Here's a fun stat: it takes about three tons of pellets to heat a 3,600 square foot home and provide the residents with hot water for the winter. With pellets going for $325 a ton, that puts the home heating bills at around $1,000, or far less than if the homeowner used an oil-based system. That's from Ger Cross, CEO of the somewhat eponymous Gerkros, an Irish company that builds pellet stoves for home heating. Gerkros is bringing its Woodpecker stoves, which it has sold in Europe for 30 years, to the U.S. Fans of pellet stoves, such as CNET reporter Martin Lamonica, swear by them. Like most other pellet stove makers, the company will target the Northeast where oil burners, and cold winters are more common. Some models will be standard, while fancier versions will have scrapers that automatically clean off any baked-on crud. Cross says his stoves differ from competitors by overall performance and efficiency. In recent tests conducted in the U.K. Gerkros stoves achieved a heat-to-water heat transfer rate of around 86.7 percent. The stoves also burn clean. It's not like heating your home with an old wood stove or a dung fire. Cross also adds that you don't have to worry about running out of pellets. A lot of stores like Sam's Club carry them. Canada also produces a lot of pellets. Now, they ship a large percentage of the output to Europe.