Last year when the oil prices were at all time high prices we (along with a million other people) looked into Pellet Stoves. There are a lot of different kinds out there, but we took our time and did lots of research on the ones we liked. We ended up purchasing a Lopi Leyden Cast Iron Stove. The company that we bought this from came to install it and all we needed to do was pull the permit and have the town inspector come look/approve it. The installation of the exhaust was placed through the wall and is really not noticeable at all from the road. This stove has a remote which allows you to set a temperature and it functions on Automatic, just like your home thermostat, or Manual settings. The Lopi stove is at the opposite end of our home from the wood stove that we have. The plan was to keep the heat generated from the pellet stove going to avoid having the furnace kick in and burn more oil. Between the wood stove and this new pellet stove we are burning less oil now.
We fill the stove (top feeder) with a bag of pellets everyday. Depending on how cold it is outside will depend on how many pellets you use and what your temp is set to. We keep our pellet stove temp set to 68 and the oil thermostats at 65 or lower. I have a fan in the room where the stove is to blow the air out of that room and circulate it through the house. That works really well since we have deep door jams and the heat gets trapped in that room.
How it works:
There is an auger within the stove and a chute from which they drop down into the burn pot. In the burn pot is a pre-drilled hole where a metal rod heats up and that ignites the pellets. Once the stove has heated well enough the blower kicks in. This will cause any heat built up on the heating pipes located inside and on top of the stove to be dispensed through the front of the stove by the blower in a forced air fashion The auger will continue to feed little by little the pellets it needs to keep the fire going. Once the set temperature is reached, the stove begins to shut down and cool off. The entire process will start all over again when the room is cool. Having the stove set on Automatic is a really neat feature. This alleviates the need to worry about it or baby sit it!
To clean the glass:
Just use a damp paper towel to wipe away the ash build up. Do not use any type of cleaner on it or it will cause the ‘rainbow effect’ on the glass.
Accessories:
Not necessary but recommended is a hot ash vacuum. This vacuum is specifically designed to accept hot ashes and also has a hepa filter so the fine particles of ash are not floating through the air and ultimately settling everywhere. Do not use your household vacuum! We were warned and told that it would ruin it forever!
Pellets:
You need to buy pellets for these stoves. These pellets look like rabbit food or small animal food. They are really compressed saw dust! Great way for recycling all that saw dust produced from lumber mills. There are different grades of pellets and we use the premium level. The bags of pellets are sold alone or you can buy them by the ton. There are fifty 40lb bags in a ton and most places will deliver right to your home if you have purchased a ton. It is best to ask.
If you are looking for a way to cut back on home heating oil consumption or gas, this is and has been a great choice for us and maybe it is the right thing for you too!
