by for some. Pellet shortages are only a problem if you either can't or failed to buy your pellets in advance. When I bought my pellets, my dealer's yard was packed full of them.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

No doubt, if we HAD to buy our fuel, we would have a pellet stove, and some elaborate back up battery plan.. But with access to 160 acres of eastern hardwood forest..

 

[DougA]

Just wondering if anyone has done a comparison lately on the cost of heating with pellets vs. NG, propane or oil?

Decades ago, I used to buy my wood and after a lot of calculations, it was not far off the cost of using electric baseboards back then. Now, with tons of wood for free, the choice is obvious but it still involves a LOT of work, plus $$. This year, we've sunk over $5K into wood sheds, rebuilt Stihl piston, new/used wood stove, stove pipe, etc. All of these were done by myself and bought super cheap (except double wall pipe which is way overpriced and MSRP only). This should be good for another 25+ years but when you compare that most people would have spent $10K++ on the same thing, you start to wonder.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

I figured, on a pure $$ basis, the stove instal I did would pay for itself in 4-5 years, vs what we were paying for our heat pump to heat the house, and would take twice as long to pay back if I paid someone to do the instal.

But for us, it wasn't JUST a $$ decision. For us it's a lot to do with using a resource that's right here, and ours. It's about the ability to keep the house just as comfortable in case of a power outage. It's about not being dependent on the little wire that runs through our woods, and is vulnerable to storms and tree limbs etc. What we learned AFTER we installed it is how much better the heat "feels", and how much more comfortable the house is, vs the heat pump heat. And we keep the house 4-6 degrees warmer than we did before.

 

[F4jock]

While I'm still using a wood insert for most of my heat, it is nice to have the even, whole house heat that a boiler provides. The whole area heater concept lost favor at some point with the advent of central heating.

Next you'll be touting indoor plumbing!

 

[Highbeam]

Just wondering if anyone has done a comparison lately on the cost of heating with pellets vs. NG, propane or oil?

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/fuel_cost_comparison_calculator/

I do it all the time. The cost of heating with the different fuels has little to do with the cost of the heating system. This calculator only considers the cost of the heat. The fuel savings you would experience by switching fuels is how you calculate the time before you break even on equipment changeover costs.

Our electric is down to 9 cents per kwh these days. Pellets at 200$ per ton. A new electric wall heater is 100$, a new pellet stove is 1000$. Oh it is fun to crunch these types of numbers.

 

[DougA]

Thanks for the link. The other problem is that our electricity is 7.7 cents kwh off-peak, 14 cents on-peak BUT by the time you add all the rest of the BS on the bill, the price ends up TWICE that amount. Delivery charge, debt repayment, invoicing charges, taxes. Load of BS. If I lower my hydro usage substantially, it won't even cut my bill in half.