• Pellet stove pellets are made of natural recycled material.pellets image by Rupert Roth from Fotolia.com
  
  Pellet stoves are an efficient and inexpensive way to heat an indoor area without the mess of a wood stove. According to the Encyclopedia of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living, pellet stoves have an overall efficiency rate of 75 percent to 90 percent, depending on the size. Pellet stoves are also easy to operate, often done with just a push of a button, and pellets easily feed into the stove.
  
  

Fuel

• Fuel for pellet stoves is often made of wood byproducts or recycled manufactured wood products, such as discarded lumber and furniture. The materials are turned into sawdust and pressed into pellets. Pellets are housed in a hopper in the stove and fed into the stove's burn box. Pellets are also made from maize or corn, which can be cheaper compared to traditional wood pellets. Corn pellets also produce about the same amount of heat. According to the Encyclopedia of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living, a 1,500-square-foot home can be heated daily with as little as 30 pounds of corn. Both corn and wood pellets, according to the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension program, are cleaner and require less storage area than fuel for a conventional wood stove.
  
  

Size

• Pellet stoves are typically measured by their heat output, which generally ranges from 8,000 to 40,000 British thermal units (BTUs). The size of the stove, however, makes a considerable difference; the smaller the stove, the fewer pellets it can accommodate and the quicker it will run out of pellets. In 2010, a typical 40-pound bag of pellets costs $4 to $8.
  
  

Top or Bottom Feed

• Pellets for the stoves are fed into the burn box by an automatic system. The feed chute can angle down from the top, side or behind. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, top-feeding stoves typically are less efficient when burning pellets that have a higher ash content, because once the burn area fills up with ash, it can become clogged. However, top-feeding pellet stoves are designed to prevent backfires in the hopper. Bottom-feeding stoves are not subject to ash clogging because the auger that pushes in new pellets automatically removes the ash, but such stoves can experience backfires in the hopper from time to time.
  
  

Cost

• In 2010, pellet stoves cost approximately $1,700 to $3,000 depending on the manufacturer and BTU output. For example, a Forester pellet stove with a maximum BTU of 44,000 cost approximately $2,000, whereas Englander's 28-3500 model with a 42,000-BTU output cost $1,649.