YOUR COMMENTS

Pellets are great and a wonderful supplemental heat source - not primary, yet. Once the price gets over
$210 a ton it becomes less of an incentive and economic alternative to a whole house distribution system. The stove can put heat out to large rooms but not all rooms and keep the house at a fairly warm 68 degrees in open floor plans.
- mike, hooksett

Also one more thing I forgot use a good dealer I have NEVER had any supply problem. The good ones always have stock like All Basics in Merrimack
- Dave, Goffstown

I've been using a pellet stove for close to 15 years now, and yes prices just like everything else has gone up. When I started pellets were $130 a ton but even at $260 a ton now it's still way more affordable than other means. As for reliability you get what you pay for I have 2 Quadrafire stoves and other than normal maintenance I have not had any problems and one is the 15 year old one also 1 poster said 2-3 times a week to clean ah NO try 2-3 time a month depending an how much you burn and the quality of pellets you buy, again you get what you pay for. I have electric heat and the two stoves and will be paying around $1500 to heat my 2500sq ft house how about all you oil users out there how much are you spending?
- Dave, Goffstown

I should have added that I consider Canada home too.
Leno, Raymond
- Leno Hebert, Raymond

Even if the pellets cost the same as oil at least the money is staying home.

Leno, Raymond
- Leno Hebert, Raymond

Bian (Litchfield), pellet prices have increased just the way all energy prices have - which is part of the open market. As to shortages, in the 70s cordwood became the thing and when the price of oil went down so did the demand for cordwood and the price fell out of the bottom. Since the US doesn't promote pellets like Europe, the market is not as firm. Like anything else, preplanning for the heating season, whether oil, gas, pellets, or cordwood, is a must. Another site to check out is www.wdpellet.com which has collected info from a bunch of resources.

Steve (Raymond), stoves are like every other appliance, etc. If you don't check out the manufacturer and warranty before buying, you can get stuck with a lemon - or a Friday/Monday made product.
- R, Raymond

After looking into pellet stoves, I'll soon be the proud owner of a conventional wood burning stove.

Pellet stoves were tempting because of the large expensive chimney required by an ordinary wood stove. But I could not get over the need for electric power, moving parts, questionable reliability, and no hope of ever providing my own fuel.

Living on four wooded acres, I can at least provide some of my wood needs, if not all.

But if you have no wood of your own and are willing to tolerate the other downsides, a pellet stove might be a good choice. Cheaper than oil.
- Jim Peschke, Croydon, NH

For those of you that get pellet stoves be careful of what you purchase. Several manufactures are using construction and demolition wood and others are using wood from just about any source they can find. Also a lot of it can also contain softwood which really means it is pine. That means you have to clean your flue pipe at least once a month and have an annual cleaning plus inspection on your chimney. They are not as maintenance free as you expect.

I have a soapstone wood stove and have used it for years. I pay about $160.00 a cord for firewood and get it delivered in early June and it sits outside to dry out for the winter. My oil heat is my backup and I get 200 gallons in the spring and another 200 in the fall because it also gives me my hot water. While a wood stove does require you to pay attention to what you are doing I love sitting in my house with it at 80 in the living room and the mid 70's through the rest of the house. It is warm and comfortable when it reads -18 outside.

Whatever you get I strongly advised you to get carbon monoxide detectors and install them on every level of your house and test them. I live in a log home and found I have to have an outside air intake for both my wood stove and my furnace or it will register on the detectors when a garage door is opened that lets a lot of warm air out all at once. It has also happened just holding a front door opened to long. I absolutely would not trust any system that says it does not require a vent.
- Don Armstrong, Henniker

Elle (Manchester), most wood stoves are now EPA certified and the efficiencies of each are taken into consideration. I think pellets are certainly more convenient (if you have a dry place indoors to store a couple pallets worth) and cleaner in terms of dirt, but if you are willing to split your own wood, you can save a lot more going with wood. I've owned a pellet stove and after 4 years of having trouble securing the pellets (even after placing orders in the spring from local dealers who reneged when time for delivery rolled around), I gave it up. My wood this year was purchased for about $125/cord, collecting interest all summer long.
- Frank, Manchester

I am the President of PelletSales.com, featured above. We do have wood pellets in stock and pricing is incredibly favorable relative to oil.

Wood pellets are below $300/ton, which works out to an equivalent of $2.50/gallon for oil. Consumers are saving $1,000-2,000+ annually on their heating bills using our fuels, while helping free us from our nation's oil "additiction."

You can learn more at http://www.PelletSales.com.
- Jon Strimling, Goffstown, NH

I got a pellet stove. Now I wish I spent the money on good windows and insulation. My stove needed repairs one month out of warranty. When I go to buy pellets, I get the "shortage" excuse often. Not really a reliable source of heat. Geothermal looks the best. It is a reverse air conditioner. The coils are buried underground. Because of this, you can efficiently extract heat any time of the year. Also in summer, the heat pump can be reversed to provide very efficient air conditioning.
- Steve, Raymond

Pellet prices have increased dramatically over the past year, and are predicted to continue this trend. The increase is not so much related to supply, it is related to the demand influence on price (profit).

Like others have said, there are actually significantly less expensive fuels out there than pellets.

Don't forget the 2 or 3 times per week cleaning pellet stoves require. Also remember that they don't function during a power failure unless they have a UPS or generator backup.
- Brian, Litchfield

Pellets are one of the cheapest and don't require as large of an initial investment as geothermal. Also, the calculator David provided assumes by default that wood is 195 a cord, I've seen prices in this papers classified for green wood at 250 and dry over 300 a cord.
- jon, hooksett

David (Keene), pellets may not be the least expensive, but they are cleaner than wood and the stoves are more efficient and some are EPA certified.
- Elle, Manchester

I can not wait to see the look on the oil traders faces this winter when demand tanks even further. To the small investor buying stocks like USO,get out while you still can, before the big brokers dump the commodity and burry you. Kind of like 1999 all over again, small guy getting in with the .com stocks and the big trading houses selling it all. Do not be dupped, spread you investment money around.
- jon, wolfeboro

Wood pellets are not the least expensive way to heat your New Hampshire home. If you have access to other fuels such as coal, wood or even geothermal you can check the cost per million BTU's at this site:
http://nhclimateaudit.org/calculators.php
- David, Keene