New, clean Mt Vernon burning 1 bag Turmans every 8.5 hours?

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RichterVA

New Member
Jan 7, 2012
13
Northern VA
Hello all. Im trying to find out whether my Mt Vernon insert's burn rate is consistent with what you guys are seeing. To test, I put my Mt Vernon on 70 degrees and turned off my propane furnace. Since the Mt Vernon can't get the house over 66 degrees in this weather in Virginia, the mt Vernon has been running full blast on heat output 5, flame level 3, normal elevation, wood pellet setting and actually using Turman premium wood pellets. The stove is 2 weeks old with no OAK and I cleaned it thoroughly yesterday. Under this scenario (which causes the stove to run in Manual High the whole time), I'm burning 1 bag of Turman premiums every 8.5 hours, or just under 3 bags/day. Is that typical for running on manual high?

If I extrapolate that across everyday this month, i calculate my monthly heating bill at $502 per month. That's 3 bags/day * 30 days * $5.58 per bag of Turmans (when bought by the ton). That seems high but maybe I had unrealistic expectations for the cost savings of doing a pellet stove over using a high efficiency propane furnace.
 
RichterVA said:
Hello all. Im trying to find out whether my Mt Vernon insert's burn rate is consistent with what you guys are seeing. To test, I put my Mt Vernon on 70 degrees and turned off my propane furnace. Since the Mt Vernon can't get the house over 66 degrees in this weather in Virginia, the mt Vernon has been running full blast on heat output 5, flame level 3, normal elevation, wood pellet setting and actually using Turman premium wood pellets. The stove is 2 weeks old with no OAK and I cleaned it thoroughly yesterday. Under this scenario (which causes the stove to run in Manual High the whole time), I'm burning 1 bag of Turman premiums every 8.5 hours, or just under 3 bags/day. Is that typical for running on manual high?

If I extrapolate that across everyday this month, i calculate my monthly heating bill at $502 per month. That's 3 bags/day * 30 days * $5.58 per bag of Turmans (when bought by the ton). That seems high but maybe I had unrealistic expectations for the cost savings of doing a pellet stove over using a high efficiency propane furnace.
Click to expand...
I too am burning Turmans and the following settings are using 1 bag per day here in Pennsylvania, last night was 10 degrees.

corn setting,-3 flame height, high elevation, normal convection blower speed, auto hold at 78 degrees. On auto I am running usually on medium high. Turmans are a dense pellet and need less feed rate and lots of air. The corn setting is the lowest feed rate and the high elevation provides more air to the pot. Give it a try.
 
Thanks. I will try the high elevation with corn, although I bet that the increased air will increase my burn rate (still corn should slow that feed). I noticed your '09 mt Vernon is on -3 flame height... Did quadrafire make changes to the flame height controls over the last few years? After readin on the forum, it seems like a lot of mt Vernon owners put their flame height in the negative range. Mine is on +3 but could easily be on +5 and still be just hitting the top of the diamond.

If you don't mind me asking, how many square is your mt Vernon heating? Id love to get mine down to burning even just 2 bags/day...
 
RichterVA said:
Under this scenario (which causes the stove to run in Manual High the whole time), I'm burning 1 bag of Turman premiums every 8.5 hours, or just under 3 bags/day.
Click to expand...

The only scenario that causes the stove to run on manual high is you setting it that way.

RichterVA said:
Did quadrafire make changes to the flame height controls over the last few years? After readin on the forum, it seems like a lot of mt Vernon owners put their flame height in the negative range. Mine is on +3 but could easily be on +5 and still be just hitting the top of the diamond.
Click to expand...

Have you adjusted the flame height per the operators manual instructions?

RichterVA said:
If you don't mind me asking, how many square is your mt Vernon heating? Id love to get mine down to burning even just 2 bags/day...
Click to expand...

I set mine on softwood pellet, auto, flame height -2, temp diff 1.5 and it rarely cycles off of low. Averaging a bag a day, heating 2k sq ft.
 
RichterVA said:
Thanks. I will try the high elevation with corn, although I bet that the increased air will increase my burn rate (still corn should slow that feed). I noticed your '09 mt Vernon is on -3 flame height... Did quadrafire make changes to the flame height controls over the last few years? After readin on the forum, it seems like a lot of mt Vernon owners put their flame height in the negative range. Mine is on +3 but could easily be on +5 and still be just hitting the top of the diamond.

If you don't mind me asking, how many square is your mt Vernon heating? Id love to get mine down to burning even just 2 bags/day...
Click to expand...
I am heating a bi-level home 1770 sq. ft. the stove is on the first floor and it heats my upstairs back bed rooms to 72 degrees. With Turmans on a plus 3 flame height, I would suspect that you probably have a very high flame, correct? Do you have an OAK connected to the stove? In order for me to get the proper flame height with the turmans, I had to slow the feed rate(corn setting) and increase the air flow ( high elevation). Try the exact settings I told you I am using and see how it works for ya, let me know.
 
The Mt Vernon can burn approx. 6.5 lbs per hour soooooo. 52,460 max btu (approx input btu) / 8,000 btu (est pellet btu) = 6.5575 lbs per hour. burn away.

Eric
 
At max input btu's, you are going to be eating 4 bags a day if it stays on 24 hours. If you want the btu's, pay the price.......... Sad but true. 52,500 btu/hr input divided by 8200 btu's per pound = 6.56 #/hr X 24 divided by 40 lbs/bag = 3.94 bags.
 
How many pellets you burn would be related to how much propane you burn, a BTU is a BTU.
 
slls said:
How many pellets you burn would be related to how much propane you burn, a BTU is a BTU.
Click to expand...

True to a certain extent.
You also need to take into account efficiency of the appliance and the fact that a stove is a "space heater" and does not deliver the heat throughout the space like a furnace or boiler can.
 
I have a 2008 Mt Vernon AE insert. Over the weekend the outside temp was at 12 degrees, the highest the temp got during the day was 20. I am burning a mixture of Freedom Fuel and Green Supreme’s. Stove was set to manual high with -5 flame height, softwood pellets and blower on quiet. The house is a two story colonial with 2100 sq ft built in 1990. Temp was 74-73 on the side of the house with the stove, 71 on the far end on the house and 70-71 upstairs.
 
mepellet said:
slls said:
How many pellets you burn would be related to how much propane you burn, a BTU is a BTU.
Click to expand...

True to a certain extent.
You also need to take into account efficiency of the appliance and the fact that a stove is a "space heater" and does not deliver the heat throughout the space like a furnace or boiler can.
Click to expand...

Instead of asking size, insulation, doors, windows. If the op burned a lot of propane, the op will sure burn lots of pellets.
My house is easy on oil and also pellets.
 
slls said:
mepellet said:
slls said:
How many pellets you burn would be related to how much propane you burn, a BTU is a BTU.
Click to expand...

True to a certain extent.
You also need to take into account efficiency of the appliance and the fact that a stove is a "space heater" and does not deliver the heat throughout the space like a furnace or boiler can.
Click to expand...

Instead of asking size, insulation, doors, windows. If the op burned a lot of propane, the op will sure burn lots of pellets.
My house is easy on oil and also pellets.
Click to expand...

Yes you are correct on that for sure.
 
tsmith said:
RichterVA said:
Thanks. I will try the high elevation with corn, although I bet that the increased air will increase my burn rate (still corn should slow that feed). I noticed your '09 mt Vernon is on -3 flame height... Did quadrafire make changes to the flame height controls over the last few years? After readin on the forum, it seems like a lot of mt Vernon owners put their flame height in the negative range. Mine is on +3 but could easily be on +5 and still be just hitting the top of the diamond.

If you don't mind me asking, how many square is your mt Vernon heating? Id love to get mine down to burning even just 2 bags/day...
Click to expand...
I am heating a bi-level home 1770 sq. ft. the stove is on the first floor and it heats my upstairs back bed rooms to 72 degrees. With Turmans on a plus 3 flame height, I would suspect that you probably have a very high flame, correct? Do you have an OAK connected to the stove? In order for me to get the proper flame height with the turmans, I had to slow the feed rate(corn setting) and increase the air flow ( high elevation). Try the exact settings I told you I am using and see how it works for ya, let me know.
Click to expand...

Ok, about 30 minutes ago I put it on high elevation and corn -- and only changed those 2 settings. The stove remains on heat output 5, normal blower speed, and flame height 3 just like before (and still has no Open Air Kit). On these new settings, most of the time the flame is barely visible and remains inside the firepot. Every few minutes the flame seems to build up and can build as high that it just touches the bottom of the fake logs. I can't really make a judgement on the heat output yet since its 55 degrees in Virginia today, but the flame height on high elevation/corn setting seems to be significantly lower than the normal elevation/hardwood setting.
 
RichterVA,

What is the firing rate on your propane furnace and its efficiency rating? The firing rate should be on the makers plate on the furnace.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
RichterVA,

What is the firing rate on your propane furnace and its efficiency rating? The firing rate should be on the makers plate on the furnace.
Click to expand...

The larger furnace is a new 97.5% efficient lennox model with 85000 btu output and the smaller is an older 80% efficient carrier with 53000 output btu. I didn't see anything on either furnace that indicates its "fire rate" unless there is another name for it.
 
138,000 output won't match the MT V.
 
RichterVA said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
RichterVA,

What is the firing rate on your propane furnace and its efficiency rating? The firing rate should be on the makers plate on the furnace.
Click to expand...

The larger furnace is a new 97.5% efficient lennox model with 85000 btu output and the smaller is an older 80% efficient carrier with 53000 output btu. I didn't see anything on either furnace that indicates its "fire rate" unless there is another name for it.
Click to expand...

It is implied in the btu rating of the stove which I really suspect is an input rate, So you have a combined 138KBtu (supposed) output from your two propane units that is way more than any single pellet stove after efficiency is taken into consideration at their maximum firing rates and way above their midpoint rates. Even normal pellet furnaces and boilers are less than that.

Are these units also used for domestic hot water?
 
pretty common for my stove to burn a bag in eight hours, but my walls arent insulated.
 
RichterVA said:
....The stove is 2 weeks old with no OAK...
Click to expand...

You can't expect high efficiency without an OAK. Like leaving the front door wide open. You are sucking out side cold temp air through your house to make up for the hot air around the stove that is being sucked into the stove and up the chimney. lol
But I thank you for at least helping out the economy by paying for the extra pellets made in the USA...
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
RichterVA said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
RichterVA,

What is the firing rate on your propane furnace and its efficiency rating? The firing rate should be on the makers plate on the furnace.
Click to expand...

The larger furnace is a new 97.5% efficient lennox model with 85000 btu output and the smaller is an older 80% efficient carrier with 53000 output btu. I didn't see anything on either furnace that indicates its "fire rate" unless there is another name for it.
Click to expand...

It is implied in the btu rating of the stove which I really suspect is an input rate, So you have a combined 138KBtu (supposed) output from your two propane units that is way more than any single pellet stove after efficiency is taken into consideration at their maximum firing rates and way above their midpoint rates. Even normal pellet furnaces and boilers are less than that.

Are these units also used for domestic hot water?
Click to expand...

No I have a separate propane hot water heater. Its also new and it doesn't use too much propane since I barely see any propane usage in the summer. House has 3900 sq ft of finished space with additional unfinished in the basement.
 
Thats alot of sq ft to expect a space heater to take care of.

Finally hit sub zero temps here and mine is still chugging along on auto low. 2k sq ft 2 story. well insulated.
 

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It was -7 °F here this morning. The chicken were mad because I haven't installed a pellet stove for them yet.
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
It was -7 °F here this morning. The chicken were mad because I haven't installed a pellet stove for them yet.
Click to expand...

Invite Don over.
 
If I extrapolate that across everyday this month, i calculate my monthly heating bill at $502 per month. That's 3 bags/day * 30 days * $5.58 per bag of Turmans (when bought by the ton). That seems high but maybe I had unrealistic expectations for the cost savings of doing a pellet stove over using a high efficiency propane furnace.[/quote]

it is hard to compare accurately
what would your propane costs be??
is the house the same temp?
some areas there is less savings then others

that is alot of sq ft to heat depending on layout

I heat 4600 sq ft with one ton a month (169 a ton)
however I am the exception
my house is warmer and I spend half of what other sources would cost
and 70 is almost to warm for us
you need to base your decisiopn on you
not what others are getting
 
This IMHO is the best cost comparison calculator out there because it takes into account your hot air ducting system. Compare your costs for YOUR situation, as ironpony suggests.
http://www.buildinggreen.com/calc/fuel_cost.cfm

Also IMHO you're asking an AWFUL lot of a space heater to heat 3900 sq ft and expect the same kind of heat distribution. Perhaps you would have been better off with a pellet or even coal furnace, rather than a space heater. Plug in $200 a ton or even #250 a ton for coal and see how it turns out.
 
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