Anyone else running High/Low yet? Night temp was 22°F. BRRRRR!

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jtakeman

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Dec 30, 2008
13,495
Northwestern CT.
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Good morning fellow members,

Last night was going to be really COLD, So I set the stove to High/Low setting right after dinner. My first time trying this. I expected an empty hopper and a cold house this morning(I'm a worry wort). But was utterly surprised at how little pellets it actually used. Maybe a 1/2 bag at max. It didn't keep the temp at 72°F but was at 70°F before the programmed T-stat called for the heat to rise to 72°F at 5:00 am this morning. House was at 72°F by 6:45 am. And no waiting for the stove to warm up as the low setting was keeping it and the basement warmer than the normal off setting. Normally time for the stove to get to full temp is a little more than an hour. Was more like half that amount of time this morning.

Looks like I will be using this as long as the temps don't climb above 30°F. And have I said I LOVE this new stove lately. May actually save us even more on pellets too! I am a happy pellet burner this morning.

Anyone else using this setting yet?
jay
 
Jay,

Your house must be very well insulated or have a somewhat small Sq. footage, or both to have only used a 1/4 bag. I think the pellet fairy maybe refilled your stove while you were sleeping.

Bkins
 
I know I go through at least 30 pounds of pellets overnight. Last night was 20 degrees out and my log house is not the perfect insulator but its not bad.
had the pellet stove themostat set for 64 degrees overnight.
 
Bkins said:
Jay,

Your house must be very well insulated or have a somewhat small Sq. footage, or both to have only used a 1/4 bag. I think the pellet fairy maybe refilled your stove while you were sleeping.

Bkins

Good catch Bkins, Its a type 0. Should be 1/2 a bag. My stove is using about 1.7 lbs an hour on low. Roughly 12 hours would be about 20 lbs or so. I will edit that. "Oops" I guess I wasn't awake yet. I was hoping it would maintain with out going to high and using more than the 1/2 bag. Looks like it worked.

House is better insulated now than last year. Added a second layer in the attic. 2" Sheet insulation on the exposed cement walls in the basement. Also added a few more ducts to distribute the warm air. New sliding door to the deck. One of these days we will get these drafty windows swapped out. But what i've done seems to have helped some. I still consider it a drfty shack compaired to the new tight homes. By the way its just about 2000 sqft I'm heating, including the basement area.
 
I was going to say if I could heat my smaller house overnight on 1/4 bag and keep it at 70 it would be time for me to sell my stove and get one of yours. Still, 1/2 bag is very good depending on how long your night was.

Bkins
 
Bkins said:
I was going to say if I could heat my smaller house overnight on 1/4 bag and keep it at 70 it would be time for me to sell my stove and get one of yours. Still, 1/2 bag is very good depending on how long your night was.

Bkins

In bed at 9:00 pm up at 5:00 AM. Darned nabiors dog barks his fool head off every morning. Can't even sleep in on a day off. Today isn't expected to get out of the 30°F's. So I am keeping it on low. See how it does for today too.

So far so good.
 
Set my stove for 65 (manual) at 11:30 Pm last night. A bag and a half in the hopper and expected to find an almost empty hopper. Surprised that the hopper was still half full, and first floor still at 60. This is where I want it to be overnight and use to be set colder when I ussed HHO.

Was up at 5:50 am, cranked it to 75 in the basement and was 65 upstairs by the time I left for work at 7:15. Registers will be cut in shortly. I did not get to do the 2" sheet insulation that I want to do yet. So far so good.

Being a basement install and the fact that I am gone at work all day, it would be nice to be able to use a programmable t-stat proplerly with this stove. No t-stat installed.
 
gbreda said:
Registers will be cut in shortly. I did not get to do the 2" sheet insulation that I want to do yet. So far so good.

Register will help very much to distribute the hot air. Don't for get to provide a cold air return to the basement area. May I also suggest booster fans in the register's or duct's. The sheet insulation is well worth the time, effort and cost! I may even do the floor someday.
 
jtakeman said:
......So I set the stove to High/Low setting right after dinner. My first time trying this. I expected an empty hopper and a cold house this morning(I'm a worry wort). But was utterly surprised at how little pellets it used.........Anyone else using this setting yet? jay

Jay, thanks for reminding me! :red: I completely forgot about switching the stove to Hi/Lo....just wasn't used to doing that as my Astoria was just an On/Off stove, but the new 10-cpm can do both.
 
macman said:
jtakeman said:
......So I set the stove to High/Low setting right after dinner. My first time trying this. I expected an empty hopper and a cold house this morning(I'm a worry wort). But was utterly surprised at how little pellets it used.........Anyone else using this setting yet? jay

Jay, thanks for reminding me! :red: I completely forgot about switching the stove to Hi/Lo....just wasn't used to doing that as my Astoria was just an On/Off stove, but the new 10-cpm can do both.

I thought you were going to remind me? Ah, what are friends for anyways. I was just dieing to try it! Guess I couldn't wait. But I wish the weather would have.

Let me know how you like it?
 
jtakeman said:
....I thought you were going to remind me? Ah, what are friends for anyways. I was just dieing to try it! Guess I couldn't wait. But I wish the weather would have. Let me know how you like it?

ME remind YOU??? LOL I'm lucky I remember my own name sometimes. I'll report back when I see some results. Thanks again for the reminder Jay.
 
macman said:
jtakeman said:
....I thought you were going to remind me? Ah, what are friends for anyways. I was just dieing to try it! Guess I couldn't wait. But I wish the weather would have. Let me know how you like it?

ME remind YOU??? LOL I'm lucky I remember my own name sometimes. I'll report back when I see some results. Thanks again for the reminder Jay.

:lol: It's Curly right? Actually you will have to Thank the wife. See was the one that reminded me. I am just about useless with out her. And I'm sure she will be the one to tell you that too!

Stay warm.
jay
 
jay, what pellet brand was that?

..
 
geek said:
jay, what pellet brand was that?

..

geek

I am burning last springs Premier hardwoods from my personal stash,( I scored them cheap at TSC in Barkhamsted). I only checked the temps(232°F on medium) on these. Not on the test sheet. A bit ashy but good heat for a cheap pellet. There not available here anymore. BT had them too, But they were only selling to Dealers. I can post a photo of the bags if you like. I am just a pellet burner for now, Doing what I do best drinking beer, posting in the forums, and burning pellets. Oh yeah, working on the kids log cabin too! I will post a photo of that later.

Edit: If it gets much colder I will be tossing in my Turmans. They can crank out the heat!

jay
 
Just started running hi/low last night 19 °F over night temp used about 3/4 bag with temp set at 73 °F .
 
I run my stove on the medium setting and my house is constantly at 76 in the room where the stove is and about 70 for the rest of the upstairs. i have a split ranch and i warm up the upstairs with pellets and the downstairs with a wood stove. yesterday was about 28* outside and it was 77 inside.. happy camper.
 
What's the difference between hi / lo mode and auto off? Right now I'm running auto/off with a programmable remote t-stat. I have it set to drop down to 60deg at night and it's only coming on once at about 3am to keep it at that temp.........
 
xcbike&ski; said:
What's the difference between hi / lo mode and auto off? Right now I'm running auto/off with a programmable remote t-stat. I have it set to drop down to 60deg at night and it's only coming on once at about 3am to keep it at that temp.........

Hi/Lo is high setting on stove until the stat is made. Then it will go to low mode. To try and maintain the current temp. If the temp drops below setting on the stat. Stove will again call for heat and go to high setting(or what the stove is set at. In my case thats #3 setting).

I ran on/Off last year. Just seeing if this will save or require more pellets. So far looks like my stove maintains the heat on low and doesn't go to high during the night. Just a slow steady burn. A plus is the stove stay warm and you don't have to wait for the stove to heat up as much. So far I have only dropped 1 degree since 6:30 this morning. About 6 hrs for a 1 degree drop. Basement has stayed the same temp. Normally my temp would drop about a degree an hour. So the stove would have to cycle and reheat several times a day and night.

Will it save pellets? I sure hope so.
 
jtakeman said:
....Will it save pellets? I sure hope so.

Hopefully, it will save pellets, but I'm pretty durn sure that it will save IGNITORS.
 
macman said:
jtakeman said:
....Will it save pellets? I sure hope so.

Hopefully, it will save pellets, but I'm pretty durn sure that it will save IGNITORS.

This be true! But mine isn't a Harmon so I wasn't to worried about that. ;-)
 
jtakeman said:
macman said:
jtakeman said:
....Will it save pellets? I sure hope so.

Hopefully, it will save pellets, but I'm pretty durn sure that it will save IGNITORS.

This be true! But mine isn't a Harmon so I wasn't to worried about that. ;-)

I have NO idea what you mean!! You can't be talking about a HARMAN stove......they are the "be all and end all" of pellet stoves....no way they can have an ignitor (or any other type of) problem......not possible!!!!
 
macman said:
jtakeman said:
macman said:
jtakeman said:
....Will it save pellets? I sure hope so.

Hopefully, it will save pellets, but I'm pretty durn sure that it will save IGNITORS.

This be true! But mine isn't a Harmon so I wasn't to worried about that. ;-)

I have NO idea what you mean!! You can't be talking about a HARMAN stove......they are the "be all and end all" of pellet stoves....no way they can have an ignitor (or any other type of) problem......not possible!!!!

Forgive me, I am bad. Got the week off and I am stuck home(to cold to go fishing). All I have to keep busy is the Log cabin project. Those Harmans are the cats meow. Still glad I got my Omega though! :)
 
We're having a cold snap. Hit the 'teens on Friday and tonight at 8 p.m. it's already 12 °F. BRRRR! I let the stove go off this morning when I left for work and then didn't get it restarted until about 6:30 and my house is still warming up. Only 68 °F right now in here and I've had the stove set to 8 since lighting it. (Did I mention the house was built in 1958, has single pane wood frame windows, and only 6 inches of blown in insulation in the attic. Will be putting new windows in next year.) Decided perhaps I should leave the wall heaters up a little higher so it doesn't get so cold while I'm away. It was 58 in the house when I got here. I repeat... BRRRR!
The good news is it would have to warm up to snow, so no shoveling in sight! LOL
 
Haubera said:
.....I let the stove go off this morning when I left for work and then didn't get it restarted until about 6:30 and my house is still warming up. Only 68 °F right now in here and I've had the stove set to 8 since lighting it......

You need to get a programmable thermostat on that stove.....then it will be nice & warm BEFORE you get home, in the morning BEFORE you get up, and just run enough during the day to keep the house from freezing.
 
Yeah, I've thought about getting a thermostat, but I'm just not ready to do it yet. Plus I use the time right after I get home, before starting the stove, to clean out the ash from the night before. Definitely is cool enough to work with then.
 
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