Harman temperature probe placement

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PelletHog

Member
Oct 28, 2007
16
Western MA
The temp probe that came with my Harman Advance is only about five feet long. Where would you guys recommend I place it. Right now, I have it about 5 feet up (the tip), and in the corner behind the stove. My stove is set in a corner at 45 degrees. This will be the first winter I used the stove. In the past spring and fall, I have only used the stove mode so the auto is new to me. I usually turn the stove down during the day to maintenance burn, and just turn it up a bit when I get home to keep the chill off. I was under the impression that adjusting the unit in stove mode manually was about the same as using auto, am I wrong. Will running in auto save me any pellet usage? Thanks, Steve
 
Placing the room sensor in that position should work well. However you could also use 20-22 guage t-stat wire and extend it someplace else within the room. Burning the unit in stove temp allows the unit to burn at an even pace or a certain amount of fuel per hour. room temp allows the unit to use what fuel is necassary to maintain your set temperature. So it all depends on how you're burning the unit in room temp. If you have it set at a reasonable temp. and the stove can maintain the temp on a regular basis then you may save fuel. If you have the unit set to 80 then no, you probably won't save much fuel.

Just keep in mind the placement of the room sensor is the key to this puzzle. I have mine placed to the right of the unit at about 4.5 to 5 feet from the floor. I also have a corner install but I have the P61 rather then the Advance.
 
I extended my temp probe wire with thermostat wire and it works fine
 
I also have a Harman Advance set in the corner of my living room at a 45 deg angle. I have the temperature probe a few feet to the left about 4-1/2 feet off the floor on top of the entertainment center. I have the stove set at 75 deg. in room temp mode. I put a thermometer right next to it and the darn thing is pretty accurate. I have a two story 1650 sq. ft. home and it has heated the ENTIRE house with it being 32 deg at night with the stove running at about 50% capacity. I'm interested in finding out if it will keep up in the colder weather. The living room is real warm at about 75 deg. the upstairs bedrooms are around 68-70 deg. (I have an open staircase in the room the stove is in leading to those rooms ) and at the opposite end of the house where the two bedrooms are is about 70-71 deg. I honestly dont think placement of the probe is critical because if you place it further away or in an adjacent room the only thing that would change would be the temperature setting on the stove in relation to where you want to maintain a certain temperature. It would still be warmer of course in the room the stove is in.

I leave my stove on auto/room temp mode all the time. It will shut down and start up on its own. Pretty cool stove! Good Luck and enjoy!
 
technically it wouldn't matter where you put the probe, however, placing the probe further away would cause the unit to feed more pellets to maintain the temperature you have set on your control panel. You said yourself that it's 75 degrees in the area of the stove and 70-68 degrees up stairs. If you were to place the probe somewhere up stairs and have your unit stay set to 75 degrees the unit would run like crazy trying to get the temperature to 75 degrees at the probe. That's what I meant when I said it depending on the placement of the probe would depend on the amount of fuel you would use.
 
Firejumper,

I apologize, I didnt mean to step on your toes. You are absolutely right about the stove running like crazy and the fuel consumption. My point simply was, it wouldnt really matter temperature wise seeing as you could just ajust the temp. dial on the stove accordingly. For example: you wanted the temp in the bedroom to be a nice 70 deg for a game of toss the sausage with that special someone all you would need to do is move the temp. probe into that room and set the stove to that temp.

I'm just pumped about the new stove and wanted to share it with the world.

Take care my friend!
 
pellethog, this isn't a direct answer to your question, but you and i seem to be in the same boat in terms of being new harman owners. I recently got this great advice regarding room temp vs. stove temp when chatting with stovemanken (who knows his stuff when it comes to harmans). Thought I would pay it forward by posting it here for ya. For my use, it sounds like room temp is the way to go.



Using room temp mode basically means the stove will work much like your furnace works. It simply means that it’s it working from a very sensitive thermostat. I suppose a case could be made that, since there is a lag time in any heating appliance between when the thermostat calls for heat, and when it the appliance actually produces the heat, there is an inherent inefficiency in that mode of operation.

The fact is that the Harman room probe is so sensitive it will minimize this lag time and also in minimize any real or perceived inefficiency.

If you have seen my other posts, you see that I try to tell people to keep the feed rate adjusted as high as possible, then run the stove in room temp mode for the most efficient operation. It sounds like hyperbole but it is absolutely true that if you’ve set the stove in this manner you will not burn one pellet more than it takes to keep the room at the temperature you have selected.

If people are concerned about the amount of pellets being consumed then the solution is to set the stove for a lower temperature just as you would set the furnace for a lower temperature in order to consume less gas (or electricity).

I use stove temp mode when I have a very short amount of time that I want to have heat (I just want to warm the room up). I often run in stove temp mode for the stove in the workshop because I keep opening and closing the doors and I basically need all the heat I can get.

In the house when the weather gets really cold, I set the XXV for about 72° in room temp mode and just keep filling it with pellets.
 
Extend the probe to a point where you want the temperature to stay constant. If you stick it where occasionally the sun may shine through the window and fool it into thinking the room is warmer than it is, it will probably get too cool for you. If you stick it where there is a slight cool draft (ex. near a window), you stove will likely heat the room up too much. I ran mine about 20' away from the stove and brought it up through the floor near the middle of the room. I leave my scientific digital thermometer right next to it, and whenever I check it, it's within 1.5 degrees of whatever I have my room temp setting at. Use common sense, obviously it should be in the same room within a reasonable distance from the stove.

Ditto about what RonL said above about feed adjuster settings and pellet efficiency. Set it to room temp you want and don't touch it, unless you want to change the temp.
 
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