Wood Burning Stoves and The Future With Pellet Stoves

The traditional wood burning stove is was once the most common form of heating, however then coal came along and then was replaced by oil and gas heating. However wood burning is seeing a revival, and for good reason. Coal is messy and oil and gas is getting more and more expensive. Not to mention the cost of electricity as a form of heating which is even more expensive. When it comes to burning wood, most people are only familiar with log stoves. However the problem with most log stoves are they are not very efficient, and a lot of the heat goes up the chimney and not into the room. Also wood log stoves require a lot of work, therefore pellet stoves can offer an easy heating option.

How Do Wood Pellet Stoves Work and The Cost To Run Them

Wood pellet stoves use wood in the compressed form of a pellet. The source of wood can pretty much be anything, from logs to twigs and sawdust. A pellet has a higher density than even a log, and therefore burns cleaner producing more heat and less smoke. However pellets offer up many other opportunities, for example even paper and cardboard can be compressed into fuel pellets. Pellets can actually be used in a standard log stove with the help of a pellet basket, however this is really not taking full advantage of the pellets. As pellets flow like a liquid, stoves and boilers can be designed to feed them at a controlled rate and hence make the stove and boiler much more automated. But what about the cost of pellets compared to burning logs, is there a difference?

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The Price Of Wood Pellets Compared To Just Burning Logs

If you just looked at the cost on face value, logs would appear much cheaper. However it is more complicated than this. First you must also consider that pellets require less work than logs. Therefore you have more free time to do other things than constantly watch the fire. Also most of the logs people use in their wood burning stoves are actually above 40% moisture. So really 40% of your fuel is water, and water doesn't burn very well. Not only that, this high amount of water stops the combustion temperature of the fire reaching the point where smoke is eliminated. Pellets on the other hand burn at a thousand degrees, much higher than any log stove. They can do this partly due to the increased density but also due to a much lower moisture content at around 8%. To learn more about pellet stoves and boilers please click the link below.

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