Pellet Stoves Place

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Wood pellets are manufactured using recycled wood paste from sawmills and furniture factories. They are a renewable source of energy for your home and are sold in 40-pound bags. 50 such bags will equal one ton. A homeowner in New England will use about 3 tons of wood pellets to heat their home for the entire year. When you consider that the average cost of a ton of wood pellet fuel is between $175.00 and $200.00, you begin to see just how efficient and cost effective using a pellet stove for heating can be.

Aavailable in either standard or premium grades. Standard grade will provide between 8,200-9,200 BTUs of heat, while premium grade provides more than 8,400 BTUs. High-grade pellets have another significant advantage in that they produce much less ash than lesser grades, virtually eliminating most maintenance problems. Lower grade pellets made from pine waste will produce what is known as “clinkers” or pellets that are not consumed fully, often creating maintenance concerns.

If your pellet stove will not cycle properly, do this simple check. First, do the obvious and make sure your stove is plugged in, and that there is a supply of fuel pellets in the hopper. If these two steps fail, open the door on the stove and check and see if there are any clinkers. If there are, take a regular head screwdriver and break them up. Make extra sure that all air holes in the firepot are clear. If you hear a whistling sound when you first start the stove, it usually means that a clinker blocks an air hole in the firepot. Once you have cleared the firepot of all the clinkers, close and latch the door. Pull the lever and release the waste ash in the ash drawer.

Press the recycle button on the back of your stove. 99% of the time, this quick fix will solve your problems and you will be back to enjoying your pellet stove in no time. Compared to other heating systems, the cost of installing a pellet stove is about 70% less than the installation fees associated with any other type of heating system. You can’t beat the fact that installing completely a pellet stove takes, on average, around two hours. It is advisable that if you install a pellet stove to be your primary heating system in your home that you leave your existing heating system in place as a back-up.

Make sure you run your old system for about an hour a month to keep it in good working order.
After the winter heating season is a good time to do a more thorough cleaning of your stove. Check the owner’s manual and follow the directions. Usually, you will need to remove the access panel covering the heat exchanger and vacuuming out any dust and ash that has collected here. Take the time to clean the air intake fan of any dust or pet fur that may have collected there, and vacuum the space behind the stove and all the open space around the intake fan.

Lumber by-products such as sawdust and shavings are the ingredients used to make wood pellets. Such pellets are manufactured at over twenty production sites which together produce almost one million tons of wood pellets per year. Wood pellets can be used in burners, stoves or boilers at private residences.

When burned, wood pellets emit very little pollutant into the surrounding air. The low emissions of wood pellets has been proven both in scientific laboratories as well as by examining chimneys of wood pellet burning burners and stoves. While currently lumber by-products such as shavings and chips are used to make pellets, as demand for pellets increases, so to will the range of raw materials used to create pellets. For instance, energy crop byproducts, waste left behind after logging, agricultural waste, and organic waste from households could all be used to make fuel pellets. While it is possible to create fuel pellets from these sources, these fuels may be chemically complex and emit pollutants.

Unpredictable combustion of pellets made from these alternative sources could result in unmanaged emissions of compounds hazardous to the environment as well as to people’s health. For these reasons, it is important to study the burning properties and emissions of pellets made with innovative raw materials prior to introducing their use to the residential or mainstream markets.

Any pellet fuel with substantial emissions will require large-scale combustion sites employing technologically appropriate ventilation and advanced gas neutralization mechanisms. However, it does appear environmentally and toxicologically safe to increase residential use of pellets composed of pure trunk wood.
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Why use pellet fuel instead of raw materials?

Pellet fuel is made from by-products such as wood waste. Such by-products are refined into uniform, small-sized pellets. These pellets are unvarying in their characteristics; all share the same shape, size, energy content, density and moisture. The low moisture content of pellet fuel is very important and is one of the characteristics that gives pellet fuel an advantage over raw materials. Pellet fuels are about 4% to 8% water, while raw biomaterials tend to be from 20% to 60% water. This lower moisture of pellet fuel results in a higher value BTU. The lower moisture content of pellet fuels also makes pellet fuel more convenient to manage and transport than raw biomaterials, especially in freezing temperatures.

The significantly higher density of pellet fuel also provides an advantage over raw biomass fuels. Pellet fuel density is about 40 pounds per cubic foot. Compare this with the density of raw material fuels, which ranges from only 10 to 25 pounds per cubic foot. This higher density means more efficient transport of pellet fuels, as the same truck filled with pellet fuel will provide more energy than the same truck filled with raw biomass fuel. The higher density of pellet fuels also makes it more convenient for storage at the usage site.
The uniform size and shape of pellet fuels is a third advantage that pellet fuels have over raw biomass fuels. Feed systems for pellet fuels are smaller and simpler as they do not have to account for varying sizes and shapes of fuels such as wood. The simpler fuel feeding systems used with pellet fuels reduces costs and lightens maintenance duties. Transport and storage of pellet fuels is also more convenient due to the consistent shape of pellets and the high-density composition of pellets. The non-explosive, non-polluting nature of pellet fuels further increase their convenience.

Not only is pellet fuel easier to transport and store, it is also less polluting than raw fuels when burned. Pellet fuels emit only a fraction of the particles that raw biomass emits when burned. Pellets are uniform and burn efficiently. Thus, systems burning pellet fuel produce the lowest particulate emissions of any system burning solid fuel. Fossil fuel supplies are declining at an alarming rate. Even if our supply of fossil fuel was unlimited, the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels would still make them a less than ideal energy source. Sulfur, carbon monoxide, arsenic, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are some of the many pollutants that despoil our world’s air and water when fossil fuels are used for energy.

Add to this the financial and environmental costs of transporting fossil fuels, and it’s easy to see why our continually growing energy needs cannot be met by fossil fuels in a sustainable manner.

In contrast, pellet fuel systems burn at an average of 80% efficiency while keeping emission so low, they consistently meet even the most rigorous standards established by the EPA. Very little ash is left once pellets are burned; what ash does remain can be accumulated over time and then utilized as a fertilizer. Storing and transporting pellet fuel is easy and safe. No soil or water contamination risks are posed by the transport and possible spill of pellet fuels. How comforting to know that a pellet fuel spill can be cleaned up with a shovel, rather than a whole crew of hazardous waste experts! The benefits of using pellet fuels are obvious and plentiful. The choice is clear for anyone looking for an efficient, economical and environmental energy alternative.

There are essentially two types of wood pellets on the market today. The main difference between the two is in the percentage of inorganic ash contained by the pellets. With consistent premium pellet use, as opposed to the lesser grade fuel pellet, a stove’s maintenance needs will significantly decline.

Some pellet stoves on the market today are capable of burning pellets that contain a large amount of corn. This is a growing trend for heating homes, and utilizes quickly renewable resources to provide clean and efficient heat. The cost of a new pellet stove is not limited to the purchase price of the stove itself. You need to budget for installation and the cost of the chimney, as well as maintenance and the cost of purchasing the fuel for your stove.