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I'm thinking of installing one or the other. I have always used a woodstove for more than 20 years but now I'm looking at the purchase of a new one for my new home. It will be installed in the basement and I will install grates in the floors to let alot of the heat rise-up. Please let me hear some pros/cons on these to heating options.
I posted the exact same question a couple of months ago. We finally decided on a wood stove, a soap stone one. Just had it installed a couple of days ago. The reason why we chose it in the end were, that it will work, even if your electricity goes out (pellet stoves need electricity). And I heard from a few people that they had mechanical problems with the pellet stove. Price wise they seemed about the same. Now you can also buy a product called "bio bricks", they are made of the same material as pellets and come in brick form. So if you don't want to bother with "messy wood" you can use these bricks. Cost is about the same as pellets. After we found this out, there was no reason to get a pellet stove, for us. We use wood, but also plan on getting some of the bio bricks, to try them out.
I posted the exact same question a couple of months ago. We finally decided on a wood stove, a soap stone one. Just had it installed a couple of days ago. The reason why we chose it in the end were, that it will work, even if your electricity goes out (pellet stoves need electricity). And I heard from a few people that they had mechanical problems with the pellet stove. Price wise they seemed about the same. Now you can also buy a product called "bio bricks", they are made of the same material as pellets and come in brick form. So if you don't want to bother with "messy wood" you can use these bricks. Cost is about the same as pellets. After we found this out, there was no reason to get a pellet stove, for us. We use wood, but also plan on getting some of the bio bricks, to try them out.
I recommend NorthlineExpress:
[URL="http://www.northlineexpress.com/category/free-standing-stoves.asp"]NorthlineExpress.com: Wood Stoves. Freestanding Wood Burning Stoves and Pellet Stoves by Napoleon and Vogelzang.[/URL]
Received free shipping on my wood stove from these guys last week. Thinking of adding a second unit, one that sits outside the house.
The advantages of the wood stove are cheaper fuel cost and will work without power.
The advantage of the pellet stove is convenience: you can load at least a few days worth of pellets at one time and it works off a thermostat. Well that and it's cleaner.
Of course, the pellet stove has to work right and reliably for one to trust it to work unattended for a long time.
Corn as a bio-fuel can be interesting, it's generally cheaper per BTU than pellets, although it tends to draw vermin (rats, mice) in storage. Corn stoves are otherwise similar to pellet stoves.
Some of the bigger fireplace inserts, though, nowadays, offer thermostats and blowers, and can hold enough wood to run more than 24 hours.
We heat with wood and have for several years. It *is* messy, hard to keep the ashes from getting in the air and all over, your idea of putting the stove in the basement is a good one, although you won't get the cheerful hearth effect of a wood fire. That and you may have to climb stairs with your wood, run up and down to tend it.
Are the modern stoves/fireplace inserts truly air tight and fumeless. Want to put one in our bedroom fireplace but are concerned with fumes since my wife has asthyma.
Thanks,
George
Are the modern stoves/fireplace inserts truly air tight and fumeless. Want to put one in our bedroom fireplace but are concerned with fumes since my wife has asthyma.
Thanks,
George
My husband has asthma and our woodstove does not bother him at all. We have a soapstone stove by Hearthstone. I really like this type of stove because it does not make the room unbearably hot. In another house we had a cast iron stove that would get REALLY hot and then cool off quickly. The Hearthstone stove stays warm much longer/ never gets too hot and we have it in our living room.
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The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. ~Henry David Thoreau
One thing we found out is if you buy a pellet stove make sure the dealer has factory trained staff. Also, the parts are easily available for your make and model.
My daughter had a pellet stove insert put into her fireplace. She has a cape type house and lives in VT. She absolutely loves it! It is clean and keeps the house warm and cozy.
One point about keeping smoke out of the house is to make sure your chimney is tall enough, that it extends past the ridge of the roof, and that it's clean. Our place has a marginally tall enough chimney, have been meaning to put an extension on it.
Also to make sure your wood is DRY. Wood can not be too dry. You need to store it in a shed, not just piled up out in the rain and snow.
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Truly air tight and fumeless???
