pellet stove for heating?

has anybody ever used a pellet stove for heating?

I'm afraid I have to show my ignorance: What is a pellet stove, please?

Pellets is made out of leftovers from the woodindustri. Branches and smaller unsuseble pieces of wood that they chipped in to small pieces (sawdustlike) and then formed to small pellets. One have to have some sort of feeder to use in ordinary woodfurnases or to buy a pelletsstove that has the feeding of the pellets built in. They can look as ordinary fireplaces or to be furnases or the look of old castiron stoves. You can also use most of them to burn corn in if that is availible and cheaper in your area then pellets are.
Hope that helps
Janett

There is no reason you couldn't use a pellet stove. I have heard of people using corn stoves to heat their greenhouse. SB

We have a pellet stove as the primary heat source for our home. When we moved in, it only had a woodstove, it was old, and the heat was very uneven, plus you had to chop and stack and move wood. We bought a pellet stove two years ago. Love it. We have a 2 story house, and the stove heats us just fine. Upstairs is all bedrooms so we prefer them cooler anyway. It takes about 3 tonnes of pellets to do us for the winter. Usually you just have to bring in one bag of pellets per day. It probably uses about 1½ bags when it is really cold(cold for here is usually never below zero!!!!) If you are wanting one for your greenhouse, I guess it depends on the size of your greenhouse, but you might want a small one. They can put out a lot of heat.

Glenda

Thanks to all.

ggd - I purchased a pellet furnace last year. This will be the first full winter for me using it.

stressbaby - I thought it would work. I know these stoves can really pump out a lot of heat, my brother has a stove insert in his fireplace and it does a wonderful job of heating his house.

I will have to find a way of distributing the heat throughout the GH evenly. Maybe duct work.

I was hoping that there was someone here at DG that had used one before in their GH.

This message was edited Sep 8, 2006 5:24 PM

This message was edited Sep 8, 2006 5:24 PM

Janett, thank you for the good description of what a pellet stove is. I will consider buying one for my greenhouse, if I can find a Canadian supplier. It ought to be available in Canada, as we have lots of wood!

June - I think that pellet stoves and furnaces are available by many different manufacturers in Canada. I don't know of any off hand, but my brother found many different ones in Canada when he was researching for his purchase.

Hi Mangosteen. I just got back from a Google search, and - success! - I have located a hardware store about 25 miles away that sells Pelpro Shop Heaters and pellets.

I've had my pellet stove for about 9 years. It does a great job of heating, better than oil, gas, wood, I think.

BUT, the price of pellets has gone through the roof this year. Last year, I paid $159 a ton. This year it's $239. I would say if you're going to do a significant amount of heating with pellets, this year it's not going to be any cheaper than gas or perhaps even oil at these prices. I know if they go up like this again, my pellet stove will be junked.

To give you an idea of how much of a jump this has been in just one year, when I first started buying pellets nine years ago they were $129 a ton.

Corn, by the way, is even more expensive than pellets but you can buy converters to convert your pellet stove to burn them or if buying a new one, one that takes either pellets or corn.

I have noticed a 50 dollar increase since last year. There is a new manufacturer here in Pa. this year. I hope that the industry can keep up with the demand and stabilize or lower the cost of pellets soon.

I am exploring all possiblilties for heating my GH when I get it. I want to make sure I get most things right so I don't have any big suprises down the road.

By the way hart, do you use a pellet stove to heat your GH?

I use the pellet stove to heat my house, along with a woodstove. And there is no way on earth I believe the industry propaganda that these prices are being pushed up by demand.

I do know this - I called several local suppliers of pellets and some of them told me they had several regular customers order no pellets this year. They're getting rid of their pellet stoves rather than pay these prices. I ordered less than I usually do and, like those people, if they continue to price gouge, I'll be switching to using the woodstove exclusively next year.

Yes, the cost of firewood has gone up, but in this area we can get firewood at virtually no cost.

Bottom line - I would say the ridiculous price increase this year gives me no faith in the business savvy or knowledge of their customer base of the pellet industry. Who wants to pay the same as, say, propane, and go through hauling 40 lb bags and storing tons of pellets and so on?

Mangosteen,

The only drawback that I've heard is that you have to store the pellets away from the GH because the humidity there will damage them. Aside from that I'm not aware of any reason you couldn't use one of those stoves in a GH. Don't think you'd want to in a tiny GH (like a 6x8).

MollyD

I've been using a pellet stove in my 15X12 2-story GH for 3 years. It works great. I like to keep a backup for power outages. The only downsides are that the wood burning dries the air, so I have to add extra humidity, and this can be hard on the stove. I'm sanding and repainting mine now as it is getting rusty already. One other problem is leaving town, as I have to have a house sitter strong enough to go out and get a bag and pour it in the stove, sometimes as much as once a day in January here in NH Z5. These problems would be true of many other options though. I do like being able to warm my hands on it and really crank it up when it's cold and snowy. Like living in the tropics!

Thank you EP for your input. It seems that there would be some extra maintenance involved beyond the usual pellet stove maint.

I have only had the opportunity to use my Pellet furnace to heat my house for just over one month. I ordered it in Aug. 05 and it wasn't installed until March of this year. The manufacturer was overrun with orders and couldn't build them fast enough. I did notice though how dry it made the air, just what you wouldn't want in a GH.

How do you regulate the heat in the winter at night? I could see during the day when you are awake, you could put in less of the pellets to burn at a lower heat, but then you would have to keep putting them in at a faster rate. but at night, the evening temps outside can vary from night to night, and I assume that you want the setup where you put them in and then can go to bed...
I know that with my largest propane heater in the grhouse, on really cold nights, because it is running more, I have to keep an eye out for the plants drying out near the heater-esp the plants in smaller amts of soil.

My pellet furnace and also the pellet stoves have a thermostat that controlls the output of heat. You just fill the hopper with pellets. I would have to use duct work of some type to evenly distribute the heat in the GH. This would also add to the cost.