Creeping near -40 degrees F and the P-68 is working like a Charm!

Hope my new P-68 never see's that kind of weather in CT! Doing great so far with what we been getting. As yourself, we couldn't be happier with the performance so far. Good luck up there, could not handle that kind of temp myself.

Sounds like you've got a very well insulated, and not "too" large home to keep it in the 70s with -40 degrees outside.

I'm doing well to keep my 2000 square feet at 70+ in the room with the insert when the temperature is about 10 degrees, that's about the lowest we've seen so far this year...I don't expect to see much colder here in the south land of NJ.

Good to see a happy "camper". I'd suppose all buildings in Interior Alaska are well insulated. Even in NJ I have R38 in the ceiling and R19 walls...but I also have a lot of windows.

I'd guess it takes some getting used to, but people adapt and -40 degrees is just business as usual, not a crisis.

AlaskaCub said:

Well just thought I'd let you all know how much my family is enjoying our P-68 right now, the temp outside at my house is -39 F and we are supposed to see -40 for lows for the next 7-10 days or longer. The P-68 is keeping my house at a comfortable 74 degrees in the main living areas and kitchen and 67 or so in the bedrooms. What a dream this pellet stove has been this season. I am burning about 1 bag and a 1/2 a day right now with our current temps and cleaning out the inside every 3-4 days right now, though I dont like shutting it off for very long. I had a wood stove in the house last winter and it scared my wife to death, she hated it! But she is madly in love with the Harman workhorse. For all of you that want to see what really cold winter weather is, check out our 7 day forecast, can it get any colder?....grin

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=AKZ222

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You're burning 1-1/2 bags of pellets a day when the temperature is -39F, and your home is approximately 70 degrees F, that could only mean you have one of the very best insulated homes in North America and/or your found the very best combination of pellet stove and pellets that mankind has ever discovered.
Please share your findings with the rest of us.

When it gets to be zero and below, I'm having to burn around 3 bags in my Harmon a day so if you can get away with a bag and a half at those temperatures it truly is amazing. I have the hopper extention and it will hold around 130 lbs. of pellets and I will burn all of it in 24 hours when it is below zero and I have a modest 2 story 1500 square foot house. I admit that it is an old house and is not insulated to todays standards, but it is pretty tight. You must have R60 everywhere.

Believable, if the house is insulated with spray-foam. that is amazing stuff. But otherwise...hard to imagine.

AlaskaCub said:

Which Harman do you guys have that are not understanding the output I am getting?

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its not the "output" thats incredible; its the amount of pellets used to GET that output.

I use a similar amount of pellets in a smaller house in the face of single-digit +windy temps. House should be considered "well insulated"...its 15 years old, w/ 6" walls filled w/ fiberglass, double pane glass, etc.

If you live in Alaska you have to be very durable , and hearty individual/s. So their 72 may be our 58 , stats do lie , all depends on how they are installed , I have seen stats to be 15 degrees off. So be glad that your happy and warm, no matter what temp your house is or how many pellets you use . If it is -41 outside , 40 inside would seem warm , 80 degree difference there.

When I had a geothermal heat pump installed, the "engineer" did a heat-loss studly and sized the unit to hold the inside at 70 degrees when the outside is zero. This is with the HP running in its higher of two speeds, at about 40K btu. I have to look up to get the exact number. So, that said, I need 40K btu per hour. How many btus is in a 40 pound bag of pellets? Looks like I'd need about a million bts per 24 hours at zero, never mind -40.

Just some numbers to think about. I'm too lazy to look up the but content of pellets, but I bet 1 million BTUs is several bags.

Jerry_NJ said:

When I had a geothermal heat pump installed, the "engineer" did a heat-loss studly and sized the unit to hold the inside at 70 degrees when the outside is zero. This is with the HP running in its higher of two speeds, at about 40K btu. I have to look up to get the exact number. So, that said, I need 40K btu per hour. How many btus is in a 40 pound bag of pellets? Looks like I'd need about a million bts per 24 hours at zero, never mind -40.

Just some numbers to think about. I'm too lazy to look up the but content of pellets, but I bet 1 million BTUs is several bags.

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About three bags.

I too am having a hard time believing 1.5 (or even 2 bags) a day is enough to heat a 2500 sq ft ranch to 60° to 70° in sustained -20° to -40° weather. Very amazing if so!

I looked up some info I have on my Palm Pilot, I think it is about right/approximate enough.

One ton of pellets has about 18 million BTUs, a cord of seasoned hardwood has as much as 24 million BTUs.

That says for my case a an outside temp of zero degrees, I'd need about 2000 pounds / 18 = 111.1 pounds per 24 hours, that's about 2.8 bags at 40 pounds each, and assumes 100% efficiency for my pellet stove. That not being the case the real usage would run over 3 bags per day. Again, I have a 1986 "all electric" two story (more energy efficient than a one story with the same sq ft. I have about 2000 sq ft, R38 ceiling, R19 wall, all thermal-pane glass, and storm door on the back door that is a full-light glass door.

As I noted above I can heat the house with my wood insert to 70+ in the room with the insert to 60 in the first floor room at the greatest distance from the insert.
The upstairs bedroom may be in the range of 65, heat rises after all. This is with my forced air system fan running on low speed. We haven't had any zero degrees yest, the coldest I've seen is in the low teens, maybe as low as 10 after I have gone to bed and the fire in the insert is burning down to coals.

AlaskaCub said:

Well just thought I'd let you all know how much my family is enjoying our P-68 right now, the temp outside at my house is -39 F and we are supposed to see -40 for lows for the next 7-10 days or longer. The P-68 is keeping my house at a comfortable 74 degrees in the main living areas and kitchen and 67 or so in the bedrooms. What a dream this pellet stove has been this season. I am burning about 1 bag and a 1/2 a day right now with our current temps and cleaning out the inside every 3-4 days right now, though I dont like shutting it off for very long. I had a wood stove in the house last winter and it scared my wife to death, she hated it! But she is madly in love with the Harman workhorse. For all of you that want to see what really cold winter weather is, check out our 7 day forecast, can it get any colder?....grin

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=AKZ222

Click to expand...

Atleast the winds arent 25-45 mph