Benefits of a Pellet or Wood Stove
Feb 22, 2010 Home Improvement
The increasing cost of energy and heat is draining our pockets. We may feel the pinch more in these tough economic times. Looking for alternatives to save money is necessary to keep our quality of life. If you are facing high electric, oil, or gas bills maybe it is time to look at other ways to heat your home. You may consider a pellet stove or a wood stove. Either of those will save you a considerable amount of money during the year.
Although they may look similar in appearance, these stoves work very differently. They both save you money, are easy to operate, and give you good heat during the winter season. They are both economical to use. In addition, they give a cozy atmosphere to your home.
A wood stove is installed with your chimney or an exhaust tube that will vent outside. It requires wood to be burned to produce heat. The wood must be seasoned (dry with no moisture in it) and you can either buy the wood in cords or chop it yourself. A benefit to you is that you can find wood available free, so the cost will be $0.00. A cord of wood will cost you about $175 and in a normal season, you will use about 3 or 4 cords of wood that is for the entire year. So even when you buy the wood it beats the price of heating gas or oil.
You will need to refuel the stove by adding more wood, and clean the ashes daily. You will need a place to store your wood, also. If you chop your own wood take into consideration that different types of wood burn faster or slower, and create creosote (a residue that deposits in your chimney and must be cleaned to reduce fire risk) which must be cleaned.
A pellet stove uses electricity as it must be plugged into the wall (about $9 per month for a standard model) and it does not need to be installed to your chimney, it could be vented with a pipe through the wall in any room. The area that it heats depends on the type of stove you buy. You can get one for an area of 800, 1200, 1500, 1800, and 2000 plus square feet. It will depend on the size of your home. As the name suggests, the pellet stove uses compacted pellets as fuel. You can fit a 40-pound bag of pellets in the compartment and they are released to be burned. You control the amount of pellets to be released, that in turn will control the heat.
The pellet stove has a motor and blowers to disperse the heat. That is why it needs electricity to run. A benefit is that it produces less air pollution than a wood stove. If you have asthma, a pellet stove would be best for you. It is also easy to operate as it has an igniter button to push to start the fire. It is economical, too. A 40 lb. bag of pellets will cost you about $4-$5, and in normal winter conditions, you will spend about $500.00 for the whole season. The pellets are made of compacted wood, but there are also models that take pellets made of corn, soybean, wood shavings, and other organic materials for fuel. You can buy one that takes wood pellets and corn pellets, in case there is a shortage of pellets in your area, which may happen.
These are some of the benefits of changing to a wood or pellet stove to heat your home. In addition, there are government rebates that you may qualify for, as you are saving energy. It is worth looking into this alternative.
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