BTU rating

[stoveguy2esw]

first off, let me say that I have NO idea why my stove feeds low, but my best guess is that the exhaust fan isn't powerful enough to drive the combusted gases of 5lbs an hour up the chimney.

you may be on track with the vac ting or maybe not , way to tell is if its dropping the vac switch the cycles are interrupted not shortened, so you would want to observe the auger motor during the time that the unit is doing the "low feed" if its a lockout issue (like a vac switch you will have normal time cycles except when the lockout opens in which case you would skip cycles. if the cycling is regular but shorter than it should be its something else probably having to do with the board

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Hi, I am looking for some advise on BTU ratings. I recently purchased a pleasant hearth cabinet stove which I found on line and all the literature and manual said it was rated as 50,000 BTU's. I get it home and open the packaging and the sticker on the front says it is rated at 32,000 BTU's. I emailed the company and there response was the 50,000 BTU's is under "optimal laboratory conditions" and 32,000 is under "normal conditions". They assure me that it will heat 2200 square feet. I am less than impressed. Has anyone else run into this problem? Are all BTU's listed on the units under "optimal laboratory conditions"? Thank you for any thoughts!

a little "insider information" the "cordwood" claims(in house testing) are not worth the paper they are printed on , its pure selling point mostly brought on by the wildly exaggerated claims in the past of exempt units. look at the EPA rated OUTPUT for the unit for an accurate number. back when this was not regulated the "input" number was used to exaggerate the performance of the stoves. thing is if the EPA tag states 32KBTU then its capable of just under 5 lbs/hr at max feed rate. now to output 50KBTU using the output figure the unit would have to feed 7.5 lbs/hr which is not at all economical.
good news is you will not need more than that 32K to heat a reasonably well insulated 2200 sq ft space in most all cases. probably will not need that much. as a matter of fact very few pellet stove operators run their stove in high settings during typical operation.

pellets contain on average approximately 8500 BTU/LB of this you will get roughly 78% of the heat into the room and the rest goes out the flue. this works out to approximately 6630 BTU/LB output so to figure pellet consumption to BTU figure the 6630 X how ever many lbs you burn per hour to get a reasonable figure on output. bear in mind and this is important , this number reflects output of a CLEAN stove. as the unit ashes up the transfer is reduced due to ash buildup on heat exchange surfaces. ash will act as an insulator which does not allow as much conduction of heat into the convection areas of the stove, so, the ash by not allowing clean transfer causes more heat to go out the flue and obviously less enters the room.

 

[BrotherBart]

a little "insider information" the "cordwood" claims(in house testing) are not worth the paper they are printed on ,

Somebody claimed burning cordwood in a pellet stove?

 

[BrotherBart]

Only thing pellet stoves can claim is BTU inputs. Not outputs. Just like gas stoves.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Somebody claimed burning cordwood in a pellet stove?

was using a term usually used in woodstoves, not suggesting cordwood is burned in pellet stoves.

 

[BrotherBart]

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Only thing pellet stoves can claim is BTU inputs. Not outputs. Just like gas stoves.

EPA certified pellet stoves list an output rating on their hang tags not an input rating. the input rating is generally found on the data tag listed either by BTU or by LBS/HR