Questions about corn/pellet stoves

 

I am considering a corn/pellet burning stove for supplemental heat in
my house.  I have a ranch style home with a finished basement.  The
stove will go in the basement, mainly for heating the basement, but for
supplementing the propane heat to our house.  I have some questions for
those of you with this type of stove:

1)     Does yours burn corn, pellets, or both?  Or something else?
What do you typically burn and where do you get your "fuel"?
2)     Have you saved money as opposed to alternate forms of heat?
Does it use much electricity?
3)     How messy is it to empty the ash pan, fill the hopper, etc.?
Mine would go in a finished basement, hence the reason I am going this
route instead of true wood heat.
4)     Is it noisy?
5)     How do you like it and would you do it again?
6)     Would this stove be a good solution for what I describe?

Thanks in advance for all of your help!!

 



Pellets only - much cheaper than corn in California. Buy at whichever
home improvement, grocery, or farm supply has the best price this
week.


Hugely cheaper than propane, not quite as low as full-cord firewood
but the convenience is probably worth the difference.


The stove itself? Not by grid-connected standards (but my off-grid
home still burns cordwood). For heating the whole house, factor in
running your central air fan to move the heat around. Although it
looks like a woodstove, most of the heat from the pellet stove is hot
air from the fan, not radiant heat, and it collects at the ceiling of
the room the stove is in, rather than radiating to the walls and
floor.


Buy it a dedicated cheap shop vac (one with a big pleated filter
cartridge, not the paper bag over foam) to capture the stray ash and
dust/crumbs. Keep it handy.


Yes, a bit obtrusive at night, but if you keep telling yourself how
much propane you are saving, you can come to like the sound...  


If propane is your alternative, and you aren't set up for a real
woodstove, and you're willing to deal with hauling pellets and
manually lighting the fire, the savings are hard to beat. Our pellet
stove cost less than the flue and shielding required for a cordwood
stove, and has easily paid for itself in saved propane.

Loren