Going to start burning pellets

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Thewoodsman

Thewoodsman

New Member
Oct 9, 2011
14
Eastern ct
Hi I'm hoping to buy a stove this season and I'm looking for some advice on options. We are getting a chimney rebuild from the roof line up on a cape style house, which should be done in the beginning of Nov. Hope to have stove put in around the same time.
After doing some research on line and visiting two Dealers I'm thinking of going with a Harrman Accentra insert pellet stove.
My concerns are weather putting a stove in the living room fireplace,( which we are never in) how well the heat will warm the other rooms on the lower level. Our house is 900 square feet on lower level 400 on second floor. The stove would face the staircase wall which is mostly open and separates the dinning area and kitchen all open The family room is 25x18 off the back of house separated from living room by two adjacent door ways on opposite end of living room away from fire place.I'm wondering if I should put a free standing stove in basement under family room instead,or possible going with a Mt Vernon insert since it's bigger than accentra.Any thoughts to help me with my decision would be appreciated.
 
i also have a cape about the same size and my stove heats the the whole house minus the basement , i have a avalon astoria insert in my living room keeps the two floors warm upstairs i have to close doors to keep it cool and i put a small fan in one corner of my living room to circulate heat throut the rest of the house. we used 100 gals of oil since last dec and that is to heat the hot water. dont think you will have a problem heating your house. good luck
 
Gonebrokeonoil said:
....I'm wondering if I should put a free standing stove in basement under family room instead......
Click to expand...

No. Do as Gerry above says....put the stove in the rooms you want to heat primarily. Basement installs are iffy at best.
 
Basement installs require a lot of factors to be just right after properly sizing the stove, the biggest one is an airflow that allows the heated air to escape the basement in sufficient quantity and return the cold air from above.
 
A stove in a finished basement does OK, But you'll have a struggle with getting heat upstairs.

May I suggest a nice hot air pellet furnace that you can duct the heat upstairs? No struggles getting heat where you really need it! Otherwise put the stove where you want the heat.
 
Does your living room have a ceiling fan?
I have found that running the ceiling fan in reverse in the room with the insert does a nice job of distributing the heat.
 
Put the stove in the area you want to heat...
 
stoves are space heaters...and the space should not be your whole house

If you have an open floor plan it might work well but in any case the heat has to travel (through doors, up and down stairs, ect.) you will have losses. You can try to mitigate with fans (noise and windy) - with usually medium effect or just use the temp gradient to your advantage (hot in the living area - cooler in the bedrooms the furthest away from your stove).

You wont get the same evenly distributed heat like you get with forced air, other than a pellet furnace.

Install the stove in the bigger room if you have a choice and/or in the one you want to live in in Winter the most and/or in the most central space you can do (entryhall ?).
 
Ok I went to another dealer looking at pellet inserts after reading about different stoves from people on this site. It seems I'm down two three different stoves Harman Accentra ,Enviro ,and Quadrafire Mt vernon I did however look at a Regency as well. I read in here somewhere to go with as big a stove that will fit into my fire place assuming it's in my budget and I like features ect. The Enviro dealer told me the empress is all I need for the size of my house and going with a bigger stove rated for heating more square feet and running at at lower setting is counter productive and would be a mistake because pellet stoves are supposed to burn hot for a clean burn and less cresol build up. I was thinking of the M55 myself. They were sold out of both units even displays were sold so I couldn't see or hear them run. Basically I want a stove to heat well and not make a lot of noise from blower and be reliable. Of the stoves I've mentioned it seems people are happy with each and also each has not worked as expected for others. Any additional comments would help me with my decision. Thanks for all your comments everyone here does a great job in helping each other.
 
I think the best thing to do is see and hear the stoves running first hand.

Your gonna get alot of this stove is best cause its what I have on this forum.

I personally love my Mt Vernon FS, but there are some who have it and hate it.

That being said the M55 is getting a ton of positive feedback here.
 
Gonebrokeonoil said:
The Enviro dealer told me the empress is all I need for the size of my house and going with a bigger stove would be a mistake because pellet stoves are supposed to burn hot for a clean burn and less cresol build up.

I think this dealer you went to is out to lunch on what he told you. Stoves can be run on any number of different levels and running on on a lower setting will do a lot less harm on the stove then buying one to small for the house and running it on high all the time. Stoves create fly ash and not cresol so I don't know where he is coming from. Maybe its the only stove he has left in inventory and is bending the truth to get you to buy it.
Click to expand...
 
I agree, while I'm not a long time pellet stove user...get the biggest BTU stove you can afford & fit. If possible get one that has hi/low or auto/off capability. I think all 3 stoves you are looking at do. Then you can use a programmable thermostat. I have the M55 insert. For the first 3 months we ran it in manual mode. I have since hooked up a thermostat and it is nice to not have to constantly turn up/down the stove as needed. Or sometimes I would come home and the wife would have it 80+ in the house because she was afraid to touch it except to turn it on! Now, I set the stove in hi/low, set the thermostat to 76F and then all she has to do is turn on the stove when she wants it. It will then keep the living room at 76 where we like it and saves on pellets too.
 
Gonebrokeonoil said:
The Enviro dealer told me the empress is all I need for the size of my house and going with a bigger stove would be a mistake because pellet stoves are supposed to burn hot for a clean burn and less cresol build up.
Click to expand...

IMHO the Empress would heat the downstairs area ok, But to little horsepower to do much more than that. I see way to many dealers advise to little of stove for the area your trying to heat. They want you to burn the stove at 100% and that kills them. Find something that would handle your needs but only use 65 to 80% of the stove. They will run far longer with less abuse if they are not maxed out! Been there done that!
 
j-takeman said:
.....Find something that would handle your needs but only use 65 to 80% of the stove. They will run far longer with less abuse if they are not maxed out!......
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. Running at 60-80% most of the time during cold weather is the way to go, and then when you get that real bitter cold spell, the stove has something left to still keep you warm.

I agree w/ Bkins above....this dealer may have other reasons for his "recommendation".
 
Gonebrokeonoil said:
Ok I went to another dealer looking at pellet inserts after reading about different stoves from people on this site. It seems I'm down two three different stoves Harman Accentra ,Enviro ,and Quadrafire Mt vernon I did however look at a Regency as well.
Click to expand...

flynfrfun said:
If possible get one that has hi/low or auto/off capability. I think all 3 stoves you are looking at do.
Click to expand...

I was hoping the Mt Vernon had hi/low capability but I don't see that it does on the Quadrafire web site. What do you mean by auto/off capability?

(I'm already thinking about my 2nd stove :coolsmile: )
 
DonD said:
Gonebrokeonoil said:
Ok I went to another dealer looking at pellet inserts after reading about different stoves from people on this site. It seems I'm down two three different stoves Harman Accentra ,Enviro ,and Quadrafire Mt vernon I did however look at a Regency as well.
Click to expand...

flynfrfun said:
If possible get one that has hi/low or auto/off capability. I think all 3 stoves you are looking at do.
Click to expand...

I was hoping the Mt Vernon had hi/low capability but I don't see that it does on the Quadrafire web site. What do you mean by auto/off capability?

(I'm already thinking about my 2nd stove :coolsmile: )
Click to expand...

Auto/off is Enviro's name for thermostat mode. Stove is on when stat calls for heat and off when not calling for heat.
 
J is right. Plus in auto/off, the stove will go to low for 30min and then if the thermostat calls for heat it will go back to whatever heat setting you had set. If it doesn't call for heat then the stove shuts down at that time. This reduces ignition cycles and saves the igniter. I personally don't use it much since my primary heat is a furnace, but others like it in the shoulder season especially if they are heating their whole house with the pellet stove. Typically, hi/low is used during the coldest part of winter since you are likely to just keep the stove running all the time.
 
As far as I can tell the Mt Vernon has neither of those, similar to my Castile. I think it just has auto/off without the 30min low cycle, and no hi/low capability, right? Just thinking it would be nice if my next stove had something like that so it wouldn't go through igniters.
 
I use the Auto/Off during the shoulders and The Hi/Lo during the cold. Between the stove control features and the trusty programmable stat the house is warm when I want it. Idled down or off when away/sleeping to save fuel. But the feature I like the best is the multifuel/self cleaning feature. I literally only touch the stove to fill it every other day and do my weekly cleaning on Sunday. I have also never had a pellet that it didn't want to eat.

Some other stoves use this same control panel made by Applied Control Electronics Inc.(reprogrammed to match the required feed rates). St Croix, Hudson River, Breckwell, Napoleon, and the sister stoves(Regency, Vista Flame). I think there might be a couple others too. They also have the Auto-Hi/Lo-Manual feature.
 
Yeah, the combination of auto/off or hi/low with a programmable thermostat that has adjustable temp swing is the cat's meow. :) You can sure fine tune the stove to do pretty much exactly what you want.

BTW, maybe some Mt Vernon users can chime in, but I just read thru their manual and it doesn't seem to have the 30min delay in the auto mode. It appears to shut down as soon as the desired temp is reached.
 
Gonebrokeonoil said:
...and going with a bigger stove rated for heating more square feet and running at at lower setting is counter productive and would be a mistake because pellet stoves are supposed to burn hot for a clean burn and less cresol build up.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a lot of nonesense from that dealer.

a) How can a pellet stove be oversized (it might be overpriced maybe or does not fit in your given space). Since you have many feed/air settings you can adjust depending on your heat output need and/or you can adjust by using low heat output pellets as well - hence a lot of people have pellets for the shoulder season (its not just the money).

b) creosol should be creosote

c) good quality pellets (should) have no bark content, are much dryer than fire wood and burn with good air/oxygen flow anyway and hence the creosote issue is no issue with pellet stoves (at least nothing you could prevent by operating 'hotter'). Which does not mean you should skip your annual sweep/clean/maintenance, but this dealer you maybe want avoid for your purchase
 
Thanks for the info. The dealer was very nice but her information didn't sound right. The bad thing is they are the closest dealer around that sells the Enviro line of stoves.
 
Thanks for the info this makes more sense. The dealer was nice just misinformed I guess . Although if I want a Enviro stove they are the closest place around.
 
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