The Advantages of Pellet Stoves
As home heating prices rise with oil prices, heating homes in the winter months is becoming frightening prospect. It is predicted that heating bills will be 27 to 41 percent higher this winter. Many homeowners are looking for ways to supplement their oil or gas heating with another source of heat. One of these options is a pellet stove.
Description
Pellet stoves have been around since around 1980 in their current form. Wood pellet stoves burn pellets of compressed wood. The wood pellets are slowly added to the stove to provide a constant flame that doesn’t require adjustments like poking and stirring the burning logs in the typical fireplace.
Benefits
There are a lot of benefits to a wood pellet stove because of their versatility and efficiency.
Most of them are self-igniting and are connected to a thermostat so that they can cycle on and off automatically.
If the stove is kept clean, it won’t produce creosote that can build up in chimneys and cause fires. Wood pellets burn very cleanly and create only a very fine ash. There are different grades of pellets, with the best grade producing only one percent ash content.
Pellet stoves come in a variety of styles, some resembling old-fashioned pot bellied stoves and some with a more modern look. You can purchase pellet stove inserts that fit into your current fireplace to easily convert it to an efficient heat source.
The fire in most pellet stoves is concentrated in the middle of the unit. If you like the ambience of a real wood burning fire, you can choose a stove with a flame pattern that you like and a large viewing glass. In some cases, you can even get ceramic logs that will spread the flames out for the look of real fire.
Upkeep
Pellet stoves seem to be somewhat complicated and some people may consider this a drawback.
There are a number of movable parts and motors that make a pellet stove function that need occasional maintenance. But you can purchase a service contract with your stove. With the proper upkeep, you should find that the pellet stove is not only a viable supplement to your oil or gas heating, but a cozy one, too.
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