(Yeah, yeah, I know: I write novels! Well, how can anyone help if they don't have all the facts?)


Does anyone have any experience they would like to share about Pellet or Gas stoves?

We've been in our house for almost 20 years and don't see moving anytime soon because of the business. And, for that time, we've dealt with a pretty severe imbalance between the temperature of the second floor and the first. The second floor is where my offices, living room and bedroom are, so we spend most of our time there. The first floor has our reception room, studio and kitchen. The heating system is a gas-fired steam system with only one zone house-wide.

The studio and reception room typically run about 8° cooler than the upstairs, but it's not too big of a deal as most customers are here for just a couple of minutes to pick up / drop off something and don't even take off their coats in the winter. A longer appointment likely means someone is in the studio, and then the lights/flash warm things up a bit. I've never had a customer say they feel cold.

The kitchen and half-bath right off the kitchen usually run about 20° cooler than the upstairs, though, meaning when Joyce and I go down there at 5AM, it's typically about 52°. To the best of our knowledge, there is no difference in wall insulation and the floors/ceilings are no different then the other rooms on the first floor. There is one steam radiator for the largish kitchen, a pantry, and the half bath. In the kitchen wall in front of where the chimney runs, there is a "patch" where you can tell that a stovepipe once ran. My gut feeling is that the whole-house heating system was installed when there was a stove there and they therefore installed one radiator in a room that should have two…if it weren't for that old woodstove. Well, now it doesn't exist and those rooms are always cold.

So I started considering a pellet stove a couple of years ago to be installed in the basement under the kitchen. I figured it would warm the basement (laundry, workshop) and turn the kitchen floor into a radiant heat source. My brother-in-law put one in and raved over Christmas, so I've been considering it even more these last few weeks. This Saturday, Joyce and I stopped in a place and I fell in love with a gas stove. I had never really considered one before, but the salesman (who seemed great with all my newbie questions) recommended it because there's no loading of pellets, no cleaning of ash and we have Natural Gas in the house already for our furnace / water heater. He recommended putting one right in the kitchen and after seeing a few models, I really liked the idea. These stoves, as opposed to the simplistic pellet stoves I had been considering, were beautiful!

I had always wanted a fireplace, but adding one to an old house like this is not a simple proposition. I grew up in a house with a fireplace and to me, it always carried the allure of turning a house into a home. Much as this house serves our needs, it's never been what I considered a "warm home". If I weren't relying on it for the business, I'd give it up in a minute for a cozy ranch somewhere in the country.

Anyway, I had a bit of an epiphany on Saturday when I realized that a gas stove in the kitchen might have all the practicality of warming that whole area of the house while adding a whole lot of charm and coziness, much like the fireplace I missed.

This is the type of model I'm primarily considering, by JØTUL:



Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions for Gas Stoves, Pellet Stoves, advantages of one over another, etc., etc…? Despite their increased popularity over the last few years with rising fuel prices, I'm not really finding much on the net. Lots of stuff on woodstoves, but far less on gas or pellet stoves…. It's a sizable investment with installation, and I'm having a hard time determining if it's worth it over bundling up when we're downstairs. We don't entertain much at all… if we did, it would be a no-brainer to have something like that in the kitchen.

Is it practical or am I just being nostalgic?

I have no knowledge of stoves.

Could there be something wrong with the radiator? Before you go to the expense of installing a stove, perhaps a checkup from an HVAC company would be a good idea.

Is the radiator as hot as the others when the boiler is running? I don't know anything about steam-fed radiators, but I know that in hot water-fed radiators (as in my home) it's essential to bleed each radiator every couple of years. If you don't, they accumulate air in them which doesn't heat up and you end up with cold radiators, no matter how hard the furnace is working. Don't know if you need to do that with steam (I'd guess not).

There isn't a shut-off valve that's partially closed somewhere, is there?

Thanks for the reply, Peter...

Each radiator in the house has a self-bleeding valve for adjustment: the ones upstairs are virtually closed and the ones downstairs are fully-open. That self-bleeding feature is what makes them hiss so freakin' loud at the quietest parts of a movie...

All the plumbing guys that have been here over the years (that I've asked) basically say "it seems like a big area for just one radiator".

I should mention also that this would probably be a sizable factor in dealing with our "frozen pipes" issues above the kitchen, though there ARE less expensive ways for us to deal with the pipes specifically... (though the kitchen would still be cold with any of them....)

You may also have standing heat waves problems. Do you have problems with subwoofers too?

We've been heating our old western Minnesota prairie house for over a year with a central wood boiler which sits in our back yard. The company is called Central Boiler. They also make a nice line of gas stoves. We're considering buying a gas stove as a back up. Here's a link.
http://www.centralfireplace.com/conews.html Otherwise you might be able to plumb in some additional baseboard radiant units to give you some more heat where you need it. They made a world of difference in our old house.

If I had that house in the country, I'd love one of those.

My dream retirement is a small house & a big workshop on 20 acres that I slowly clear (exposing a great view!) for lumbar and heating in a central wood boiler. My wood shop needs to have loud sound system, a coffeepot, a view of a meadow with deer, and a porch where I can watch the sun go down with my Black Lab. Oh yeah, Joyce can come along too if she wants!

I've wondered about an additional radiator in the kitchen and, though I haven't priced it, suspect that the price would be very close to an installed stove.

It would win out for practicality, but lose points in "charm".

The one thing my kitchen isn't is square!

My parents have had a pellet stove for 10 years and still continue to use it without any problems whatsoever, even though they just purchased a brand-new furnace last month.

Mark, I have no experience with gas stoves, but we've been using this insert pellet stove for several years now. Avalon and have been very happy with it.
The pellet stoves are easy to use and generate a good amount of heat at a relatively low cost compared to propane.
We have three wood burning insert fireplaces in the house that we haven't lit for years, I've been trying to convince the wife to replace one with another pellet stove since our County won't let us replace our old fireplaces with the new high efficient ones, but I think she gets to much enjoyment from complaining about high propane bills.

Mark, two things to consider. If you have a power outage, the gas stove will still run, where the pellet stove won't. (The auger needs power) The other thing is the availability of fuel. Back when oil prices went through the roof, there was a big shortage of pellets.

Jotul is a reputable company with quality products. If you like that stove than go for it. I would also look at the "Tree of Life" stove from Avalon. Link Here Avalon is a division of Travis industries - the largest privately held fireplace mfg in North America.

And until they get their finances in order, I would stay away from CFM Majestic/Vermont Castings.

Thanks Shawn! Very helpful! As a matter of fact, I saw that "Tree of Life" stove in my internet wanderings and it seemed nice!

Vermont Castings is NOT the same as Hearthstone, correct? Somehow, I knew of both companies but mentally merged them into one Vermont-based company!

You are right - completely separate. Hearthstone is very good as well.

A lot of folks around here are converting from oil to wood pellet furnaces. I have heard a few people say that they discovered that certain pellets will stall out their auger as they will jam in the tiny space where the auger meets the edge inside the pellet box. This limits them when the pellets get scarce (which seems to happen in waves)

Seems more like an auger design issue to me. Those who don't complain seem to have a much tighter fit at this spot. Perhaps something worth eyeballing when you go to look at a stove.

We put a Regency gas stove in my parents' basement about 10 years ago. Part of the reason was to get some hassle-free heat even during a power outage, but it made the basement much more cosy and took it from "never used" to "frequently used". The flames look great and the stove has been as hassle-free as you would expect considering it has almost no moving parts

If you go with a gas stove make sure you get one with a millivolt thermostat (no AC needed) so you get some backup heat in a power failure. If your gas boiler runs without AC then doesn't matter so much.

That said, rather than a second radiator have you looked into a larger radiator ? One thing I saw a lot of in Germany was very attractive floor-to-ceiling radiators which put out a lot of heat. You might need a fan of some sort to move the air around but that would have to be cheaper than an installed gas stove.

Here's the one we put in (pedestal, gold door). The Jotul would be fine too.

http://www.regency-fire.com/Gas/Stoves/Classic/

Mark, also check out Valor/Miles. This is a small, family owned company who is more concerned with quality than volume. All production for North America is in British Columbia.

One of the unique features is the control system. The thermostatic remote will modulate the flame up and down depending on the room temperature, instead of just turning the unit on & off. (Up to 70% turndown)

In addition to this, it is programmable to shut off when not needed, and has "pilot on demand". (essentially both electronic ignition AND standing pilot)

The other great thing is that it's so efficient at radiant and convective heat, adding a blower will only increase its output by 4 to 5 percent.