There is not perfect solution.
If you are only concerned about being without power and not concerned about the fuel bill, get a whole house generator.
With wood, pellet or whatever you use will be a compromise and require some work.
For me, I have no problem finding free wood on FB. Processing wood gives me something to do in the winter instead of watching tv all winter.
I see used pellet and wood stoves that are not that old on FB ( especially in the last month). A few years ago, I bought a englander stove off CL for $200. It was fired twice and the owners realized it was too small to heat their house. It was perfect as a second burner for my sunroom.
I know very little about pellet stoves, except that they throw a ton of heat but they are more expensive than a wood burner (new).
Getting firewood around here isn't an issue. For a whole house generator we have a fuel issue unless I want to litter the yard with a propane tank, so I'd personally prefer to have a wood stove for most of the heat and run the fridge/well pump and some of the other items of a set of coupled inverter generators.
ShawnG
MegaDork
12/25/22 6:19 p.m.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:
Then you get a better generator instead of a H-F special.
No arguments there. Bought it during a 2 day power outage about ten years ago because it was the generator I could find.
Some generator is better than no generator.
I've thought about a bigger, more permanent unit for emergencies. The only ones I've dealt with personally were Generac units and they were hot garbage when I had to fix them under warranty.
MyMiatas said:
This does not use electricity. Just pellets.
https://iwae.com/shop/2000-sq-ft-us-stove-gw1949-wiseway-steel-pellet-stove-ha16340.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj--4yuaT_AIV9Bp9Ch2wPgwvEAQYASABEgLgI_D_BwE
I was interested in these because it uses no electricity, but I haven't read the best reviews about them
I'll be adding a 3500w generator soon. Not enough for everything, but 30A is more than enough to run the fridge, freezer, and gas furnace with enough left over for the laptop. The wifi is on a UPS that should last about 6 hours. Heat, food, entertainment.
