Is a pellet stove cheaper to run than a wood stove?

It depends on what you pay for fuel. Pellets have a published price per ton and cordwood does not, so pellets are more predictable but not automatically cheaper. If you cut your own wood, a wood stove is far cheaper. If you buy both delivered, they land close enough that convenience usually decides it.

Does a pellet stove work in a power outage?

No, not without a backup. Pellet stoves need electricity to run the auger that feeds pellets and the fan that moves air, so they stop when the power does. A battery backup or generator solves it. A wood stove needs no power at all, which is the strongest argument for one in an area with unreliable supply.

Which needs more work?

A wood stove, by a wide margin. It needs loading every few hours while burning, daily ash removal, and hauling and stacking several tons of wood a year. A pellet stove takes a bag a day and a weekly clean, and it can run on a thermostat unattended.

Which puts out more heat?

Wood stoves generally reach higher peak output, and radiate heat from the whole body of the stove, which many people find more comfortable. Pellet stoves deliver a steadier, more controllable output at a lower peak, distributed by a fan.

Which is cheaper to install?

Pellet stoves are usually cheaper to install, because they vent through a small horizontal pipe rather than requiring a full insulated chimney. In a house with no existing chimney that difference can be substantial.

Pellet Stove vs Wood Stove

Both burn wood. Almost everything else about living with them is different, and the fuel cost, which is what people compare first, is usually the least important factor.

Fuel cost

Pellets are sold by the ton at a published price. Cordwood is quoted by phone per delivery. That difference in transparency makes pellets easier to budget for but does not make them cheaper.

Run both through the heating cost comparison with your own local prices. Broadly:

If you cut your own wood, a wood stove wins by an enormous margin. Nothing competes with free fuel and your own labour.
If you buy both delivered, they land close enough together that fuel cost rarely decides it. Regional variation swamps the difference.
If you live far from timber, pellets often win, because pellets ship efficiently as a dense dry product and cordwood does not.

One real difference: pellet prices are more volatile within a season. They rise through the winter and fall in summer, so buying in spring matters more for pellets than for wood. See the pellet price index for the spread we have observed between suppliers.

Daily effort

This is where the two diverge sharply.

A wood stove needs loading every three to six hours while it is burning. Ash comes out every day or two. Before the season you handle, split, stack and then carry several tons of wood, and after it you sweep the chimney. It does not run while you are at work, and it does not run overnight without banking.

A pellet stove takes a 40 lb bag roughly every day of continuous burning, which you tip into a hopper. The burn pot needs scraping weekly and the heat exchanger and ash pan cleaning at similar intervals. It runs on a thermostat, so it heats the house while you are out.

If the honest answer is that nobody will be home to load a stove at 2pm, that settles the question regardless of the fuel maths.

Power

A pellet stove is an appliance with a motor. The auger that feeds pellets and the blower that distributes heat both need electricity, so the stove stops in an outage. Some models have battery backup, and a small UPS or generator covers it, but it needs planning.

A wood stove needs nothing. It works in a blizzard with the grid down, which is frequently the moment you most want heat. In rural areas with unreliable supply, this single fact outweighs everything else for many households.

Heat quality

Wood stoves radiate. The cast iron or steel body heats up and gives off heat in all directions, including long after the fire has died back. Peak output is higher, and the warmth is often described as more penetrating.

Pellet stoves convect. A fan pushes heated air out, so the heat is more directional and the stove body stays cooler. Output is steadier and far more controllable, since you can set a temperature and let it modulate.

Neither is better in the abstract. A wood stove suits an open plan space it can radiate into. A pellet stove suits a house where you want a set temperature held without thinking about it.

Storage

Wood. Four cords is 512 cubic feet, and it needs to be outdoors, off the ground, covered on top and open at the sides for a year before you burn it. That is a significant piece of yard.

Pellets. Three tons is three pallets, roughly 190 cubic feet, and it has to stay dry. Pellets swell and disintegrate if they take on moisture, and then jam the auger, so a damp garage floor is not a storage plan. A dry garage or shed works.

Pellets take less space, but the space has to be better.

Install and maintenance costs

Pellet stoves usually cost less to install, because they vent horizontally through a small pipe rather than needing a full insulated chimney. In a house without an existing chimney, that gap is large.

Over time it reverses somewhat. A pellet stove has moving parts: augers, fans, igniters and control boards all eventually fail, and a control board is not a cheap repair. A wood stove has a firebox, a door and a gasket, and can run for decades with almost nothing spent on it beyond the annual sweep.

Choosing

Choose a wood stove if you have access to cheap or free wood, you want heat that works when the power does not, you have somewhere to store and season several cords, and the daily loading is something you are happy to do.

Choose a pellet stove if you want to set a temperature and forget it, you are out of the house during the day, you have limited dry storage rather than limited space, and you would rather buy fuel by the pallet than handle it by the armful.

If you are weighing either against your current heating, put your own prices into the heating cost comparison first. The fuel saving sets the payback period on the install, and that is usually the number that decides whether switching makes sense at all.