Discussions

We had a pellet stove used it as our only source of heat saved a lot of money, we got our pellets by the pallet load..also our insurance never went up.

I was looking for a pellet stove awhile ago, but the gentleman (it was used) refused to sell it to me because I have a baby. Nice of him to consider me like that, but I kinda wanted the stove -_-

I have one to sell they are great. Noticed some savings and the heat is amazing. If you do your home work you can get a good price on pellets. Insurance..... Do your homework. Look around. Different brokers have different rules and rates.

Saw a nice pellet furnace model with a seven day hopper and a battery for up to five days of power.  
Great in winter if the power goes out for any amount of time.  
Be real handy if it also heated your water.

We had a Whitfield pellet stove for 17 years. It was our primary source of heat so in a typical winter we used about 3 1/2 ton of pellets. We would buy our pellets by the ton as it was cheaper that way. We switched over to a propane fireplace about 4 years ago. The cost of purchasing the gas fire place was about the same price as the pellet stove but the propane is way cheaper. The propane fireplace is our primary source of heat now.  
 
As for the fire insurance, our policy was through Wawanesa Mutual Insurance and we had to get a WETT inspection done before they would even consider insuring out home. Our premiums were expensive, it was about $1500 per year. When we switched to a propane fire place our insurance premiums were cut almost in half and our policy is still through Wawanesa Mutual Insurance.  
 
Having had both a pellet stove and a propane fireplace I would choose the propane over the pellets. I wouldn't have said that 5 years ago because I really liked the pellet stove but I find I don't miss all the dust in the house from the pellets.  
 
Oh, if you can get a hold of pellets made out of hardwood they burn much longer and much hotter. When we had our stove we could only get the hardwood pellets in the US. I have seen the hardwood pellets in Brandon for sale but I can't remember where they were. They were a lot expensive though.

It's the insurance companies that have different rules regarding solid fuel heating not the brokers. As far as I know a WETT inspection isn't a requirement for insurance coverage with that particular company. If you have an inspection then you qualify for a discount that will lower the surcharge for having solid fuel heating.  
 
 
 
Edited by chilling, 2015-08-13 23:38:06