Pellet Stove vs Gas Stove for a 4 Season room

[tompowers535]

1st time at this web site and it seems great.

I could use some advice:

We are having a 20' X 24' four season room added to our house here in Southeastern Mass. I plan on using a two ton ductless split to cool it but am confused about the heat.

I have been looking at different brands of pellet stoves and haven't been swayed to any particular brand yet, as I keep reading so many negative posts about them. I had it narrowed down to Quadrafire and Avalon but after reading numerous posts on the Quadrafire Mt Vernon model I had looked at, I am starting to have doubts.

I have natural gas at the house and have thought about using a gas stove vs pellet - less moving parts, cost of pellets (avg 225.00 to 280.00/ ton), relability of the different models, dealer issues, manufacturer service issues.

My biggest concern is the cost and efficiency of a gas stove compared to the pellet. I don't know if it will be more expensive to run the gas stove. The most I have paid for gas has been $1.50 per therm (I am not sure if this helps at all)

At this point, I don't know what would be the most economical and efficient way to heat this room. I would appreciate any help you may be able to give me.

Thank you.

[jtp10181]

Pellet stoves are a lot of work. With natural gas your saving on a pellet stove will be minimal if anything. The savings will not be worth it when you factor in the maintenance. Go with a gas stove, and look for a nice efficient one. Don't forget to oversize it since a 4 season porch will loose lots of heat through the windows.

[gasguy]

I would go with gas. No pellets to buy/store and pellet quality issues, less maintainance, cleaner burning, good efficiencies and nicer (imho) appearance of firebox/logset. Have a look ath the U39 or C34 from Regency as examples.

http://www.regency-fire.com/

[tompowers535]

Thank you very much for your responses. I think we will look at gas stoves. Do you happen to know which brands have a higher efficiency ? I had a Jotul wood stove in the past and it was excellant so I am thinking of looking at their gas line. The largest BTU's I can find is 40,000 but I was hoping to get somethig higher. I want to put a thru the wall fan up high where the room is attached to the house to utilize the heat stored in the cathederal ceiling space.

Again, thank you very much for your reply.

[gasguy]

Have you done a load calc to figure out what your heat loss/gain will be? A 40mbh unit will put out quite a bit of heat. You may want to look at a mini-split heat pump instead of straight AC. Between the HP and the stove you should be able to heat the space.

Most direct vent fireplaces are in the 80-87% efficiency range. Only one that I know that's higher is called the Mantis. It's a 90+% condensing fireplace. I have no experience with them myself so not to sure about long term reliability/operation. The 'conventional' fireplaces are much simpler units and with 87% efficiency may be a better bang for your buck.

[logdoc_rob]

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