Wood pellet stoves

We use a wood pellet stove here in WV for our main heating source. They are very popular in our part of the state, replacing many old wood stoves and coal furnaces. It is very difficult to find the wood pellet fuel for these stoves this winter. We have been told that there is a nationwide shortage of the pellets this year.

So this nantion wide shortage has my curiosity up, how many of you have heard of these stoves and where are you located? My family in MD has never seen them except when visiting us. Of course they all have central heating too.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about :)
The fuel for these stoves are in pellet form, looks almost like livestock feed. The pellets are made from compressed wood by-products (sawdust). They are sold in 40# bags, and we buy them by the ton - when we can find them, or by the bag when they have limits on them like this year. You put the pellets in the hopper and it is fed a few pellets at a time to the fire grate. Which produces a nice flame and lots of heat. For burning a 40# bag of pellets you'll have about 2 cups of ash. Our stove looks similar to one of the smaller wood buring stoves, except ours has a window in it to enjoy the flames like a fireplace.