Pellet stove owners?

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
I know a few of you have pellet stoves. Our new house came with one and I loaded it up the other night when it got cool. I set it for the room temp I was wanting and it ran for a while, then shut itself down. This morning it was a bit chilly so I bumped the room temp setting up a few degrees and it kicked in and after getting out of my shower it was nice and toasty. Been impressed with it so far.

I've heard of folks buying pellets a pallet at a time and I know this will differ for various parts of the country and with various homes. I'm just curious how fast one of these will go through a 40 lb bag of pellets? How much do you guys use in a weeks time? Anything maintenance wise I need to watch out for? I know to keep the ash cleaned out, but anything beyond normal maintenance?

Thanks...
 
Brent can help out with the maintenance part (although not much more than vacuuming out every morning, that I know of).

We just bought our pallet of pellets :) at Costco for $209. It was 50, 40-lb bags (a tons worth). I thought we bought our last pallet two years ago, but Brent thought it was last year (I'm sure I'm right :D).

You should definitely stock up. It's easy to use most of a bag a day if it gets real cold. We usually stoke it up in the morning, let it get toasty and turn off around noon. Now that we have our new fireplace, we may not need it as much. It's an older model that we plan to upgrade in a year or two.

Have fun with it.
 
Here, some pellet stove owners use corn instead of pellets. In your part of the country, corn should also be plentiful, and probabley cheaper than the wood pellets.

That said, I have no clue as to cleanliness of burning, or what the BTU difference - if any - might be.
 
What sharon Said. We use about a bag a day, but it's a pretty small pellet stove.

Our's doesn't have a thermostat, it just runs and you can set the speed you want it to run. Crank it up and it cranks out the heat until it runs out of pellets.

There are a number of little access panels inside ours that need to be taken off and vac'd. Ours had probably never been done when I did it last year and these hidden areas were just packed with ash.

Buying by the pallet load is pretty normal around here. At costco you pay at the register and then drive around back and someone will fork it into your truck for you.
 
We burn 4 to 4 1/2 tons a year heating our 3,000 sq ft home. Amount used varies depending on temps. Right now, a 40lb bag will last us 4 or 5 days. When it hits -20F or colder...that bag will last me about 12 hours! I clean the stove weekly including brushing/vacuuming the stove pipe. Your manual should explain how to do it.

For a variety of info, take a look at iburncorn(dot)com
 
Thanks for the tips all. I'll have to lookup the manual for it and be sure there's no other spots to clean out. It's a fireplace insert with a liner running up the chimney from what I can tell, so will have to check it out to be sure it gets cleaned too. Looks like I'll have to take the trailer down and pick up a pallet next week. Thanks again! :wave:
 
Darren Check out the farm supply stores. Orscheln Farm supply here does about $180 or less per ton. Lowe's sometimes has it pretty cheap also

I'll check Orscheln out Jay, we've got one here in town. I saw some at Lowes, but they were Pine and would rather get oak or oak mix for a higher btu and less ash. Sutherlands has them as well, came out to about $225 per ton. I think I've payed more than that for a month's worth of natural gas running the furnace on my old houses, so definitely going to utilize this thing.
 
Sutherlands has them as well, came out to about $225 per ton. I think I've payed more than that for a month's worth of natural gas running the furnace on my old houses, so definitely going to utilize this thing.

Man alive what are you guys paying for natural gas per i suppose cubic yard. I just signed up for 34c a cubic meter fixed price.

Also what do you guys down there pay for elctricity per kw. Here its variable depending on time of day use but the high end is around 9 cents per kw.
 
Man alive what are you guys paying for natural gas per i suppose cubic yard. I just signed up for 34c a cubic meter fixed price.

Also what do you guys down there pay for elctricity per kw. Here its variable depending on time of day use but the high end is around 9 cents per kw.

Rate 101-Schedule A-Single Phase (under 75kw)
Availability charge $20.00/month
Energy Usage Charge 8.1 cents/kWh
 
Dunno what the gas rate is. We just got connected and the town home was all electric. I think I was paying $.10 per kw, but it got cheaper the more you used. In my area they haven't gone to a day vs. night rate yet. I'm sure some of the larger manufacturers have worked that out with the utilities, but the average home owner is just doing one rate.
 
Man alive what are you guys paying for natural gas per i suppose cubic yard. I just signed up for 34c a cubic meter fixed price.

My current contract is for $6.38 per Mcf. (about 28.3 cubic metres). So, you'd be paying about $9.62 for the same volume.

Also what do you guys down there pay for elctricity per kw. Here its variable depending on time of day use but the high end is around 9 cents per kw.

Current electricity price is about 7.2¢ per KwH. The rate fluctuates monthly, but hasn't (yet) gone over 8¢.

Back whe I lived in Southern California, the rate got as high as 13.5¢.
 
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