# Pellet Stove Question



## webweever (Mar 15, 2008)

Greetings all,

First time poster.

I have bought a new home in Northern New York that has a propane fired furnace. Propane is currently approx $3.10 per gallon so I'm looking for a supplemental heat source.

I've been looking at Pellet stoves but I wonder how much difference it would make for my specific situation. 

The only place I can set the stove is in the basement. The basement access is walk-out to the attached garage so I have no staircase inside the house. Everyone I've talked to says if I put a freestanding 40,000 or so BTU pellet stove in the basement the heat would naturally rise throughout the house which makes since. 

I just wonder how much it would help in heating the "livable" ground floor portion of the house. The house is approx 1400 square feet on the main floor.

Any input or experience would be greatly appreciated.


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## oldfrt (Oct 18, 2007)

I don't think it would be worth the expense because it will waste more time heating up the basement walls before any noticeable heat would arrive to the first floor,erasing any huge savings in your fuel bill. The cost of purchasing the stove and the cost of the pellets,the hassle of getting to the stove to refill it.
You could try putting in floor registers above the stove to help the heat rise,but from personal experience with a wood stove ,I got much better savings once I put the stove on the first floor in the fireplace.


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## webweever (Mar 15, 2008)

oldfrt,

Thanks for the reply. Some people I've talked to suggested cutting seperate floor registers to help circulate the Pellet stove heat. Not sure I like that option.

I could possibly put it in the living room but the way the house is built the exhaust pipe would have to come out the front of the house which would be really ugly.

Not sure what I'm gonna do.


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## justdon (Nov 16, 2005)

*what will work*

I have a wood stove in basement next to propane furnace,,,what WILL work good is to take the filter access door off,stick a window fan as tight as possible to the opening, fire up the stove and heat the whole house.

Woprks great as long as the stove is going good,,,tending it constantly may be a problem.

On low heat needed day the stove on low can be stoked twice a day. When it gets 20-30 BELOW or lower here it works less efficiently. Dont know if furnace kicked on IF it would work good that way on propane too.

This house has extra cold air vents around outside wall,just dropping air into basement from when it had an old wood and coal furnace!! heat comes up nicely thru those also.

One word of caution,,,careful how you exhaust those stoves,,,have heard of corn stoves taking the color off the siding outside the house from acid type exhaust,,dont know if pellets might cause same thing. IF pvc,,make it so you can ADD a long length past house to get it away!! Same way with wood stove,,add chimney pipe and it will ALWAYS bleed back on shingles etc.,,,it is a silent cost!!

MY propane is outragous at $1.85,,,I would surely HATE over 3 bucks,,,how about that pellet or wood stove with its own ducts or a hood with a fan and piped in furnace ducts??Maybe with a dampner for non use times(Like AC season) OR if propane was THAT high here,I would burn corn,,or wood or something,,,how about one of those outdoor furnaces,,,a friend absolutely LOVES his and fills it once or twice a day,all smoke,dirt and wood stays way outside that way!! PURE heat is water piped in underground and blown thru furnace like an ac unit!! OR they make a stove with a water coil insdie and then piped to rooms and run thru radiator baseboard deals!! PROPANE sucks!!!and it isnt going to get ANY better!!

Do you have a few acres to grow your own corn??3-5 acres will generally feed a bit of wildlife and the STOVE all winter!!Just a thought,,help your neighbor in exchange for a couple hundred bushels?? Local places you can cut wood for free or little money??

6 weeks of propane this COLD winter cost me over 600 bucks,,hate to see your bills!!


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## webweever (Mar 15, 2008)

Justdon,

Thanks for your comments.

I think I'm going to try and cram one in the living room. I can get a smaller 40,000 btu unit from Home Depot for about $1300 and that should be plenty to heat 1400sqft.

I thought about wood but I'm Active duty Army and may deploy soon so I didnt want to leave my wife with the nag of getting and maybe splitting wood and hauling it in the house and all that.

Pellets are pretty user friendly and it should do the job. The smaller unit Home depot has is 21"x23" with 6" wall clearance thats less than a 9 sqft portion of the living room it will take up.

If I throw it in the basement I have to cut in additional floor registers, I'm not sure how that would look for a potential buyer in the future. Basically it's either loose a little room in the living room or cut new registers in the floors and hope enough heat circulates throughout the house to make a difference.

Thanks again for your comments.


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