100% wood pellets in the house, propane in the shop that's attached and open to the house, it buffers the on and off of the pellet stove.
What brand of stove Wolfman? I have an older USSC 6039 as in 13 years old. been trouble free except consumables of course.
Hardwood pellets here are about $215 a ton in skid quantity. I bought a ton this year which is more than I need. I mix 3 parts corn to one part pellets. or 150 pounds of corn to 50 pounds of pellets. I mix them in plastic garbage cans, 4 cans at a time on a pallet and tractor them to the back deck where I can access them easily. I go about a month on 4 garbage cans depending on the severity of the weather. Corn comes out of the grain tank next to the barn. Have 1000 bushels in it.
I've roasted countless tons of biomass pellets and corn in mine. Running right now. It's on a remote thermostat in the kitchen, right next to the central furnace thermostat.
Run mine in conjunction with the propane furnace (Plus 90 condensing, Bryant). I let the pellet stove make up the difference in heat loss. Right now it's pretty warm outside (just below freezing) so the pellet stove is idling (low fire) and the central furnace isn't running at all. Like to have a newer unit with cal rod ignition but I don't so it runs (low fire) until the 'stat calls for heat, then it ramps up to the set point I have it at.
I can control all the burn aspects from induced draft rate to pounds per hour burned as well as the room fan speed. Usually, I run at 2.5 pounds per hour with minimum draft. Corn burns really hot, much hotter than wood pellets and the dryer it is, the hotter it burns. The corn I'm burning presently is about 10%RM which is really dry compared to off the field corn which is usually 15%.
Only drawback is I have to clean it out every couple days but I use a shop vac with a drywall bag and it takes about 5 minutes but I have to start it up every time and I 'shovel' the ash into the ash pan before I vacuum it.
When it gets colder out or windy and cold, the central furnace will come on, raise the ambient house temp up just over the set point on the pellet stove thermostat and kick it back to low fire and the cycle repeats itself over and over. That way, the basement stays warm enough, the pipes don't freeze and my propane consumption stays manageable.
Hardest part is getting them to work in harmony.
