I have been hearing lot about pellet stoves lately. What is the deal??
Wood pellets are a very “green” alternative to burning cordwood. Pellets are made from reclaimed waste products and burn very cleanly with little ash, so they are ecologically smart in several ways. One of the downsides to using pellet fuels in our climate is that the appliances are designed to operate – burn – at optimum rates to maintain the efficiency, and, generally, it is not generally cold enough here in the coastal Carolinas to be able to operate pellet stoves continuously at these rates. The other disadvantage – and this is subjective – is the fire is not as pretty as a typical wood fire. All that being said, wood pellets and other “biomass” fuels like cherry pits, corn, coffee husks, etc., are coming on strong as options to fossil fuels or electricity for heat.
