Hi Im still experimenting with my Harman p61 manual light stove.
Im concerned about the amount of pellets its using. Its been around 30 here and so Ive set the stove on stove mode, blower on low to medium. Feed rate at 3, and the temp setting low on apx. 2. Im burning Armstrong premium pellets, softwood. The temp in the living room is around 70 to 73. Ive kept track, and Im burning aproximently a bag in an 18 hour period. I see that most everyone claims to get 24 hrs, or so out of a bag unless its bitter cold and then maybe burn a bit more. Does this seem like a lot of fuel to go through in such a short time? Its a brand new stove and Ive cleaned the pot daily. Have outside air, seeing as its a mobile home fairly weather tight, everything sealed well.I could really use some advice here, as most all of you are experienced users, and have so far been a great help to me. I thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving
Happy T-day! Burning 1 bag/day heating 5 year old 2000 SF house. Room Temp mode, 72*. Not using oil except for hot water.
Experimenting with NEWP red and green lettering and some American Wood Fibers I got at Lowes leftover from last year. Doesn’t seem to make much difference… about a bag a day.
Freebird, it doesn’t sound like you’re burning an extreme amount of pellets to me. I’ve seen a lot of threads on this topic, and while a bag a day seems to be the average this time of year, your bag per 18 hours is in the range of normal. Some things I have done to keep my usage down include:
~ Turning the stove off on nights where the temps outside are in the 37-45 range.
~ Turning the stove down low in “stove temp” mode on the 25-37 nights. I’ve found that setting the feedrate to 1 (or 2), with the distribution blower on high, and the temp gage on high uses pellets at a very low rate but the blowers still crank out quite a lot of heat. I’m sure i’m using a bit more electricity with these settings, but it seems to me that I am making the best use of the BTUs available in the pellets (my perception, anyways).
I know most Harman folks here advocate using the room temp setting, but I like the control that that “stove temp” affords you, and i’m finding that I definitely get some extra control by tinkering with the feed rates.
Obviously, a lot depends on your set-up...but i’m sure with a little tinkering with the settings and perhaps some adjustments to home teperatures throughout the day/week you will be able to cut your usage a bit.
In terms of getting more BTUs from different pellets, I have never really noticed a big heat difference from one brand to the next. If you read the boards often you’ll seem some folks have some across some very poor burning pellets before, but those Armstrong ones you have should be very good. In fact, most people on the boards seem to prefer the softwood pellets since they typically result in fewer clinkers and in some cases a bit less ash.
My pleasure. I have the Harman P61A (auto ignite)
I also have a St Croix Hastings, which is a totally “different animal”. It is a beautiful stove, but for ease of use, ease of maintence, heat output (BTU range) and even noise level I like the Harman better.
abj1969,
What type stove do you have? How long do you get out of a bag?
i have a wood stove. thats why i said i don’t know much about pellet stoves but from what i read around here there is harder and softer pellets and figured that maybe tht could be the difference.
In all reality softwood pine pellets burn hotter than hardwood pellets. Up to 1000 btu/lb hotter if you consider average btu content at 8200 btu/lb and look at Heartland pellets at 9200 btu/lb.
i set my harman accentra at 68 on room temp mode and usually get 2 48 hrs out of it ... actually i filled it sunday night and it just ran ou lastnight but i did turn it off for 8 hrs so it was about 2.5 days
Freebird, there is no set rule for pellet consumption. Your consumption sounds about the same as ours was at 30 degrees. But in someone else’s smaller or better insulated house, maybe it would have to get down to 20-25 to reach the same level. There are tons of variables, same as for any fuel. Some are in your control, like room temp, house insulation, window covering or insulation, etc. And some are not, like house size (unless you intentionally downsized), weather (especially windy weather), climate zone, etc.
For your stove, the quickest way you can get back to 1 bag/day at 30 outside may be to drop the room temp down 3 degrees.
My stove P-68 (yer stove’s bigger brother) you can use quite a bit more pellets depending on the room temp setting....the BeGreen was right...if I have my stove set to 75 it will use more pellets than when it’s 72.
Also the biggest thing is the room temp sensor and where it’s placed.
My stove tends to use about 45 pounds every 24 hours....but my house is also passive solar so when it’s sunny the stove will turn off or go into low burn mode.
Yesterday/Last night I went through about 82 pounds as it was a low of about 11 deg and a high of 30 and cloudy....(DOH)
My thanks to one and all for thier words of wisdom. Guess Im being paranoid. Im going to play around with it in room temp mode for a while and see how that goes.
Pyro- I’m confused- I thought hard pellets would be the same as wood, being that a hardwood burns hotter than a softwood. Why the difference for pellets. Also, I talked to the stove place in Casper the other day- even though my pellets say ‘premium’, he said that that brand was junk. He gave me five names to buy. Please explain.
Pyro- I’m confused- I thought hard pellets would be the same as wood, being that a hardwood burns hotter than a softwood. Why the difference for pellets. Also, I talked to the stove place in Casper the other day- even though my pellets say ‘premium’, he said that that brand was junk. He gave me five names to buy. Please explain.
It’s BTU’S per pound thats important.
The cord of hardwood weighs almost twice as much as a cord of softwood so roughly twice the BTU’s per cord with the hardwood over softwood (depending on species).
Now 40lbs of hardwood and 40lbs of softwood(like a bag of pellets) are nearly identical in the BTU rating. With some of the softwoods higher that the hardwoods.
As far as premium brands Yes some are junk and everyone has their own opinions on the best type in their area......
I use about 1 bag in a 24 hour period, I start the stove around 4 PM this insert runs for 16 to 17 hour still have a 1/3 of a bag, this is running the insert on 2 most of the time. The higher the feed rate, the more pellets you will use…
P68 here and burning on Stove Temp 2/ feed rate 7 and fan speed high ..getting around 24hrs per bag on a 30 degree day..its currently 19 outside and im getting around 20-22hrs on this corn/pellet mix but house is cozy 67 at 2200sq ft..if i like the way this stuff burns i’ll prob get a few ton but not sure if warranty allows it..gotta check...although Harman DOES state P68 as a BIOMASS stove........
i have switched from room to stove temp harman accentra set to 1.5, feedon almmost 2, fan about 3/4 room is comfy at 68 the rest of the area about 62
put new bag in last night
am only heating 600 sq ft
however is on garage side and stone floor so it very hard to heat
I’m running Hardwood pellets right now for past week or so.I see a huge difference in Ash content.They are Lignetics from Canadian Tire Corp and have about Double the ash content as the EnergeX(#1 in my Books)..But the heat output is a bit higher on the Hardwood by about 50 Degree’s, so i’d buy them again just for that reason..
