By Brian Merchant
Brooklyn, NY, USA | Tue Oct 07 13:00:00 GMT 2008
With energy going through the roof, now's the time to embrace a greener, cheaper alternative home heating option.
Enter the Pellet Stove. Requiring only a smidgen of electricity and a few hundred pounds of compressed wood pellets (which are easier to manage than they sound, honest!), these efficient stoves can heat your home cheaper and greener than both wood and natural gas.
Here's a brief pellet stove 101: A motorized auger system feeds a continuous stream of pellets from a refillable hopper (the pellet storage container) into a burn pot, where they combust. The combustion creates a visible flame, and gives off regular and consistent heat. For precise temperature regulation, models are available with a thermostat.
And now for the green part: Pellet stoves pollute so little that they don't require certification from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (though many companies get certified anyway), they create no creosote (chimney fire fodder), and fall well within clean air standards. And the pellets? Most are made from compressed sawdust and other wood waste, though some stoves can also take wood, recycled paper waste, and biomass pellets. Therefore, pellet stoves don't contribute to deforestation or consumption of other precious natural resources (natural gas).
All of these reasons have led to a burgeoning popularity for pellet stoves: Some 800,000 Americans have gone the pellet stove route. However, tracking down the right stove can be tricky, as most manufacturers don't sell the stoves directly due to a difficult and complex installation process.
A Few General Tips:
Find a local vendor that consistently sells affordable pellets.
Contact a certified pellet stove dealer for installation—they're more complex than they look.
Make sure you have a battery backup if your pellet stove does not have an internal backup system to handle power outage. A power outage while the stove is still running will prevent the blowers or fans from functioning—and make your home smokier than a Pink Floyd laser light show.
Here are five solid stoves on the market—each is thermostat compatible and available with an automatic igniter.
After you check them out, read more about pellet stoves here:
Why We Like It: Simple and compact, the Englander is one of the top selling pellet stoves in the U.S.—it's also one of the cheapest. Despite the budget-friendly price, this stove maintains many of the features touted by its pricier competitors, such as a consistent double auger feed system, auto-ignite, and an adjustable feed rate and blower speed. A wall-mounted thermostat is also available. Note: The Englander is only designed to burn premium wood pellets (anything else will void your warranty), which can be more difficult to find.
Nice Touch: The classic look makes this stove easily adaptable to the aesthetic of your home—proving pellet stoves can be chic as well as green.
Where: Home Depot
How Much: $1,650
Why We Like It: The Woodland by Minnesota-based manufacturer Kozy Heat Fireplaces also sports a stark, minimalist body. This stove has one of the biggest hoppers on the market, holding 80 pounds of wood pellets. The cast iron door makes for an efficient heat seal, and the high-quality plate steel can withstand years of wear and tear.
Nice Touch: Set on low, this unit can last up to three days without a refill.
Where: Use the Kozy Heat Fireplace dealer locator to find the closest dealer to you.
How much: $2,795
Why We Like It: The PB105 Pellet Boiler by Harman Stoves is your heavy-duty, industrial strength pellet heating option: for serious pellet buffs and seriously huge homes only. Dubbed the "champion of pellet heating" by the manufacturer, it heats up to a massive 113,900 BTUs—nearly three times the heat output of the other models we've listed here. This model doesn't seem to be widely available yet—one dealer we spoke to said they'd have a Boiler in June 2009—but for large-scale heating, it's worth the wait.
Nice Touch: The mega-sized hopper carries 205 pounds of pellets, and the unique boiler system maximizes efficiency via outside and inside air and water temperature sensors.
Where: Use the Harman dealer locator to find the closest dealer to you.
How Much: $6,000
Why We Like It: American Energy Systems is the company behind the first nationally certified biomass fuel burning stove: The Magnum Countryside Biomass stove. The manufacturer now has a well-deserved reputation for making durable, top-quality stoves. The Magnum Baby Countryside can run on wood, corn, or biomass pellets, making it one of the more versatile stoves on the market. Despite its diminutive moniker, this baby can heat with the big boys—up to 40,000 BTUs.
Nice Touch: It comes with a backup battery system that will kick in if the power goes out.
Where: Use the American Energy Systems dealer locator to find the closest dealer to you.
How Much: Around $2,000
Why We Like It: The Pellet Stove NPS40, by Napoleon has nuanced variable settings for both the blower and auger. This means you can control temperature and efficiency. The NPS40 is among the most technologically advanced pellet stoves out there, offering convenience (via a front loading pellet depository) and impressive functionality. It's a tad more expensive than other comparable stoves, but arguably worth the extra buck.
Nice Touch: A fail-safe security system—including blower override control and automatic shut-down switches for high temperature, low air pressure, and power failure—makes this pellet stove worry-free.
Where: Dynamite Buys, Barbecues.com
How Much: $2,350
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