Your wood-burning stove or fireplace brings warmth, comfort and ambiance to your home, and saves you money on your home heating bills. But using wooden logs to help heat your home comes with many inconveniences. Either you spend months chopping, stacking and splitting firewood, or if you purchase your firewood, it can only be purchased a cord at a time. All of that firewood must be stored somewhere it’s protected from the elements.
When the wood-burning season sets in, your fire has to be constantly tended. You make trips back and forth from the garage, barn or woodpile to keep your fireplace properly fueled. Bringing firewood into your home can introduce bugs, mold or other pests. If you love the heating benefits of your fireplace, along with the ambiance of a burning fire but grow frustrated with the logistics of preparing, storing and hauling firewood, consider a pellet stove.
Save space with pellets
While firewood must be purchased by the cord, pellets come in 40 pound bags, which you can purchase from your local hardware store or many big-box retailers as needed. One ton of pellets, which provides the same amount of heat as a cord of wood, requires 80 cubic feet for storage. In contrast, the cord of firewood requires 128 cubic feet of storage. On average, a home with a wood stove or wood-burning fireplace burns three cords of hardwood or more than 5 cords of softwood each winter.
Maintain your fire less with pellets
With a wood stove, you build your fire and maintain it constantly, adding wood and shifting logs throughout the day so your fire is burning at its best. Pellet fires require much less fuss. One load of pellets will burn for 16 to 24 hours, so your fire will continue to heat your home while you’re at work, running errands or sleeping. You don’t have to constantly tend your fire, or worry about jumping embers when you open your fireplace door to add a log. Pellet stoves also require less cleaning. The pellets burn more cleanly, meaning you have less ash to clean from your stove, and less buildup to worry about in your stove’s chimney.
Burn greener with pellets
While EPA-certified wood-burning stoves and fireplace inserts are incredibly efficient, pellet stoves have them beat. Pellets contain very little moisture, which means they produce very little smoke and release very few particles into the environment. Pellets are also environmentally friendly in their construction. Wood itself is, of course, a renewable resource, and most pellets are made from wood byproducts, such as sawdust and shavings that otherwise would make its way into landfills. Other pellets are made from bio-sources, such as corn and wheat hulls. Pellets also are incredibly efficient at heating your home. With a wood stove, approximately 70 percent of the wood’s heat potential is released into your home, while approximately 83 percent of the wood’s heat potential is released into your home with pellets.
If you’re tired of the hassle of a wood-burning fireplace or stove but you enjoy the heat, talk to the experts at Fire Side Hearth & Home about a pellet stove today.
