Pellet Stoves

These stoves are made up of a 'hopper' which is the storage container and a burn-pot area which is where the pellet stove fuel is actually burned. These stoves are efficient and require very little input in order to maintain a constant flame.

Scarp wood burners are possibly the precursors to these types of stoves and have been around for a long time dating back decades. Barrel stoves, oil drum fires and braziers were popularly used during the Depression era and 'wood ovens' that had sawdust hoppers were used regularly during the earlier parts of this century. All these types of burners used scrap and sawdust as their fuel. In 1930 the Presto-Log was then invented which reused left over sawdust from the Potlatch pine mill then found in Lewiston in Idaho in order to generate domestic heat. It was from this early design that the first pellet stove was created and this emerged around the 1980s from Washington. These then burned the pellet stove fuels that are generally associated with the units.

The pellet stove however has of course changed its look over its few decades of existence. It was once a relatively simply box design, while today it is a relatively decorative heating appliance. These stoves are usually either free standing, or inserted in fireplaces (pellet stove inserts) in order to turn an existing chimney into a stove and prevent a readymade ventilation. The majority of these stoves are also made using large steel or cast iron which among other benefits is conductive in order to carry the heat. Usually they also use stainless steel in order to hem in circuits and exhaust.

Pellet furnaces and pellet boilers can also be fitting into a decorative stove in much the same way they can fit into a chimney place and these are called pellet stoves inserts. These units are then retrofitted (meaning fitted in after installation) into those existing heating units around the home which requires only minor changes making it a simple and cost effective heating solution for many homes.

The development of stoves that burn pellet stoves fuel was also partly born out of the 1973 oil crisis as a combustible and efficient source of energy. In the last ten years further energy crises among other things have seen these stoves grow greatly in popularity. Normally pellet stoves fuels will be purchased ready, though some stoves will be able to burn other fuels such as wheat, seeds corn and cherry pits.

Pellet stoves are highly versatile units that are self igniting and that can cycle themselves on and off. They do not create creosote as a byproduct which can cause chimney fires, and the pellet stoves fuels can be bought relatively easily and cheaply (with the quality of the material of course affecting the output and the efficiency (a lower grade pellet might also require more maintenance). These systems also have a forced exhaust system in that they blow out their exhaust which may mean there is no need for a ventilation system such as a chimney. Sometimes they will be vented horizontally out of a wall, meaning that no ducts or large chimneys are required.


Pellet stove fuel greatly affects how well your wood pellet burning stove