Wood Pellet Burning Stoves and The Efficiency of Wood Pellet Fuel

Burning wood is nothing new, log burning has been carried out for thousands of years, however in today's world as an efficient total home heating solution, a wood log stove cannot make the grade. The problem with wood logs is that they contain a lot of moisture, even when they are classed as seasoned dry wood. This moisture is the key reason why when you burn logs they smoke. Wood pellets however contain less than half the moisture of logs, and therefore burn much more efficiently, producing less smoke and more heat for your home.

Carbon Emissions and Reducing Particulate Emissions with Pellets

The smoke that is generated through burning logs contains particulates, particulates can have a negative on breathing conditions and general health. As pellets burn much more efficiently, less smoke and particles are created.

The Reasons the Higher Combustion Efficiency of Wood Pellet Fuel

So as discussed, one of the key reasons wood pellets burn much more efficiently than logs is due to moisture content, however there are several other factors which impact on combustion efficiency. Fuel density is a very important and often over looked feature of achieving good burn results. A pellet has a much higher density than a log, therefore a more complete burn is achieved resulting in more useable heat and less smoke. Another important factor is surface area available during combustion. A log as a much lower surface area exposed to combustion than a pile of pellets. This also effects combustion.

The Process of Producing Fuel Pellets and Local Pellet Consumption

Making wood pellets used to be a practice only carried out at large factories, however now it is possible to produce fuel pellets even on a small local home scale. Local pellet production and consumption benefits the whole community.

Wood Pellet Burning Stoves Are Not Made All Equal In Fuel Choice

Even though all fuel pellets made from different biomass materials may look very similar in terms of their shape, size and colour, their combustion characteristics can be very different. The changes can be in the ash percentage, possible clinker formations etc. And the simple fact many wood pellet burning stoves are simply not designed to be able to cope with these issues. The stove with either work inefficiently using such fuels, or develop a mechanical or software failure. However there are some designs of wood pellet burning stove which are designed to deal with these issues successfully.

Learning Which Wood Pellet Burning Stoves Are Pellet Fuel Flexible

At PelHeat we focus on pellet production and combustion solutions, are more than aware of the limitations some wood pellet burning stoves have, and the designs of wood pellet burning stoves which will work the best. We have therefore developed this guide. Please click the link below to download.

The Pellet Stove and Boiler Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Wood Pellet Burning Stoves