Questions about Pellet Stoves

[iSawitFirst]

I've been reading the Shop Heating thread and have decided that a pellet stove may be the way to go for me. Can anyone answer these questions?

1. Stoves specs state they have a "fuel capacity" of x-lbs. Does that mean the stove has a hopper for storing sawdust and it makes the pellets automatically or does that simple mean they can hold x-lbs of pellets?

2. How do you make your own pellets? Can you use PVA glue? CA glue?

3. Some are thermostatically controlled. Does this mean they have motorized dampers (120V or low voltage required)?

Any other advise is greatly appreciated.

[Vic]

I don't know much about pellet stoves, but I've never seen one that will actually make pellets from sawdust. Pellets in my area are not what you would call an $ efficient source of heat.

[Vermont Carpentry]

I have had 2 pellet stoves for about 10 years now. The fuel capacity is the number of pounds of pellets held in the hopper. The stove does not make pellets. They are purchase in 40lb bags. I buy them by the ton, hence 50 40lb bags to a pallet. The stoves have 2 settings. One controls the auger speed which feeds the pellets to the burn pot. The more heat wanted the faster the auger is set. The other setting is a fan that blows the heat from the stove into the room. Like the auger this also has different speed settings. 120v is required. So in a power outage, unless you have a generator or some kind of battery back-up the stove will not work.This can be a draw back. I live in Vermont, so I have a generator.

Good luck,

Mark

[nateswoodworks]

Up here in Mn. they don't seem to be very cost effective either not sure if it a region thing? A friend of mine put one in about 5yrs ago and still has is gas furnace as well, half the time he says he uses the gas because the cost is cheaper, the same goes for the corn burners. When people started to put them in around here they were very cheap to run, we had even thought about going that route but I am glad we didn't. I would see if there a resourse that you can check as far as pellet costs over the last number of years, maybe check with the big sellers of the wood pellets and their product competitors such as corn pellets as they may have comparisons to each other. It may be a homerun or a strikeout for you and I would sure hate for it to be the latter of the two. As far as making pellets, we have a rabbit that loves to eat paper I can bag up his litter box and send it to you-whats your address? Keep us posted on what you find and good luck.

Nate