Can a wood pellet furnace replace a natural gas one?
Hello Jason: The high-efficiency gas furnace will require a pvc pipe to the unit to supply combustion air. This can come from the side, top or bottom. It should not be too difficult to do. A pellet furnace will also need combustion air supply. Here in Oregon, we ran out of pellet fuel around the end of the season last year, and the price went up a bit. It is now back down to around ten cents a pound. Maintenance on the pellet furnace is a bit more than the gas furnace, as you will need to remove the ash (not that much, but some) periodically, and the auger has a nasty tendency to fail at 2am on Christmas morning. Gas is lower maintenance, but pellet fuel is a renewable resource. You do have to manually load the hopper, but this is a task that is relatively easy, and can be done. It’s really a matter of personal choice.
