Pellet Stoves
The pellet stove came on the market in the 1980s and has been steadily gaining market share. But pellet stoves have always lagged behind wood stove sales and average about 70,000 units per year in North America. Pellet stoves were invented in America but they are now far more popular in Europe, where fossil heating fuel prices are much higher, making them an obvious choice. In Italy, with a fifth of the population of the US, they install more pellet stoves in homes each year than in North America.
The pellet stove is thought by many to be the way of the future, slowly edging out wood stoves because it blends traditional wood heat with automation and convenience. Pellets for home heating are mainly made from sawdust and wood chips, which are automatically fed into a burn chamber so that the fuel only needs to be loaded into the stove once a day, or less. Pellet stoves excel at providing heat 24 hours a day and enabling homes to drastically minimize or eliminate the use of their fossil fuel boiler or furnace.
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Moreover, pellet stoves are consistently far cleaner than virtually any wood stove and have made major strides in efficiency and emissions. From an air quality perspective, pellet stoves are far superior to wood stoves because they rarely emit any visible smoke and can't be operated poorly by consumers, as many wood stoves are.
Pellets for stoves come in 40-pound bags and as of 2019 usually sell for about $230 to $280 a ton. Pellets for boilers are delivered in bulk by trucks in the northeast and parts of the northwest. Eight states give incentives or rebates for pellet stoves.
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The Alliance for Green Heat tested six popular pellet stoves and rated them for emissions, efficiency, claimed and actual BTU output, claimed and actual hopper size and other criteria.
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Many pellet stoves use thermostats to maintain a constant temperature in the home and can be the sole heat source for most homes that are 2,000 square feet or under. While they often cost about $500 more than comparable wood stoves, their installation costs are often about $500 less. Click here for a pellet installers' review of reliable pellet stoves.
One downside of pellet stoves is that they have to be cleaned and maintained on a weekly basis by the homeowner during the winter season and should have an annual inspection and cleaning by a professional. Overly dirty pellet stoves will lose efficiency. They also can break down due to multiple moving parts. Lastly, they require electricity so that in a power outage you will lose heat unless you have a battery or generator back up.
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​If you are in the market for a pellet stove, look for one that emits less than 2 grams an hour and that has a verified efficiency above 70%. Look for efficiencies on the list of EPA stoves and do not trust efficiency claims on manufacturer websites and literature.
Domestic Pellet Stoves
Domestic pellet stoves are often cheaper to buy and are likely to be serviced by more repair technicians. Some domestic models are only 50% to 65% efficient, but many are in the high 70s and a few in the 80s (HHV). We urge consumers to be cautious of most of the cheaper pellet stoves sold in big box hardware stores although there are a few exceptions, like PelPro that has a very good reputation. Major brands like Harman, Quadrafire and Travis tend to have very high customer satisfaction rates but are also among the most expensive. Do your research and see if a local hearth retailer or chimney sweep can professionally install and service the brand you are interested in.
European Pellet Stoves
European pellet stoves can be more expensive but tend to be quieter, more efficient and have a more modern look. Italy dominates the production of pellet stoves and has many reputable brands, including Ravelli and Piazzetta. If a reputable local dealer does not sell them, if can be hard to find a technician to service some brands. Some sold in Europe heat water for space heating and domestic hot water and can be hooked up to the same tank as solar thermal panels. Hopper sizes tend to be smaller.
Gravity Fed Pellet Stoves
Virtually every pellet heating stove requires electricity for a number of functions, including the auger to feed pellets into the burn pot, and control airflow the combustion chamber. The development of a reliable non-electric pellet stove has been an age-old R&D challenge and today and more models are now available. The first well-known brand in the US was the Wiseway Pellet Stove, a quirky and distinctive-looking appliance that appears to be going off the market in May 2020 because it was not certified to the EPA’s latest emission tests. Breckwell also makes a gravity fed stove called the Traverse. The Traverse is 2020 certified but has reportedly had quality problems with welding. Drolet’s Edison pellet stove is not gravity fed but would automatically switch to optional back-up battery power in the event of a power interruption or connect to solar panels. It is not yet 2020 certified either. Many gravity fed pellet stoves are on the market in Europe, including ones by Tulikivi (Finland), Yola (Ireland), Koppe (Germany) and Altech (Netherlands).
For more information,
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Should you switch to wood pellet heating? (Efficiency Vermont, 2020)
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A Review of Wood and Pellet Stove Efficiencies; More Manufacturers Post Efficiencies (AGH, updated: April 2020)
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Pellet stove performance makes big gains as interest in renewable energy grows (AGH, Oct. 2019)