Thermostat on stove, do u recommend of not?

Clay H · Sep 21, 2009

My St. Croix york insert does not have a thermostat but i'm thinking about putting one on this year. The wireless ones werent available when i got my stove and running a wire was going to be very difficult so we went without it. I usually turn the stove low enough that it will actually cool down some at night so it would not be advantageous durring the night unless i set it higher so it would cycle on and off with the temp setting. But that raises a question, am i really saving any fuel if i set it higher so it will warm up and shut down rather than burn constantly on low all night? I'm also going to use a little more propane heat this winter since I filled the tank today for 1.30/gal. My thoughts are to set propane to about 63 so it wo'nt come on unless pellet stove is set too cool and then in the AM before i rise, set the thermostat to cycle the furnace on to kill the chill while i shower and get ready for work, then thermostat will resume 63ish untill the next morning. My though is, if i use this in conjunction with a thermostat on the St. Croix, maybe the pellet stove wouldn't runn all day while i'm gone and it might save a few pellets in the long run.
Thoughts?

woodsman23 · Sep 21, 2009

I have a st croix afton bay with a thermostat, I got it at the HD for like 30 bucks and programmed it to our work schedule. on to 74 at 6am off at 7am to 64 then at 4:40pm on to 72 then off again at 11pm down to 64. Works great and the stov is not running all the time when your not at home. I have never had any problems with it at all.

Clay H · Sep 21, 2009

woodsman23 said:
I have a st croix afton bay with a thermostat, I got it at the HD for like 30 bucks and programmed it to our work schedule. on to 74 at 6am off at 7am to 64 then at 4:40pm on to 72 then off again at 11pm down to 64. Works great and the stov is not running all the time when your not at home. I have never had any problems with it at all.

a programable wireless therm for 30 bucks? Really....

mnkywrnch · Sep 21, 2009

Ive run this same question through my mind a thousand times, the answer I came up with was simple to me I would rather run on low when not at home then have it shut down and have to work harder to heat back up to temprature Ive tried both ways and pellet usage was about the same plus less wear and tear on the igniter.

geek · Sep 21, 2009

Clay H said:
woodsman23 said:

I have a st croix afton bay with a thermostat, I got it at the HD for like 30 bucks and programmed it to our work schedule. on to 74 at 6am off at 7am to 64 then at 4:40pm on to 72 then off again at 11pm down to 64. Works great and the stov is not running all the time when your not at home. I have never had any problems with it at all.

Click to expand...

a programable wireless therm for 30 bucks? Really....

I bet he did not mean wireless, I haven't seen wireless t-stats at HD, don't think they carry them.

.

geek · Sep 21, 2009

my Santa Fe came with a cheap one but I think I'm going to hold off until I get a handle on the stove..

.

woodsman23 · Sep 22, 2009

Clay H said:
woodsman23 said:

I have a st croix afton bay with a thermostat, I got it at the HD for like 30 bucks and programmed it to our work schedule. on to 74 at 6am off at 7am to 64 then at 4:40pm on to 72 then off again at 11pm down to 64. Works great and the stov is not running all the time when your not at home. I have never had any problems with it at all.

Click to expand...

a programable wireless therm for 30 bucks? Really....

Not a wireless one but running a wire is pretty straight forward....

imacman · Sep 22, 2009

Clay H said:
My St. Croix york insert does not have a thermostat but i'm thinking about putting one on this year. The wireless ones werent available when i got my stove and running a wire was going to be very difficult .......

Clay, forum member Xena and others have used the SkyTech 3301 wireless without problems. Xena has hers hooked to a St. Croix.

Here's about the cheapest your going to find one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Skytech-3301-Fi...ostat-NEW_W0QQitemZ280335132729QQcmdZViewItem

Dr_Drum · Sep 22, 2009

I seriously considered the Skytech. I really wanted one, but after trying the normal wired T-stat for a few days I realized I didn't like how my stove only has an on or off mode. It won't go down to a low idle burn until heat is needed. :down:
Mike -

Amaralluis · Sep 22, 2009

mnkywrnch said:
Ive run this same question through my mind a thousand times, the answer I came up with was simple to me I would rather run on low when not at home then have it shut down and have to work harder to heat back up to temprature Ive tried both ways and pellet usage was about the same plus less wear and tear on the igniter.

I am curious to know how you got to that conclusion?
I can see your results in the middle of the cold weather but in the shoulder period like we are now I dont think the pellet usage would be the same.
For example, today except for early morning my stove would not need to burn pellets.
If I had it on manual mode (meaning burning on low) I would have used 15lb's of pellets today alone (low burn uses 1lb/hour).
That hardly seems economical to me.

mnkywrnch · Sep 22, 2009

Amaralluis said:
mnkywrnch said:

Ive run this same question through my mind a thousand times, the answer I came up with was simple to me I would rather run on low when not at home then have it shut down and have to work harder to heat back up to temprature Ive tried both ways and pellet usage was about the same plus less wear and tear on the igniter.

Click to expand...

I am curious to know how you got to that conclusion?
I can see your results in the middle of the cold weather but in the shoulder period like we are now I dont think the pellet usage would be the same.
For example, today except for early morning my stove would not need to burn pellets.
If I had it on manual mode (meaning burning on low) I would have used 15lb's of pellets today alone (low burn uses 1lb/hour).
That hardly seems economical to me.

During the shoulder season like now and up to mid to late october we dont run the stove at all when we are not home (no need for it) if its cold in the morning I run the stove for a couple of hours then shut it down,cold at night same thing.I guess Im my own T-stat.Everyone has there own methods of doing things this is just mine which is ECONOMICAL to me.

Clay H · Sep 22, 2009

mnkywrnch said:
Amaralluis said:

mnkywrnch said:

Ive run this same question through my mind a thousand times, the answer I came up with was simple to me I would rather run on low when not at home then have it shut down and have to work harder to heat back up to temprature Ive tried both ways and pellet usage was about the same plus less wear and tear on the igniter.

Click to expand...

I am curious to know how you got to that conclusion?
I can see your results in the middle of the cold weather but in the shoulder period like we are now I dont think the pellet usage would be the same.
For example, today except for early morning my stove would not need to burn pellets.
If I had it on manual mode (meaning burning on low) I would have used 15lb's of pellets today alone (low burn uses 1lb/hour).
That hardly seems economical to me.

Click to expand...

During the shoulder season like now and up to mid to late october we dont run the stove at all when we are not home (no need for it) if its cold in the morning I run the stove for a couple of hours then shut it down,cold at night same thing.I guess Im my own T-stat.Everyone has there own methods of doing things this is just mine which is ECONOMICAL to me.

This is what i have been doing but the large temp swings are kinda getting old. It would be nice to have a thermostat to turn it on and warm things up when it gets to 68 or so in the house rather than comming home from work and its 60 in there and it takes all evening to warm the house back up unless i use the furnave for a little bit. This isn't the issue just yet as our coldest night this season was last night and it was still 55*... in about 3 or 4 more weeks that low should be cold enough to start needing the stove.

moralleper · Sep 22, 2009

On my Quad I have a programmable tstat that allows for set backs. Yes the stove cycles on and off but it would anyway because that is how quads work. When using setbacks just be careful because there is a point where you will use more pellets trying to catch up to the desired temp if you go too far. I think for me the happy medium was 62 or 64 when we are not home or sleeping and 68-70 when we are present.

jtakeman · Sep 22, 2009

Yes on the t-stat.

I run my programmable Auto/Off spring and fall. High/Low when temps never reach 40º. Programmed to 66º when away or sleeping. 72º when home and awake-active.

I swear it is saving me some pellets anyway. Worth the $30 something I spent.

jay

relxn88 · Sep 22, 2009

I have a york insert with the cheapo ($30) HD thermostat attached. Your York has three settings for heat, two of which govern the pellet stove by the thermostat. The smart-stat setting (furthest to left) I use in October and November,because it automatically turns the stove completely off and then restarts when the house cools down. But, once the days and nights are cool I use the middle positon on the stove switch, so the thermostat has completely control of my pellet stove and it cycles when ever ther's a call for heat. And lastly, in the middle of winter, when the nights are 0 or below, I use the right postion on the stove switch(no thermostat) and just let the stove crank away at #3 or #4 heat setting for the night.
I wired the thermostat on to the wall in my kitchen next to the oil furnace thermostat. This seems to work well for me.

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Thermostat on stove, do u recommend of not?

Clay H

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Clay H

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mnkywrnch

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geek

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