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A pellet stove in a power outage: what happens, and what to buy

A pellet stove depends on electricity for its auger and fans. When the grid goes down, most simply stop, and that is the moment many owners wanted heat most.

What stops, and why

The auger stops feeding, the combustion fan stops and the room fan stops. The stove can no longer run, and exhaust stops moving. That is why vent rise matters, and the manual tells you how much you need.

Battery backup

The PS21 runs on a 24V DC system from two 12V batteries, sold separately, for over 40 hours, according to the listing. Add the cost of batteries and a charger.

Large hoppers do not help

A 170 pound hopper gives days of fuel, but only with power. Do not confuse the two.

The alternative

If outages are your main concern, a wood stove such as the Ashley AW1120E-P needs no power to burn.

The shortlist, and what puts it in this order

Questions this guide leaves you with

Can I run a pellet stove on a generator?

Many owners do, but check the manual, and use clean power as the control board asks.

Is a wood stove better for outages?

For that one purpose, yes. The stoves on our wood shelf need no electricity to burn.

Each stove, and the room it has to heat

What each band of spending heats

In one line

Pairings that help choose

Stove against stove, where the comparison already exists on this site.

What this page draws on

The stoves here are taken from the catalog of this site. Specifications are the ones the manufacturer states and the ones on the Amazon page; prices are readings from Amazon.com and move often, and both change. Ranking rests on declared specifications, on stated strengths weighed against stated limits, and on price. No stove here has been lit by us, and nothing on this page suggests it has.

Last checked on

The price beside each product is fetched as this page opens, and it is the only figure here that is current. Any amount written into the prose was read once, on the day that sentence was written, and nothing has refreshed it since.