Steady pellet heat for Saint John Region winters, without splitting a cord.

Typical pellet installs run $6,000 to $10,000 CAD. A pellet insert going into an existing masonry firebox—common in older homes closer to the Kennebecasis and around the Millidgeville peninsula—tends toward the lower end since the chimney chase is already there. A freestanding pellet stove in a home without existing venting, needing a new through-wall vent kit, runs toward the top of that range. Either way your dealer works through the municipal building department for the permit and typically arranges the WETT inspection your insurer will ask for.

Yes. The municipal building department handles the permit, and the work has to meet CSA B365 code. Most insurers in New Brunswick also want a WETT inspection on file before they'll add a solid-fuel appliance to your policy, pellet included, since pellet stoves are still classified as solid-fuel-burning equipment even though they run cleaner than cordwood. A dealer who handles projects regularly in the Saint John Region will have this paperwork routine down.

Groupe Savoie and Shaw Resources are the two regional producers most local dealers carry, milling pellets from New Brunswick softwood by-product. Expect to pay roughly $400 to $575 a ton depending on the season and whether you buy early or wait until cold weather drives up demand. A typical Millidgeville home might burn two to three tons over a full heating season running October through April, so buying in fall before prices climb is the usual local strategy.

With winter lows averaging -13.3°C and a heating season that stretches nearly seven months, most main living areas here do better with a mid-size unit rated for 1,200 to 2,000 square feet rather than a small supplemental model, especially in older Millidgeville homes with less insulation than the newer streets along the peninsula. A dealer will size it against your actual square footage, ceiling height, and insulation rather than square footage alone, since climate zone 6A homes lose heat faster than milder zones.

Wood still has a strong following here—a household cutting permit through New Brunswick Natural Resources district offices runs about $6.10 per cubic metre, or roughly $85 for a full 14-cubic-metre allotment, and species like sugar maple and yellow birch burn hot and long. But wood means splitting, stacking, and feeding a firebox by hand. Pellet stoves trade that labour for a hopper you fill every day or two and a thermostat-like burn rate, at a fuel cost of $400 to $575 a ton—competitive with wood once you account for the time firewood takes. The tradeoff is that pellet stoves need electricity to run the auger and blower, so wood remains the better backup for extended power outages.

Liberty Utilities (Gas NB) does serve parts of the Saint John Region, so gas is a real option for some Millidgeville addresses. Gas fireplaces are simpler day-to-day—no fuel deliveries, no hopper to fill—but they run on a metered utility bill rather than a fuel you buy in bulk each fall. Pellet appliances appeal to homeowners who want a renewable, New Brunswick-milled fuel and don't mind an occasional hopper refill; gas appeals to those who want hands-off operation and already have a gas line nearby. Check your street's gas coverage before deciding, since it isn't universal across Millidgeville.

Not without backup power. Pellet stoves rely on an electric auger to feed fuel and a blower to circulate heat, so a standard outage from an ice storm or nor'easter—not uncommon along the Bay of Fundy approach to the Saint John Region—will shut it down unless you have a battery backup or small generator running. Homes that want a heat source that survives an extended outage often keep a wood stove or insert as backup alongside a pellet unit for daily convenience, which is a common two-appliance setup in this area.

Plan on emptying the ash pan every few days during regular use and doing a deeper clean of the burn pot, glass, and venting monthly through the heating season. A full professional service—checking the auger motor, blower, and exhaust venting—is worth scheduling annually, ideally in late summer before the first cold nights hit, similar timing to what wood-burning households here already follow ahead of a New Brunswick winter. Skipping the annual service is the most common reason pellet stoves start smoking or jamming mid-winter.

At $400 to $575 a ton and roughly two to three tons burned over a full season, most Millidgeville homes spend somewhere in the range of $900 to $1,700 a year on pellets for primary or heavy supplemental heat. Straight electric resistance heat through NB Power, billed at about 14.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, often costs more for the same heat output once you're deep into a stretch of -13°C nights, which is part of why pellet stoves remain popular here as a way to offset the electric bill through the coldest months.

Because a fireplace is an iceberg—there's more behind the wall than in front of it. A low quote often covers only the unit; the full scope includes vent pipe, gas line or electrical, framing, and the tile or stone that has to come off and go back on. Make every bidder price the whole job. If a dealer can't speak to the full scope with confidence, that's your signal to keep looking.

Ask three questions: Is it ugly? Is it drafty? Does it actually work? Most old fireplaces fail at least two. Beyond looks, an old unit leaks air around the damper year-round and—if it's gas with a standing pilot—quietly burns a couple hundred dollars a year. A modern replacement seals the wall, heats the room, and changes how the whole space gets used.

A clean pellet stove is a happy pellet stove. Plan on cleaning the burn pot about once a week when you're burning regularly—ash and clinkers gum up the air holes just like a pellet barbecue. Most pellet stove problems trace back to skipped cleaning that nobody explained up front. Some designs make it easy with a trapdoor burn pot: pull a lever and the gunk drops into the ash pan.

An insert does two things: it seals the chimney completely, so you stop losing air you already paid to heat, and it radiates warmth into the room through the firebox and glass. Most add a heat-exchange fan that pulls cool room air underneath, wraps it around the hot firebox, and pushes it back out warm. Your home is more efficient before you've even lit the first fire.