Do all pellet stoves require electricity? A friend had one but when the power went out he said it wouldn't work.

I have an outdoor wood furnace that also is connected to do domestic hot water.

I have 7-8 cords of mixed wood standing right now. That should be more than enough for northern KY, but can never have too much!

My neightbor is a logger and he saves up trees that are in his way or he can not use. He mows and rolls my hay fields, so it is an excellent trade off!

I have to load my wood furnace twice a day in winter for a 3300 sq ft house. And again, the unlimited HW is great when all 4 kids are home (those teenagers must bathe!!).

I’ve got enough wood for a couple winters. I cleaned the flue pipe so I’m ready.
I’ve had a couple fires but it hasn’t been too cold outside yet.
I’m always on the hunt for wood, that kinda never ends. When something free pops up I try to get right on it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tomgun,

When I was a teen we moved to the mountains in western NC. We heated the house with wood. Dad would find out where the power guys were trimming and we’d fetch up the trees and saw them there.

Then dad made friends with a local logger and we got all the locust he had-black locust burns very hot and long.

I once got caught skipping school and dad gifted me a new chainsaw and the weekend to cut, split and stack a load of wood. I didn’t make that mistake again.

And that’s why I use electric or propane now.

7.5 full cords of mixed hardwood cut, stacked, two years seasoned and ready to go. Swept the chimney a couple of weeks ago so we’re ready to start at a moments notice. Can’t start burning until the outside temperature is consistently 30F or colder. Otherwise, the temp in the house will get so hot we’ll have to start opening windows to regulate the heat to a comfortable level. It sure is nice to get a bill for natural gas totaling about 20 bucks for the month in the dead of winter.

quote:

Originally posted by tomgun:
I’ve got enough wood for a couple winters. I cleaned the flue pipe so I’m ready.
I’ve had a couple fires but it hasn’t been too cold outside yet.
I’m always on the hunt for wood, that kinda never ends. When something free pops up I try to get right on it.

Good that you're well stocked and your chimney is cleaned Tom. No fires here yet but it probably won't be long until 30's degree days and colder nights.

Had my break-in fire last week and the first fire of the season Sunday - it was in the 40's outside and the house was maintained at 72. We go through 4-5 face cords a season. I stack 3 on my porch, 2 in the garage and have reserves on the side of the house outside the garage. My buddy and I cut and split wood as a hobby and have about a 3 year reserve stored on his land. Nothing better than well seasoned hickory, beech, sugar maple and red oak. This season the hickory is ready (2 years since it was cut, split and stacked. My porch setup is pictured below (I bring it in the mid to late September).








Someone approved of the fire last Sunday.

Always nice seeing a dog (or cat) laying in front of a fire!

quote:

Originally posted by chbibc:
We go through 4-5 face cords a season.

aka between 1-1/3 and 1-2/3 cords.

I was running the register at the Hardware store.

A guy bought 2 bags of smoking pellets.

He flipped out when I told him it came to over $30.

Figured out he thought they were pellet stove pellets.

If nothing else, his house would have smelled good.


Grew up with a fireplace going during the winters.

Never used my fireplace in over 20 years.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
Whew I just finished loading up the back porch but I'm not sure how long it'll last until I have to refill because at least 1/3 (maybe even 1/2) is birch which burns hot, but fast. With the typical oak, cherry, and maple mix, a porch load typically lasts into January.

After loading the porch I cut, split, and stacked the logs from a large locust tree that was still living when cut a few months back so this wood's wet. The old tree was a leaner and finally fell. Hated to see it fall but it'll make good firewood for next year.

Needless to say how cold it gets will determine how much wood gets burned. I wonder what this winter's weather will be here in the mid-Atlantic region? Last winter was mild with this spring and summer cool and a little drier than normal.

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We live on 4.3 acres of old growth hard wood. I have about 8 or 9 cords of hardwood cut, split and stacked ready for the winter. Mrs. has had a small fire burning the last couple of days.

My professional opinion on pellet stoves.... they are a good ecologically better wood burning solution... kind of like electric cars...

the only problem is they are way complicated and over engineered....

I spent two hours yesterday trying to suck the crude out of the housing of the draft inducer fan on one of these puppies.

as for general wood heat... the first 20 years of my now over 40 years as a chimney sweep I never went to a wood stove installation that was proper and very seldom did the homeowner operate what they had properly.....

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:

We live on 4.3 acres of old growth hard wood. I have about 8 or 9 cords of hardwood cut, split and stacked ready for the winter....

That's a LOT of firewood I don't have nearly that, let's see my stacks are between the uprights supporting the side and back of a carport so 24' x 5-6' high, and 12' x 3' high. And a couple 6' tall cross stacks of cherry maybe 8' long. That's all the covered spaces I have. In the past I stacked some out between a couple trees but the tarps kept blowing off and it was never really dry out there. I really should build a wood shed of some sort.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
My professional opinion on pellet stoves.... they are a good ecologically better wood burning solution... kind of like electric cars...

the only problem is they are way complicated and over engineered....

OK how would burning wood pellets be ecologically better than burning wood that was not made into pellets?

Had some of the grandkids here for a sleep over last night and they wanted a fire, so we had our first of the season.

We have about a cord on hand, but I got a text from the guy I buy wood from yesterday and may buy a face cord just to ensure we don't run low.

We don't burn a lot of wood down here, but the temps were in the 60's so got out the Solo for a little fire action.

My daughter and SIL have one of those. It really is nice to burn a fire in and puts out nice heat as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:

as for general wood heat... the first 20 years of my now over 40 years as a chimney sweep I never went to a wood stove installation that was proper and very seldom did the homeowner operate what they had properly.....

When we moved into our 130+ year old farm house 25 years ago, the chimney for the wood stove was in horrible shape.

I ended up tearing it down, and went with Dura-Vent, from the heavy gauge stove pipe, insulated through the wall box & thimble, then stainless steel T connector, 6" chimney & cap. All enclosed in a chase.

I keep the chimney brush & fiberglass rods inside the door of the chase, and I run the brush through before firing it up in the Fall, and again in January. Just to be sure.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
My professional opinion on pellet stoves.... they are a good ecologically better wood burning solution... kind of like electric cars...

the only problem is they are way complicated and over engineered....

OK how would burning wood pellets be ecologically better than burning wood that was not made into pellets?[/QUOTE]

Pellets are made from remnants of furniture and lumber production (chips, shavings and sadust), not valuable trees.

quote:

Originally posted by sgalczyn:

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
My professional opinion on pellet stoves.... they are a good ecologically better wood burning solution... kind of like electric cars...

the only problem is they are way complicated and over engineered....

OK how would burning wood pellets be ecologically better than burning wood that was not made into pellets?

Pellets are made from remnants of furniture and lumber production (chips, shavings and sadust), not valuable trees.[/QUOTE]

the pellet stoves burn the wood much more efficiently and extract more heat from it. Much more cleaner burning than the majority of wood stoves out there... even the also over engineered catalytic stoves that usually don't work half as well in the real world as in the lab. there are some pretty good clean burning non cat stoves I've seen over the years .... but the EPA is doing their best to regulated wood stoves out by jacking up the emission standards.... kind of like regulating ammo and not guns...

ridewv - OK how would burning wood pellets be ecologically better than burning wood that was not made into pellets?

sgalczyn - Pellets are made from remnants of furniture and lumber production (chips, shavings and sadust), not valuable trees.

Trees are valuable due to their many uses. Uses include construction materials, paper products, furniture, fencing, flooring, toys, sporting goods, musical instruments, and fuel. In many commercial ventures around the world, trees are planted, grown, managed, and harvested as a crop. Not a 6-month crop cycle like corn, but a 40-60 (or whatever) year crop cycle. Yes, it's great that many wood products can be repurposed into pellets for a second use. But that doesn't mean that going from tree directly to fuel is a waste of valuable trees.

In the western states we experience many cycles where vast quantities of trees die, without being harvested. Drought, insects, fires, windstorms, snowstorms, floods -- all contribute to valuable trees that are essentially wasted. The wood just rots where it falls, sometimes for the good of the land, sometimes not so much.

On a personal level, we have a family ranch which has 115-120 acres of ponderosa pine forests. Some family members have homes which burn wood for supplemental heating, others do not. Some of our trees die every year due to old age. We either cut them up for firewood or toss the wood into gullies to reduce erosion from ongoing summer rainstorms. Pine beetles regularly kill all sizes and ages of trees. In many years we have more beetle-killed wood than we can consume as fuel.

In March 2019 we experienced a snowstorm that dropped 26+ inches of concrete-like snow in 24 hours. In April 2019 we experienced multiple weeks of 70+ MPH winds, which further damaged the forest. Large trees broke in half, branches snapped, and smaller trees were bent into permanent U shapes. We've worked on the clean up year-round, but there are still 15+ acres to go. Most of that 2019 wood to be harvested is too old for fuel, and thus goes into erosion gullies.

Over the last few years we've experienced bad drought. Beetles attacked the weakened trees, and the trees died regularly. At the beginning of 2023, I figured we had roughly 100 standing trees that were dead. Our average mature tree is 17-18" in diameter, 50-60' tall. The big boys can be 30" in diameter and 80' tall. I've felled around 25 trees in the last couple of months, but a few handfuls more have died during this time. Two steps forward, one step back. We've already blocked and split the 5-6 cords needed for this winter, and have another 3-4 cords already blocked and stacked. So the remaining countless cords of tree trunks are being blocked into 6-foot lengths, and we're beginning to stack them up in our worst erosion gullies to hopefully reduce future years' erosion issues.

Similar to our small-scale issues, such excess of wood is occurring throughout the western US. Disease, wildfires, windstorms, mature forests. Trees are valuable for fuel, too. I don't consider burning wood as wasting a resource.