Pellet consumption?
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alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
i won't post a ph
I won't post a photo of the coal furnace I built in the late 70's, you guys would wonder why this guy isn't committed ! Fortunately it was short lived as was my boiler conversion to coal, as Carter went out of office and took his phony oil crisis with him.
20lbs/day for a primary heat source? That's about 7000btu/hr..... What are you heating with only 7000 btu/hr? A bedroom?
20lbs/day for a primary heat source? That's about 7000btu/hr..... What are you heating with only 7000 btu/hr? A bedroom?
TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
We heat our main floor which is about 1800 sqft in size. During the day when we aren’t home, we set the thermostat to 65, it’s set to 68 when we are home. We keep our oil furnace thermostat set to 60 so if the pellet stove fails while were out, the oil furnace will take over.
That monster has been burning strictly pine and cedar for the past 12 years or so. Only heat in my building and need to keep the machines comfy
NYBurner
Burning Hunk
wow....my house must be a pig. Approx 25F overnight - mid 30's in the day we burn 2 bags easy. When it starts going single digits we will go through 3 a day easily if not more.
TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
Your house must either be huge or poorly insulated. I average about 1 bag a day over the course of the entire winter. It has to drop below zero for my stove to consume 2 bags per day.
Luvmesomesamples
Burning Hunk
I'm averaging just under hours per day at 120k btu for 3700 Sqft plus DHW with my pellet boiler. Guessing about 2 bags and will cap out between 5-6 bags per day in Jan.
Luvmesomesamples
Burning Hunk
TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
Even if heating oil prices were to double from their current rates, it would still be cheaper than pellets to heat my house at 5 bags per day.
Luvmesomesamples
Burning Hunk
Small house? My break even in about $1.86 and I can fill up at $2.05. Still saving money and supporting a local business trying to get the mill up and going. No brainier.
NYBurner
Burning Hunk
So essentially you are all able to heat youre entire houses with plug in electric heater on high??
As of now I go thru 1.5 bags.. Seems like a lot and we didn't even get into the middle of winter... Or could be due to my probe low to the ground which is thinking it's colder than it actually is.
TimfromMA
Minister of Fire
1. Primary heat source is oil but we keep the thermostat turned down so it never actually turns on.
2. Pellet stove thermostat set to 69 when we're home, 65 when we're away.
2. Pellet stove thermostat set to 69 when we're home, 65 when we're away.
Marina1327
Member
I am guesstimating because I top mine off all the time but I would say I am going through maybe almost a bag a day. Temps in the high twenties, low thirties at night. Maybe 45-55 during the day. I have a 879 square foot house, two floors. Everyone is probably going to break out in a sweat but I like the house 75 or over...except my bedroom that I like cold. I have no insulation at all....someday maybe I will. Right now I have it set between 19 and 20 degrees celsius because I haven't figured out how to change it to farenheit...lol....which I think is about 66 or 67 however it keeps the living room over 75 and the rest of the house is probably 71 or 72. I have the blower set on 1 but can go up to 5...I had it up to 3 once so far.
karen_in_nh_2014
Member
I've been using half a bag to 2 bags a day for the past month and a half or so -- on the high end the last week or so when overnight temps have been in the low 20s. That's with a pellet insert in the living room fireplace -- the (oil) thermostat is actually across the hall in the dining room, and it has gotten up to 81 (yep!!), which means the living room was mid-80s. (My cats were very happy. ) I have a lot of pellets stored in my garage (bought in spring '14) so I have been generous with them and have left the insert on manual, which means the fire doesn't ever go out (except when I shut down the insert for cleaning).
I haven't used ANY oil yet this season, although I have two 275-gallon tanks in the basement and they are both full (bought when oil was $2.39/gallon in my neck of the woods -- which SEEMED like a great price, but today's price is $1.88!). I usually use oil only when temps get into the teens or below, and then usually only at night, so I likely won't be firing up the oil furnace for another few weeks.
The insert heats most of the downstairs rooms fine, and a LOT of heat gets upstairs too -- the stairs are right outside the 5' opening from the living room (typical Colonial-style house), which works out well. I actually like a cold bedroom for sleeping (as in, about 55 degrees), and sometimes the bedrooms are TOO warm just from the heat rising from downstairs. Nice problem to have.
) I have a lot of pellets stored in my garage (bought in spring '14) so I have been generous with them and have left the insert on manual, which means the fire doesn't ever go out (except when I shut down the insert for cleaning).I haven't used ANY oil yet this season, although I have two 275-gallon tanks in the basement and they are both full (bought when oil was $2.39/gallon in my neck of the woods -- which SEEMED like a great price, but today's price is $1.88!). I usually use oil only when temps get into the teens or below, and then usually only at night, so I likely won't be firing up the oil furnace for another few weeks.
The insert heats most of the downstairs rooms fine, and a LOT of heat gets upstairs too -- the stairs are right outside the 5' opening from the living room (typical Colonial-style house), which works out well. I actually like a cold bedroom for sleeping (as in, about 55 degrees), and sometimes the bedrooms are TOO warm just from the heat rising from downstairs. Nice problem to have.
I didnt pick up a thermometer yet and outside temps held 40 overnite. I ran the stove on manual 5 - 9 since 4pm yesterday. 76 in the stove room. For the hell of it i just slid a meat thermometer in one of the exchange tubes while the blower is on and temp is only 130 degrees. Maymbe santa will get me an infra red thermometer for xmas.. but anyways, i think i will need to mix these pellets with my good stuff in order to get any heat out them. I havnt read up on anything about temp readings yet so not sure what to expect.. but i did expect it to be alot hotter..
I am blaming that totally on these pellets im trying to burn up and get rid of but still have about 30 bags or so. The penningtons from walmart that everybody seems to hate with a passion gave alot more heat and burnt much better than these with the 4 bags i tried earlier. i have good softwood pellets sitting in the shed waiting that burn amazing. I knew these didnt burn as hot as the others which is why i set it on 5 yesterday but still expected much more heat than im getting.. oh well lesson learned on this brand.. wont get into that here again.
The single biggest factor is the setting of your thermostat. A lower temperature means less heat trying to
flow out of your house. Yes, it takes some getting use to. But wearing sweaters and layers indoors will provide comfort
at a lower thermostat setting. I heat the main areas of my house to about 60 degrees, keep my bedroom in the 40's.
Your body gets use to it; a bigger appetite. Even going out side, not such a big change, not such a big temperature
difference.
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