Pellets Are The New Wood Burning Stoves
Posted by admin on September 16th, 2011There has been an upswing in the number of people investing in a wood burning stove as a secondary way to heat their homes in the winter thanks to the constantly rising gas prices. This has been an interesting, and some would argue beneficial, effect of the poor economy and outrageous oil price fixing that nevertheless is causing a whole new (or rather, old) market to thrive. However even wood stoves evolve over time, and recent technological advances have created better, more efficient wood stoves for people to use in their homes.
One of the most popular innovations that have been developed recently are the wood pellet stoves. When most people envision a wood burning stove they think of logs crackling under the fire, but in an age of satellite television and the internet even wood stoves were destined to change. Wood pellets are little balls of compressed sawdust that burn hot and clean, and have a number of advantages over using regular logs. To begin with, wood pellets are far more accessible to suburban and urban homes than a cord of logs would be. It might be hard to imagine, but some city dwellers have a difficult time finding trees to cut down in between all of those skyscrapers. Additionally, wood pellets don’t require seasoning over years or to be cut to size and split like logs do. You can literally buy them and put them in the stove on the same day.
The stove itself is also different than an old fashioned wood stove. Pellet stoves can be freestanding, or you can find models to insert into an existing fireplace. They only need a small hole in an external wall to vent the smoke, rather than a large chimney flue like a regular fireplace. This is because the pellets burn cleaner and more efficiently. Another nice bonus is that pellet stoves can burn a variety of biofuels, such as corn and wheat husks. Pellet stoves are even more efficient that regular wood stoves, too–they are known for having a 90% heat efficiency rate.
The catch is that wood pellets are more expensive than buying a cord of logs, but for many people that is a negligible issue. It is still generally cheaper than using central heat, and the environmental impact is much less than burning oil or gas. Between those facts and the simple beauty of having a fireplace in your home it is easy to see why so many people are choosing to use a wood pellet stove in their home.