Pellet Stove

NormJr

So I recently purchased a pellet stove to heat my home because oil prices are insane. My question is this: Would it be smart to drain the heating system and use only the pellet stove? This way we stay away from frozen pipes due to the furnace not running.

Jamie Hall

The assumption, of course, is that you will always be there to feed the beast. Will you? Guaranteed?

And what happens to the rest of the plumbing, other than the heating system?

The heating system pipes are not much more likely to freeze than your domestic water pipes.

You could drain it down -- thoroughly, boiler and all, all low points drained. That would keep it from freezing. It would also make it nearly impossible to restart if you needed it and it was cold (parenthetically, unlike steam -- that, with care, can be restarted regardless of temperature). You could also refill with a glycol mis, which would protect down to who knows what -- -30 is normal, and allow you to restart to save your domestic pipes...

hot_rod

or turn the gas off and keep the circulator running. I have seen baseboard on outside walls freeze when circulation stopped. Are pipes running through crawl spaces or areas exposed to freezing?

Antifreeze is another option

EdTheHeaterMan

If this were 1722 there would be no indoor plumbing, In 1822 probably the same unless you were so wealthy that the price of fuel would not matter. In 1922 there was more and more homes getting indoor plumbing. Now in 2022, we are worried about this modern convenience, that everyone takes for granted, might freeze if it gets too cold.

Progress!

Bridgerman

You could try a ThermGuard. It is programmable and you can set it to circulate the water in your heating pipes periodically. I live in Montana and have mine set to circulate for 3 minutes every 3 hours. Cheaper and safer than antifreeze. ThermGuard installs with just two wires. You would need one for each zone that you think would be affected.