Pellet Stoves Worth It?

I dunno, maybe not.

We have one, a Breckwell, which is supposed to be a good brand. So far, I'm not convinced the thing was a good buy.

We used to have a box stove. That thing heated the whole damn house! Sure it was a pain in the ass chopping wood and such, but man we burned something like $300 of oil annually at about $1/gallon. And that was for hot water too.
Well, tired of chopping, bought a pellet stove in 06. Put it in the semi finished basement in place of the box stove.

First season I consider a complete bust. The damn thing barely heated less than half the basement. We had no hoses running outside, cuz the dealer and Breckwell said it wasn't necessary to pipe in outside air unless the stove was installed in a small building, such as a trailer. Well, I noticed that it made the other side of the basement much colder and didn't do diddly to heat the house. I knew that it would suck in cold air and blow it up the chimney, but like an idiot I believed everyone when they said it would "heat up so much that it would compensate."
In a pig's ass it did.

I also realized that it was sucking cold damp air in from any crevice or crack in the house. Yeah, damp air, hmmmmm, can you say mold & mildew? I sure can.

So last summer I borrowed a small jackhammer and punched a hole in the basement wall and ran a pipe outside for the firebox. Now it would suck in outside air to feed the fire and pump that up the chimney, while the other fan would circulate inside air around the fire box to heat the house. Seemed perfect right?
Not quite.

Yes, it was a big improvement. No more outside air drawing into the house, but not a lot of heat for the dollar either. Actually, I think it's been a financial loser.
At the lowest setting, it still barely heats half the basement. The other side is no longer freezing because of the cold air not being drawn in, but it aint nice and warm either, and it still seems to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the house.

At that lowest setting, it burns 1 bag of pellets in 24 hours. Now a bag of pellets costs a little over $4, so to run it every day for 30 days would be $120 if I'm kind and calculate with the price lower than actual.
Hmmm, $120/month to heat half the basement.

If you're still with me, keep reading, it gets worse.

Really, on very cold days, it doesn't really heat that half the basement at that low setting. There's a baseboard radiator in the basement on the pellet stove side, and the thermostat is just a few feet away from the stove, set at 64 degrees F. On very cold days, the temp drops below 64 degrees and the radiator kicks in, or I should say, the nasty, global warming, filth spewing oil boiler kicks in.

Now consider that that nasty oil boiler runs us a approximately $100 / month to heat the rest of the damn house and the hot water! Yeah, we have a programmable thermostat upstairs and set it at 62 evenings and 68 days, so we keep the house pretty cool, but still.

I have not been very scientific in my analysis, it's all just eyeballs and check writing, so I could be off on my estimates.
But still, $120+ to heat half the basement, and not fully at that, and $100 for the whole house and hot water? Screw the ozone layer, my wallet is more important.
One more thing I need to mention here is that our boiler is only about 4 years old, and is super efficient. Our old boiler would probably have run up twice the cost or more.

Before I give up on this stove though, I'm going to punch another hole in the wall and suck in outside air for heat too. I'm not sure this will work, I mean, if the outside temp is something like 10 degrees F or below, will that little firebox be able to heat it up before it blows into the house? I don't know.
But my desire is to give the house "positive pressure," to blow a constant flow of warm air into it. If this works, then I think the stove will be worthwhile.

If that doesn't work, then I believe that the pellet stove was a complete waste of money.

Hillary Wants to Finish the Job

of looting and trashing the White House that is.

Old news that the Clintons allegedly stole items from the White House on their way out. Furnishings, silverware, China dishes and such. Not sure if it was ever proven, but of course I believe they did, seems just like something they would do. These allegations were denied by Bush, Cheney and the GAO, so I'm being a wee bit xenophobic here.
But I still think it's true and they just agreed to put everything back when they got caught and sweep it under the rug.

Now we see that they hire like minded people:

Rent Not Paid

Things are looking good for Obama, and I gotta say I'm glad. You'll never hear crap like this about him or his supporters. Fabricated or otherwise, it just wouldn't fly.

Maybe Democrats are starting to really care about character, ethics and morals, rather than who's going to give the biggest free ride.

I for one am hoping so.

Well Put!

OK, so it's McCain. That means I will not be voting Republican this Presidential election.
Now let's see who gets the Dem's nomination.

This comic sums up my situation, and that of all conservatives, perfectly:

Day by Day Cartoon

Let's also see who gets the Libertarian nomination, perhaps I can find a reason to vote after all?

Random Election Day Ramblings

I'll be voting on my way home from work, too lazy to get up extra early this morning.
It'll be Romney for me.

Talking to my wife this morning (a rare morning event), we commented on the historical significance of the potential for the first black or woman president. Then, on my way into work, I heard the same comment, plus potentially the first Mormon president. What I found amusing is that I never even considered that! I knew Romney's Mormon, and I knew there was some asinine discussion about it on the airwaves, but it never occurred to me to care, simply not on my radar.
The amusing part is that I am just the sort of person who should stereotypically think about it. I'm fairly conservative, and though not religious myself, I have no problem with the Christian faith entering politics a wee bit. Yet his particular faith does not matter to me.

If McCain gets the nomination, I will vote for the Libertarian, unless Obama gets the Dem nod, then I may just vote for him. Can't vote for Hillary like Ann Coulter says she would. If Ron Paul gets the Libertarian nomination, and McCain & Clinton the others, then I may just damnwell not vote at all.

Sadly, McCain is the best of all possible contenders as regards the Iraq war. Romney would be best for the budget. That is of course supposing that they'd get some cooperation from Congress and that's an open question.

I think overall that McCain would cooperate quite well with the Dems, basically because he's one himself, though he calls himself a Republican for some odd reason.
Romney was governor of a very liberal state, and he is quite moderate, so he will probably compromise a bit, which may or may not be good. I doubt we'll find out.

I expect to add more crap to this post or a new one as the day goes on.