Alternative Sources for Home Heating

[chlamor]

An option for alternative sources of heat is pellet stoves. One
company makes a multi-fuel stove, the Countryside model, that can burn
either wood pellets or corn www.magnumfireplace.com. Other good
manufacturers include Harman and QuadraFire, though these two don't make a
multi-fuel stove, just stoves that burn straight corn or a 50-50 mixture of
wood pellets and corn. (Burning corn alone in a stove designed only for
wood pellets would cause problems.)
Wood pellets are made from sawdust--much of which would otherwise be
headed for landfills. Another option is the Dry Creek brand, which uses no
binders but relies on compression to produce the pellets.
The air pollution from wood pellets and corn is extremely low--a big
advantage over traditional wood stoves. And all the stoves save money on
fuel bills in addition to being more friendly to the environment than most
sources of energy.

[Enquiringkitty]

1. What do you calculate the cost difference to be. I would love to lower

my heating bill without adding to air pollution any more than I have to or the natural gas corporations do.

[chlamor]

2. Not Sure-Variables?

How big is the space you are heating? What is your climate? These must be factored in. I have a few friends who use these as an accompaniment to gas and say their bills have gone down alot. I think that is partly due to increase in natural gas prices. They live in an urban area and contend that these stoves are super eco-friendly. Need to find more data. I'll try.

[SpiralHawk]

3. it's also nice to have a least one place in the house

Where you can go and sit (next to the stove) and be glowingly, toasty warm even on the nastiest wettest, snowiest, windiest nights. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[chlamor]

5. Definitely

We live in cold grey upstate NY and use only wood. It is so much softer than forced air. Couldn't go back to the "new ways'. Here is a toast to Ancient Futures and a return to the "Old Ways".

:toast:

[Enquiringkitty]

7. Well, I live in Arkansas and it gets to 16 or so in the worst of

winters, average night is 28-35, so a pellet or multi-fuel would be great for me. You all are right about how nice and cozy a fire is. We have really wet winters and the chill goes right to the bone ... a fire is great to thaw you out fast. I have saved the web site noted above and plan to get more info from them. I saw an article in "Mother Earth News" on multi-fuel heaters some time ago but I can't find it now.

[Canadian Socialist]

4. My parents

built their log cabin with a wood burning stove as the main source of heat. Not only for house heat, but it also heated up their water. A few years ago, because they were elderly and my dad didn't want to haul wood into the house, they turned to a wood pellet stove. Both were ecological positive as the wood they used originally came from their own land. And man, was that house hot! This in the Okanagan Valley in B.C. and they used stack wall housing in the building of their house, which is the best way to build a log house. And the cats (and me) loved to lie in front of the stove. They did have gas heat as a back up, but I don't remember them really ever using it, except when it reached -30.

[me b zola]

13. We live in Portland Or & use exclusively wood for heat

We are in the process of buying land away from any city and plan to live off of the land; grow our own crops, enough woods to sustain us, hunt, solar & wind power, and so on.

I would be very interested to learn how you use wood to heat your water as well.

[Technowitch]

6. We heat exclusively using a regular wood stove

A modern unit with a catalytic converter. Works great.

[Ian David]

8. Mythbusters did a segment on fireplaces

They showed that having a fireplace in one room makes the other rooms colder.

I'd rather adapt my existing oil heater to biodiesel, once the cost comes down below that of oil.

They also make single-home geothermal systems now, too.

And there's also solar power, too.

And no, wood stoves are not less polluting.

[MadHound]

14. You might want to do some research

Modern wood stoves are wonders of heating technology. You can have an exterior, either forced air or radiant heat model, equipped with a catalytic converter which almost doubles the heat output, and cuts the pollution by eighty to ninety five percent.

Biodiesel, while clean burning, does emit a bit of pollutants. Also, the process of making biodiesel requires the use of methanol(waste from that creation process) and lye(also waste from making that). In addition, when you are done making biodiesel, you are left with waste glycerin, unless you know some soapmaker who could use the glycerin. I would like to see a comprehensive comparison to determine which would be less polluting, a cat equipped wood stove, or biodiesel and its manufacturing process. I think they would come out about even.

Also, a catalytic equipped stove will double the heat, thus consuming less wood. For every cord of wood consumed, you would have to burn one hundred sixty six gallons of heating oil, whether it is biodiesel or regular heating oil. In most normal winters, I use aprox a cord and a half of wood-two cords, and that is here in the midwest where we have cold winters. Average yearly use of heating oil(mostly winter months) is 730 gallons.

Sometimes the most obvious answer isn't the right one. I would keep the biodiesel for your vehicle, and take a serious look into catalytic converter equipped wood stoves. I do agree with you on installing solar panels, and if you have the space, put in a wind mill also.

[Ian David]

15. You may be right, but I'm lazy. Feel free to enlighten me if you'd like?

[BornLeft]

9. I use a pellet stove and

am very happy with it. I live in WV and my first year at the new house the electric bill was 400.00 per month in the winter. Now it remains the same year round. very little cleanup,. The cost varies on pellets. But is much less that heating oil/gas or electric heat bill.
Also to answer your question about cost/efficiency my house is 3500 sq ft and i have a a 8000- 80000 btu unit. a stove burns about 1 pound pellets per pound of pellets.

[LeftHander]

11. Welcome to DU....

Greetings...!

[newyawker99]

12. Hi BornLeft!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[LeftHander]

10. I have a Harmon Accentra...

Really like it.

We went from around $5.50 per day to under $4.

The fuel source, hardwood pellets manfuactured just north of where I live are about $2.50 per 40 lb bag.

The stove is rated at less than 3 g/hr of particulate pollution comapared to 25+ for fireplaces and cord wood burners. Gas stoves are on a tenths of grams/hr micro particulates but generate a significant positive addition of greenhouse gases. Also what are the costs of the infrastructure and transportation of the fuel itself? Oil and Gas are quite costly whereas Wood pellets have a more direct line from manfacturer to usage. No giant oil tanks, piplelines, oil wells, refineries etc, etc, etc,....

I did a ton of research before I bought mine and after wieghing all the factors I went with pellets and corn. With the addition of solar power battery banks and a wind generator I hope to eliminate my dependency on local electricity...


The Stove heats our small house and I use the furnace blower fan to distribute the warm air from the living room around the house.

I burn 25% corn in mine and it works fine. A little more cleanup.


The biggest plus is it is greenhouse gas neutral fuel. It is made from byproducts of wood industries in N. Wiscosnsin. Saw dust that was destined for land fills...

Nothing like sitting infront of the stove on a cold winter day watching the fire through the galss window in the door.