Hi All: My wife and I just became home owners of a nice 1920 3Br colonial 1450 Sq.ft. that has oil heat we want to put in a stove but are undecided on what type of fuel it will run on. Wood Pellet or coal. We live in Westchester county NY which is about 50 Min outside of NYC. Last winter we had 0 and low teen days. The house is not insulated and has 30 windows the with added single pane storm windows. We have looked at the Hearthstone Mansfield which is cast iron and soapstone (Would really love a Tulikivi masonry stove but way to costly all around install). Other stoves we looked at were the Harman TLC 2000 which can run on coal or wood. I have friends who heat with wood and pellet and I get mixed views some have had both, but all agree there is nothing like a real wood fire. But reality sets in I want to use the stove to heat my house. Any help out there would be great.

can't the home depot workers call other stores for you? That is their job isn't it? Anyways, I live in New York state and EVERY Home Depot I have been in sells pellots. However they are over 6 bucks a bag now there. OUCH! They used to be about 2-3 dollars a bag. Right now the price of gas is cheaper than using pellots for us. We have a ton from last year so we will use them however we won't be going out to buy more pellots this year.

Can i burn oil in my gas furnace ? Pellet stoves are made to burn wood pellets nothing more. I probably thing the engineers worked on this for more than a few hours. Some people burn chicken feed pellets. It's a lot cheaper but not much heat and greasy. Chicken feed is full of chemicals for the birds and mostly made from alfalfa. Burn wood pellets and stay safe. That was what the stove was designed for. Mixing different woods will affect your flue temps. Many people out here USED to have pellet stoves. Not any more. Must be something to that. $20.00 for the pellets. 3 bags in 24 hours = $60.00 a day. Cord wood is not that expensive. That is about $1800.00 a month on a 24 hour burn. A cord of poplar is $160.00. As brickeyee says dust will not burn as per say. It just glows. Mix it with high pressure air, as in a recovery boiler it will explode. Ever seen a grain dust explosion ? Pretty impressive. If you want an example throw baking flower on a fire. Stand back.

Have you looked at pellet or corn, or multi-fuel stove? May save you a few bucks depending on the cost of gas in your area. If your set on gas, I'm not sure of what code requires. I would think as long as you have the proper vent pipe for gas you should be alright with existing routing.