Pellet Stove Hearth Advantages Compared To Burning Wood Logs

Using wood for heat is nothing new, however in pellet form is relatively new, however not as new as you at first think. Most people who are now aware of pellets of only recently been aware of them for the last few years, or maybe in rare cases up to ten years ago. However wood pellet fuel is actually much older than that, as it was born over 40 years ago. During the 1970's there was an oil crisis that made prices sky rocket, it lead to huge queues at the gas pump. This showed as a nation how dependant we are on oil as our prime energy source. During this time a group of animal feed pellet producers experimented compressing wood through their mills, producing the first wood pellet fuel. While oil prices remained high they established a fast growing niche of wood pellet fuel and wood pellet stoves. However as oil prices returned to their previous prices, this meant the momentum of the pellet market was lost for 30 years.

So Why Would You Install A Pellet Hearth Over A Traditional Log Hearth

Burning logs is a form of heating many people are familiar with and have personal experience of. As most people know, getting a good fire going can be tricky, as it can take several hours to get a log stove up to temperature. There are couple of reasons for this, mostly due to the fuel its self. The problem is most of the logs people try to burn are just not ideal as a fuel source. Firstly the diameter of log means its impossible to start the fire purely with logs, it requires small pieces of wood, paper, firelighters etc. Also, when the logs start to burn they smoke due to the fact, almost half of the log is still moisture. You see the adverts all the time for 'dry' logs, but what is dry? Well, when you talk about pellets, they always have a moisture content below 10%. With logs this can be a whole different picture. In the best case scenario the logs will have been seasoned for several years to get the moisture down to around 30%. However many people re-sell the logs before practically any drying has taken place, and they have a moisture of around 40-50%, creating high smoke and low heat.

Wood Pellet Stove Insert

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But Isn't Wood Pellet Fuel Much More Expensive Than Wood Logs?

On the face of it, yes pellet fuel is more expensive than wood logs on a weight basis, however again looking at the moisture content, what are you actually buying? As most of the logs which consumers purchase have a high moisture content, this means that as a fuel they actually produce far less heat per ton of weight compared to pellets, not to mention the increase ash and smoke. Due to this fact, to get the same heat value of a ton of pellets, you will have to burn several tons of logs, this therefore means that in many cases consumers are spending more money on logs than they would on wood pellet fuels.

What The PelHeat Wood Pellet Stove and Boiler Guide Can Teach You

Though the we can see that a pellet hearth stove is far superior to a basic log stove, it would be wrong to assume all pellet stoves and boilers are equally up to the job. As with all consumer products, there are good and bad units, and this guide will show you which pellet burners to buy to get the most for your money.

The Pellet Stove and Boiler Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Pellet Stove Hearth