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How Do Pellet Stoves Work |
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Pellet stoves are a lot similar to wood stoves when you look at it from the outside, but inside they are sophisticated combustion appliances. The device holding the pellets is called the “hopper,” while the device that transfers it to the next chamber is an “auger.” To use it, you just need to load pellets into the hopper. The size of the hopper varies for each stove, and obviously, the bigger the hopper the more pellets you can load. There are two types of pellet stove: Top Feed – where the auger serves the pellets from the top. This type lessens the risk that the fire will burn back to the hopper. Although there is a chance that the ash gets caught up in its firebox grate, build up and cause the fire to die.- Bottom Feed – where the auger serves the pellets horizontally and its ash moves to the sides where there is an ash pan to make cleaning and maintenance easy and safe.
Some stoves are automatic while some will require you to manually light it. There is usually an internal thermostat to determine the heat and signals you when you need to add more pellets. The process of heating begins when the air in your room is sucked in with a built-in fan, and then transferred to the heating chamber. The resulting hot air will then be brought back into the vent system of your room or house.
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