The Pellet Stove Industry: Stuck—or Ready to Break Through?

A conversation with Scott Williamson

Scott Williamson, a veteran pellet
stove technician

The pellet stove industry has long occupied a middle ground—promising, practical, and often economical—yet never quite breaking into the mainstream. To understand why, I spoke with Scott Williamson, a technician who has spent decades installing, repairing, and troubleshooting pellet stoves across New England.

Scott lives in Rehoboth, Massachusetts and runs Pellet-Stove-Service.com, serving primarily southeastern Massachusetts. Over the course of his career, he has worked on tens of thousands of stoves across a wide range of brands, installations, and real-world conditions—giving him a ground-level view of how these systems perform outside of ideal conditions.

He got into the business in an unconventional way: “My mother-in-law bought a used pellet stove but couldn’t find anyone willing to service it. I had tools, I was available, and I was dating their daughter at the time. I had never even heard of a pellet stove, but I somehow fixed it. The family owned a breakfast diner and started telling customers I could fix their pellet stoves. That’s how I got started. Three years later, I was so busy I had to quit my day job.”

By 2019, nearly 20 years later, his company had performed over 20,000 service calls across New England.

Scott also runs the Facebook group Pellet Stove Troubleshooting & Repair, which has nearly 17,000 members and functions as a real-time knowledge base where technicians and experienced owners work through real-world problems every day.

What’s Holding Pellet Stoves Back?

The biggest factor has been relatively low oil and gas prices. If that changes—like if the Strait of Hormuz situation affects supply—you could see pellet stoves rebound quickly.

Electricity is becoming a bigger part of the equation. My electric bill last month was $500, and that’s not unusual. People relying on heat pumps in higher-rate states may start to feel that more over time.

There’s also a perception problem that hasn’t gone away. A lot of people don’t distinguish pellet stoves from wood stoves. They assume they produce a lot of smoke, and they get lumped into the same EPA, non-profit or media reports that are critical of wood burning.

 

Do Poor-Quality Stoves Hurt the Industry?

I don’t see stove quality as the main issue. It’s more about installation and maintenance. The core technology works—but it’s sensitive to real-world conditions.

Pellet stoves run great under ideal conditions. But over time—especially as they get dirty—they lose efficiency. The combustion isn’t as clean, and performance drops off.

From a field perspective:

· About 5 out of 100 customers will have repair issues in each winter

· Of those, maybe 2 are more serious or expensive

Some manufacturers have introduced temperature-based feedback systems that adjust combustion automatically, keeping the combustion cleaner—but those features are still far from universal. If every stove had that kind of feedback, you’d see a lot fewer complaints.

Is the Service Sector Keeping Up?

No—and that’s one of the biggest problems. Many dealers prioritize selling stoves over servicing them.

That’s backwards. Service is what keeps customers. It’s where the long-term money is. It’s the same as cars—dealerships don’t stay in business on sales. They stay in business because they service those cars for years.

There’s also a structural problem with pricing. Service calls under $200 are common—but they’re not sustainable. Between travel time, diagnostics, and repairs, you’re burning yourself out. You really need to be closer to $300 to make it work.

At the same time, there aren’t enough experienced technicians—and many aren’t using technology effectively to run their businesses.

In my case, I stepped away from service for four years to work for a pellet parts supplier. A technician in the next town took over most of my accounts. He does a good job and he is a good guy. At this point, there’s no real reason for customers to leave him and come back to me.

How Important is NFI Certification?

NFI training is good—but it’s just a starting point. The bigger issue is that it doesn’t carry much weight in the real world:

· Not required by most states

· Limited consumer awareness

· No real incentive to maintain it

In 25 years, no customer has ever asked me if I’m NFI-certified. By contrast, licensing requirements are more meaningful.

In Massachusetts and most of New England, you need a state-issued HVAC license to install stoves. The test is tough, and you need to work under someone who already has it. It’s a barrier to entry—but after that, it’s mostly just maintaining it.

Pellet Supply and Quality

I don’t see pellet shortages as a major issue. Most problems are seasonal. At the end of the season, stores stop restocking and people can’t find pellets—but that’s usually because they waited too long. Pellet quality is a bit of an issue, but over time, most users figure out what works best in their stove.

Hidden Barriers: The Psychology of Use

One of the biggest challenges has less to do with technology and more to do with how people experience pellet heating.

Pellets have too many touchpoints. You’re buying fuel, you’re cleaning the stove, you’re dealing with maintenance. Even when pellets are cheaper overall, the frequent interaction creates friction. It feels like you’re always paying for something.

By contrast, oil and gas systems require far less interaction. They just run. There are fewer touchpoints, so it feels easier—even if it’s more expensive.

Why Pellet Stoves Struggle in New Homes

New homes aren’t designed with pellet stoves in mind. Masonry chimneys are disappearing, and pellet systems are rarely part of new construction.

Mobility also plays a role. People move more often now. The more owners a pellet stove has, the more likely it is to develop problems over time.  Lastly, some new homes are sealed tight, and pellet stoves have a hard time lighting.  If you open a nearby window just a crack, the stove lights right up.  So, those homes need outdoor air kits, that bring fresh outdoor air right into the stove, or right to the base of the stove.

 

A Better Model: Simplifying the System

Someone should simplify both the customer experience and the business model behind it. You could offer the stove, fuel, and service all in one monthly package—what I’d call ‘hassle-free heat.’ Repairs would be included.

For customers, that means predictable costs, fewer decisions and less uncertainty

For providers, it creates efficiency. Instead of dealing with dozens of stove models, you focus on one or two. Same parts, same training, same repair process.

Instead of stocking 500 SKUs, you might only need 15 or 20. And your technicians don’t need to know how to fix everything—they just need to be good at a few systems.

 

Are Heat Pumps a Threat?

They can be—but they can also work well together.  Pellet stoves and heat pumps are actually very complementary.

Use a heat pump for moderate temperatures, and a pellet stove when it gets really cold. Both are space heaters, and they can work in different parts of the house.  A lot will depend on electricity pricing. Electric rates can rise faster than pellet prices. That’s going to matter.

 

Outlook: Strong Fundamentals, Missing System

I wouldn’t call myself optimistic or pessimistic. The fundamentals are there—the fuel works, the technology works. What’s missing is everything around it:

· Reliable service infrastructure

· Better training pathways

· More standardization

· A simpler customer experience

If the industry can get those things right—and if energy prices push people to look for alternatives—there’s a lot of room for growth.

Wood stove inclusive energy audit standards still missing in America

By John Ackerly and Caroline Solomon 

The DOE's weatherization program for
low income households is the largest 
weatherization in the US

In 1988, when wood stoves were at the height of their popularity in the U.S., the Department of Energy issued a memo clarifying that wood stoves in DOE-funded energy audits and weatherization programs should be included and could be replaced.  But, they also said that “DOE considers wood stoves to be a unique measure… and …  it is the energy audit which is the driving force for determining whether a wood stove should be replaced.”

 

This was a victory for the many states that wanted to use DOE funding to repair and possibly replace old wood stoves that pose health, safety, and environmental risks. However, fast forward to today – 33 years later – and wood stoves remain a “unique measure” and are often overlooked in DOE funded energy audits. Nearly 10 million homes have been audited and weatherized with DOE funding and all homes with gas furnaces, for example, had those furnaces inspected for safety – and efficiency.  But there is no consistency or uniformity for how a stove should be inspected or when it and how it should be repaired or replaced.  To understand how and when the breakdown happened, we went back in time and dug into countless documents, reports, and energy audit standards. Here’s what we found out.

 

In 2012, we wrote a blog about how energy audits were routinely overlooking wood stoves, many of which were unsafe, dirty, and hazardous. At that time, many auditing standards, including those approved by the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), did not contain guidelines for how energy auditors should inspect wood stoves while in a home.

 

In 2013, AGH worked with the Building Performance Institute (BPI), who developed long-overdue standards on safety inspections for wood stoves. But the standards were voluntary, and eight years later, we found that virtually no one is using them, and most energy audit companies don’t even know they exist. AGH continued to work with EPA staff, who were also eager to see stoves consistently included in energy audits, but our impact was minimal.

 

In the summer of 2021, AGH turned again to the DOE, who runs the nation’s largest auditing programs through their Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP). Senior WAP officials were very accessible and open to discussing the issue, and pointed to their regulatory language, which dictates that “all heating systems, regardless of type” be inspected, repaired if necessary, and even replaced under some circumstances. DOE has to approve each of the audit programs used with their funding. So far, so good.

 

Things began to unravel when we dug into hundreds of documents, from national audit program notices to state weatherization plans to work specification field guides to local application forms and field data collection forms. The problem is not that wood stoves are excluded, but that very few states have any detail about how to inspect a wood stove. Usually, documents from the DOE all the way down to a county audit program have all of the details about inspecting, repairing, and reporting on a gas furnace, for example. Boilers are often well-described, but details dry up very quickly when it comes to wood stoves. The result is a patchwork of state programs, with some meeting DOE regulations, and others falling far short.

 

The problem also involves national auditing tools, approved by DOE.  NEAT is the most popular energy audit tool and is used in about 35 states.  It addresses wood stoves in its Health & Safety audit mainly as an indoor smoke issue.  It references inadequate floor protection and oversizing but does not mention clearance to combustibles or cracks in the firebox or glass.  Adding to the issue is that DOE published Standards for Conformance that includes a lengthy list of “tune-ups/efficiency improvements” for furnaces and boilers, but not even one for wood stoves.

 

Far from being a unusual heating device, wood stove
are more common that many other heaters in the US

If wood stoves were just a tiny fraction of heaters, like coal stoves are, overlooking them would make more sense.  But there are more wood stoves in America than there are oil boilers, oil furnaces or propane furnaces, and almost as many as gas boilers.  Some states, like Maine, New Hampshire and Wisconsin have provided extensive guidance around wood and pellet stoves.  Oddly, Oregon, a state with far more problems with wood smoke, has little guidance, resulting in fewer inspections, repairs and replacements of old wood stoves.

 

One distinct feature of wood stoves makes them particularly in need of safety check-ups: unlike other heating systems, many if not most wood stoves are homeowner-installed, and these stoves are often not up to code.

 

AGH is now midstream in our effort to work with DOE officials, DOE contractors, state officials, and others to get feedback on how to correct this problem. One DOE contractor who is deeply involved in the matter says she thinks we can begin making substantive changes quickly, but systemic problems like this, take years to address. 

 

We are currently preparing a report that (1) assesses audit programs approved by the DOE, (2) assesses state Standard Work Specification guides and (3) Assesses how local WAP programs collect information about heating systems. Stay tuned for more in-depth coverage of this issue.

 

We expect our report will be extremely helpful to the DOE who could update guidance to ensure a minimum level of stove inspections to establish more uniformity how stoves are inspected and what repairs should be considered.  The report should also be helpful for states that want to address the safety and performance of old wood stoves.

 

We want to thank the scores of people who have helped address this problem, starting with folks at BPI who worked on it back in 2012 and 2013, to all the federal, state, and local WAP officials we interviewed this summer.

 

And thanks to all our supporters who provided data about how and whether their stove was included in their energy audits. If you have had an audit recently, please share the results with us (info@forgreenheat.org).

 

John Ackerly is President of the Alliance for Green Heat and Caroline Solomon is an AGH fellow.

Stove Repair Relief Fund to aid families during Coronavirus pandemic

The Alliance for Green Heat is starting a fund that will help families struggling during this pandemic keep their stoves running and operating safely.  Together with the Osprey Foundation and Stove Parts 4 Less, we are launching The Stove Repair Relief Fund!  Please consider becoming a partner in this effort. 

The Stove Repair Relief Fund provides large discounts on stove parts to people who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. With an initial fund of $20,000 provided by the Alliance for Green Heat, Stove Parts 4 Less, and the Osprey Foundation, eligible customers will receive 30 – 50% off of their parts orders. The intent is to provide essential stove parts to lower-income families who may not be able to afford to keep their wood or pellet stoves working.  It often only takes a small part to get a pellet stove back up and running or make a dangerous wood stove safe again.  

If you are a verified low-income household or have been laid off due to the pandemic, you are eligible for a 30% discount (15% donated by the Alliance for Green Heat and 15% by Stove Parts 4 Less). If you are from a verified low-income household and have been laid off, you are eligible for a 50% discount on your needed parts (25% donated by the Alliance for Green Heat and 25% by Stove Parts 4 Less).

Please note, this offer is only good for wood or pellet stove parts orders up to $500.  It is not applicable to any grill parts, gas stove parts, new stove installs or orders over $500.  If your household has been hit hard by this pandemic and you need a stove part, provide all required information on the sign-up page here to determine if you are eligible.

We are doing a soft launch of this program at the end of this heating season to assess how it works.  We hope to improve and relaunch it this fall during the upcoming heating season.

The program funders want to ensure that the funds are used to help people who really need it, and are asking people to provide documentation of their employment and economic status.  In addition, funders do not want to subsidize the sale of any parts that are available cheaper elsewhere.  Customers should check prices and ensure that Stove Parts 4 Less is offering the best price, which they usually do (make sure to also include shipping and consider the reputation of the seller for aftermarket parts). They will also match any price.  

The Alliance for Green Heat does not normally partner with or endorse specific companies, but these are not normal times.  Our staff, working with our Board, has done their due diligence to move forward with this program and will re-assess it this summer and publicly share that assessment.

We expect this pandemic to severely impact rural wood heating communities for up to a year, and many may turn to wood heating even more than in previous years.  It may also make people less likely to buy new stoves, and need to keep repairing their old ones for longer.  Pellet stove repair and maintenance has always been a challenge, and dealer training and support for older pellet stoves is often poor.  If stove dealers, NFI or CSIA technicians can't access a part elsewhere, they can alert low income clients of this program.  AGH always recommends that stove installations are completed by professionals, but basic repairs and maintenance are often done by stove owners.  If any repair has safety implications, please consult or hire an NFI technician or other professional before trying to do it yourself, even if you procure the part yourself.

The Alliance for Green Heat and Stove Parts for Less are doing everything we can to keep our employees and local communities safe, and we ask that you try and do the same.  Stay home when possible, cover up your nose and mouth with a mask or scarf and do not host large gatherings.  Save lives and give our medical professionals, first responders and people working in essential businesses a break!

Want to do your part too? Support the Stove Repair Relief Fund!

You can donate too!  To help struggling families who heat with wood and pellets, you can make a tax-deductible donation to the Stove Repair Relief Fund via the Alliance for Green Heat.  Any contributions to support this cause will be matched dollar for dollar by Stove Parts 4 Less, up to $10,000!  Please contact us if your company or institution wants to partner in this effort or has ideas on how to improve it.  100% of all donations will go to helping low-income families in this time of need.

Results of the 2018 Wood Stove Design Challenge

 By John Ackerly

The first day of testing, showing Ben Myren Prof.
Phil Hopke and Rebecca Trojanowski.
Photo: Kittner/BNL.

Conducting rigorous and transparent field testing of thirteen stoves in five days is a feat that is unheard of in the wood stove community.  The goals were also unique: fairly test stoves against one another with cordwood; help each team to improve their units and help educate a wider public about novel stove technologies that challenge how we think about the traditional, manually operated EPA certified wood stove.

The 2018 Wood Stove Design Challenge took place from Nov. 9 - 13, featuring 10 stoves in competition and 3 showcase stoves. The stoves were selected and judged by members of the

Large screen monitors provided real time data during
a test run of the Integrated Duty Cycle fueling
protocol under development. Photo: Kittner/BNL

Organizing Committee.  The Alliance for Green Heat (AGH) was the principal architect, organizer and host of the event.  Each of the 10 competition stoves received a $10,000 grant made possible by the DOE's Bioenergy Technology Office.

The Wittus team from New York
and Germany. Photo: Kittner/BNL

In the automation stove category, there were three market ready stoves that successfully went through a rigorous fueling protocol and proved that they could burn relatively cleanly and efficiently even when an operator tried to turn down the heat setting too far and at the wrong times.  An SBI stove and the VcV stove that had been in development for many years showed the value of multi-year R&D and testing, resulting in stoves that may only cost $500 more than a similar,

Staffers from EPA, DOE, USDA and Congressional
offices were able to learn about stove testing and
 engage with teams and judges. Photo: AGH

  

non-automated version.  To us, this is a major breakthrough and stoves like these should show a path to far cleaner cord wood heating in America.  

The SBI team. Photo: Kittner/BNL

The other automated stove was a German-American unit that heated water, made electricity and provided a living room fire experience with a downdraft flame into a lower chamber. While this was not an affordable stove to most Americans, it could have a reasonable pay-back over a number of years, depending on the users cord wood price.  This stove impressed both the Brookhaven National Lab and the Masonry Heater Association testing teams with ultra-low carbon monoxide numbers in the single digits under some conditions, and ultra-high efficiency.  

Ben Myren, one of the top wood stove testing experts
in the US, talking with Larry Brockman of the EPA's
BurnWise program.  Photo: Kittner/BNL

Automated stoves are regarded as one of the best, and only ways to help ensure that manually operated EPA certified stoves perform well not just in the testing lab, but in the homes of consumers.  For automated stoves to start gaining a foothold in the market federal, state and local government recognition and support will be required.

An automated pellet boiler by Maine Energy Systems capped with a Stirling Engine was the most

A Tesla owned by Osprey Foundation head, Bill Clarke,
 being charged by Maine Energy System pellet 
boilers with a Stirling engine. Photo: Kittner/BNL

futuristic of the entries, especially since it was charging a Tesla car in front of the tent. This compact unit could heat a business or multi-family dwelling and provide up to 5 kW of electricity.  

The five testing teams used different equipment
to gather a variety of data. Photo: Kittner/BNL

In the thermoelectric category, the judges concluded that “the most innovative thing is that almost all teams used commercially available thermoelectric modules and showed that it is feasible to generate useful electrical energy without sacrificing the energy efficiency or impeding the heat quality of

This is a Swiss-made electrostatic precipitator for
residential wood stoves that reduced PM by 50 -
90% in our testing.

the wood stove.  Most designs returned the waste heat after electricity generation into useful radiant heat into the room to increase efficiency.  These designs prove that the woodstoves is a good potential commercial opportunity for thermoelectrics to generate useful electrical energy and also increase their commercial appeal for consumers.”

It was clear that stoves or boilers with Thermoelectric Generators (TEG) could produce 100 to 250 watts of power. While this is a relatively modest amount of electricity, larger automated stoves or boilers operating 15 to 20 hours per day may help supplement limited solar power output during winter months. 

Fred Legget of Vulcan Energy 
with a TEG adapted to a Wiseway.
Photo: Kittner/BNL

The George Washington University, Unforgettable Fire and ASAT teams all successfully used off the shelf technology, while TEG expert Fred Leavitt of Vulcan Energy used commercially available TEGs by Hi-Z, and adapted the gravity fed Wiseway pellet stove to get a more steady 130 watt output. 

The Wittus cord wood stove was by far the most market ready and was able to make 250 watts, and it peaked at over 300 when using low moisture pressed wood logs.  Ken Adler, AGH’s Program Director of Thermoelectrics, coordinated the thermoelectric side of the competition and the thermoelectric testing.

University teams have been a key part of the Design
Challenge with SUNY Stony Brook competing this year.

Scoring was done using a numeric rubric based mostly on data produced by the testing equipment but judges did have discretion to award some points based on their subjective assessment in several areas.  Judges assessed automated stoves by these criteria and thermoelectric stoves by these.

And the awards goes to …

The Wittus team won both first prizes.
Photo: Kittner/BNL

·     * First Prize for automated stoves: Wittus.  Great performance on particulate matter, CO, efficiency and safety.

·     Second prize for automated stoves: SBI. A fully automated non-catalytic stove using only 2 sensors that may only cost $500 more than if it were non-automated.

·     * First prize for thermoelectric stoves: Wittus - again;  The highest electric output of up to 250 watts, and an integrated design that can maintain stable electric output.

·     * Second prize for thermoelectric: Vulcan Energy, using the Wiseway pellet stove that produced more than 100 watts and good PM reduction.

Stove testers Tom Butcher, Jake Lindbeg, Rebecca 
Trojanowski Photo: Kittner/BNL

·     Innovation prize: SBI, for simplicity.  The use of only one thermocouple and a sensor on the door, enabled the designers to regulate the stove despite attempts by the testers to turn the heat demand down and make it perform poorly. 

·     * The People’s Choice Award: 509 Fabrications.  Despite being a new, small company without an extensive social media network, the 509 Fabrications pressed log stove was a consumer favorite, garnering more votes than any other stove. 

The MHA testing crew: Ron Pihl, Jim 
Schales, Norbert Senf, Mark Seymour 
and Boris Kukojl. Photo: MHA

Unique and rigorous testing

The 2018 Wood Stove Design Challenge pushed the limits of rigorous wood stove testing both in terms of the amount and variety of technology used, and the fueling protocol, which is far more rigorous than any standard fueling protocol.   More details about this will be forthcoming.  Data produced by this event will show the extent to which automated stoves can navigate fueling protocols where testers try to make stoves go into smolder mode, to see if the automation is robust enough to avoid that.  Data is also more valuable for understanding real world venting conditions, as EPA approved test labs terminate in a warm indoor space, not the colder outdoors.  

Real time emission displays allowed testers teams
and judges to learn more about performance patterns.
This shows exceptional  CO and stack temps on the
Wittus. Photo: Senf

Between Brookhaven National Lab and the Masonry Heater Association, we had up to 5 separate testing teams, allowing many stoves to be tested at once.  We

Jonathan Male, head of DOE's Bioenergy
Technologies Office introducing the awards
Photo: Kittner/BNL

also wanted to have ensure that the Brookhaven and MHA teams could  periodically test the same stove at the same time.  Norbert Senf of the MHA had worked for months to automate the Condar, and the new Condar controls worked very  well, with minimal glitches. They did three runs simultaneously with Brookhaven National Laboratory who used a diluter and Testo 380. Comparisons of the two approaches will be published at some point.

Air quality testing during the Design Challenge

During the Challenge, we monitored indoor and outdoor air quality to get some sense of the impact

Tinted stove pipe donated by Olympia Chimney, 
showing mostly invisible smoke during the event
Photo: Kittner/BNL

from 9 – 13 wood and pellet stoves operating under one roof.  We used a Thermo Scientific pDR-1500 Aerosol Monitor, an Speck indoor PM monitor and a Purple Air PA-II - SD monitor.  Results were mixed, with most indoor readings between 20 - 35 micrograms per cubic meter, but with far higher spikes. The EPA short term PM standard is 35 micrograms per cubic meter.  Outdoor numbers were usually around

Les Otten, right, with Maine Energy Systems
Okofen Pelletmatic E-max CHP unit. Photo: MYSys

10 micrograms per cubic meter. Often the Speck showed  moderate to elevated inside the tent, but on several occasions, prototype stoves released excessive smoke into the tent – and outside of it.  We will issue a more detailed report on this. 

A note of gratitude

Julie Tucker of the USDA Forest Service, with
DOE's Jonathan Male and  AGH's John Ackerly
Photo: Kittner/BNL

 The Wood Stove Design Challenge is a collaborative process involving three major donors - the Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technology Office, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Osprey Foundation and scores of in-kind and volunteer partners.  Olympia Chimney and Masonry Heater Association were key in-kind partners, along contributions by West Penn Power

Dusty Henderson with the 509
Fabrications pressed wood log stove
that won the People's Choice Award. 

Sustainable Energy Fund, HPBA, Schott-Robax, Lignetics, Chimney Safety Institute of America, Society for American Foresters, National Fireplace Institute, Catalytic Hearth Coalition, Biolite local sweeps and installers and others were key in enabling the event to occur.  

Unless otherwise noted, photos taken by Sam Kittner and made possible by funding from Brookhaven National Lab and can be used freely by all, with attribution to "Sam Kittner for Brookhaven National Lab."  Photos attributed to AGH can also be used freely and attributed to "Alliance for Green Heat."

The GW University Team. Photo: Kittner/BNL

The innovative rocket stove entry from
ASAT being tested by Ben Myren
Photo: Norbert Senf

Our tent was right between the Capitol and the Washington Monument.
Photo: Kittner/BNL 

Photo: Kittner/BNL