How many Pellet Stoves is too many? :-)

I've been heating 60-65% of our home with a St Croix Hastings Pellet stove for the last 2 winters and we've really enjoyed it. This year I added a Harman P61A to the basement to replace an old oil burner. I expect it'll easily heat the basement and we'll get some benefits on the main floor as well.
I may have just negotiated a deal for a 3rd pellet stove that I found on CL. The guy was looking to trade his ( 2 year old) Harman Accentra for a DV propane heater plus cash. I happen to have a Rinnai 556 unit that heat our 450 Sq foot great room so I floated that tade his way. If I chip in 500 cash it looks like i've got a deal. Pretty good deal as far as i'm concerned.

Am I crazy to take on 3 pellet stoves? I'm thinking it'll be a little over an hour per week to maintain them, then obviously a few hours in the Spring to shut them down for the year. I've rambled on in other threads about my concern over pellet pricing going forward, but the idea of cutting my propane usage by another 60% is intriguing. We also love the look of the Accentra...and I know Harman makes some pretty good stoves.

Any opinions on the Accentra?
Can somebody give me a "nudge" and help me to feel good about having 3 stoves?

Thanks All. That was the nudge I needed!
I'm going to see if I can close up the deal on the Accentra by the end of the week. I imagine i'll need to grab 1 more ton of pellets to bring my supply to 4.5 tons....
I'm fairly certain the 3rd stove will bring my propane usage down from 380 gallons to 180 or so. Considering 2.50 per gallon for LP and 250 per ton of pellets...500 dollars cash out for the stove = break even in about 2 years. I'll also be swapping a 20,000 BTU heater for one capable of cranking out 40,000...not bad.

Thanks to Craig, daleeper and TPH for appealing to the other part of my brain. You all make good points, and I definitely understand where you're coming from with your comments. As somebody with a comp sci background I am trying really hard to find the right answer, but keeping options open is also incredibly important. I guess one thing that is unique about my situation is that this house never had a good central heating solution. It was a mess when we moved in and we're slowly figuring out what we want to do. Perhaps i'll consider tring to hold on to the Rinnai AND get the pellet stove (the guy said he would take straight cash for the stove). I have to keep my propane tank for hot water anyways....

I guess at 2.50 per gallon for LP I have been thinking more and more about Electric heat as my bailout plan in the event that 3 pellet stoves is too much. I think after everything is said and done i'm paying about 15 cents per KWH from the electric company. My bill ranges from as low as 60 and has gone as high as 130 or so. I know most people say that electric heat is not economical, but there is definitely a price point where it may financial make sense to abandon LP and move to electric. We may not quite be there, but I sense that it could be soon.

As far as financial diversification...I am right with you TPH. All this volatility has me pretty concerned. I'm spread out pretty well with my investments, but i'm definitely losing sleep with some of the volatility in asian markets lately.

ThePhotoHound said:

So what have we learned? No number of stoves is too many if you're willing to put in the work, right? Just do your homework and know what you're getting into.

As for another related question: Out of those of you who heat with at least 2 appliances (wood, pellet, corn, and/or gas), and especially those of you who heat 2 different floors, please share your tips and tricks for:

1) When do you use both? All the time? Some of the time? Just when the temp drops below ___.
2) If you use pellets, how many tons do you go through? Are you always on low?
3) How well does the heat rise from a 35K pellet stove? I'm trying to heat the basement with a pellet stove, but I assume I'll get some benefit to the upper level (no insulation in between, finished space).
4) Since I have no insulation in the ceiling/floor between the basement and upper level, should I be running it all the time? Just when temps drop below ___?

Click to expand...

Interestingly enough, I never did land that third stove as I was not able to come to terms with the seller. So I am going into winter with the 2 stoves and the 2 rinnai units. I feel better about this arrangement since my last post since I have now determined that my 40 gallon LP hot water heater was responsible for more than half my propane usage (The rinnais are very efficient and are not really the problem). I also confirmed with my propane company that their "tiered usage pricing" includes a level for 200-500 gallons. My usage last year was 375 gallons, but this year I think I can get that down to a reasonable 225 or so. I recently insulated the hot water heater and it has made a surprisingly large impact, and the addition of some fans to circulate the pellet heat should help as well.



Anyways, to address some of the above 4 points:
TPH, I think we're in the same "boat" heating a basement and a main floor with 2 pellet stoves.
1) I am still working out precisely how i'm going to use the stoves, but from what i've observed so far, the stove (P61A) in the basement will not really be able to do a great job of heating the whole house. It has the BTUs, but what it looks like so far is that I would have to "super-heat" the basement to really get a significant amount of heat to the main floor. It definitely warms the floors a bit, and i'm getting some benefit, but without making it 80 in the basement I don't think i'll e able to get it to 70 on the main floor. As far as when i'll use them, I am thinking i'll have them both on programmable therms, cutting them off at 10 PM...set to auto start at 5 AM. On nights where temp drop to the teens or below i'll leave the stove in he basement on overnight.

2)I used about 2.5 tons last year with 1 pellet stove...I expect to use 3.5 tons with the addition of the 2nd. I run mainly on medium, though the stove in the basement may be more often run on low.

3) Like I said, we're in a similar boat. I removed a bunch of insulation in the ceiling of the basement and it is clear "some" heat is making it to the main floor. However, as I said earlier, I think i'm just going to focus that basement stove on the task of keeping the basement comfortable rather than cranking it up to get more benefit on the main floor. 35K BTU will be plenty to feel some of that heat coming up to the main floor, but it comes up pretty slowly and in my case I am losing some heat to some unfirnished basement walls (only partially finished)

4) I'll keep you on theloop on how things are going for me and my stoves. Again, this is my first season with 2, so i'm still working on the best arrangement. Please let me know how you're doing as well.

Matt

ThePhotoHound said:

Matt -

Great stuff. Thanks. I actually have a wood stove on the upper level. We wanted the look (Soapstone) and ambiance (large view of the fire) for the main living level, so we put the wood stove on the top floor. The pellet stove was free, so we decided it would be a great space heater for the basement (finished). The trick is knowing when to use each. The wood stove will run 24/7 Dec-Mar, and I'm assuming I will learn a schedule to use for the pellet stove. I don't have a programmable thermostat on mine, but by the sounds of it, it would be a huge help! Do you know if you can retrofit any stove with the right circuit board to use a thermostat? I'm curious how it lights itself...

Click to expand...

A wee-bit delinquent on my reply...sorry!
The auto igniter is probably essential to really getting good value and use out of a progrmmable thermostat. I don't really know which stoves can be fitted with one and which can't. Really what I use them for is just to get the auto-on/auto-off feature going at specific times of day...rather than to try to pinpoint different temperatures on a specific schedule. It is a big benefit to me for the stoves to fire up at 4 AM and have things toasty by 6AM....then shut themselves down right after everyone goes to bed.
I've heard some folks say that this actually wastes pellets (since the house needs to be reheated from a lower temperature) but my perception is that i'm actually saving several pounds in the 6-7 hours that the stoves are off...plus I enjoy the fact that the house is quiter (no fan noise)

Short and sweet. No argument here. I'm finding 2 is working out well for me so far. The Hastings does a great job with the main floor and the bedroom and bath above it. The Harmon seems to be doing an excellent job with the partially finished basement. Just got my programmable thermostat hooked up to the Harmon...which was easier than i'd expected. I'm feeling very ready for the cold weather!