What's your "away" house temp???

I don't have the pb105, But it depends on how fast it can recover. The lower you go the more fuel it takes to get the temp back up and the amount of time to do it. Each install is different as is every house layout. I think you will need to play a bit to find your nitch.

I let my house go to 68 and it takes about 2 hours to recover to 72. So I program my stat to 72 2 hours before I get home. I may have to adjust depending on the extreme outside temps or the warmer days. But this is an average of my case.

With daytime temps outside above the mid twentys, which it has been for most of February, I can recover in a couple of hours. I set the away temp at 67 and the unit comes on about 45 minutes before I arrive home. If the recover seems a bit slow upon my arrival, I will kick the stove up the high for an hour or so.

72?, you guys in the carribean?, how's lucky to be 65 and 62 at night?

I have programmable thermostats and I set them to 55 when we're not in the house. The coldest I've seen it get inside is 60 ( and that was with the outside temp of -40) and it only takes about 2 hours to recover from 60.

pellet stove heat is only room where the stove is dependant, so you guys bragging your house is 72 degree's 50 feet away from the stove are full of CHIT!!

We're talking about pellet boilers using baseboard radiators. Reading the post thoroughly helps to prevent making ignorant comments....

Pellet-King said:

pellet stove heat is only room where the stove is dependant, so you guys bragging your house is 72 degree's 50 feet away from the stove are full of CHIT!!

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My house is 72º with pellet STOVE in the basement. Not furnace Just a 60,000 BTU heat cranker! Sounds like you need a bigger stove. Cause I aint full of s#!+ brother!

Hydronic heat is a combination of radiation and convection as opposed to forced air which is just convection. It is more comfortable because this combination warms all things in the room as opposed to just having hot air blowing into a room and quickly rising to the ceiling and dissipating. This combination will be slow to recover and can take quite some time to get everything in the room the same temp which gives the comfort. That and the air is not dried out like scorched air units so you can have a lower temp setting and still be comfortable. Personally I don't believe in setting back the temp with hydronic because I don't think the amount of energy saved versus the amount of energy used to bring everything back up to temp is much. You have a central system for comfort and if it takes 2 hours after you get home to get back to temp it doesn't sound too comfortable either. Personally, I installed an outdoor reset to control the water temp of my system to save fuel. It lowers the water temp in the system as the outside temp rises. I Installed a boiler instead of a stove for the comfort and silence of hydronic central heating and I don't want to give up comfort just to save money. That's just my 2 cents.

Knowing the recover time is key to having the house comfy by the time you get home. My house is comfy when I get home.

A properly sized and ducted forced air system is just as comfy as hydronics. Cost is far less to install from scratch too! Hench less time to recoup the investment. When the stove dies, I will upgrade to a forced air furnace. But the stove was all I could afford at the time. Spent too much upgrading the insulation and the windows are next. Hard to knock heating 2000 sqft on 4 tons of pellets. So I am in no rush to upgrade to the furnace. Not from what I hear, Those furnaces are sucking pellets up like water!

I leave my Castile on medium with the thermostat set to about 73 °F once the cold weather set in. It takes to long to recover. I have a small house and the only oil heat (hot water baseboard) that is running is on the far side of the house. Very satisfied and a lot of heat migrates upstairs to the bedrooms.

With the pellet stove running our house temp is a fairly constant 72 deg F (median). I don't program different temps because if you swing more then a couple degrees in either direction then there is no savings when you want the house warm since your heating system has to work more just to bring the house up to a reasonable temp when your home. The thermostat is in the middle of the house so it keeps the first floor around 66 - 78 deg F from end to end. When we are away for extended periods of time (days, week) the pellet stove is shut down and the oil thermostat is set to 62 deg F.

I try to keep my house around 72-73 degrees when I'm home, and around 65-68 when I'm not. I don't have a thermostat on my stove though, so it takes a little more work than others to achieve that.

Andrew Churchill said:

We're talking about pellet boilers using baseboard radiators. Reading the post thoroughly helps to prevent making ignorant comments....

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Didnt realize pellet furnace!

I don't know about pellet stoves but furnaces you are not suppose too go below 4 degree's of your normal settings. I turn mine down two degree's too 68 F.
Rick

Says who? Please state your source/s.

My sources is from my energy company.. Union gas./ Ontario hydro/ And i believe them. Our house is 2200 sq feet, with new doors and windows, all brick.. and bring ing the temp. up 2 degree's on a cold day in Canada , the furnace will run 30 mins.. I can't imagine turn it down 5 or 6 degree's.There has too be a trade off at some point, but it may vary with the heating system you use and the size of house. For me to gain only 2 degree in 30 mins, i would not want to go any lower.. Our furnace is a High efficiency Gas , 10 yrs old .
Rick

Here's my rebuttal

http://www.homehdw.com/tips/thermostats.html

http://energystar.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/energystar.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2613

During the day when know ones home 68, when were home 70.5 to 71.5. I'm running my stove on 1 when not home and at night when were in bed. If the temp is in the 20 or low 30 I run the stove on 2, I hardly run the stove higher than 3.

Our house is a Ranch style 2400 sq ft and is very open with lots of windows.

I try to keep the temp as even as possible so when we arive home at night, the house is warm and all I have to do is a quick service of the fire pot (knock out the clinkers)

During the day time from 10:30 am to about 6:30 in the eavening the Prodigy will consume about half of a 5 gallon pail of nut shells.

If I set the stove real low on colder days the indoor temps will drop to 65 or so and it will take 1-2 hours to get the house back to being comfortable.

Keeping an even temp has been easier and with less fuel than the up and down.

During cold weather when temps are in the 30's or below I will run a second stove in the family room and the automatic (Quadrafire) can come on as needed to take up any slack.

During a cold snap back in December when we had temps in the low teens at night it took two stoves to handle the load.

Since then I have added the prodigy in the living room. 3 stoves total in the house.

Snowy

I have too just speak for myself about the lower you put the thermostat down the more you save. why not just turn it down too 33 F haha I do not want too get up through the night with a house temp. of 55 F.. I sometimes am in bed at 11 and up at 4 am. We are home all the time.
I don't think it would do my furnace any good to run steady for 2 or 3 hrs, getting the temp up to 72 F..These people that figure out things do not take things like that into account.
I would think it would shorten the life of a furnace.. They also dont take in account the house size and lay out.. A small house with a gas furnace would beable too bring the tempature up faster .
Rick

Things last longer if they don't have to cycle on and off continuously. Take you car for example. A car that's driven primarily on the highway has fewer breakdowns and needs less maintenance than a car that primarily drives in stop and go traffic.

I like a constant even temps.

68-70 is great.

The big issue is the major swings in the weather around here.

Today is in the 50's and tonight will likley be near freezing.

I tuned the stove off when I left home as the sun is shinning brightly and will keep the house fairly warm.


Biggy is when the rain comes back in a couple days and the clouds roll in along with the wind.

Outside temps in the high 40's to low 50's will allow me to use just the little stove (Prodigy)
colder temps will require 2 stoves and Blistering a$$ cold can see all three on from time to time depending on how windy it is.

Trying to bring the temp back up after it falls too far really takes some heat output to giterdone.


Once the house and the contents cool off it takes a long time to get it all back up to temp.

Things like furniture, the refer, and almost everything holds some heat and when it gets cold you have to warm it back up.

Snowy

65 is about the usual

On the boiler your capable of burning approx 13 lbs of fuel an hour. We have found out that if you leave the t-stat alone and not up and down you'll save more pellets. The Harman will only burn how many pellets it needs to maintain your house temp once you crank the heat 4 degrees and the boiler temp drops the stove will start feeding on high until the tank temp is back to your set point. During the day you you get sun your going to burn less pellets anyway because your absorbing heat from the sun. On cold cold days your boiler will have to burn harder longer if your turn the temp down then back up. So I guess it is up to you on how you run it. Ask yourself if your saving money from your other fuel type and sit back and smile.