Pellet Stoves in below zero weather

[Clarence Martin]

How well do Pellet Stoves heat , say 1200 SQ FT, when the temps hit MINUS 10 to MINUS 20 Degrees ? Will they keep the inside temp at 70 to 75 Degrees ? House is insulated and have those double insulated replacement windows , but the 85,000 BTU gas fired hot water boiler is having a hard time keeping up. Not to mention Pellet fuel HAS to be cheaper than Gas ....

[Brian Elfert]

Is -10 to -20 degrees normal for your area? If not, the system may not have been designed for temperatures that cold. Either your gas heating system isn't working right, or it wasn't designed properly for that much cold. One of my co-workers had issues with his house being cold all the time and the furnace finally failed. The new furnace keeps the house nice and warm.

There is no reason a properly designed pellet stove won't keep a house warm, but the rest of the system has to be done right. A good HVAC guy can almost do miracles with low grade equipment, but a bad HVAC guy can ruin even the best equipment.

[Art Mann]

It is certainly possible to purchase a pellet stove that will adequately heat a single family home of that size at -20 degree outside temperature.

[Jason Roehl]

85,000 BTU/hr sounds kinda small, even for 1200 s.f. I don't know that pellets would necessarily be any cheaper than gas as a replacement, but they may work well as a supplement. The other issue you'll have is that the room containing the pellet stove will be quite warm compared to the rest of the house, without some sort of forced air circulation. Then there's the whole issue of hands-on maintenance: buying and refilling the pellets, as well as cleaning out the stove and flue on a regular basis. The upside is that you'll get some exercise carrying around all those 40 lb bags of pellets, which should help warm you up some.

[Bruce Volden]

I used a pellet/corn stove for many years and yes it will certainly keep the house comfortable. There are more btu's in pellets vs corn. You say your home is insulated and I am hoping very well. I moved my pellet stove to my shop 8 years ago and my shop is foam insulated (closed cell). I would fire it up when it was cold -10 to -20 and it would take around 4 hours to reach 55 F (starting from 35 F) but the shop is kind of big with 10' ceilings. The stove finally died when we had an ice storm in 2013. I couldn't believe they wanted $700+ for a new controller board so I switched to wood! If you truly are thinking pellet stove I would recommend finding one with battery back up capability in case of power outage (they won't work without power!). Also don't expect "instant heat", think more along the lines of hairdryer.

Bruce