Time to heat whole house

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dukefan3916

Member
Oct 13, 2011
40
pa
just had a quick question. For you guys that heat your whole house with your pellet stove how long would you say it takes your stove to heat the whole house.
 
Depends on the amount of temp I need to recover and how cold it is outside. On average I get about 3 degrees of rise per hour. As the temp drops outside so does my temp rise(degrees an hour). So my recovery time would get longer.
 
For days above 30°F, my Fahrenheit furnace, ducted directly into my great room on the first floor, can heat my entire 2500 sq. ft. 2-story colonial (from around 60°F to over 70°F) within 3-4 hours on the level 4 burn setting. On days when the temperature is below 30°F, it takes longer to heat 10°F, probably 5-6 hours. My house is a new build (built in 2008), so it's well insulated, that helps a lot.
 
What he said!!
 
One of the complicating factors in heating the whole house is getting the heated air moved, folks like Chris and Jay with their larger blowers also have an easier time dispersing the heat (and other considerations) and will be able to raise the temperature more evenly and faster further from the device than most stoves.

I just changed out my blower adding an additional 70 cfm on high (which is where I run it) this means I get 8 more air turnovers per day in the portion of the house I heat.
 
dukefan3916 said:
just had a quick question. For you guys that heat your whole house with your pellet stove how long would you say it takes your stove to heat the whole house.

Last year it was from mid-October until sometime in June.
Seriously, I don't let it cool off much in the winter.
 
My P68 can bring the back half of the house (kitchen and dining room) from 60*F to 75*F in a half hour.

To get the heat into the master (upstairs, opposite corner) I have 2 floor vents, I return fan and 2 circulating fans. As long as its not bitter cold and windy, I can get the bedroom in the 'comfortable for sleeping' range (68*F-ish) in 4 or 5 hours.
 
hossthehermit said:
Last year it was from mid-October until sometime in June.
Seriously, I don't let it cool off much in the winter.

When I had my quad/big E and couldn't raise the heat for beans(hours and hours per degree). I would not let it drop more than 2 degrees(with a programmable set back stat) or the boss would give me the stare(Burn thru steel)! :red:

To the OP,

Many folks here do the "just keep the same temp" 24/7 burn. They never worry about heat rise, Just keep up with the homes heat loss. Or just keep the stat set at one temp and let the stove cycle with it.

Any time you use the setback programmable stats, Thats when you need to depend upon the stove's ability to over come the current heat lose and and a little extra to get some heat rise. Got to have some extra horsepower or you fighting a loosing battle.
 
dukefan3916 said:
just had a quick question. For you guys that heat your whole house with your pellet stove how long would you say it takes your stove to heat the whole house.

As others mentioned it depends on the situation. I sized my unit to just keep up when the temp is -5 and the wind is blowing at 20 MPH. In this situation there is NO way to raise the interior temp as I'm loosing heat as fast as the stove can make it. Right now I can have the main living area of my home up from 60 to 72 in about an hour. The bedrooms might take another hour to get to 70 but by mid Dec I switch from auto to manual and that will keep the stove running 24/7 and let the room temp sensor control the feed rate.

Usually there is about 2 weeks that I'm burning about 2 bags a day to keep the house toasty. The rest of the year she does just fine.
 
To go along with Jay mentioned about heat loss and such.

I don't recommend that anyone attempt to heat their house unless they can provide for their maximum heat loss at the mid point of their device.

If you take a look at traditional heating systems you quickly discover they are over-sized for exactly this reason, that is, to be able to raise the temperature during the coldest conditions. It is not uncommon to see systems that also heat domestic hot water to be even more over-sized.

Now couple that with getting the heat where it has to be and you have heating your house with pellets 101 chapter one sizing.
 
j-takeman said:
hossthehermit said:
Last year it was from mid-October until sometime in June.
Seriously, I don't let it cool off much in the winter.

When I had my quad/big E and couldn't raise the heat for beans(hours and hours per degree). I would not let it drop more than 2 degrees(with a programmable set back stat) or the boss would give me the stare(Burn thru steel)! :red:

To the OP,

Many folks here do the "just keep the same temp" 24/7 burn. They never worry about heat rise, Just keep up with the homes heat loss. Or just keep the stat set at one temp and let the stove cycle with it.

Any time you use the setback programmable stats, Thats when you need to depend upon the stove's ability to over come the current heat lose and and a little extra to get some heat rise. Got to have some extra horsepower or you fighting a loosing battle.

I call that the stink eye!!! LOL
 
In the coldest months. My Quad sits on Low 24/7 and keeps the house (2,180 sq) in the mid 70's. Dont like it cold. Thats why this season the addition of the Fahrenheit furnace and the Englander 30 woodstove are a welcome addition to the Bio-Mass burning home that we have become.

So there will be a huge learning curve for me this year. But the temp no matter what!!! Will not get below the Nuclear level.. LOL...
 
DexterDay said:
In the coldest months. My Quad sits on Low 24/7 and keeps the house (2,180 sq) in the mid 70's. Dont like it cold. Thats why this season the addition of the Fahrenheit furnace and the Englander 30 woodstove are a welcome addition to the Bio-Mass burning home that we have become.

So there will be a huge learning curve for me this year. But the temp no matter what!!! Will not get below the Nuclear level.. LOL...

Dex, You sharing some heat with the neighbors? Got enough BTU's to heat a city block almost! ;-) Or you planning on heating with there winders open? :cheese:
 
j-takeman said:
DexterDay said:
In the coldest months. My Quad sits on Low 24/7 and keeps the house (2,180 sq) in the mid 70's. Dont like it cold. Thats why this season the addition of the Fahrenheit furnace and the Englander 30 woodstove are a welcome addition to the Bio-Mass burning home that we have become.

So there will be a huge learning curve for me this year. But the temp no matter what!!! Will not get below the Nuclear level.. LOL...

Dex, You sharing some heat with the neighbors? Got enough BTU's to heat a city block almost! ;-) Or you planning on heating with there winders open? :cheese:

Hoping to have the snow melt before hitting the house... Should fall in rain form. Also should have an 8ft rinv around the house with no snow. Calling it a "No Snow Zone" or going Nuclear. Hope to make it to Kinsman stoves this weekend to pick up the 4" vent for the Endurance. Wanted to do it last weekend. But had wisdom teeth pulled on Fri... Ugh..

I am looking forward to the Endurance and also Not looking forward to it. As my Quad may get little use. My hopes for a good multi fueler upstairs may be burning up in pellet smoke. Hard to justify a new stove we wont use.. What to do. What to do.....
 
SmokeyTheBear said:
One of the complicating factors in heating the whole house is getting the heated air moved, folks like Chris and Jay with their larger blowers also have an easier time dispersing the heat (and other considerations) and will be able to raise the temperature more evenly and faster further from the device than most stoves.

I just changed out my blower adding an additional 70 cfm on high (which is where I run it) this means I get 8 more air turnovers per day in the portion of the house I heat.

Can I ask where you got the bigger blower and how many cfm total you got...What I cannot understand is my manual says not to adjust the fan speed or you lose efficiency...my whole house is much warmer when set on high fan.
 
IHATEPROPANE said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
One of the complicating factors in heating the whole house is getting the heated air moved, folks like Chris and Jay with their larger blowers also have an easier time dispersing the heat (and other considerations) and will be able to raise the temperature more evenly and faster further from the device than most stoves.

I just changed out my blower adding an additional 70 cfm on high (which is where I run it) this means I get 8 more air turnovers per day in the portion of the house I heat.

Can I ask where you got the bigger blower and how many cfm total you got...What I cannot understand is my manual says not to adjust the fan speed or you lose efficiency...my whole house is much warmer when set on high fan.

I was hoping he'd do a whole thread on his mod, Sure bet others would be mighty interested! :)
 
j-takeman said:
IHATEPROPANE said:
SmokeyTheBear said:
One of the complicating factors in heating the whole house is getting the heated air moved, folks like Chris and Jay with their larger blowers also have an easier time dispersing the heat (and other considerations) and will be able to raise the temperature more evenly and faster further from the device than most stoves.

I just changed out my blower adding an additional 70 cfm on high (which is where I run it) this means I get 8 more air turnovers per day in the portion of the house I heat.

Can I ask where you got the bigger blower and how many cfm total you got...What I cannot understand is my manual says not to adjust the fan speed or you lose efficiency...my whole house is much warmer when set on high fan.

I was hoping he'd do a whole thread on his mod, Sure bet others would be mighty interested! :)

I for one am very interested :cheese:
 
Well it is a total hack job, I don't know what the blower is rated at on your stove IHATEPROPANE but I purchased a 230 CFM 1500 RPM Blower (it even should eat less electricity), lined up the holes on my snorkel. marked and punched the frame on the blower (different hole spacing) got out my trusty drill and a freshly charged battery pack and drilled a couple of new holes.

Then by a method known only to true geeks wearing contortionist costumes proceeded to some how get everything back in the shell without removing all of the skin on my hands and bleeding to death. Whereupon I hooked it up (did this a couple of months go) and last Thursday I fired the beast up.

Nothing fancy, just a good old fashioned Maine application of hit it with a hammer until it works.

The blower came from a surplus parts supplier.

The issue with all of this is to get something that:

1. Will fit in the space alloted.
2. Can handle the job.
3. Matches up with what the controller can handle.

After that everything is simple.

The efficiency issues that can come about doing this are none if you set it up correctly.

It is possible to increase the electrical load which can cost you more on the electrical bill, and it might also be possible to move the air so fast through the heat exchanger that less heat will be extracted. So you do have to make sure you don't over do it on the air flow. My flue temperatures have dropped (good sign that the heat isn't leaving that way so it has to be coming out the front of the stove) so far there is less of a temperature difference between my cave and upstairs so some of what I was looking for with the change has occurred, more time will tell the story (the other issue I was having with my stove was that it was hard to stop it from tripping the high limit, this depended upon the pellet being burned and the firing rate).

I believe that there are likely a number of stoves out there that have undersized convection blowers and/or poor heat exchanger designs given their fuel burning ability and warnings about not using the highest burn rates for longer than so many minutes.
 
Very interesting answers. I am probably. Going to fire up my stove all weekend this weekend so I willbe learning some stuff
 
dukefan3916 said:
Very interesting answers. I am probably. Going to fire up my stove all weekend this weekend so I willbe learning some stuff

Please put what kind of stove you have in your signature line so folks can respond to questions more easily.

Thanks
 
BrotherBart said:
dukefan3916 said:
Very interesting answers. I am probably. Going to fire up my stove all weekend this weekend so I willbe learning some stuff

Please put what kind of stove you have in your signature line so folks can respond to questions more easily.

Thanks

Yep... Helps us know whether you are working with 30,000 BTU's or 100,000 BTU's.. Also if you have a problem, we dont have to keep asking what you have.

Your Profile is at the top pf the page here. Click on it and then look on the left side of the screen. Your signature. Click on it and tell is what you got
 
On one of the coldest days last winter (-30c, 50km/h winds), my Europa 75 (in the basement) took my house from 17c to 23c in three hours (set to level 5)

Bring on the cold.

It really helps that air moves around really, really well in my house (built in 2009, really well insulated). It probably also helps that it's split-entry and open concept on the upper floor (1100 sq ft)
 
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