Pellet-Burning Stoves

The Feel of Wood, The Smell of Wood, Without the WORK of Wood

Do you like a nice, roaring fire? Do you love the smell of wood, the warmth of wood, but hate the work of wood? Then a Pellet Fireplace insert is right for you. Pellet fuel comes in nice, neat, clean 40 lb sacks, and all you have to do is tear open a bag and pour it in the hopper - (That's the top part of the pellet insert that holds the fuel).

• No more spiders in the wood & bark on the floor
• No more stacking, moviing, and restacking piles and piles
• No more chopping & splitting, stoking & tending the fire

There are many reasons why consumers have elected to install a pellet stove in their homes over the last 20 years. Among them are convenience, ease of operation and maintenance, and the ability turn it off like a light switch, a pellet stove can heat your home with even, radiant heat with more consistancy than a wood stove.

Pellet Stoves - What They Are and How They Work

 A pellet stove is a freestanding heating appliance that has a similar look to a wood stove when installed but burns pellets as its fuel, and uses electricity to operate the components of the stove to make it burn the fuel to heat your home. Let's break this down:

What is a Pellet Stove?  

A pellet stove is a heating appliance that uses wood pellets as its fuel to heat your home. They require electricity to operate the components that are used to make the pellet insert deliver and burn the pellet fuel, but the electricity is not what is doing the actual heating… THAT is why they are efficient. So the logical conclusion is, “YES – you must have electricity to operate a pellet stove or insert”. I only mention this because you must have this understanding before you purchase a pellet appliance. If power outages are a common occurrence where you live, and you do not have a reliable backup source for electricity in the winter, a pellet stove or insert is not a good option for you if it is your only source of heating your home.

What are Pellets?

Pellet fuel is made of the by-products of wood and other biomass materials. The pellet mills compress the sawdust and extrude them out in small diameter pellets which, to many, look just like rabbit food. But pellets for pellet stoves and inserts are not known for their nutritional value --- they are known for the heating potential they provide when used with a quality pellet appliance J There is a wide variety of pellet fuel on the market, so it is good that you pick the one that best suits you and your particular appliance.

 What are the differences Betwen Pellets?

Pellet fuel can be made up of different types of woods, binders and fillers, so the fuel itself can be as much of an indicator of how well your appliance works as any other. Some fuel has more hard woods, some has more soft woods. Some has more moisture content than others. Some pellets are longer than others. The best advice I can give is this: before you invest in a heating season's worth of pellet fuel, go to the store and buy one or two bags, try it out, and if it works well buy it. If not, try another brand.

 How do pellet stoves and inserts work?

The Hopper

I figured that, since we spent some time on the fact that pellet fuel looks like rabbit food, I felt it was only appropriate that we include the "bunny" as part of our discussion  J   Back to reality, the "hopper" is the part of the pellet stove or insert that holds the pellets in reserve for when it is time to use the appliance. The hopper capacity can be anywhere from 25 pounds to as much as 80 pounds, or more. The amount of fuel the hopper holds, along with how hot you like to burn the stove, is what dictates the time between loading the unit again when it runs out.

 The Auger

This is what delivers the fuel from the hopper into the area that burns the pellets (the "Burn Pot"). The auger is a flighted shaft that is driven by a motor... called the "auger motor"... and draws the pellets from the hopper and drops them down a "chute" that falls into the burn pot where coals of burning pellets catch the new fuel on fire and continue to heat up the heat exchanger, delivering more heat into the home by way of the convection fan that blows heated air through the heat exchanger.

 Exhaust ("Combustion") Fan

A pellet stove or insert is a forced air system. Remembering that it takes 3 things to make a fire... fuel, spark, and air... the combustion fan is the component that provides the air needed to fuel the fire. One of the reasons a pellet appliance is so efficient is because this fan will typically deliver a greater than 35 to 1 air-to-fuel ratio which allows the already dry pellet fuel to have an almost totally complete combustion. When you see that the ash residue left from a pellet applaince is as little as 1/50th the amount left by burning even an E.P.A. certified wood stove, it begins to make sense.

 Heat Exchange Tubes

A heat exchanger works like this: There is a series of tubes that are exposed to the firebox. As the firebox gets hotter and hotter, the tubes get hotter as well. In a pellet appliance, there is another fan... called a "convection fan... that takes room air, draws it through the  heat exchanger, and passes it through and back into the room. As the air passes through the heat exchanger it becomes "super heated" because of the outside of the tubes being exposed to the burning fire and the air coming back into the room is extra hot. That's it!

Firebox - Also called the combustion chamber, this is where the pellets are burned.

Firepot - Also called the Burn Pot, this is what the pellets fall into from the hopper to be burned.

Ash Pan - This is the reservoir that holds the ashes after the pellets are burned. 

 For specific model information, choose a model listed below and click on the link for more details......