Pellet stoves are a form of home heating appliances and can often be considered along with other forms of fireplace such as gas, electric and other wood burning forms of stove when choosing a heating appliance for a home.
The venting requirements for fireplaces and stoves can be an important aspect when choosing which one to install in a home as certain types will require more onerous venting requirements than others.
For example, electric fireplaces don’t require any form of venting, while ventless models of gas fireplace also don’t need to be connected to a chimney flue.
Pellet stoves cannot come in ventless versions. Pellet stoves burn solid fuel in the form of pellets and require a suitable chimney flue to be installed alongside the stove to remove waste air from a home.
Our own pellet stove was connected up to a flue so that it could be installed in our home and meet regulations. Installing a pellet stove without this flue wouldn’t have been possible.
We’ve explained in more detail below using our own pellet stove as an example why pellet stoves can’t be ventless and how a pellet stove needs to be connected up to a flue.
Are Pellet Stove Ventless?
Pellet stoves aren’t ventless and must be connected up to a chimney flue when installed in a home.
Connection to the outside of a home through a flue is required for all pellet stoves because they burn solid fuel in the form of pellets, which can be made from a range of materials but most commonly wood by-products.
When these pellets burn and heat is produced, gases and particulates are also released, which can be harmful to health and so must be appropriately removed from a home.
Even though pellet stoves are considered to be the most efficient form of home heating appliance and are very clean burning, waste gases and particulates are still produced in enough quantities to warrant the requirement for a flue to remove these from a home.
As an example, our own pellet stove burns wood pellets inside the combustion chamber, and although it has a very high efficiency rating of 87% it still needed to be installed with a suitable flue to remove the waste air from the fire in the combustion chamber from our home.
Waste air generated from the fire inside our pellet stove leaves the stove through the flue socket located on the back.
It’s here where air leaves our pellet stove. As the stove is a sealed system the waste air can only leave via this flue socket.
This flue socket was connected up to a new chimney flue that was installed horizontally through the adjacent external wall, and then up the side of the house to above the eaves.
Like our own pellet stove, all pellet stoves must be installed with a suitable form of chimney flue and pellet stoves cannot come in ventless versions.
You can read our article explaining the venting requirements for pellet stoves here.
If you’re looking for a ventless form of fireplace or stove then your options are:
- Electric fireplaces
- Ventless gas fireplaces
Apart from the above, the large majority of all other forms of fireplace or stove will require external venting arrangements.
For more information on these ventless forms of heating appliances you can see our range of electric fireplace articles here and check out our article explaining the different types of gas fireplaces including ventless gas fireplaces.