I'm brand new to the forum so forgive me if I should be in another thread. I have just replaced a wood stove in my basement with a 25 pdvc for my 1300 sq ft house. I realize that a pellet stove is a far cry from a wood stove but my unit seems like it is just not putting out much heat. My wood stove would get my basement hot and then naturally rise up the stairs and through the floor to living area and keep furnace from kicking on. My basement is unfinished and maybe 800 sq ft. and after running it all day in 45 degree weather to test it out, my basement was just room temp. maybe 70-72 degrees and upstairs was 70. This was on a 45 degree day!! I am afraid come winter this stove is not going to cut it. It didn't seem to matter if I ran it on 3-3 or 8-8. I didnt feel hot until I stood about 2 feet in front of the stove. I read on the forums of how people are getting cooked out of the room with this stove and I cant get my basement hot. The flame seems to be burning good and a bag of pellets lasted about 14 hours burning on various heat settings throughout the day. It is in the D mode and bottom buttons are at factory 6-4-1 settings. Anyone know why this stove is not cooking out the basement? I know it is not like a wood stove, but after 8 hours my basement should be toasty hot don't you think? does it burn hotter in C mode? is that an option? Help...feels like I may have just wasted $900 on stove and venting pipe!
Englander 25-pdvc Problem
- Thread starter wyld byll
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Insulating your basement would be the best first step. Imo
Often times basement installs in unfinished basements have dissappointing results.
Often times basement installs in unfinished basements have dissappointing results.
chrisasst
Minister of Fire
agree...how "unfinished" is your basement? I have 2 stoves, one is a pdvc. I like the stove, but cold nights it needs help from my other stove. I don't think you will get the results you want with this stove in an unfinished basement. Any options to moving it upstairs? with that said...lets think...Is this a new stove or used?
stoveguy2esw
Minister of Fire
was it consuming fuel at a rate commensurate with the heat ranbge setting? when you raised to 8-8 did it build a larger fire and use more fuel? how much fuel did you use in that 8 hours?
What woodstove did you have before? How large was it (firebox size/BTU) ??
You may have had a 70,000 BTU woodstove and replaced it with a unit that has half as many BTU. Big stoves heat Big areas. Nothing wrong with the PDVC. But its Englanders smallest unit.
If you want to heat a home from an unfinished basement? Then your gonna need some HP. Lots of people are heating from a basement here. But starting in the 40,000-45,000 BTU range is ideal. But having 60,000-70,000 BTU is better.
You have a 1,300 sq ft house and trying to heat 800 sq ft of unfinished walls. Thats 2,100 sq ft. But with the cold walls its acting like more than that.
You may have had a 70,000 BTU woodstove and replaced it with a unit that has half as many BTU. Big stoves heat Big areas. Nothing wrong with the PDVC. But its Englanders smallest unit.
If you want to heat a home from an unfinished basement? Then your gonna need some HP. Lots of people are heating from a basement here. But starting in the 40,000-45,000 BTU range is ideal. But having 60,000-70,000 BTU is better.
You have a 1,300 sq ft house and trying to heat 800 sq ft of unfinished walls. Thats 2,100 sq ft. But with the cold walls its acting like more than that.
well the basement is just concrete floor and cider block walls with the hard wood floors as the ceiling. I think the heat would have a harder time getting upstairs if it was insulated. As for moving it upstairs there is really not a good place and my wife doesn't want it up there.The stove is brand new.
Mike - I only left it on 8 for a couple hours to see if I could feel a difference in the basement temp. Didn't really pay enough attention to how much bigger the fire was,( guess I need to do that) but did not feel any difference in temp.Most of the day it was on 5-5 and used a bag in 14 hours burning on all the various settings. Today I set it at 2-2 for about 5 hours and I did notice that the flame was smaller but it really felt like the same heat output. After actually looking the basement is more like 600 sq ft. Shouldn't I be able to get that area very hot in a fair amount of time?
Mike - I only left it on 8 for a couple hours to see if I could feel a difference in the basement temp. Didn't really pay enough attention to how much bigger the fire was,( guess I need to do that) but did not feel any difference in temp.Most of the day it was on 5-5 and used a bag in 14 hours burning on all the various settings. Today I set it at 2-2 for about 5 hours and I did notice that the flame was smaller but it really felt like the same heat output. After actually looking the basement is more like 600 sq ft. Shouldn't I be able to get that area very hot in a fair amount of time?
By insulated. I think Smoke meant the Walls and the Floor. Cold Concrete sucks heat. A lot of heat.
Basement installs are iffy at best. As mentioned above, the concrete sucks the heat out and it takes a LONG time to warm it enough that the excess will heat other areas. Even though it would seem that the heat would just naturally go upstairs, that doesn't happen very often.
Also mentioned above, the PDVC is the smallest unit Englander makes.....you replaced a woodstove that probably cranked out a LOT of radiant heat, but pellet stoves work differently.
Bottom line, either move the stove upstairs, insulate the basement walls & floor, or get a stove that puts out much more in the way of BTU's....or all of the above.
BTW, what brand of pellets are you burning, and please describe your exhaust set-up.
Also mentioned above, the PDVC is the smallest unit Englander makes.....you replaced a woodstove that probably cranked out a LOT of radiant heat, but pellet stoves work differently.
Bottom line, either move the stove upstairs, insulate the basement walls & floor, or get a stove that puts out much more in the way of BTU's....or all of the above.
BTW, what brand of pellets are you burning, and please describe your exhaust set-up.
Hello
I have the big brother to your 22,000 BTU 25-PDVC it is the 45,000 BTU 25-PDV. Dexter has a good point, a larger stove would make a big difference. My stove is for sale or trade if you live nearby, mabe we can make a deal?
Also the C program will give you more heat but burn more wood pellets. Raising the LFF button will also give more heat but it raises the flame height so you do not want to go too high and overfire the stove.
I have the big brother to your 22,000 BTU 25-PDVC it is the 45,000 BTU 25-PDV. Dexter has a good point, a larger stove would make a big difference. My stove is for sale or trade if you live nearby, mabe we can make a deal?
Also the C program will give you more heat but burn more wood pellets. Raising the LFF button will also give more heat but it raises the flame height so you do not want to go too high and overfire the stove.
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stoveguy2esw
Minister of Fire
was looking to see if stove was responding to heat range commands, sounds like it is.
biggest thing to look at with an uninsulated basement. the walls and floor will absorb heat until they start to warm up to the same temps as the air inside the room. dense materials like concrete or cinder block require more thermal energy to do so than an insluated wall does due to a lesser density. also the ground outside if a submerged basement will be literally continually absorbing this heat. the reason a woodstove heats up this uninsulated space better and faster is because it "radiates" much more heat, where a pellet stove "convects" heat radient heat warms solids (kinda like a microwave) the thermal radiation penetrates the solids and brings them up to temp faster so they start "refusing heat" faster thus allowing the air to warm up more rapidly. a convection heater warms the air and the heat in the air travels out into the room dissipating as it goes this heat is absorbed into the solids but the transportation of it by air rather than radiation means it takes longer for the solids to warm up so that heat refusal starts if at all depending on the heat loss through the uninsulated solids, see if the walls do not reach the temps you are trying to get the room to , the room aint gonna get there either.
I did have a big old wood stove.The placement is down the stairs and to the right the same as the wood stove. The blower is pointing right at the stairway where all the heat from my wood stove came up. I know it should take longer but shouldn't the heat still be coming up the stairway? Maybe it is and I am just used to a blast of hot air when walking down stairs or right by the doorway??
stoveguy2esw
Minister of Fire
its the radient heat you are used to , think about this way. your body radiates heat at 98.6 right, you put on a jacket and quickly the inside of the jacket reaches that temperature, now if you hang the jacket up and blow 98.6 degree air at it the result will be different first because the heat dissipates before it reaches the jacket and secondly there is nothing to "hold the heat inside"
insulating the basement (even rudimentally) will show a solid gain quickly. just like the insulated material in the jacket will if its closed up around the heat source( you in the case of the jacket) now an uninsulated windbreaker for instance wouldnt keep you as warm in the cold for teh same reason, the heat bleeds through and is lost
tried o'malley pellets and cheat river today(highly recommended here in central PA.) Exhaust is appliance adapter into a T with clean out then a 3 foot section straight up into an elbow and in to my existing 6 inch stainless steel flue that goes up about 30 - 35 feet
What would be the cheapest way to insulate cinder block walls keeping in mind the basements here are damp
I'm in PA so thats out. I thought the LFF and LBA only affected the stove in settings 1 and 2?
I appreciate all the input. So I guess the general consensus is that I listened to the wrong advise and wasted my money? Do you think it is worth trying C mode?
I'd give it a shot. Dunno if its recommended, but I like breaking rules.
Glue up some xps like this http://www.homedepot.com/Building-M...gId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=xps&storeId=10051 that should give you around R-5.
Have you tried blowing a fan down the steps? Try and persuade the air upstairs. Take a box fan and blow it down the steps. Cold air finds hot air easier than hot finds cold. The cold air.blowing down, will be replaced with warm air.blowing up...
But keep in mind, that if you run on 5-5, you are only utilizing half of the stoves already Low BTU. So running 7-9 or 8-9 and using a fan may help some. Dont try and blow the hot air up.. Blow cold air down...
What woodstove did you have? A newer EPA unit or an Old Smoke Dragon? How big was the firebox??
But keep in mind, that if you run on 5-5, you are only utilizing half of the stoves already Low BTU. So running 7-9 or 8-9 and using a fan may help some. Dont try and blow the hot air up.. Blow cold air down...
What woodstove did you have? A newer EPA unit or an Old Smoke Dragon? How big was the firebox??
Check the direction of the heat blowing from the stove & try to get it to shoot more upwards toward the cellar door opening.
Oh sure, C mode would burn hotter but it would definitely use even more fuel and you would probably lose most of that extra heat through the block walls anyway so the gain would likely be minimal. Beside that , C mode isn`t the factory recommended setting for this stove.
Your only choice really is to insulate the cellar walls (at the least) or move the stove upstairs.
Hello wyld
I believe it depends on how old your control board is. If you call the toll free England Stove Works Tech support and tell then the manufacture date of your stove from inside the hopper lid, they will tell you what heat settings are effected.
Yes PA is about a 7 hour drive. That is far. So good luck on your stove. I have mine in the basement and cut 2 floor registers using 6" ductwork touching the stove, I can bring plenty of heat upstairs and then use the stairwell for the return air. That works great!
See pics of how I did this here
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...ting-the-heat-up-one-floor.65315/#post-817789
I think if I have to run it at 7 or 8 I would burn way too many pellets! may have to try to convince my wife that I have to move it upstairs. Only place I could put it is in the room where we spend the most time, and is the coldest room. My wife worries it would cook us out. Do you think it would if I ran it on 1 or 2 with a ceiling fan on?
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