What Level is Normal to Run Stove on??

I would say 2.5 tons by FEB is normal to below normal.
If u guys get weather like we do in the midwest.
I didn't keep count but I would say we are in excess of 3.5 tons

jlo83, how big is the space you're trying to heat? A lot has to do with how big an area you're trying to heat, amount of insulation in the house, size of stove, pellets, etc, etc.

I'd say that running the stove on 4 this time of the year is normal. You can even crank it on high for a few hours to heat the house up.

Do you run the stove on a programmable stat?

Did you buy the stove new? How many tons have you run through it since it was torn down for a complete cleaning??

jlo83 said:

Bought the stove July of 08. We cleaned it ourselves at the end of last year... We clean out all the ash inside about once a week.

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So how many tons have run through the stove total since you bought & installed it? How well did it heat in the beginning right after it was installed?

When you say " We clean out all the ash inside about once a week.", is that all the cleaning you do? What did you do to the stove when the heating season ended last spring, or before the beginning of this one?

Your stove is rated for 45,000 btu. I don't think it would be unreasonable to have to run it at the 4 or 5 setting in cold weather. Try it on 5. These things love to run at the higher settings. Cleaner more complete burn with more output.

Sounds to me like you aren't too far off the norm. Right now it is -28 here. I have one stove set @ 3 out of 4 and the other @ 4 out of 6. Will probably use 2 and a half bags today. I am heating 1800 sq ft and have used 4 1/2 tons since Sept. 15th.

Last year, I turned my stove down more when I wasn't home. This resulted in a poor burn that required more frequent cleanings. On cold days, I'd have to supplement oil heat to help get the house back up to temp.

This year, I've been running my stove a lot higher. I've burned about 3 to 3.5 tons of pellets which is roughly on target for my usage. I'm also spending a lot less time cleaning...getting away with once or twice a week instead of every two or three days. I've only had to supplement with oil heat a couple of times.

I added a second pellet stove this year but it was really for aesthetics and oil independence on single digit days...no real monetary ROI.

2 bags in a day, stove on #3 and a 1200 sq ft. house with new
windows, siding, and good attic insulation is only holding @ 60 degrees?
Something not adding up there imo.

What brand are the pellets? Some pellets don't throw crap for heat.

2 bags in a day, stove on #3 and a 1200 sq ft. house with new
windows, siding, and good attic insulation is only holding @ 60 degrees?
Something not adding up there imo.

What brand are the pellets? Some pellets don’t throw crap for heat.

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Perhaps no insulation in the walls? Where is your stove located? Have ceiling fans...reverse them.

Do you have a thermometer around? Stick that into the vent and let us know how hot the out-coming air is on a setting of 3 and then 5. Don't be afraid to turn it up when it's colder outside. Like another member here mentioned, pellet stoves burn more efficiently when they are running on a higher setting.

Xena said:

2 bags in a day, stove on #3 and a 1200 sq ft. house with new
windows, siding, and good attic insulation is only holding @ 60 degrees?
Something not adding up there imo.

What brand are the pellets? Some pellets don't throw crap for heat.

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X2 tough heating in 20ºF and below weather when you only have a shoulder pellet in the hopper. I would be looking for some super hot's to burn in this cold weather!

Or Maybe the stove just isn't very efficient?

jlo83 said:

I have a Breckwell P23I and it doesn't always do a good job heating the house. The stove goes from level 1 to 5 and we've learned that we have to keep it on level 3 most of the time otherwise the house is too cold. Now that is is below freezing we've had to bring it up to level 4. I tried for months to turn the stove down to level 2 during the day since no one is home. However it always brought the temp way down and took too long to get back up. We burn about 2 bags a day. Its Jan 28th and we've already used 2 1/2 tons. Can someone please tell me if this is normal or not???

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I would test your stove the other way around (based on a week of similar temps). Set it to 5 and make sure it can maintain the temp you want all day. If it does, try turning it down to 4 and repeat the same time period. If the stove is still keeping up, try setting it down to 3. This should give you an idea of how low you can set it based on outdoor temperatures. If the stove is set too low you're going to wind up with a cold house and a stove trying to catch up (might be better to just fire the house furnace for catch up as the stove will take hours).

How well are you circulating the warm air? Is the room with the stove 6 or more degrees warmer than the rest of your house? Overheating the stove room (not circulating the heat) can be inefficient.

If you're leaving the house for long periods you may want to check into programmable thermostat options. Keep in mind your stove will need about 1 hour per degree to recover from being set to a lower temperature. Depending on how long you are gone, this may turn out to be less efficient than maintaining a constant temperature all day.

P.S. Temps in your/our area dropped hard last night. You will probably want your stove set to 5 and expect 2+ bags to be burned until mild February temps return.

john193 said:

2 bags in a day, stove on #3 and a 1200 sq ft. house with new
windows, siding, and good attic insulation is only holding @ 60 degrees?
Something not adding up there imo.

What brand are the pellets? Some pellets don’t throw crap for heat.

Click to expand...

Perhaps no insulation in the walls? Where is your stove located? Have ceiling fans...reverse them.

Do you have a thermometer around? Stick that into the vent and let us know how hot the out-coming air is on a setting of 3 and then 5. Don't be afraid to turn it up when it's colder outside. Like another member here mentioned, pellet stoves burn more efficiently when they are running on a higher setting.

Click to expand...

If the stove is downstairs, will having ceiling fans on reverse upstairs help?

I'm surely not an expert like others in this thread (and on this board), but one important thing that I quickly learned my first season with a stove last year was each stove/house and pellet combo is going to have different results. If I had to burn the tonnage that some here burn for a season, I wouldn't be burning pellets.

As an example, I'm heating 2100 sq ft, split among 2 levels, with a 40000 BTU EF3. We like to keep the house around 20C (68F) and rarely use more than 2 bags a day during the season (I'm in Atlantic Canada, so certainly get some cold days and niights). Normally, 1-1 1/2 bags a day. I had just a little over 4 tonnes at the beginning of September, and that will last us the entire season. I think I'm lucky to have a house that, with its insulation, airflow, and layout, allows me to burn that amount of pellets and remain comfortable. However, put the same stove in another house with same square footage (and different ideas of a comfortable heat level) and the results will be very different.

So, I think, you first need to make sure your stove is working at its own optimal efficiency, then figure out how much you need to burn to keep you comfortable. It may be that your house and what you need to be comfortable is going to mean burning the stove higher than you would have thought, something to supplement the stove, or a combination of the two. Of course, try a different pellet as well.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for whatever it's worth