This study investigates how electrically heated single-family houses can be converted to wood pellets- and solar heating using pellet stoves and solar heating systems. Four different system concepts are presented and system simulations in TRNSYS evaluate the thermal performance and the electrical savings possible for two different electrically heated single-family houses. Simulations show that the electricity savings using a wood pellet stove are greatly affected by the level of comfort, the house plan, the system choice and if the internal doors are open or closed. Installing a stove with a water-jacket connected to a radiator system and a hot water store has the advantage that heat can be transferred to domestic hot water and be distributed to other rooms. Such systems leads to that more electricity can be replaced, especially in houses having a traditional plan. Though it is unnecessary to have too many radiators connected to a stove with a low fraction of energy heating the water jacket. Today's most common control strategy for stoves (the on/off-control) results in unnecessarily high emissions. A more advanced control varying the heating rate from maximum to minimum to keep a constant room temperature reduces the number of starts and stops and thereby the emissions. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.