We have used a wood burning step stove to heat our small home for 20 yrs. Yes, we gather trees that have been cut down, we cut to size, split, and stack several cords of wood. We also use branches for kindling and branches from 1-3". We recently had a new furnace installed as backup. We are both over 65, so we needed to plan for when we find it too difficult to process that much wood. We love wood heat. We can always get woodchips and make logs.
When I was younger and made really good money I never even thought about this stuff. Now though it seems to be all I think about. I started burning wood last year when one of my heat pumps was having some issues and kind of like it. This year I am only burning wood but have become conditioned to a colder house because I have limited seasoned wood and am too cheap to buy any. Hopefully my next year I will have an abondance of seasoned wood so that I can keep the stove going and hope to install a second one as well. Good vid with lots of info.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. We really like heating with wood. Sometimes I wish I had put a wood stove in this addition (where we have the pellet stove) but I like that the pellets are easier to store/handle in the living space. I don't get the mess of dirt/bugs/bark that I have around our wood stove in the basement. AND - the pellet stove doesn't require a full chimney. Have a great day!
100% correct. We've relied on our Buck Stove for heat MANY times when the power goes out. With an all-electric house, the Buck Stove is perfect or power outages in the winter.
I got away from pellet stoves for a few reasons, first, I needed reliability because it was my primary source of heat, second is supply, and third they still required electrical connections, so when the power goes out, unless you plug in a generator your done! But I will also say that the heat was great, when they worked right! The units I had were not Harmon, they were American Stove works units, and after the first year I started having issues, auger failures, vacuum sensor failure, and control boards failures, and the fine dust from the bags of pellets was too much for my wife to handle! So I took a step back, and thought about energy and sustainability and coal and wood is what came to mind! I can supply wood at any time of the year, but pellets supply can “dry up” later in the season, which has also happened on multiple times over the 7 years I ran them! So knowing that your calculations are as accurate as you can make them for your area,and knowing that situations vary with the weather, wood stoves were my choice, as much as the insurance companies don’t like them, we are better off using “off grid” heat vs being tied to the services of electricity. Because when we loose power, we would loose the range, the oven, and the boiler and any equipment such as the sump pump in the crawl space! The situation that happened was hurricane Sandy, while we didn’t loose power from the utility company from the storm, but from the the power company shutting down sections of grid and redirecting power to other grids, this caused the boiler to shut down, and also the sump pump, now we had a boiler that got flooded, and electrical panel that was also damaged along with loose of food and everything else from being shut down for 2 weeks. After all the repairs were done to the heating system, and the electrical system, the following week we were hit with another storm, and again with out power wiped out everything we just replaced! So that is when I bought a generator, and our pellet stoves, which lasted about 2-3 years without any real issues, but they started malfunctioning to the point of repair would be cheaper to replace, so with in the next 2 years we switched back to wood stoves! And then I sat back and watched, neighbors installing generators and pellet stoves and then replacing some mighty nice and expensive stoves with wood burning equipment just for the control and piece of mind factors of knowing they can heat and cook on a stove regardless of what situation happens!
Thanks for sharing your story! You've certainly experienced the downfall of the pellet stoves. We have to power ours with a generator when the power goes out - and there have been electrical glitches with ours too. We've replaced sensors and boards (expensive and a pain) probably due to power surges or "brown outs" during the time that we've had the stove. There certainly is an advantage when it comes to running without power in the form of a standard wood stove.
@@PurpleCollarLife yes, I know! So with all the reviews and research, pellet stoves are sill a buyer be ware type of thing, or even be aware, because not one single seller or manufacturer will tell anyone of the shortcomings of these machines, and to find a qualified service rep for certain manufacturers is dang near impossible, especially if it was a box store purchase and owner installation.
We have been off grid for over 25 years heating with wood and solar. Going on 70 , I'm feeling the pain a lot harvesting my own firewood and prices for firewood have gone sky high around here while qulity is mixed. Enter our Wiseway pellet rocket stove by US Stove. No electricity needed. It just works for us, is gravity fed and goes 20 -36 hours depending on heat setting and type of pellets. 60 pound hopper. Our house is passive/active solar The Wisway is less than $1100 on Amazon and at Home Depot. No moving parts or electronics to fail. Hard to beat.
I have a split level house. Boiler hot water heat. With propane and it was outrageous. I installed 3 ductless mini splits for a/c and has a heat pump. We use it until it gets down to around 35* then we use our pellet stove like you have. I also live in western Pa. Last year we used 3.5 ton of pellets. I have a small propane tank for backup just incase we have to use the furnace.
Thanks for sharing your experience, from near us. So once it's below 35, the heat pump doesn't work effectively? But over 35 you find that it works good. I'm going to have to look into that type of system. Many people have commented that the heat pump systems are very efficient.
@@PurpleCollarLife I see all these ductless mini splits that claim to work down to zero. The one I got doesn't work very well after around 35. I'm not sure why. We got it about 8 years ago now. Maybe they are better now. Ours is a Fujitsu Mini split
The best option is a heat pump, just divided the electric cost by 3 for the running cost. If you can install it yourself the ROI will be much less than a pellet stove
Old guy here, heated with wood, coal, oil, baseboard electric, natural gas, heat pump is king if its about money. No chimney to clean or needed. Insurance companies love heat pumps. Pencil it out over 20 plus years, you’ll be surprised of savings. In addition, if you run central air, it’s a no-brainer. On the other hand, people enjoy the flame and concentrated warmth.
Avg price of electric in CT is 25.01c/kWh! Wish I had your rates. Been running my house on pellets for over 10 years now and have saved thousands of dollars.
Soft wood pellets here in Nova Scotia run $7 to$8 per 40 lb bag. Depending upon conditions I would use 1 or 2 bags every 24 hrs. and had to clean the stove every 3 days. I had 2 mini splits installed . 5 mins for a light clean and more involved once every spring. Bottom line is not only are the mini splits less work to maintain but the mini's are no more per day (and often less $$$) and require far less maintenance. I still have the pellet stove but so far I have not needed it.
Here in Michigan, the cheapest electric we have is $0.1673/kWh and that’s from 7pm-3pm on weekdays and all day weekends. I wish we only paid $0.13/kWh. Peak rates are $0.2240/kWh!
When I moved to Georgia, had heat pump with electric element. When the I think 5000w elements came on the meter disk was going so fast it looked like it would fly out of the meter. Oh and electricity during winter was 4 cents a kilowatt.
lot of calculations here. i live in Montana so i know about cold. been using a pellet stove in my 2 car garage/workshop for over 8 years. 4 years ago i installed a DIY small solar system(4.5kwh battery, 1.4kwh array and a 3k inverter) to cut my electric bill. most mini splits are around 300% efficient and my experience is that until the temp gets to 0F they are much better than resistant heaters. bottom line instead of two tons of pellets i used 23 bags last winter. and when there was a power outage i still had heat in my garage. i keep the pellet stove for two reasons, backup and nostalgia.if you are using electric you should seriously consider installing heat pump technology.
Thanks for the great comment! I hadn't ever considered a heat pump. 1st- I didn't know they worked in colder climates. 2nd, I thought they required ductwork. I will need to do some more investigating! I'm considering a small solar system also.
so keeping the space at Constant temperature will always save you money in the long run. Wild swings in temperature will always cost you more money and be less efficient, in the end, especially when using electricity to heat.
I did try the constant temperature method for one winter. Keeping the great room heated (using the pellet stove) had us going through a lot more pellets in one winter.
Very useful information! Thanks for sharing, Chad. I was wondering, do they make a stove where you could use wood chips for heating. Or could wood chips be used in the Buck Stove or pellet stove? Would be another reason for chipping up branches and tree debris.
That's a great question. I don't think I've seen any wood pellet fuel stoves that can run on chips. Sometimes I see the multi-fuel ones that can run on corn though.
Are you factoring all the distribution charges into the electric rate? For us they separate that from the supply charge. I considered a pellet stove at one time. I ditched the idea fast when I considered fueling it. I’ve got land and trees aplenty and can source all my own firewood at the cost of my time and saw/tractor fuel and maintenance. That’s cheap heat! Plus my wood stoves won’t stop when the electricity goes out in a nasty winter storm. The backup is propane. Actually, it’s technically listed with propane as the primary heat with supplemental wood because insurance doesn’t like the manual aspect of maintaining a fire - they’re worried about the house freezing and damage if someone isn’t there. With the stoves, we use very little propane. About 30 gallons for all of last winter.
Thanks for the question. Yes, the $0.13 per kWH is the total cost, including distribution. Power outages are certainly a problem for pellet stoves. I'm glad I have the Buck Stove in the basement. Like you mention - lots of firewood around us, and it burns just fine without electricity. :)
Do you tap your maple trees in late February to make maple syrup? I lived in NH for decades and made maple syrup on a hobby scale from our 250+ year old Sugar Maples, it is a little time consuming, however it is delicious and there is satisfaction in making it yourself. In NH we had a early 80's Vermont Castings 'Vigilant' parlor stove that did the majority of the heating in our house, we burned 4+ cords of hardwood that we got at a fair price from a friend who was a logger and we got 2 huge bundles of pine slabs from his mill for free. Anytime we were home the woodstove was used, it was stocked full for the overnight and before leaving for work and there were still hot coals 9-10 hrs later. We had an oil fired boiler for hot water and baseboard heat. The only time the baseboard heat was used was when we got home from work just to take the chill off before the fire in the woodstove was going well then it was shut off.
Electric baseboard heat is pretty inefficient compared to a cold climate heat pump. Cold climate heat pumps are different from the traditional heat pumps and can work down to temps in the low teens. Granted a heat pump would be more expensive to install but the efficiency savings is massive, plus you get cooling.
There 2 types; ducted which work like a central AC or forced hot air furnace, and ductless mini splits, which would be what used use in that space. The mini splits have a head inside mounted on the wall and a condenser outside. There are federal tax credits if you install them.
Mini split systems are designed for older homes that don't already have central air ducts. A mini split system is basically small heat pump units in each room so you don't need to rip up the walls to install ducts.
@@PurpleCollarLife The Big Box stores are about $350/ton for a hardwood and softwood blend. Some sales at Tractor Supply will discount a slight sales discount.
Not that that $30 bucks a month is gonna make a huge change in the math but it was bugging me, also the gas and time to go get the things, the electricity is delivered all the time. I'll be more shocked if that thing is actually managing the claimed 86% efficiency. Maybe day one or when perfectly cleaned, certainly not on an average day. Plus I'd be willing to bet on the pellet manufactures statements not always being spot on. Basically every time there was a potential error I could see he seemed to skew it for pellets, subconsciously I think, I don't think he works for "big pellet" or anything, he just paid for and likes his pellets stove and it can be hard to not have a bias. I have a pellet stove in my garage. I think starting from zero not already spending $5k a new mini split is almost certainly a better investment though as they do better than 100% efficiency and yes the new ones work below freezing just fine. Plus A/C and no fetching pellets and cleaning the stove, which for me means the breakover happens slightly before the purely mathematical one.
A pellet stove uses around 100 running watts per hour. I live in NY and we have one of the highest electricity rates in the country. My pellet stove runs 24/7 except when I clean it once a week and my bill is $10-12 a month more than normal, plus I use a fan to move air into other rooms. I burn 4 ton a year and this year I paid $275 a ton so I heat all winter for $1100. My regular gas and electric bill is around $110 in the winter. In comparison I know someone who has electric heat and pays $600 a month for his electric bill. Similar size houses but I have more of an open floor plan so it works much better for me. The layout of your home can make a big difference when heating with any wood appliance.
Based on the transcript you uploaded, I’ve summarized the key figures and calculations from the video on electric baseboard heating and pellet stove heating. Now, let’s compare these numbers to a two-ton heat pump system. Summary from the Video Electric Baseboard Heating: Output: 3,412 BTUs per kWh (100% efficiency). Usage: 4,000 watts (4 kWh) per hour in the tested space. Cost: $0.13 per kWh. Daily Cost: 4
kWh × 0.13
$/kWh = 0.52
$/hour 4kWh×0.13$/kWh=0.52$/hour. Over 20 hours per day: 0.52 × 20 = 10.40
$/day 0.52×20=10.40$/day. Seasonal Cost: Approximately $3,810 per winter. Pellet Stove Heating: Efficiency: 86% efficient. Pellet Cost: $5 per 40-lb bag (producing 330,000 BTUs). Usage: 1-2 bags per day (varies with temperature). Daily Cost: $5 to $10. Seasonal Cost: Approximately $1,761 per winter with efficient pellet usage. Heat Pump Comparison Two-Ton Heat Pump System: Output: 24,000 BTUs per hour (2 tons). Efficiency (COP): Average COP of 3 (meaning for every kWh used, it produces 3 times the energy as heat). Power Consumption: 2 kW per hour. Cost: 2
$/winter 5.20×30×4=624$/winter. Comparison and Savings Electric Baseboard Heating: $3,810 per winter. Pellet Stove Heating: $1,761 per winter. Two-Ton Heat Pump System: $624 per winter. The heat pump offers substantial savings over both electric baseboard heating and pellet stove heating. Given the high efficiency of heat pumps (COP of 3 or higher), the seasonal cost using a two-ton system is far lower than both electric baseboard and pellet stove heating. If the goal is to reduce energy costs, switching to a heat pump system would be the most economical solution. Let me know if you need more details or adjustments to this comparison!
That's a great comparison! I have never tried a heat pump. Honestly - I don't know much about them. From what I originally heard about them - they weren't ideal in our climate. But I should do more research on them!
@@PurpleCollarLife I just received my heat pump last week and I'm in the process of installing it. I made the research and the decision to buy it after being faced with another winter of paying $1600 just from my firewood's. I'm hoping for an electric bill that's only 100 to 100 fifty dollars more than would I am presently paying and that would be a great savings compared to what I'm paying for firewood. and the fact that I can control the system with my Android phone is a great bonus. I'm pretty sure you can use that website calculator you show to show what it would cost in your particular area To run a heat pump
We did this to the apartment I lived in during my last few years of college. It does help. But that was an old building, with single pane windows. I think it may help some even in our newer house (with double and triple-pane windows), but probably not as much as it does with other windows. Thanks for the idea though!
To me it seems like you're a better off to go with a heat pump especially using electricity in the rates there so low.. Plus the cost of your stove would have paid for the unit and installation...
In addition to cost you also have to consider your time hauling and loading those pellets, not to mention the mess the ashes make. If the cost is close, it makes no sense to me to waste time jacking with the pellets.
That's true. There is the additional work. And the ashes are crazy. Cleaning the pellet stove is much more of a pain than cleaning a traditional wood stove. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
Fix your burn chamber! Unless you are in the Arctic you will never use 2 bags a day for 30 days in a row ! Your stove is verry inefficient! OR you need more insulation. I heat 800 Sq. Ft. with a half a bag a day in February.
Like I mentioned in the video - it's not a typical 800 sq ft room. It's 800 sq feet, with cathedral ceiling, 3 exterior walls, and 10 windows. 1/2 a bag for a day in February - that's impressive. What's your climate? And what is your 800 square feet like?
The only downside to that is that the mess from the firewood would be in our living space. That's one of the advantages to the pellet stove - still warm wood heat - but without the mess of firewood dirt/bugs/debris. Here's a video I made comparing burning a wood stove with a pellet stove (incase you or others haven't yet seen it) th-cam.com/video/1A-sBQGGvgA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=GZQYmBaOE1jL6Tum
We have used a wood burning step stove to heat our small home for 20 yrs. Yes, we gather trees that have been cut down, we cut to size, split, and stack several cords of wood. We also use branches for kindling and branches from 1-3". We recently had a new furnace installed as backup. We are both over 65, so we needed to plan for when we find it too difficult to process that much wood. We love wood heat. We can always get woodchips and make logs.
When I was younger and made really good money I never even thought about this stuff. Now though it seems to be all I think about. I started burning wood last year when one of my heat pumps was having some issues and kind of like it. This year I am only burning wood but have become conditioned to a colder house because I have limited seasoned wood and am too cheap to buy any. Hopefully my next year I will have an abondance of seasoned wood so that I can keep the stove going and hope to install a second one as well. Good vid with lots of info.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. We really like heating with wood. Sometimes I wish I had put a wood stove in this addition (where we have the pellet stove) but I like that the pellets are easier to store/handle in the living space. I don't get the mess of dirt/bugs/bark that I have around our wood stove in the basement. AND - the pellet stove doesn't require a full chimney. Have a great day!
Great information Chad. Thanks for taking the time to present it so well. Looking forward to the week long comparisons of pellet stove vs. baseboard.
Thanks for watching! I'm not wishing for those cold weeks (to make that video) anytime soon. :)
When you have a wood stove, it gives you an edge when the power goes off.
100% correct. We've relied on our Buck Stove for heat MANY times when the power goes out. With an all-electric house, the Buck Stove is perfect or power outages in the winter.
@@PurpleCollarLife I have a Fisher Mama Bear stove from about 1977 myself, best woodstove i've ever owned.
I got away from pellet stoves for a few reasons, first, I needed reliability because it was my primary source of heat, second is supply, and third they still required electrical connections, so when the power goes out, unless you plug in a generator your done!
But I will also say that the heat was great, when they worked right!
The units I had were not Harmon, they were American Stove works units, and after the first year I started having issues, auger failures, vacuum sensor failure, and control boards failures, and the fine dust from the bags of pellets was too much for my wife to handle! So I took a step back, and thought about energy and sustainability and coal and wood is what came to mind! I can supply wood at any time of the year, but pellets supply can “dry up” later in the season, which has also happened on multiple times over the 7 years I ran them!
So knowing that your calculations are as accurate as you can make them for your area,and knowing that situations vary with the weather, wood stoves were my choice, as much as the insurance companies don’t like them, we are better off using “off grid” heat vs being tied to the services of electricity. Because when we loose power, we would loose the range, the oven, and the boiler and any equipment such as the sump pump in the crawl space!
The situation that happened was hurricane Sandy, while we didn’t loose power from the utility company from the storm, but from the the power company shutting down sections of grid and redirecting power to other grids, this caused the boiler to shut down, and also the sump pump, now we had a boiler that got flooded, and electrical panel that was also damaged along with loose of food and everything else from being shut down for 2 weeks. After all the repairs were done to the heating system, and the electrical system, the following week we were hit with another storm, and again with out power wiped out everything we just replaced! So that is when I bought a generator, and our pellet stoves, which lasted about 2-3 years without any real issues, but they started malfunctioning to the point of repair would be cheaper to replace, so with in the next 2 years we switched back to wood stoves! And then I sat back and watched, neighbors installing generators and pellet stoves and then replacing some mighty nice and expensive stoves with wood burning equipment just for the control and piece of mind factors of knowing they can heat and cook on a stove regardless of what situation happens!
Thanks for sharing your story! You've certainly experienced the downfall of the pellet stoves. We have to power ours with a generator when the power goes out - and there have been electrical glitches with ours too. We've replaced sensors and boards (expensive and a pain) probably due to power surges or "brown outs" during the time that we've had the stove. There certainly is an advantage when it comes to running without power in the form of a standard wood stove.
@@PurpleCollarLife yes, I know! So with all the reviews and research, pellet stoves are sill a buyer be ware type of thing, or even be aware, because not one single seller or manufacturer will tell anyone of the shortcomings of these machines, and to find a qualified service rep for certain manufacturers is dang near impossible, especially if it was a box store purchase and owner installation.
We have been off grid for over 25 years heating with wood and solar. Going on 70 , I'm feeling the pain a lot harvesting my own firewood and prices for firewood have gone sky high around here while qulity is mixed.
Enter our Wiseway pellet rocket stove by US Stove. No electricity needed. It just works for us, is gravity fed and goes 20 -36 hours depending on heat setting and type of pellets. 60 pound hopper. Our house is passive/active solar
The Wisway is less than $1100 on Amazon and at Home Depot. No moving parts or electronics to fail. Hard to beat.
@ will look into it, thanks for the tip!
I have a split level house. Boiler hot water heat. With propane and it was outrageous. I installed 3 ductless mini splits for a/c and has a heat pump. We use it until it gets down to around 35* then we use our pellet stove like you have. I also live in western Pa. Last year we used 3.5 ton of pellets. I have a small propane tank for backup just incase we have to use the furnace.
Thanks for sharing your experience, from near us. So once it's below 35, the heat pump doesn't work effectively? But over 35 you find that it works good. I'm going to have to look into that type of system. Many people have commented that the heat pump systems are very efficient.
@@PurpleCollarLife I see all these ductless mini splits that claim to work down to zero. The one I got doesn't work very well after around 35. I'm not sure why. We got it about 8 years ago now. Maybe they are better now. Ours is a Fujitsu Mini split
I really enjoy your vids ! And more tractor vids please 😊
Thanks! Will do!
The best option is a heat pump, just divided the electric cost by 3 for the running cost. If you can install it yourself the ROI will be much less than a pellet stove
Old guy here, heated with wood, coal, oil, baseboard electric, natural gas, heat pump is king if its about money. No chimney to clean or needed. Insurance companies love heat pumps. Pencil it out over 20 plus years, you’ll be surprised of savings. In addition, if you run central air, it’s a no-brainer. On the other hand, people enjoy the flame and concentrated warmth.
Thanks!
Thanks for the info!
Firewood is by far the best way to save money but it cost you labor and staying in better shape and healthier
Very true! Thanks for watching.
Avg price of electric in CT is 25.01c/kWh! Wish I had your rates. Been running my house on pellets for over 10 years now and have saved thousands of dollars.
Here in New Jersey I paid $0.2701 per kilowatt hour. Back in April 2021 it was $0.1954 per kilowatt hour.
.36 in tier in California pg&e can go up to .48 at third tier.
Soft wood pellets here in Nova Scotia run $7 to$8 per 40 lb bag. Depending upon conditions I would use 1 or 2 bags every 24 hrs. and had to clean the stove every 3 days. I had 2 mini splits installed . 5 mins for a light clean and more involved once every spring. Bottom line is not only are the mini splits less work to maintain but the mini's are no more per day (and often less $$$) and require far less maintenance. I still have the pellet stove but so far I have not needed it.
Here in Michigan, the cheapest electric we have is $0.1673/kWh and that’s from 7pm-3pm on weekdays and all day weekends. I wish we only paid $0.13/kWh. Peak rates are $0.2240/kWh!
When I moved to Georgia, had heat pump with electric element. When the I think 5000w elements came on the meter disk was going so fast it looked like it would fly out of the meter. Oh and electricity during winter was 4 cents a kilowatt.
Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. I wish we were still at $0.04 per kW! :)
I would attach a watt meter to your plug for the pellet stove. That way you can see how much electric it uses to run the pellet stove.
That's a great idea! I'm going to get one on order.
lot of calculations here. i live in Montana so i know about cold. been using a pellet stove in my 2 car garage/workshop for over 8 years. 4 years ago i installed a DIY small solar system(4.5kwh battery, 1.4kwh array and a 3k inverter) to cut my electric bill. most mini splits are around 300% efficient and my experience is that until the temp gets to 0F they are much better than resistant heaters. bottom line instead of two tons of pellets i used 23 bags last winter. and when there was a power outage i still had heat in my garage. i keep the pellet stove for two reasons, backup and nostalgia.if you are using electric you should seriously consider installing heat pump technology.
Thanks for the great comment! I hadn't ever considered a heat pump. 1st- I didn't know they worked in colder climates. 2nd, I thought they required ductwork. I will need to do some more investigating! I'm considering a small solar system also.
so keeping the space at Constant temperature will always save you money in the long run. Wild swings in temperature will always cost you more money and be less efficient, in the end, especially when using electricity to heat.
I did try the constant temperature method for one winter. Keeping the great room heated (using the pellet stove) had us going through a lot more pellets in one winter.
Very useful information! Thanks for sharing, Chad. I was wondering, do they make a stove where you could use wood chips for heating. Or could wood chips be used in the Buck Stove or pellet stove? Would be another reason for chipping up branches and tree debris.
That's a great question. I don't think I've seen any wood pellet fuel stoves that can run on chips. Sometimes I see the multi-fuel ones that can run on corn though.
Are you factoring all the distribution charges into the electric rate? For us they separate that from the supply charge. I considered a pellet stove at one time. I ditched the idea fast when I considered fueling it. I’ve got land and trees aplenty and can source all my own firewood at the cost of my time and saw/tractor fuel and maintenance. That’s cheap heat! Plus my wood stoves won’t stop when the electricity goes out in a nasty winter storm. The backup is propane. Actually, it’s technically listed with propane as the primary heat with supplemental wood because insurance doesn’t like the manual aspect of maintaining a fire - they’re worried about the house freezing and damage if someone isn’t there. With the stoves, we use very little propane. About 30 gallons for all of last winter.
Thanks for the question. Yes, the $0.13 per kWH is the total cost, including distribution.
Power outages are certainly a problem for pellet stoves. I'm glad I have the Buck Stove in the basement. Like you mention - lots of firewood around us, and it burns just fine without electricity. :)
Do you tap your maple trees in late February to make maple syrup? I lived in NH for decades and made maple syrup on a hobby scale from our 250+ year old Sugar Maples, it is a little time consuming, however it is delicious and there is satisfaction in making it yourself.
In NH we had a early 80's Vermont Castings 'Vigilant' parlor stove that did the majority of the heating in our house, we burned 4+ cords of hardwood that we got at a fair price from a friend who was a logger and we got 2 huge bundles of pine slabs from his mill for free. Anytime we were home the woodstove was used, it was stocked full for the overnight and before leaving for work and there were still hot coals 9-10 hrs later. We had an oil fired boiler for hot water and baseboard heat. The only time the baseboard heat was used was when we got home from work just to take the chill off before the fire in the woodstove was going well then it was shut off.
We have a heat pump if it goes below 30 it doesn't seem efficient at all. But luckily we are not that cold here we do have cold snaps.
Thanks for watching! I've never seen a heat pump. I wonder if they're less common up here?
@@PurpleCollarLife I don't think they work well in Northern environments.
Good to have a wood heating stove but a heat pump with solar is the cheapest form of heat.
Electric baseboard heat is pretty inefficient compared to a cold climate heat pump. Cold climate heat pumps are different from the traditional heat pumps and can work down to temps in the low teens. Granted a heat pump would be more expensive to install but the efficiency savings is massive, plus you get cooling.
Does a heat pump require ductwork? Since our house is currently all electric, we have no ductwork of any type.
There 2 types; ducted which work like a central AC or forced hot air furnace, and ductless mini splits, which would be what used use in that space. The mini splits have a head inside mounted on the wall and a condenser outside. There are federal tax credits if you install them.
@@ridingwithrusso7790 Thanks! This is certainly something I want to explore.
Mini split systems are designed for older homes that don't already have central air ducts. A mini split system is basically small heat pump units in each room so you don't need to rip up the walls to install ducts.
I use 4 tons of wood pellets per winter, in Southern NH.
Thanks for sharing! What is the current price per ton up there in NH?
@@PurpleCollarLife The Big Box stores are about $350/ton for a hardwood and softwood blend. Some sales at Tractor Supply will discount a slight sales discount.
@ thanks!
Need to factor in the 300 running watts the stove uses per hour.
Not that that $30 bucks a month is gonna make a huge change in the math but it was bugging me, also the gas and time to go get the things, the electricity is delivered all the time. I'll be more shocked if that thing is actually managing the claimed 86% efficiency. Maybe day one or when perfectly cleaned, certainly not on an average day. Plus I'd be willing to bet on the pellet manufactures statements not always being spot on. Basically every time there was a potential error I could see he seemed to skew it for pellets, subconsciously I think, I don't think he works for "big pellet" or anything, he just paid for and likes his pellets stove and it can be hard to not have a bias. I have a pellet stove in my garage.
I think starting from zero not already spending $5k a new mini split is almost certainly a better investment though as they do better than 100% efficiency and yes the new ones work below freezing just fine. Plus A/C and no fetching pellets and cleaning the stove, which for me means the breakover happens slightly before the purely mathematical one.
Great point!
Thanks for watching and leaving a great comment! You're right - I do not work for "big pellet". :)
A pellet stove uses around 100 running watts per hour. I live in NY and we have one of the highest electricity rates in the country. My pellet stove runs 24/7 except when I clean it once a week and my bill is $10-12 a month more than normal, plus I use a fan to move air into other rooms. I burn 4 ton a year and this year I paid $275 a ton so I heat all winter for $1100. My regular gas and electric bill is around $110 in the winter. In comparison I know someone who has electric heat and pays $600 a month for his electric bill. Similar size houses but I have more of an open floor plan so it works much better for me. The layout of your home can make a big difference when heating with any wood appliance.
Based on the transcript you uploaded, I’ve summarized the key figures and calculations from the video on electric baseboard heating and pellet stove heating. Now, let’s compare these numbers to a two-ton heat pump system.
Summary from the Video
Electric Baseboard Heating:
Output: 3,412 BTUs per kWh (100% efficiency).
Usage: 4,000 watts (4 kWh) per hour in the tested space.
Cost: $0.13 per kWh.
Daily Cost:
4
kWh
×
0.13
$/kWh
=
0.52
$/hour
4kWh×0.13$/kWh=0.52$/hour.
Over 20 hours per day:
0.52
×
20
=
10.40
$/day
0.52×20=10.40$/day.
Seasonal Cost: Approximately $3,810 per winter.
Pellet Stove Heating:
Efficiency: 86% efficient.
Pellet Cost: $5 per 40-lb bag (producing 330,000 BTUs).
Usage: 1-2 bags per day (varies with temperature).
Daily Cost: $5 to $10.
Seasonal Cost: Approximately $1,761 per winter with efficient pellet usage.
Heat Pump Comparison
Two-Ton Heat Pump System:
Output: 24,000 BTUs per hour (2 tons).
Efficiency (COP): Average COP of 3 (meaning for every kWh used, it produces 3 times the energy as heat).
Power Consumption: 2 kW per hour.
Cost:
2
kWh
×
0.13
$/kWh
=
0.26
$/hour
2kWh×0.13$/kWh=0.26$/hour.
Daily Cost (20 hours runtime):
0.26
×
20
=
5.20
$/day
0.26×20=5.20$/day.
Seasonal Cost (4 months of winter):
5.20
×
30
×
4
=
624
$/winter
5.20×30×4=624$/winter.
Comparison and Savings
Electric Baseboard Heating: $3,810 per winter.
Pellet Stove Heating: $1,761 per winter.
Two-Ton Heat Pump System: $624 per winter.
The heat pump offers substantial savings over both electric baseboard heating and pellet stove heating. Given the high efficiency of heat pumps (COP of 3 or higher), the seasonal cost using a two-ton system is far lower than both electric baseboard and pellet stove heating. If the goal is to reduce energy costs, switching to a heat pump system would be the most economical solution.
Let me know if you need more details or adjustments to this comparison!
That's a great comparison! I have never tried a heat pump. Honestly - I don't know much about them. From what I originally heard about them - they weren't ideal in our climate. But I should do more research on them!
@@PurpleCollarLife I just received my heat pump last week and I'm in the process of installing it. I made the research and the decision to buy it after being faced with another winter of paying $1600 just from my firewood's. I'm hoping for an electric bill that's only 100 to 100 fifty dollars more than would I am presently paying and that would be a great savings compared to what I'm paying for firewood. and the fact that I can control the system with my Android phone is a great bonus. I'm pretty sure you can use that website calculator you show to show what it would cost in your particular area To run a heat pump
@@theconchonetwork498 Please keep us posted on how it works out for you! I'm interested!!
Factor in cost of pickup truck and trailer to haul pellets home along with time - labor loading unloading and hauling pellet bags in to the house.
Lowest rate in my are golf pa is .74 kwh. Where are you getting those prices
I bet if you seal your windows with plastic film you will reduce heating cost to double, i use this method and its much warmer than usual.
We did this to the apartment I lived in during my last few years of college. It does help. But that was an old building, with single pane windows. I think it may help some even in our newer house (with double and triple-pane windows), but probably not as much as it does with other windows. Thanks for the idea though!
Electric resistance heat is really expensive. An electric heat pump is much more comparable to the cost of natural gas and wood.
I would look into a solar panel system if i was running all electric in my house.
To me it seems like you're a better off to go with a heat pump especially using electricity in the rates there so low.. Plus the cost of your stove would have paid for the unit and installation...
Heat pump is certainly interesting technology!
Your obviously not in the the uk with that electric price
In addition to cost you also have to consider your time hauling and loading those pellets, not to mention the mess the ashes make. If the cost is close, it makes no sense to me to waste time jacking with the pellets.
That's true. There is the additional work. And the ashes are crazy. Cleaning the pellet stove is much more of a pain than cleaning a traditional wood stove. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
Its all in the math....1lb of wood = 8k btu .,.. 1 kw = 3400 btu electricity. ..
Fix your burn chamber! Unless you are in the Arctic you will never use 2 bags a day for 30 days in a row ! Your stove is verry inefficient! OR you need more insulation. I heat 800 Sq. Ft. with a half a bag a day in February.
Like I mentioned in the video - it's not a typical 800 sq ft room. It's 800 sq feet, with cathedral ceiling, 3 exterior walls, and 10 windows. 1/2 a bag for a day in February - that's impressive. What's your climate? And what is your 800 square feet like?
Id sell the pallet stove & put a small wood stove in. You already have firewood 🪵 might as well use it.
The only downside to that is that the mess from the firewood would be in our living space. That's one of the advantages to the pellet stove - still warm wood heat - but without the mess of firewood dirt/bugs/debris.
Here's a video I made comparing burning a wood stove with a pellet stove (incase you or others haven't yet seen it) th-cam.com/video/1A-sBQGGvgA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=GZQYmBaOE1jL6Tum