Heating in New Hampshire: How Pellet Stoves Work

Although we no longer use fireplaces and wood-burning stoves as the only way of heating a New Hampshire home, they can still help out during the cold months if you want to gather around a roaring flame and take in the loveliness of an old-fashioned hearth.

But just because the fireplace is an old-fashioned idea doesn’t mean that a fireplace has to be old-fashioned—or even inefficient. The wood pellet stove is a great alternative to a fireplace for people who don’t want to worry about woodpiles. And a pellet stove is also an effective method of providing heat for your home, much better than a standard fireplace. If you want to know more, contact HB Energy Solutions, where we install top-of-the-line pellet stoves.

A wood pellet stove burns pellets made of recycled wood and sawdust leftover from the lumber industry. The pellets have low-levels of pollution and are inexpensive to purchase. They are very dense, so they burn slowly, and with their low moisture, they produce hotter flames.

The pellets go in a hopper on the top or bottom of the stove. An auger (resembling a long screw) delivers the pellets into a burn pot, which electricity then ignites and begins burning the compressed pellets. Ashes fall into an ash pot, which you will need to clean out regularly.

To get your home heated, a pellet stove uses convection. A convection blower draws in air from the room and passes it over the pellets, which helps them burn stronger and also raises the temperature of the air. The heated air passes through a heat exchanger, and a room blower sends warm air into the room, very much like a furnace does. The exhaust goes out a pipe in the back to the outside—which means you don’t need a chimney installed to get the benefits of a pellet stove. However, insert pellet stoves can fit into your existing fireplace if you want to upgrade.

With the control offered by a thermostat, you can get the right amount of heat you want. That’s something you’d have a much harder time doing with a traditional fireplace.

HB Energy Solutions installs and maintains pellet stoves that can give you a cozy home with the benefits of a fireplace and few of the drawbacks. We’ve been heating New Hampshire homes for 21 years, and so call us today to learn more!

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