I was wondering how long a 40lb bag of pellets will typically last in the USStove 5500? I tried it yesterday with the heat range at 2 and the bag only lasted about 14 hrs. My feed rate is set at 1.25 and 2.50.
US Stove 5500 Burn Rate
- Thread starter hmanderson
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SmokeyTheBear
Minister of Fire
You need to understand that pellet stoves do not feed by weight.
The auger is on for a fixed time and can only move a fixed volume of pellets in that time, the volume moved depends upon the pellets, the weight moved depends upon pellet density.
Take a bag of small glass balls and a bag of small lead balls remove a cup of each using the same cup and weigh the resulting piles.
The auger is on for a fixed time and can only move a fixed volume of pellets in that time, the volume moved depends upon the pellets, the weight moved depends upon pellet density.
Take a bag of small glass balls and a bag of small lead balls remove a cup of each using the same cup and weigh the resulting piles.
IHATEPROPANE
Minister of Fire
The bag will last longer if the pellets are longer and or less dense. This correlates to less heat output as well. It is my opinion this only matters in two cases.....if you are running on low and do not have on/off thermostat capabilities and it is too hot you want a less dense longer pellet. Also if you are running on high and it's too cold you would want a smaller, denser pellet. Hoping not to ovetfire your stove.
SmokeyTheBear
Minister of Fire
Not unless the stove is in on /off mod on a t-stat.
Higher quality pellets are usually dense, more consistent in length, and thus carry both more btus and weight in the same volume as the lower quality ones.
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
The manual says 2.0 to 6.0 lbs/hr, so if HR1 is 2.0 and HR5 is 6.0, then HR2 should be 3.0. Which comes out to technically 13.3 hours/bag. Sounds like you're getting stock performance even though you seriously turned down your feed rate.
That makes sense what the others were saying about pellet size and density and all. I don't know much about our pellets except they are from a local pellet factory called Kirtland. But with these pellets the stock HR1 is pretty spot on at 20 hours/bag.
For us, HR1 overheats the house, and the thermostat option for the 5500 only allows toggling between HR1 and HR5, so I built the on-off thermostat for it which works quite well. With temps in the 30s and 40s, we went through 3 bags in 2 weeks and have a comfortable temperature in the house during these times when it is not hardcore winter. Much improvement.
That makes sense what the others were saying about pellet size and density and all. I don't know much about our pellets except they are from a local pellet factory called Kirtland. But with these pellets the stock HR1 is pretty spot on at 20 hours/bag.
For us, HR1 overheats the house, and the thermostat option for the 5500 only allows toggling between HR1 and HR5, so I built the on-off thermostat for it which works quite well. With temps in the 30s and 40s, we went through 3 bags in 2 weeks and have a comfortable temperature in the house during these times when it is not hardcore winter. Much improvement.
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