Pellets

[FishermanTim]

[QUOTE=trevier;1015409]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

2X

My brother has oil heat, mostly for heating water, and had a wood stove in his basement. Wood stoves are nowhere as efficient as pellet stoves.

I agree with Prof. that some pellets don't burn as cleanly, or have to much moisture which causes them to clump and burn unevenly.

Vermont has been great for him![/QUOT
maybe not, but I don't pay for my pellets, there's the difference. I love my soapstone woodstove, holds heat awesome and runs if the electric goes out.

Wood burning stoves, like fireplaces, are not efficient ways to heat a house. Heat a room? probably more likely, as the stove and fireplace need air for combustion, and they draw the warm air from the room into the fire and vent the heat up the smoke stack. Where does the air come from to replace the air used for combustion? Outside, of course.
It is common for a room with a fireplace or wood stove to get colder the longer it burns, since the fire is constantly bringing in cold air to replace the air used in combuction.

Pellet stoves have a dedicated intake line which brings in air from outside directly to the combustion chamber, where the room air is drawn AROUND the chamber, heated, and blown back out into the room. One bag of pellets can heat my brothers house (8 rooms plus 2 baths) for most of a weekend. One feature I love on his stove is the controls that govern how much pellets are fed into the combustion chamber and how fast the air is circulated around that chamber.

Some wood stoves are being made with this same dedicated combuction air line and fan for moving room air around the chamber, but most older stoves don't do this. Older stoves exhaust more heat up the flue than thay create in the room.