Home owners have noticed their heating bills going up over the last few years. This rise in energy prices for oil and gas has been due to various political issues and other reasons. The price of our energy is outside our government’s control, and ours, and future price rises are inevitable.
Many people therefore have taken a proactive approach and installed pellet stoves to heat either their living rooms or their entire house. For some people the choice of a pellet stove is for environmental reasons, more than fuel costs. However pellet stoves are both an environmental and cheaper fuel alternative.
The pellets are made from softwood and hardwood waste products, which are then compressed to form small pellets. These pellets are uniform in size, shape and density. The stoves then have a standardised fuel, which they can use. The uniform features of pellets is this key, as pellet stove designers can design their systems around the pellet features.
Pellets also have very low moisture content, generally below 10%, which is much lower than wood logs for example. As pellets are denser than logs and have lower moisture content they burn far more efficiently. This increased efficiency has several benefits in terms of more heat generated for the user and less maintenance.
Maintenance will be removing the ash and cleaning the heat exchanger tubes to obtain maximum heat transfer. Some pellet stoves are so efficient and have advanced features they only require maintenance every few weeks.
There are several components that every pellet stove has. Firstly each stove has a pellet hopper. The size of the hopper depends on the brand and the rated heat output of the stove. Generally the size of the hopper will be designed to provide the stove with enough heat for at least a day, with some stoves providing fuel for up to a week.
At the base of the fuel hopper is a feed auger, this auger takes pellets from the hopper and deposits them into the burn pot. The speed of the auger and timing is controlled by the stove to feed pellets when required, to obtain the chosen heat value. The stoves have a hot rod self ignite, which means the stoves can self ignite.
This ability means the stove can be set-up on a timer or thermostat to provide heat when the user desires. Some pellet stoves today can even receive a start-up demand from a mobile phone, to heat the house for when the owner gets home. Pellet stoves serve as a compact, low maintenance means to provide efficient heat. However not all pellet stoves have the same abilities, so check with the manufacture that the stove can burn your chosen pellets.
Learn more about Pellets Mill and Wood Pellets Guide
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