| Many people love the warmth and ambience of a | | | | specially designed hopper that is built into the |
| traditional wood stove. They are are great way | | | | stove itself. The hopper is designed to release |
| to provide heat and add a homey feel to any | | | | pellets into the burning chamber at a steady rate, |
| house. The downside of running a wood stove | | | | thus eliminating the need to manually load the |
| however, is the time you must devote to | | | | furnace. You just fill the hopper and you are all |
| procuring and storing wood,keeping the stove full | | | | set for hours or days days, depending on the size |
| of wood, and cleaning up the ash that | | | | of the hopper. |
| accumulated over time. Wood pellet stoves offer | | | | You might even consider using a wood pellet |
| an alternative solution that greatly reduces the | | | | stove to return your entire home heating system, |
| amount of time you need to devote to | | | | e.g. your oil or gas furnace. Of course, the |
| maintaining your stove. | | | | requires some careful thought and planning to |
| Wood pellets are basically compressed sawdust. | | | | make sure you can fit the furnace to your |
| The sawdust, which can be waste from wood | | | | current vent system. Or you can just have a |
| milling or manufacturing is shaped under pressure | | | | stove set up to heat a room or two. If you |
| into small pellets an inch or two in size. Wood | | | | choose this route, you'll probably want a stove |
| pellets can be purchased in many places in easy | | | | with a built in blower fan. |
| to handle bags, much like a big bag of dry dog | | | | There are lots of quality pellet stoves available on |
| food. So that takes care of the wood supply | | | | the market these days and the technology is |
| problem. | | | | quite advanced. Some brands you might want to |
| Wood pellet stoves are custom designed to | | | | look out for are Harman, European, Heilsa and |
| accept and efficiently burn these pellets. Rather | | | | Lopi. Do you homework and pick the model and |
| than manually loading the stove itself, as you | | | | features that are best for your needs. |
| would with a standard wood stove, you load a | | | | |