A Hissing Radiator and Sleepless Nights | Modern Pellet Stove

So make sure you bleed your valves this season to maximize your heating efficiency. Keep all pliars and wrenches as far from the radiators as you can, and have a No. 2 handy, just in case.

Warranty information: Ten-year limited warranty on parts and compressors if properly registered. Labor warranty optional. Warranty registration can be done in two minutes at job site with ESS smart phone app.

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If we introduce still more wood burning, particle pollution in the air of British cities is expected to be similar in 2030 to what it was in 2015, despite improvements in vehicle emissions.

Warranty information: Standard 10-year all parts warranty (the tank comes with a manufacturer’s warranty, which is currently up to 15 years on parts). All unit components and select accessory components are covered for 10 years, with a 10-year labor allowance on select parts and accessories (registration required).

Lutron currently offers two Alexa skills for controlling its wide range of smart lighting solutions, although it has now added Google Home support as part of its repertoire. While there are two skills on offer for Amazon Alexa users, those using the Google Assistant will only be able to control Lutron Caseta products for the time being.

Warranty information: Limited warranty (registered): 10-year compressor, coil, and parts. Limited warranty (nonregistered): five-year compressor, coil, and parts. Extended warranty available.

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Like Belkin’s Wemo Bridge, the Link Plus hub from Lightwave can be used to add HomeKit compatibility to the company’s existing range of plugs, light switches and heating controls.

Two major themes dominated the 2018 Pellet Fuels Institute Annual Conference June 24-26 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: Operation 100K, the organization’s mission to boost domestic sales of residential pellet stoves to 100,000 units a year; and the importance of barbeque pellets to increase sales and pellet awareness. Powerpoint presentations were scarce, as the affair was rather conversational in tone with loosely structured panels led by Tim Portz, who joined PFI as executive director six months prior. Since joining PFI, Portz has visited pellet and stove retailers and producers of wood pellets. He said the U.S. has 13 million tons of installed wood pellet production capacity with PFI members representing 4.14 million tons. Single-factory PFI membership capacity is roughly 1.67 million tons, Portz said, while 2.47 million tons of capacity is represented by multisite producers. “Our organization represents seven different multisite producers,” he said. The capacity of members whose products are certified to the PFI quality standard is 3.21 million tons, while the capacity of members not a part of the standards program is 668,400 tons. Certified capacity of nonmembers, according to Portz, approaches 610,000 tons. Operation 100KWith about 1 million pellet stoves in operation in the U.S., sales last year were roughly 49,000 units, or just enough to cover the annual retirement of old stoves. John Shimek, senior vice president of dealer sales for Hearth & Home Technologies, said HHT’s appliance sales have been up significantly, especially last year. “And this year has not slowed down at all,” Shimek said. “The No. 1 reason customers buy pellet stoves is for warmth, but they won’t buy them if they don’t look good or aren’t reliable.” Stoves must also be easy to use. “Our role,” Shimek said, “is to make them easier to operate, understand and maintain.” He said HHT is developing a new stove with two hoppers and dual-feed motors to hold 80 pounds of fuel, which can operate untouched for three days. “That’s significant,” he said, “and it’s easy cleaning.” The company is also developing a remote control stove. HHT has consolidated stove manufacturing in one facility in Halifax, Pennsylvania. “Our facility service call rate decreased 50 percent for the past three years,” Shimek said. “We continue to drive service call rates down.” He said HHT is investing significantly into the facility and hopes construction is completed by next year. Seth Walker, a senior economist with FutureMetrics, said assuming each pellet stove uses 3 tons per year and 5 percent of stoves are replaced annually, the current market scenario carves out about 140,000 tons of new pellet fuel demand. But if Operation 100K becomes reality, this would provide 6 percent growth and 680,000 tons of new annual demand.Domestic wood pellet production capacity utilization is 35 percent in the North and roughly 50 percent in the West. “This is still low,” Walker said, “but it’s the best position we’ve been in for a long time. Demand is creeping up after a few warm winters.” John Crouch, director of public affairs for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, said, “There is no silver bullet to get to 100K. It needs time to sink in.” Crouch said consumers must be made aware that pellet fuels save money. “Wait, but oil and propane are cheap—balderdash!” he said. “We need to highlight the past five or 10 years and show that over time, consumers save money and they are warmer.” Crouch said consumer interest in global warming issues is on the rise, and as a result, HPBA is spending money defending natural gas in certain markets. “In Vancouver, it is difficult to put natural gas in new apartment complexes,” he said, adding that PFI should be present in such markets to promote pellet heat. Pellet heat must also be promoted to hearth dealers, Crouch said. Making sure dealers have a certified pellet stove installer on staff is also important. “During the 2000s, it was too easy to sell pellets,” Crouch said. “We need to get back to constantly promoting and selling the brand. What hurts the pellet brand is perceived shortages. If a consumer goes to three places and can’t get pellets, then there’s a shortage.” Dan Coffey, sales and marketing manager for Canada-based Shaw Resources, said market and demand challenges need to be addressed by the industry, not by individual companies. Shaw Resources has worked with the Wood Pellet Association of Canada to develop efforts to address these challenges, such as funding initiatives for Canadian wood pellet producers that everyone can use—for example, sales aids and promotions like a wood pellet consumer focused website, woodpelletheat.ca, Youtube videos and more. “All of these help levitate the knowledge of wood pellets in the marketplace,” Coffey said. A large segment of pellet stove buyers purchase them for cost savings, while others for warmth, and some for environmental benefits. Certain consumers invest in pellet stoves for the ambiance, Coffey noted, while others for the modern design. There was some disagreement as to the role millennials play in the pellet stove market. Shawn Griffin of Upper Valley Stove Co. said in New Hampshire, most stove consumers are still in the 35-plus range. “In our area, the cost of living is higher, and not many 30-year-olds are buying homes,” he said. Dean Michanczyk of Dean’s Stove and Spa said homebuyers in Connecticut tend to be older as well. Some panelists suggested millennials move around too much and tend to choose electric heat, but Walker, a millennial, said the pellet industry must not ignore consumers under 40 years old. “If you do, pellets will not have a good future,” he said, adding that the industry should target millennials, people predisposed to wood heat and swap-outs in its Operation 100K mission. A pellet stove’s role in a home’s resale value should be pitched to consumers as well, panelists noted. Coffey said more market research is needed to accomplish Operation 100K, which is incumbent upon associations such as PFI to conduct. Crouch said roughly 12 million wood stoves exist in the U.S., not counting inserts. “Of that 12 million, 9 million are pre-1988 stoves,” he said. Swap-out efforts are localized, but a larger, national effort would help drive new pellet stove sales and conversions from old wood stoves to new pellet appliances. “Cordwood users are our target market,” Coffey said. “They’re predisposed to wood heat and love the ambiance of it but hate the mess. In our market, the price difference between cordwood and pellets is not significant. There is a big opportunity to turn cordwood users over.” With carbon taxes on oil at about 10 cents per liter starting next year in Canada, the environmental market is another big opportunity, Coffey said. Shimek said HHT has not done a good job at gathering data on why those who bought pellet stoves did so. “It’s not been a major initiative of ours, and I apologize for that,” he said. “If organizations such as PFI and HPBA worked together in gathering this information, we would all be better off.” Coffey said Shaw Resources undertook an electronic market research survey of current and prospective consumers. “We can’t rely on associations, we are masters of our own destiny and we must take ownership,” he said. Crouch said PFI promotions in the 1990s led to an uptick in sales in the 2000s. “In the 2000s, PFI made a determined effort to expand the number of committed pellet stove dealers,” he said. “Specialty retailers create momentum in the market. They are the gatekeepers. Retailers that used to sell pellet stoves need to be proselytized to get back into it.”  PFI’s Carrie Annand discussed a new ad campaign PFI is undertaking to promote pellet heat. “We’re going to build an ad campaign, and retailers are going to pay for it,” she said, mimicking President Trump’s mission to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. “We’re going to make pellet stoves cool again.” She said few retailers have incentives to sell pellet stoves over other appliances. The new ad campaign is meant to build awareness so the customer goes to the local store with the mission to buy a pellet appliance. PFI’s ad campaign will focus on social media. “It’s a marketing and analysis tool, all rolled into one,” she said. Michanczyk said Dean’s Stove and Spa drives traffic to the store by marketing to its huge database of existing customers. “For driving new business, we’ve always used a lot of TV, but that’s evolved and changed so we’re doing more social media now,” he said. “We had to do this on our own because this industry does a poor job of letting people know who and what we are.” Griffin said Upper Valley Stove Co. markets through radio. “It does well for me,” he said, noting in rural areas, customers listen to radio while farming. Griffin and Michanczyk say buyers often don’t know what they want, so trained staff help guide them. “Those who want gas won’t save money and won’t get the same heat output as a pellet stove,” Michanczyk said. Panelists discussed the phenomenon of gas stoves being rated at twice the Btu output of pellet stoves but not putting out as much heat. “I don’t know why this is, but you can’t believe everything you read,” Michanczyk said. “I think big oil and gas skew these numbers.” Michanczyk said trade-in offers help drive interest in pellet appliances. “They can bring the price of a decent pellet stove down to $1,500 to $2,000,” Michanczyk said. “Once you get them in the store, it’s all over. It’s like a kid in a candy store.” He said if customers want to save money on heat, pellets are the way to go. “But they don’t know this because the marketing is not there.” Griffin pointed out how oil companies have minimum deliveries. With pellets, however, consumers can buy a week’s worth of heat and still have money to pay their other bills. Michanczyk said having enough properly trained technicians can make or break pellet stove sales. Griffin said Upper Valley Stove services everything it sells. “If we didn’t, we probably wouldn’t sell 50 percent of the stoves we do,” he said. Ultimately, promoting the pellet brand, dealers and grilling is how Crouch said the pellet industry can fulfill Operation 100K. He said many consumers’ first interaction with wood pellets is flavored pellets for grilling. “It’d be a stretch to [then convert them to] pellet heat, but at least they understand what a pelleted product is.” GrillingPortz said it was an eye opener to learn between 1 million and 1.2 million pellet barbeque appliances were sold last year. At an average of 200 pounds of pellets per appliance, this equates to 120,000 tons of new demand per year. Bob Robinson, director of outside events at Dansons, a grill manufacturer and seller, said, “The food just tastes better—period. That’s where it starts.” He said barbequing with pellets is much more mainstream than home heating. “Everyone has a barbeque grill,” Robinson said. “Pellets have taken the average barbequer and turned them into backyard barbeque junkies.” Barbequing makes wood pellets sexy, said Kenny Lisle, sales and marketing manager for Energex American. “This is what’s popular,” he said. “We need to use that energy and transfer it to the heating side.” Robinson argued barbeque pellets is the fastest-growing segment in the industry.

The iSP100 is priced at $39.99. Though it is temporarily out of stock on Amazon, you can still order it now and they’ll deliver it whenever it’s available. If you don’t want to wait, you can also grab it from iHome’s website.

Warranty information: Includes a one-year limited parts warranty and a five-year limited compressor warranty. If the system is registered within 60 days of installation, coverage is extended to 10-year limited parts.