How Much Will a Wood Pellet Stove Cost Me

With fuel prices rising almost daily, smart homeowners are looking for ways to keep warm on a budget. Installing a pellet stove can help! A pellet stove is just what it sounds like; instead of logs, oil or natural gas, it burns pellets. A good pellet stove typically costs from $1,500 to $3,000, and installation can run up to $400-$500.

A small screw, called an auger, turns the pellets into the firebox, where the fire is concentrated in the center and burns very hot. A blower sends air through and around the pellets once they're lit, either by you or by an optional automatic igniter. This air keeps the fire going (remember, oxygen is an essential ingredient for combustion). The blower also creates a slight vacuum that draws the combustion gases (that dangerous carbon monoxide by-product) outside through a vent. Because of these moving parts, Pellet stoves can be a bit tricky to maintain, so it's a good idea to get a service contract.

To operate your pellet stove, you pour the pellets into a bin called a "hopper" that's located at the top or the bottom of the stove. Hoppers have a capacity from 35 to 130 pounds of pellets.. Depending on the size of your hopper and how cold it gets, a single load of pellets can last one to two days.

Where do those pellets come from? Makers grind up recycled sawdust, corn, walnut and peanut shells, wood shavings or other biomass wastes, then compress the mass and extrude the pellets.

At first, heating your home with pellets instead of wood can seem more expensive than heating with wood, since pellets can cost $130 to $200 per ton, compared with $100 to $175 per cord of wood. But that's really like comparing the proverbial apples and oranges, say experts. When you buy a cord of wood, you typically get 128 cubic feet (4X4X8) that includes the spaces between the logs you can't use for heat. Plus, the wood contains moisture that doesn't burn.

Home improvement experts say it's better to evaluate pellet fuel versus wood by its usage. If you use wood, you go through 3 to 4 cords of wood per year, compared to burning 1 to 3 tons of pellets per year. You can easily do the math on that one!

Pellets also save you time and energy, because you don't need to stack and carry wood. Those 40-pound sacks of pellets store in a space about a third of what's needed for cord wood. Be sure, though, to check with your stove vendor for the closest source of pellets, because freight is a big part of the pellet cost.

Pellet stoves are definitely an alternative way to heat your home that's worth a good look.