Thermostat Usage Affect on Pellet Usage

I use a programmable thermostat and it saves pellets because when we are not at home i have go to 65 and an hour before we ger home it comes up to 72 and stays until we go to bed then it goes down to 68 and comes back on at 4am when we get up. Works out very well. I do however leave my stove on thermostat setting and it just leaves a low setting when it's real cold out. I also have a setting on the stove called smartstat and it is used when temps are not so cold and if the stoves does not caal for heat inside an hour then it shuts itself off until heat is needed.


It works for me quite well.

Teddy1971 said:

I was just curious about how many people use a programable thermostat with their stove in comparison to the number people who keep their pellet stove at a constant temparture all winter. And also how this affects the amount of pellets they use. I currently use just under 800 gallons of oil in the winter. About 650 Gallons is used to heat my house and another 150 gallons is used for hot water. I heat 3300 sqft but in order to heat this amount of space with this amount of oil I have to drop the temperture in the house to 58 degrees 16 hours a day (when we are at work and at night when we are sleeping) and 68 degrees 8 hours a day. Does anyone use this same scheme with their pellet stove? and how does it affect the amount of pellets you use? Thanks in advance for responding.

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just sent you a PM about this.

I would be concerned with the life of the igniter also.

tubbster said:

I would be concerned with the life of the igniter also.

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Yes, I considered this also after a "veteran" of this site mentioned the same thing to me. I think I'm going to get an extra ignitor as a spare in a month or 2.

Since my stove was a dealer "demo" unit, I'm hoping that it didn't get used too much, but I'll never know for sure.

I can always light the pellets manually w/ a propane torch if I had to.

hey woodsman23, what brand of thermostat are you using?

I just installed a nice Lux PSP511LA....got it pretty cheap off ebay.

Has lighted display, and 5+2 day programming (4x a day)... seems to work OK so far, but the proof in the pudding will be when I have the stove on all the time this winter.

Other than that, very easy to install & wire.

http://www.buyplumbing.net/?pg=pd&_i=PSP511LA&shopping;

offingmoot said:

hey woodsman23, what brand of thermostat are you using?

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It's close to this one i will have to check and get back to you on friday as i am not at home now.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...Id=10053&productId=100400020&N=10000003+90066

I use a setback thermostat but I have also had to replace the ingniter 2x in 3 yrs on my St Croix Prescott.

i was planning on dialing it back a few degrees during the day and at night but dont want to be replacing any parts because of it
hopefully it will work out ok
i am going to us the simple on/off thermostat provided for a while and see how that goes

offingmoot said:

i was planning on dialing it back a few degrees during the day and at night but dont want to be replacing any parts because of it
hopefully it will work out ok
i am going to us the simple on/off thermostat provided for a while and see how that goes

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I had no problem with igniters did it all last year and i will do it again this year. The thermostat that comes with the stove leaves alot to be desired (aka-junk). I paid like 30-40 bucks for the programmable one and it works so much better. Now remember i leave the stove on all the time in the cold of winter using the "thermostat" setting and when its above 35 outside i use the "smartstat" setting <<(this setting shuts the stove off after 1 hour when it does not call for heat). Then it come back on when there thermostat call for heat.

the setting you refer to is on the thermostat? smartstat? or is that exclusive to your stove?
i agree the one provided with my quad is a joke

offingmoot said:

the setting you refer to is on the thermostat? smartstat? or is that exclusive to your stove?
i agree the one provided with my quad is a joke

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I believe the 3 settings are exclusive from ST Croix, they are manual, smartstat and thermostat settings on the control board. It is a 3 way switch and owner can move the slide switch to any location he/she desires. Thermostat runs stove at the lowest setting without going out and smarstat setting turns off the stove if no heat is called for in a 1 hour period, then restarts when heat is called for by the thermostat. This is a great idea and is what sold me on the stove.

Here is a quote from my "Summers Heat" manual "An external wall thermostat (such as our Part # GU-1E30-914) can be used on our pellet units, as long as it is a low-voltage type that works with millivolt systems".
Which programmable thermostats are they talking about and these available at HD or Lowes?
Thanks

wellsme said:

Here is a quote from my "Summers Heat" manual "An external wall thermostat (such as our Part # GU-1E30-914) can be used on our pellet units, as long as it is a low-voltage type that works with millivolt systems".
Which programmable thermostats are they talking about and these available at HD or Lowes?
Thanks

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I have a "ritetemp" model from Home Depot. It's a 5+1+1 model (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...angId;=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100625708). It allows for multiple programs per day. You can use others - it will say on the package somewhere that it is "millivolt" compatible.

DiggerJim said:

wellsme said:

Here is a quote from my "Summers Heat" manual "An external wall thermostat (such as our Part # GU-1E30-914) can be used on our pellet units, as long as it is a low-voltage type that works with millivolt systems".
Which programmable thermostats are they talking about and these available at HD or Lowes?
Thanks

Click to expand...

I have a "ritetemp" model from Home Depot. It's a 5+1+1 model (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...angId;=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100625708). It allows for multiple programs per day. You can use others - it will say on the package somewhere that it is "millivolt" compatible.

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Just to confirm, you use this thermostat for the Englander (1500 square feet)?

Yamaha_gurl said:

DiggerJim said:

wellsme said:

Here is a quote from my "Summers Heat" manual "An external wall thermostat (such as our Part # GU-1E30-914) can be used on our pellet units, as long as it is a low-voltage type that works with millivolt systems".
Which programmable thermostats are they talking about and these available at HD or Lowes?
Thanks

Click to expand...

I have a "ritetemp" model from Home Depot. It's a 5+1+1 model (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...angId;=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100625708). It allows for multiple programs per day. You can use others - it will say on the package somewhere that it is "millivolt" compatible.

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Just to confirm, you use this thermostat for the Englander (1500 square feet)?

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No, this is for another stove with the same requirement. Your manual says "an external wall thermostat...as long as it is a low-voltage type that works with millivolt systems" can be used. Your question was "which programmable thermostats are they talking about" ... I proffered an example of the type they are talking about as well as how you can find others (e.g. it will say on the package it is millivolt compatible). It's a pretty common HVAC requirement and not something magic about Englanders or even pellet stoves.

Yamaha_gurl said:

DiggerJim said:

wellsme said:

Here is a quote from my "Summers Heat" manual "An external wall thermostat (such as our Part # GU-1E30-914) can be used on our pellet units, as long as it is a low-voltage type that works with millivolt systems".
Which programmable thermostats are they talking about and these available at HD or Lowes?
Thanks

Click to expand...

I have a "ritetemp" model from Home Depot. It's a 5+1+1 model (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...angId;=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100625708). It allows for multiple programs per day. You can use others - it will say on the package somewhere that it is "millivolt" compatible.

Click to expand...

Just to confirm, you use this thermostat for the Englander (1500 square feet)?

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Yes.

I have a QF Santafe and I use a digital Thermostat that turns the stove on and off as needed. At night, 10pm the temp goes down to 64 then at 5am 66 then at 7am 69 where it is all day. this works very well for my house. I have never had any issues with the ignitor just a couple of times the pellets got stuck in the hopper and failed to feed. With my Quad I have to change the feed rate, a small sliding door in the hopper, when I switch brands if the pellets are different size or length. This should not be an issue this year as I am only burning one brand. I also saw a drop in pellet comsumption when I went to a T-stat but I also changed stoves at that time. But is seems to me if you use the setback you would save pellets as long as the setback is not too far.

We used a setback thermostat on our pellet stove last year. After adding it our pellet usage went from 12-14 hours to about 24 hours. We also heat with oil and have to keep the oil on a little bit to keep the pipes from freezing in our basement or far ends of a 3600 sq ft house. The pellet stove cut our oil usage in half last year so this year we're installing a second pellet stove to knock down oil even further. So if you're only buying half the pellets by using a setback thermostat and go through three or more tons of pellets in a year the cost of replacing the ignitor is probably a lot cheaper than not using a thermostat.

We also cut ceiling registers in the rooms with pellet stoves to heat the upstairs rooms, while it added a little heat to the upstairs rooms it really didn't help, so this year we're adding fans to the ceiling registers to pull the heat into the upstairs rooms. So this might affect the amount of pellets we use this year. I think it might balance out though since we'll be able to keep the pellet stove set to 68 rather than 74 in order to keep the rooms above it comfortable.

deathraver said:

We used a setback thermostat on our pellet stove last year. After adding it our pellet usage went from 12-14 hours to about 24 hours. We also heat with oil and have to keep the oil on a little bit to keep the pipes from freezing in our basement or far ends of a 3600 sq ft house.

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Death, I will probably be doing the same thing, as I have a couple of pipes that run through an attic, and want to make they don't freeze. What settings did you use on the pellet stove 'stat, and what temp did you end up leaving the oil heat 'stat at?

Thanks

I have a Honeywell thermostat on my Englander 55 SHP 10 stove. The stove manual says to set the stove at 9 for heat and 9 for the blower. I am going through a bag and a half of pellets.already and it isn't very cold out . Should I diconnect and go back to the internal settings or can someone help me out with advice?