Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Guidance needes for wood/pellet burner

I have two wood stoves in my house. Last week when it was -34 it was pretty dang nice knowing that no matter what we could heat and even cook. And I also have a home back up generator. The only way I’d go pellet is if wood was unavailable or I wasn’t sound enough to handle the work. And then I’d have some way to run it if the power went out.

Be as independent as you can be. If you depend on someone else, you put yourself in jeopardy. It takes "your" personal effort to stay warm & safe. Taking the easy way out is what most people do. Our electrical grid hangs on a knife edge. It can be knocked out at any time. Having the will to provide for yourself, is safety , & more importantly , wisdom. If the electrical grid goes down , it could be out for weeks, months , or who knows how long. Depending on a generator or battery power is limited. Remember wisdom & personal responsibility. If the power goes down it will be a nightmare, utter chaos. If it happens, a traditional wood burning stove will be a literal "life saver". Think about it. Easy is easy. Personal protection takes personal effort.

If you're able to cut and split and have a way to keep it fed I would go with wood.

It's messier and more work but more reliable.

If you go pellets I would stock up and find a good place to store them. If things go down hill at least you'll still be able to heat until your stock pile runs out.

-Jake

Nope but im not young either

For the true sadist, they make a pellet compressing machine but I don't know who the hell could justify that amount of work unless you had an unlimited supply of sawdust.

We have both, plus natural gas. Pellet and gas in the house, wood in the garage. We very seldom loose power, if we do, crank up the generator and plug in the pellet stove, or the furnace! I still prefer wood, but mama doesn't like the mess in the house. Have you considered an outside wood burner, duct to the house. One that I have seen worked real well, and the owner really bragged on it. They make non powered pellet stoves, I looked at them. Maybe for a shop but not in the house! Good luck with your choice. Also ask about tax incentives, some areas of the country offer them for pellet stoves.

We have been heating with wood for the last 32 years. About ten years ago, I saw a little pellet stove at an auction and bought it for ninety bucks. We use it to heat the house if we are going to be gone overnight. I cut a hole in the side of the wood stove and vented the pellet stove into it. This reclaims some of the heat which would otherwise be going out side. I am considering getting a larger pellet stove but will also continue to burn wood. I have to admit that cutting wood is less fun than it was thirty years ago and I refuse to drive out to compete with all the townies who come to our area to cut firewood. GD

using 4 tons @ $295 a ton, that's about a full tank of propane for the winter

^^^^this, in spades^^^^ This is not prepper goofy, this is reality.

I like the wood stove. Get a good one with big glass doors and y'all will love it. Green wood has to season 2 years.

In the real crisis, power out in the blizzard, the pellet stove won't work.

Being that you have a supply of wood on your property, don't mind the work & time that it takes to cut, split, haul, stack, cover, rehaul, restack, & burn, I'd go with the wood burner. Fire wood is like a bale of hay. You handle it many times before it is used. When the power is out, you have heat and you can even cook with it if needed.

We run a woodstove all winter.
I'll be 60 next summer. Not sure how many more years I will continue cutting/splitting/hauling.

Employee here runs 2 pellet stoves all winter.
He buys every damaged bag of pellets at a discount at both of our local RK & TSC's.
He also buys them out in late winter/early spring at a discount.

Love my Harman Pellet. Had an Englander that was great but I had to shut down every few days to clean the fire box, the Harman not near as much.

I pre pay for my 5 ton of pellets every summer (230 a ton last summer but I understand they've went up quite a bit) and they bring me a skid up with the fork lift when I need them (I live close to my vender and am friends).

That said if I had access to free wood I'd probably have a wood burner.

Ok, wife is a safety nut. So got some questions that i cant answer fully. We are leaning hard towards straight wood burner. Will need to have flue/chimney installed on that side of the house. Whats the best, safest option there? Wife keeps asking about potential issue/fire. Just burn seasoned wood and have the flue brushed every so often correct? Do the new wood burners with the filter (whatever its called) stop the build up of creosote in the flue? So wood burner would need a triple wall pipe to exit the housd correct? Better to exit the roof or the wall? The roof has a 2ft space and then it exits. Thanks for the advice guys

How many feet to clear the roof. Single wall pipe up to the wall, triple wall stainless from the wall out. Right now triple wall stainless is 40-75 bucks per foot.

The room this is going in has a fairly flat rubber roof just above. Short ceiling, like a little over 8ft tall. About a 2ft space then the roof if that makes sense

These new stoves prefer a pipe going straight up through the roof. Many stoves do not draw well with 90 degree bends.

A little off subject but btu/$ are about the same with wood pellets and LP when figuring in efficiencies. Add the extra labor of pellets and it's a no-brainer for me. Pellets can sometimes be hard to find and are very inconsistent with the value brands.
I heat my 4,800sf shop with LP but burn seasoned wood most of the winter just because I like the heat. My house is strictly LP. A boiler takes care of most of the house and a fireplace does the rest. There is enough overlap so if one system happens to fail, the other will keep the other parts tolerable. I do have my old wood furnace in the basement for emergencies, but I haven't fired it in a few years. Small inverter generators are cheap back-up and have many other uses.

Flat rubber roof I wouldn’t be putting a wood stove in unless I had 6-8 ft from the roof to weather cap. If going with wood, just make sure that you can insure the house.