Pellet stoves have become largely popular lately, probably in part because of oil prices reaching higher and higher levels, increasing the demand for alternate heating sources. Not everyone is familiar with how these appliances actually work so it might be a good idea to gather some background information.

Pellet stoves are fuel burning appliances that burn pellets. A pellet stove is usually made of steel or beautiful cast iron. Pellet stoves have thermostats, forced exhaust blowers and can be vertically or horizontally vented.

So why would you choose pellet stoves over woodstoves or fireplaces? There are several reasons and below a few are listed:

A pellet stove is more convinient to operate.

They have much higher combustion and heating efficiency.

Pellet stoves produce very little air pollution. They are the cleanest of all solid fuel-burning residential heating appliances.

Combustion effeciencies of 75-85% makes them excempt from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) smoke-emission testing requirements (meaning they are very clean).

Heating capacities range from 8000 to 90000 BTU* per hour.

They are suitable for homes, apartments and condos.

Pellet stoves come with a good total installation price, usually ranging in price from around $1600 to $3000. They are however most of the time cheaper other heaters to install and many can be direct-vented, saving the cost of an expensive chimney or flue. In total the installed cost may be less than conventional wood stoves.

Another thing to consider is whether you should go for freestanding or insert. Pellet stoves can be freestanding or fireplace inserts. The freestanding type usually heats a single room well. To reach adjacent rooms you need an extra fan forcingthe warm into the other rooms. The inserts go in to existing fireplaces.

Nowadays it is also possible to bring on even more heat in your home using pellets. There are now on the market furnaces and boilers that are powered by pellets. They are meant to replace or supplement gas or oil furnaces/boilers in your residential space heating system.

Another advantage is the option of burning many different possible fuels. Some pellet stoves are capable of burning a large variety of biomass fuels, such as corn kernels, small wood chips, beet pulp, nutshells, sunflowers, soybeans and dried cherry pits.

So as you can probably tell pellet stoves are well worth considering when you are looking for a heating source for your home, especially as other types of fuels are becoming more expensive.

Kari Eriksson is an infopreneur and keen of finding financially and environmentally sound heating sources. Lately pellet stoves have become a special interest and he operates several sites, including http://www.pelletstovesint.com, http://www.mypelletstove.com and the Pellet Stove Guide at http://www.pelletstovesguide.com where you can find articles, links and useful resources.