Pellet stoves offer warmth for rural homes and city apartments and townhomes using clean, renewable and inexpensive wood pellet fuel. Wood pellets are made from sawdust, wood chips and other wood products that are usually disposed of as waste. Scraps from logging, road crew trimmings, and even field corn are used to make pellets. These materials are ground up and dried, then pressed into pieces about the size of a pencil eraser. Unlike other stove fuels, pellets provide a fuel that's consistent in size, energy and moisture content (5 percent compared to the 20 percent of most firewood).

Pellet fuel burns easily, but requires a strong draft to do so. It's efficient, wasting far less fuel energy burning off moisture than logs. Once the fire is started, an electric auger continuously refills the stove with pellets, keeping your living room or home warm for hours.

Pellet-fueled fire is also exceptionally clean. Its smoke has fewer unburned hydrocarbons than any other wood-fueled heater.

A pellet stove can produce anywhere from 5 Btus to 40,000 Btus, plenty to warm the living room of a full-size home or heat an entire apartment or townhome. With this wide range of potential heat production and accurate temperature controls, it can be a great choice for a variety of climates and either country or urban homes.

Pellet stoves do require regular maintenance, and, if improperly installed, can cause moderate to (rarely) severe smoke damage, though the fire safety record for pellet stoves is excellent. In the last year, many pellet stove owners faced an unusual supply shortage for pellet fuel. (Read 'Pellet Stove Prospects: Will Supply Meet Demand?' for a Mother Earth update on this heating option.) As for price, they can cost between $1,200 and $3,500, if you're looking at both used and new models, plus the cost of pellets. While pellet stoves are the perfect solution for many people, for the above reasons, they're clearly not for everyone.

Learn more about pellet fuel options and the mechanics of pellet stoves in John Vivian's article, 'Pellet Stoves: Wood Energy For All,' from Mother Earth News magazine.

These tips are adapted from John Vivian's article, 'Pellet Stoves: Wood Energy For All.'