Breckwell P23i Producing Heat but not Heating the Home

Something is not right.

I am heating 900 sq ft main floor + 900 sq ft 2nd floor on setting 3.

The thermostat downstairs is set to 72 and upstairs stays about 65-68 depending on outside temp.

The output temp seems a bit high, so maybe your convection blower is not putting out enough cubic feet of air.

My output temp is usually around 250 or so on setting 3. I do have new windows, but virtually no insullation.

What type of pellets are you burning? My P23I gives out a lot of heat on 3 and it keeps my first floor at 75 degress. I am also burning New england Hardwood Pellets. You might have to give the stove sometime to heat up the area as well. I have one of those standing fans pushing the heat as well since I don't have any ceiling fans.

Later,

What position is the toggle switch in? Manual, high/low, on/off?


Eric

I would run the stove out of the current pellets and get a few bags of another brand. Give that a try before you start tearing things apart.

Eric

pibe75 said:

What type of pellets are you burning? My P23I gives out a lot of heat on 3 and it keeps my first floor at 75 degress. I am also burning New england Hardwood Pellets. You might have to give the stove sometime to heat up the area as well. I have one of those standing fans pushing the heat as well since I don't have any ceiling fans.

Later,

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Wow, something isnt right. I have a 1,500 sq ft home that is well insulated and I never had the stove any higher setting than 3.....with temps in the higher 70's. When it's in the 40's, I run on 2 and sometimes even 1 for awhile due to it getting to warm.

I've burned Country Boy White Lightening, Ligentics, Forest Pride, Turmans and Allengany wood products. All gave great heat.

swimman said:

I just had my p23i installed and this is the second day running it. I'm trying to heat approximately 1500 sqft (my first floor although the stove is located in an area approximately 1000 sq ft that is the main heating area). My home is fairly well insulated and the stove is only able to keep the 1000 sqft open area at around 64 degrees. The stove is running on setting four and is definitely producing heat as the heat temp blowing out of the stove is about 340 degrees. Even the family room where the stove is, is only about 66 degrees.

Any thoughts or is this what can be expected from this unit? I was under the impression from talking with dealers and others that I would not have a problem getting the immediate area up and over 70 degrees.

Thanks.

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Is there a second floor?

If there is is it blocked off?

Tell us about this "well insulated" house, age, how deep the walls are, number, types, and area of the windows, ceiling height, amount and type of insulation in the walls, cap, and floor, is your insert sealed off from pulling air from the heated area, etc ... etc ...

Yes we are nosy but your house isn't the same as their house or my house.

What is the temp at ceiling height ? Stand on a chair in the room with the stove and see if you can feel

a difference in temp. If the air up there is hotter , maybe a ceiling fan would help spread the heat

around and keep the heat closer to the ground .

Step one would be to prevent the cold draft from entering your heated area.

How in your case I don't know but air infiltration is a major source of heat loss (frequently it over rides all other sources and can approach as much as all other sources combined).

People always worry about cap insulation when frequently the wall area can far exceed the cap area and is likely to have far less space for insulation. Then there is the windows.

In the case of that cold draft it is likely being induced by the convection fan, you need to find a way to stop it.

Now in order to heat the volume of air in what appears to be a sizable home it will take a long time for your convection blower to both move and mix that air. If your house has two floors of approximately 1500 square feet and 8' ceilings it will take approximately 2.5 hours to even move the 24,000 cubic feet of air in your house that is if the convection blower does 160 cfm at heat setting 4. There are a number of Breckwell dealers on this forum maybe one can chime in cfm numbers etc...

Now about those walls, better you than me, mine are 2 x 6 and still they are number two on my heat loss hit list.

In your basement is there any insulation from the floor above to at least 4' below ground level and if so how much space is there above ground level and the floor above? Also the kind and depth of any such insulation.

Can you provide the foundation size of your house?

I would be willing to bet he has no OAK on that stove and the hot air is being blocked by the cold air the stove is drawing. I bet if he adds one (OAK) that will fix his problems

namz111 said:

I would be willing to bet he has no OAK on that stove and the hot air is being blocked by the cold air the stove is drawing. I bet if he adds one (OAK) that will fix his problems

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Maybe, however the air intake should be in the old fireplace and if the insert surround is sealed there shouldn't be any real issue not having an OAK (provided the system is sealed off from his heated area). His posts indicates a cold draft from the fireplace area into his heated area which would result in cold air being sucked into the convection air system.

swimman said:

Are all of you using an outside air kit? I have heard that it may be beneficial with this stove. I have about a 27' foot run from the stove up my chimney. The first four feet from the stove is 3" and then 4" the rest of the way up. The OAK would have to be routed up the chimney as well as the firebox cannot be modified. Do you think this may give me more heat?

Thanks.

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I have an outside air kit on mine. It was a requirment for a doublewide. Not sure if that would help you or not. Maybe some of the more experienced can make a call on that.

swimman said:

The stove is not sealed from drawing room air in and I did notice this morning before firing it up, a considerable cold draft emanating from inside the prefab fireplace.

I hope this information helps.

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Silly question, but are you shutting the stove OFF at night?

if the poster is pushing over 300F out the front end of the stove its doing its job , heat loss must be higher than output rate of the unit , adding an OAK may be quite helpful as air being pulled through leaks in the house are magnified by the stove removing air from the house. bottom line though , 300 plus degrees should be heating that space with the air volume that unit is able to push, the heat has to be going somewhere. need to find where its being lost at and address it to gain efficiency.

Mike, would it surprise you if I said that I agree with you.

I think the OP has several issues not the least of which may be an undersized stove for the size and construction of the house. It seems that the whole house is open to the heated area (possibly some 3000 square feet encompassing 24,000 cubic feet with a 3.5 inches of wall cavity insulation). It will depend upon the heating degree days and average low temperature of that location and other factors to be certain. However if the OP looks on his oil burner and furnace/boiler he should be able to find firing rate information and that should tell him a good part of the story.

SmokeyTheBear said:

Mike, would it surprise you if I said that I agree with you.

.

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not at all, essentially there is no mystery to heating with a pelet stove as far as function goes. just like any type of space heater it releases stored energy in the form of the fuel it uses and transfers a percentage of that energy to the space it is charged with heating. pushing 300 plus degrees of temperature at the volume it is pushing means the unit is doing what it was designed to do. now , in order to "gain ground' so to speak , the energy released to the space which dissapates as it is diluted with the existing cooler air in the room, must be sufficient to overcome this disipation by a wide margin. in order for the existing temperature in the space to be heated to rise, the energy released in the form of heat must be higher than the "dissipation' rate.

in laymans terms , the amount of heat being transferred to the room is not sufficient to overcome the heat loss through dissipation by a wide enough margin. the structure is bleeding off heat almost as fast as it is being released into the space, so that margin is not very wide, hence the unit is not doing much better than "break even" even making the heat its making. find the source of the loss of heat and seal it up or insulate it. this will allow a wider margin in the heat v/s heat loss ratio.

How can a 5 y.o. home have such horrible heat loss?
I know you can't compare homes but come on....
My house is 50 yrs old and the stove heats it awesome.
We have some insulation and had new windows in 2004
but I'm pretty sure a 5 yr old home should be far tighter
than my place.

CZARCAR said:

stoveguy2esw said:

SmokeyTheBear said:

Mike, would it surprise you if I said that I agree with you.

.

Click to expand...

not at all, essentially there is no mystery to heating with a pelet stove as far as function goes. just like any type of space heater it releases stored energy in the form of the fuel it uses and transfers a percentage of that energy to the space it is charged with heating. pushing 300 plus degrees of temperature at the volume it is pushing means the unit is doing what it was designed to do. now , in order to "gain ground' so to speak , the energy released to the space which dissapates as it is diluted with the existing cooler air in the room, must be sufficient to overcome this disipation by a wide margin. in order for the existing temperature in the space to be heated to rise, the energy released in the form of heat must be higher than the "dissipation' rate.

in laymans terms , the amount of heat being transferred to the room is not sufficient to overcome the heat loss through dissipation by a wide enough margin. the structure is bleeding off heat almost as fast as it is being released into the space, so that margin is not very wide, hence the unit is not doing much better than "break even" even making the heat its making. find the source of the loss of heat and seal it up or insulate it. this will allow a wider margin in the heat v/s heat loss ratio.

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i spose a calometric room test resolves efficiency issue. why not =worth more than EPA aproval,eh?

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well, if everyone had the same size room with the same "r value" of insulation and the same outside temps you could have a standard,but here inthe real world no 2 houses are exactly alike , too many variables.