Pellet stoves and other solid fuel appliances

I thought it might be useful to share advice and experiences on the various available models of pellet stoves, and perhaps solid fuel appliances in general.

I'm currently looking into putting a pellet stove in the room we mostly use in winter. Does anyone have any particularly strong recommendations?

Bernie Gunther said:

I thought it might be useful to share advice and experiences on the various available models of pellet stoves, and perhaps solid fuel appliances in general.

I'm currently looking into putting a pellet stove in the room we mostly use in winter. Does anyone have any particularly strong recommendations?

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Bernie, please explain what you mean by 'pellets'?

And, what about peat? I'm not talking peat shadily nicked out some bog but peat exposed during winter waves on a beach I know. If you don't cart it off it just gets washed away.

shandy said:

Bernie, please explain what you mean by 'pellets' <snip>

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They're pellets made from various recycled wood products, there's a particular type of stove made to handle them, some have an automatic feed.

What about the peat? Is it a bit shady burning that?

My old man usally takes a few wheel barrow-fulls of exposed (loose) peat off his local beach every winter. Dries it out for a while then burns it on either an open fire or a closed wood-burning stove. It burns slow with loads of heat (and smells nice).

Would it go in one of pellet burning stoves?

shandy said:

What about the peat? Is it a bit shady burning that?

My old man usally takes a few wheel barrow-fulls of exposed (loose) peat off his local beach every winter. Dries it out for a while then burns it on either an open fire or a closed wood-burning stove. It burns slow with loads of heat (and smells nice). <snip>

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I really don't know what the ecological impact of that would be. What happens to this sort of peat if nobody uses it?

Does it sort of break down?

Bernie Gunther said:

I really don't know what the ecological impact of that would be. What happens to this sort of peat if nobody uses it?

Does it sort of break down?

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It gets exposed by the sea on the beach for about a month every winter and then gets worn down and washed away -leaving big chunks here and there. Evenually it gets covered up with sand again until next year.

It's amazing stuff in itself - break open a chunk and you can find freshly preserved leaves and bits of timber. And then you sling it on the fire

shandy said:

It gets exposed by the sea on the beach for about a month every winter and then gets worn down and washed away -leaving big chunks here and there. Evenually it gets covered up with sand again until next year.

It's amazing stuff in itself - break open a chunk and you can find freshly preserved leaves and bits of timber. And then you sling it on the fire

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Thinking about it, in the general scheme of things it's not a big deal to use it. The real problem is when the horticultural business strip-mines ancient bogs on an industrial scale.

Peat takes a long time to form, so isn't really 'sustainable' - but I can't see it doing any 'harm' in the circumstances you describe, shandy.

Pellets... you might try a PM to (occasional poster, chat addict and recent birthday-boy) 'two sheds', who was looking into the same thing a while ago.


The main advantage is indeed the ability to automatically feed from a hopper - it means you can go out and not come back to a freezing cold house.

Here's a useful link (that you've probably already seen) with lists of suppliers and bags of info: http://www.nef.org.uk/logpile/pellets/introduction.htm

Much as I hate discussing anything energy related in economic terms () - it would appear that wood pellets compare very favourably with other heating fuels on a 'cost' basis:

Competitively Priced Heating

All the figures below exclude the climate change levy from which wood fuel is exempt.

Fuel pence per kWh

Electricity 3.9 - 7.6
LPG 2.4 - 8.8
Oil 2.2- 3.2
Wood Pellets in bulk 1.8 -2.2

(figures courtesy of WelshBiofuels Sept 02)

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And that's with 2002 prices.

I've got some more (hardcopy) stuff somewhere that goes over the total cost of ownership of various heating systems/fuels - I'll try to dig it out.

I'll try to get a picture together of the stoves a friend makes out of old gas cylinders, too.

Bernie Gunther said:

They're pellets made from various recycled wood products, there's a particular type of stove made to handle them, some have an automatic feed.

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WE had one of those back in the 70's. We replaced it with a wood chip burner, cause the wood was so much cheaper, it was a gravity feed, and we put a coil in the heating chamber to heat the hot water as well.

Its a good way to save money if you have a good local supply of fuel, but if to many people start buring wood, the air gets pretty bad............

We looked around when we were getting a woodburner and decided to get an ordinary stove because the pellets were so expensive, they're rather like cat litter.

We've now got a "tame" tree man who gives us timber (tree's he's had to fell) that he'd otherwise pay to take to the tip. It means we have to split it and store it, but it's a good way to keep warm in the winter. I suppose we get through a trailer load each year because we really only use the fire to keep our living room warmer than the rest of the house. If we fill the fire cavity it will easily stay in/lit overnight, and keeps upstairs a little warmer during the coldest months of the year.

pbman said:

WE had one of those back in the 70's. We replaced it with a wood chip burner, cause the wood was so much cheaper, it was a gravity feed, and we put a coil in the heating chamber to heat the hot water as well.

Its a good way to save money if you have a good local supply of fuel, but if to many people start buring wood, the air gets pretty bad............

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I'm very interested in the sustainable use of wood as a fuel and was wondering if the dirty smoke is problem that can be fixed? As long as you plant what you burn, you're carbon neutral, so it's a good way to go (I wonder what the smallest plot of land you could run it on would be - assuming that what you burn this year will have grown back by next year)

mi cousin in italy has a pellet stove with auto feed bit for the pellets, at the time of my last visit he had pallet loads of the pellets. the stove alone cost a fortune about 2,300€ but its a big flash trendy thing in black n red, but the heat it throws out is incredible, the space is a converted wine celler and in december with snow thick outside we were roasting inside made a bit of noise thou

marco mark said:

mi cousin in italy has a pellet stove with auto feed bit for the pellets... its a big flash trendy thing in black n red

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Something like this? :

One of the new Palazzetti jobbies that was recently added to the Clear Skies approved equipment list?

(More on 'Clear Skies' grants here).

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Reason for shameless bump: Gas prices thread.

Yes that is the very one, have you been over to Nickolas house then, how is he ?

The fuckers. I was just over on the clear skies site and they're cutting the grants? Particularly the community grants. Did the problem of climate change just go away? Did oil and gas prices suddenly drop through the floor?

Bet they got leaned on by the privatised electric and gas companies. Fuckers.