I looked back here a few days thinking someone must have started a discussion about them and found nada.

My daughter has a 1700 SF single story , heat pump that will keep her house about 60* when it is 15* out. There is no fireplace and she thinks a pellet stand alone would be something she would enjoy and add to the value of the house.

Her goal is to supplement the heat pump not rely on it for entire house.

She wants a Silverado not a BMW.

What do I need to know about them that makes or breaks the difference between OK and works really well?

Quick Amazon search shows most use electric and that's enough to scare me away after this past week. Get a good fireplace insert.

I had a pellet in Washington State when I lived there.

You can only turn them down so low was the only issue, we sat around in this weather wearing shorts in our house. House was only 900sq ft.

Its a great option.

I think stand alone wood stove is the direction I will go in get away house build , w heat box and blower in stove pipe.

I would rather scrounge wood than pellets.

I had a wood burning fireplace insert in colorado that heated the house well on its own, kept the propane furnace at bay.

pellet would be very similar.
be sure it has force air circulation, and a good damper just above the stove to control the burn, some are only convection type and won't move much air. if power goes out the fan can easily be run from a small genset.
even though it is pellet, have tile laid to extend at least 2' in all directions from outside edges of the stove, if it is 2'x3' then 6'x7' tile surface with stove in middle, if against a wall have hardi backer board put up and tile on top of that to insulate the wood from the heat and extend 1' beyond edges of stove so a 2' wide would need a 4' tile backboard.
insist on triple wall stainless pipe, this keeps heat off the pipe but is the safest way to vent the stove to the outside, you can do a single wall with a heat donut just above the stove for more heat output and some donuts have a fan forced option. if donut is used then extend wall tile 6" ea. direction min. if against a wall. if against a wall it needs to be at least 18" from the face of tile to back of stove.
be sure the pipe above the shingles extends at least 3' and over the ridge is much better for proper draw, back drafts in stoves can really screw you up on how they burn. they can offset in attic to get closer to the ridge.

that is how we did wood stoves in colorado but you need to check local code if any and be sure it complies, don't need a permit but for insurance purposes be sure it meets code minimums.

reelslow, one other thing is air circulation considerations. place it so that it can put air into hallways if possible, will make a big difference in how much of the house gets heat.

In addition to this, watch location of installation. Might make the rest of the house too cold if the pellet stove is close to where the heat pump thermostat is. We had that in one house we rented. We could be nice and toasty in the living room with the pellet stove going, but the rest of the house turned into an icebox because the thermostat was in the living room a few feet from the small pellet stove.

Exactly what I needed Hop.

I assume there are battery backup systems for them? A 12V deep cycle should power a couple 1 amp fans for a good time. My pellet smoker uses a small motor to turn the feed screw. That brings up gravity feed vs screw feed What you like.

Battey backup ?


she has no fireplace in her house

They might get to be like ammo

good tip, I guess if the best place to put the stove is too close to thermo then moving the thermo is an option

depending on how much she may need to power, small generator set up to power the stove etc. would be what I would recommend, hard to recharge batteries if no power. screw feed would be my preference I think, not all that familiar with the difference in the 2 systems. I have a 10" d cell battery fan at the trailer that also plugs in, got it to circulate heat from my electric radiator so that may be a safe option since d cells can be stored for yrs. the donut in the pipe makes a huge difference and even if just convection instead of fan forced it will add a lot of heat.

one type of pipe forced air.


donut type

people I know in Okieland have the top type, the wood stove will run you out when that thing is blowin, very efficient and moves a lot of air.

No one has mentioned the primary objection I have to pellet stoves....noise.

The auger and the fan put out a lot of noise.

I owned one for several years...replaced it with a propane stove. Quiet.

They are efficient. The auger and fan require electricity. Bags of pellets are 40lbs and cost about $6.50

Pellet stove will take power to work right. A well placed and efficient wood stove would radiate heat without any power source needed.
Our wood stove in our lower level will heat our whole, smallish, house and the keep the heat from clicking on in below zero temps.
It has a fan but we rarely use it.
We could cook on top of it if we ever needed to also.

Plenty of folks up here have pellet stoves and they do heat great but need power to operate . Most have wood as an emergency backup, either a stove or fireplace . Really stoves are usually put in fireplaces up here due to their efficiency and heat radiating abilities.
The soapstone stoves heat up slowly but really retail their heat over time.
Pellets are readily available up here and pretty cheap due to the beetle killed trees they use for them, that is why many go that route for extra heat but not really as their emergency heat backup.
Pellets have the advantage for ease of use though, no firewood cutting or buying. Pallets of bags are way cheaper than a cord of wood and probably burn longer .