pellet stove

Pellet stoves are widely used in house warming, especially in western countries. A pellet stove is a space heating device that burns small pieces of solid fuel known as pellets. Pellet stoves are more efficient, cleaner burning, and easier to use than conventional wood burning appliances (see wood stove). What’s more, unlike wood stoves, pellet stoves rely on convective, rather than radiant, heat. This means that they don't get too hot to touch – an important consideration for families with small children.

How Pellet Stoves Work?
Pellet stoves create a source of heat for residential and sometimes industrial spaces. By slowly feeding fuel from a storage container (hopper) into a burn-pot area, they create a constant flame that requires little to no physical adjustments.

Pellet stoves work by automatically dispensing biomass pellets from a hopper into a firepot or burn box. A typical hopper holds from 18 kg to over 45 kg of pellets. An auger or large screw, driven by an electric motor, slowly turns around carrying the pellets from the hopper and depositing them at a steady rate onto the hot fire. A fan blows a jet of air across the fire maintaining a high temperature and enabling the pellets to burn evenly and efficiently. A second fan blows hot air, warmed by passage through heat exchanger pipes that run through the interior of the stove, into the surrounding room. Exhaust gases are vented from the stove through a pipe that is narrower and much less expensive to install than an ordinary chimney.

Nowadays, pellet stoves usually come with a thermostat that allows precise control of room temperature by adjusting the rate at which fuel is added. With just a few pellets, a pellet stove is able to generate lots of heat and burn the pellets at incredible efficiencies. You achieve something similar in a wood stove when you open up all of the dampers and allow the fire to pull in lots of air to fan the flame. This puts out lots of heat and burns the logs quite thoroughly, but you will also be burning through the available fuel quickly and generating more heat than you can transfer into the room.