Pellet newb -- Am I going through pellets too fast? (Avalon Astoria FWIW)

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ctguy902

New Member
Dec 21, 2008
1
NW Connecticut
Hi all!
I just had an Avalon Astoria insert installed on Thursday. The tech started me with a bag and was very patient and walked me through thing. Then I read the instructions and the instructions that came with the remote controlstat.
But it's Saturday night, and I just dumped bag five. This is a bag every 12 hours. The pellets are CleanFire from American Biomass.
Well, you might say, that makes sense if you're heating a big room. Here's the thing, though: the room is 13 x 20 x 9. All of this BTU power to heat one room. I do not, BTW, have anything crazy going on like an open window or something.
Here are some pics of this room. Pardon the kids' toys!
I have three half doorways in the room to keep the child in and to let the heat out. Without any fans set up to distribute the heat*, this is the only room that stays warm. The other rooms are 5 - 10 degrees cooler. (See asterisk note at bottom)

Now, the stove installation tech said that the default "medium" fire setting was optimal and not to put it on "low" (in the green area, for those of you with Avalons). I also made sure that the flame is proper (not lazy) and I have experimented with air settings and blower settings. That means heat = default middle "yellow" setting, blower = default yellow setting, side air intake slide = 1 or closed.
I had the thermostat at 68, but the room stayed 78. Well that was foolish so I turned the blower down; the temp went to 75. The room stayed at 78. So I did just now what the guy said not to do -- I turned the heat setting down to low (into the green). Now the stove seems to be putting out little heat to speak of and the chief problem is that when the remote controlstat tells the stove it's cold, the stove, having been switched to low heat, is going to take forever to get the room back to temp. Again, leaving it at medium means the temp never falls and stays at 75 and I burn 2 bags day and night.

Some questions...
What's your quick take on this whole arrangement?
The dealer doesn't sell pellets, he sells stoves. He has no interest in telling me to burn them up to make $$. Why would he give me a setting and tell me never to go below the default of medium?
For Avalon owners, why is it that medium feels like my mother-in-law's place in south Florida, but a notch below medium = a meat locker?
See below on the fan comment. Is ductwork a better choice for circulating heat than using fans?

Thanks all


* How big fans should be, and how fast they should circulate, I have no idea, so I haven't bought them yet. We have ceiling fans on reverse in other rooms, but without doorway fans in this main room, the heat doesn't seem to ever arrive in the other rooms. The wife was hoping the heat would travel up to the second story (each floor = 1,000 sq ft). The stove has the capacity to handle it but I am beginning to think that cutting ceiling holes and adding ducts would be the way to go.
 
Hey ctguy,
Welcome to the forum...you'll find tons of great info here, and lots of helpful folks hanging out too.

1) Yeah...you need some fans to move the air. Best idea is to blow COLD air TOWARDS the stove...so fans on floors work fine.
2) as for your heat settings...no problem running a stove on LOW. Just remember that every heat setting will require different air intake settings.
I have a Lopi Yankee. When I'm on low (1 green light) my air intake is set on 1, or maybe 1/2. The highest I run my stove is one yellow light. At that setting, my air is at 2.

2bags/day is a lot of pellets. On my low setting, 1 bag will easily run 30hrs. If I turn it up to my 1 yellow...then a bag runs about 14hrs.

Not sure why your tech said not to run it on low. The stove was designed with different heat settings for a reason ;)

Change the settings and experiment with your air. The HEAT setting is what impacts how many pellets get fed to the burn pot, and the AIR setting determines how much heat you get out of them. You can also use a meat thermometer to guage which air settings are more efficient for a given heat setting. Just let the stove run for 20-30 mins at a setting before you check the temp. Then change the air a bit, wait, check the temps again.

Won't take long before you're a pellet EXPERT :)

Jim
 
I am pretty new at this pellet stuff, but nothing in your post seems that odd to me. Medium setting mid seventies in the room it is in and then mid sixites to seventy around the house. Dpending on the size of the house this doesn't really surprise me. Pellet stoves are space heaters. The heat the space they are in very well, but anything extra is a bonus. Some houses, like my folks, seem to heat really well with pellets. Others, like mine, do not.

As far as the medium, setting I burn a Napoleon Insert and the instructions basicly tell you to burn it on the optimal setting, 4, all the time. They say the lower setting are dirty. I have played around with them and they put out very little heat as well. At this setting I am burning two bags per day. -5 here last night and I could barely maintain 60 in my downstairs.
 
Here is a little info for comparison sake. I have no knowledge about your stove but I can tell you a bit about my experience...


My Quadrafire CB1200 is in a 12 x 12 living room with a 60" doorway near the stove that is blocked off halfway and a 30" door across the room that is normally kept open and has a fan blowing cold air towards the stove. The thermostat is in a hallway about 15 feet away from the stove.

My house is 24x30 2 story with no insulation in most walls (I know, it's on my list...). Windows are vinyl but they're old so not quite as efficient as they could be. The attic is very well insulated.

I have no OAK yet but I think I may add one this summer.

I am heating the entire house with this 40,000 BTU stove but it is not evenly heated at all.

The room with the stove is typically around 76 degrees, the opposite corner of the house is usually 60 degrees and the somewhat centrally located thermostat is set to 70. It is programmable and I set it back to 60 overnight.

The second story is about 65 at the top of the stairs and quite a bit cooler the further you get from the stairs.

On cold days I burn 2 bags of Hamer's Hot Ones easily. I have used about 75 bags so far and 1/4 tank of oil this season.

Anyway, what prompted me to start all this rambling was where you were saying that you're only heating one room. Maybe you're only heating one room really well but if the half-doors are open you're losing lots of heat to the rest of the house. If you closed off this room completely I am sure you could reduce pellet consumption dramatically.

Hopefully some of this will be helpful to you especially since we are neighbors ;-)
 
ctguy902 said:
Hi all!
I just had an Avalon Astoria insert installed on Thursday. The tech started me with a bag and was very patient and walked me through thing. Then I read the instructions and the instructions that came with the remote controlstat.
But it's Saturday night, and I just dumped bag five. This is a bag every 12 hours.

I have the same stove you do, except mine is free standing model, and that's a lot of pellets for that time period.

I have mine in a great room that's 15x38x17 (vaulted ceiling), and unless it's really cold out, I run mine on setting 2 or 3. My air control is pretty constant at about 1 1/2 or 2. I burn a bag of NEWP every 20 hrs or so, and the room stays at about 70-72 degrees, the kitchen is at 68-69, and the rear hallway is 67-68. I do have a small fan blowing air from the great room down a hallway, and seems to be making a nice circulation around the house for the heated air.

As far as I know, the air control should never be closed, and the lowest I ever had it was on 1 with the heat setting on 1 also. I also run my fan speed on high all the time....you get the max BTU's from the pellets into the room that way, IMO.

Follow the owners manual on the air intake setting....far enough out to make the pellets burn hot and the glowing ones jump around a little, but not so far as the burning pellets are jumping out of the firepot. Small glowing embers getting thrown out when new pellets hit the burn pot are OK.

You might want to try another brand of pellet too, if you can get any other brand. The best ones IMO are NEWP, Lignetics, Hamers, Barefoot, ProPellet
 
3.33 lbs per hour average. I used to have a Yankee and went through two bags in 24 hours when it was below 30 degrees, I was heating 1200 square ft. with it though.
 
If you put it on medium and just let it run, which is what I did because the stove would just cycle on and off if I left it on the thermostat, it burns that many. My house wasn't overly warm or anything.
 
My stove: Freestanding Avalon Astoria
My home: 3200 sq. ft.
Pellet consumption on first yellow light setting: 2 1/2 - 40 lb. bags
Cost per day with pellets: $10.00
Cost per day with propane: $42.00
End result: Over 4 times happy
 
4grandpa said:
My stove: Freestanding Avalon Astoria
My home: 3200 sq. ft.
Pellet consumption on first yellow light setting: 2 1/2 - 40 lb. bags
Cost per day with pellets: $10.00
Cost per day with propane: $42.00
End result: Over 4 times happy

You burn 2 1/2 bags on 1st yellow setting? WOW...somethings not right there....if i have my Astoria on that setting, I might
go through 1 1/2 a day.
 
I can confirm Shane's figures I have a Lopi Yankee and if I let the stove run on medium or medium/low it burns 2 bags in 24 hours, I have a 1200 sq foot house as well.

Derrick
 
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