PELLET STOVES WOOD ENERGY FOR ALL
(Page 3 of 9)
October/November 1995
By John Vivian
Further, the smoke is "burned twice," as they say in the trade, and burned at turbo-charged temperatures to boot, so it contains the fewest unburned hydrocarbons of any wood-burning heater. Emissions are well below the one gram/hr. of the cleanest-burning catalytics and marginally cleaner than thermal-mass firestoves that also feature an open-draft fire, but use unprocessed fuel wood with a moisture content that is two to four times that of pellets.
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Heat output ranges from 5 or 6,000 Btus to 35 or 40,000, enough to heat the main living area of a country house or all of a small and well-insulated town house or city apartment.
No log stoves I know can maintain that low 6,000 Btu heat output for very long. When fired up to take the chill off a room in cool but not cold weather, they eventually roast you out of the room. A pellet stove can be burned as cool as you like. With precise heat control and a wide heat-output range, and measuring only two feet wide and just a few inches more deep, they are ideal for moderate climates, small rooms and super-insulated, airtight homes. City stoves.
Most pellet-fueled home-heating stoves come with a glass window in the front door that is kept clean by directed air flow that keeps off what little creosote might cook out of the super-dried fuel. Inside, a realistic-looking ceramic log set passes for a real log fire unless you look hard. Still, with a hint of wood smoke in the air and pelleted-wood flames licking up around, the fire lacks the completely artificial feeling of a gas log.
The stoves have a fuel bin that is loaded from the top (in the best stoves, fuel level is visible through a tempered-glass lid). You can pour in something under a half-feed bag load of up to 40 pounds one evening and forget the stove till morning after next. If heating demand is high you'll want to look in twice a day. If it's really cold, you will top off the fuel before going to work in the morning just so you don’t have to worry about running out if you decide to work late. No log stove can approach such long burn times.
I expressed concern to a retailer about back drafts carrying carbon monoxide into the house if the electricity failed, but he assured me that when the fan-forced draft ceases, the fire dies almost instantly and the pellet load collapses in on itself, extinguishing any coals. Being bone dry, it won't smolder. It either burns or it doesn't. Any lingering fumes are drawn out by the warmth of the flue.
Ashes
All wood contains uncombustible minerals that remain as ash after it burns. The ash content of pellets is low, but varies depending on raw material: the least from fine-furniture hardwood chips and sawdust; the most from cardboard or paper that may contain inert mineral binders and chalk coating on printed faces.
However, pellets burn so thoroughly that ash is powder-fine, fire-cleaned to a pure gray-white, and is minimal in quantity. It is agitated to filter down through the grate into the ash pan by the impact of the continuous flow of new fuel from the hopper.
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