Heating Capacity?

[David48]

I read somewhere that the square foot heating capacities are somewhat inflated by the stove makers...can't find it now.

I know there are lots of variables with settings, pellets and the home but are they fudging the numbers to start with?

I wanna try to get real close to 100% home heating for our 1700sf / 12 year old ranch home in southern Ohio.

The stove says it will do up to 1750sf...so will it work or will we need flannel jammies too? Or maybe the 2000sf stove?

Thanks...David

 

[jtakeman]

Buying a bit more stove doesn't hurt! The time when you find your stove is too small is a hard lesson learned!

I went big and am very happy I did. 99% of the time my stove doesn't see higher than the medium setting. When the below 0º crap comes I only need to bump it up to 4 and were toasty. I have never used max on my stove, But its there if I need it. And I heat from the no-no zone(basement).

Going big isn't a bad thing. Leave a cold season buffer and you will be happy.

Edit:

Let me add that the stove is rated by how much fuel it burns per hour. Most stove manufacturers use 8500 BTU's per pound. In the real world we see something more of say 8000 BTU's per pound. Then you have to deduct the stove efficiency. Most stoves list the pounds per hour they consume. If you know that and what the overall efficiency is you can get a good number on the stove.

Example: If the stove is only 80% efficient and its a 45,000 BTU stove it actually is only 36,000 BTU's with 8500 BTU's per pound pellets. So its probably slightly less than that.

Do you have a furnace and what is its BTU rating?

 

[David48]

My home furnace is a high efficiency propane with pvc exhaust and intake. Tag says 80,000 input and 72,000 output.

Overall the house is 2100 sf minus the 528 sf garage...so about 1575 living. My business is in the garage...use a 1500 watt electric heater or two out there.

Thanks...David

 

[kinsmanstoves]

My home furnace is a high efficiency propane with pvc exhaust and intake. Tag says 80,000 input and 72,000 output.

Overall the house is 2100 sf minus the 528 sf garage...so about 1575 living. My business is in the garage...use a 1500 watt electric heater or two out there.

Thanks...David

Attached GARAGE or "Office". National Fire Code will not allow a solid fuel burning appliance inside an attached garage. Remeber that generally you do not store lawnmowers, and cans of gas in an office.

 

[David48]

The stove is going in the living room to hopefully heat near 100% of the 1575 sf living space. Want off PROPANE!

I do embroidered and screen printed apparel in the garage.

 

[jtakeman]

My home furnace is a high efficiency propane with pvc exhaust and intake. Tag says 80,000 input and 72,000 output.

Going by your tag you see how they show you the same with the furnace and its efficiency. 80K BTU input is the BTUs the fuel contains. And 72K BTU is what the furnace yields less its efficiency. Your furnace is about 90% efficient.

Furnaces are oversized for the same reason. To make sure you have enough and to give you fast recovery times. Most likely you need about 80% of that on the coldest day. 55K to 60K BTU be pretty close. Now you need to figure what stove would give you a "net" BTU value near that and you should be in the ball park.

If you plan on heating the whole house.

Most Pellet stoves have a 75% to 80% efficiency and use 7900 to 8000 as the BTU per pound of fuel. So something with a max feed rate of 7 to 8 pounds per hour. If you choose a lower feed rate you may need to assist it with the propane on the extreme cool days.

We will see what some others say. Some will say my numbers are high. But if you want to heat with pellets only this would be pretty close. Maybe a smidge high but close.

Edit:

May I suggest adding a pellet furnace to the propane furnace? They would give you the same comfort as the propane in the whole house.

 

[New Hampshire Jim]

David
I have a 1500 Sq. Ft. cape located in Plaistow N.H. Last year I bought a Harman Advance that Is rated at 48,000 BTU and will heat 1500 Sq. Ft. I located the stove In the living room with the Idea of It being a SPACE HEATER I could of got a lesser stove that would of put out less BTU but I am a firm believe In the message I got from many people on this forum that more Is better. I can always run on low fire and if needed I can and have cranked It up to warm the house. If you get a small stove Its like having a 4 Cil. Honda and trying to get on the freeway Verses a HEMI. Does the stove heat the whole house Yes 80 deg. in the living room and 62 upstairs in the bedrooms when Its 20 deg. outside. Will I shut of the oil NO for me that would be silly. I don't want to loose any water pipes Did I save on heating costs last year Sure. But the best part was and will be my bride of 42 years and I are warm as toast in the living room at 70 Deg. on pellets vs 65 Deg. burning dead
OPEC gold
Jim H

 

[tinkabranc]

I read somewhere that the square foot heating capacities are somewhat inflated by the stove makers...can't find it now.

I know there are lots of variables with settings, pellets and the home but are they fudging the numbers to start with?

I wanna try to get real close to 100% home heating for our 1700sf / 12 year old ranch home in southern Ohio.

The stove says it will do up to 1750sf...so will it work or will we need flannel jammies too? Or maybe the 2000sf stove?

Thanks...David

Bigger is better ;-)
IMO the numbers in the brochures are bloated. Testing is usually done in a controlled environment not in the real world.
Go bigger than you need as these stoves are not meant to run full bore for a long time.

 

[Trickyrick]

That is a very fair analysis. Note when that furnace was put in there are rules of thumbs for X BTUs per sq foot. There are so many variables that those are very safe numbers and you may never use that many BTUs per hour. I have a 40,000 BTU stove and because I did more to insulate and improve efficiency it does the job but I had electric heat and could calculate my exact usage...

Barring that the only thing you could do is pull your energy usage for Jan of last year and calculate exactly what you used. Then add at least 20% because your calculations are an average and you want your worst case.

Rick

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Does your current furnace also supply your hot water?

I'm asking this because you may not need the same net BTUs to heat the space as the furnace provides.

My 'saur chemical bond breaker is close to three times what I need to heat the house with.

I'm heating 1800+ square feet of 2644 square feet and the stove rarely is used above heat level 2, I've only operated it on level 3 for one 24 hour period.

I was shooting for the mid point of my stove being able to handle a very cold day and having a bit more available in case we had a record cold spell.

 

[David48]

Wow...lot of great info.

I have an electric water heater. House is pretty tight, well insulated with all double pane glass...even had them insulate the outer garage walls.

The multi-fuel stove is rated at 1000-2000sf at up to 53,200 btu. Living room is open to kitchen and short hall to 3 bedrooms and bath.

Thanks...David

 

[Trickyrick]

How much propane did you burn last January???

If you know the Gallons of propane and the number of days then you know EXACTLY the BTUs it took to heat your house last year in the worst month...

From there you take that average and add 20% That should be you MINIMUM.

 

[dsnedegar3]

A wise person once told me when looking at plasma/lcd TV's -- nobody every complains that they bought too big of a TV - they only complain when it's too small. I think that logic can apply to pellet stoves also, assuming money isn't an issue.

My Mount Vernon AE insert kept me warm the last two years. It is rated at 62000 BTU. I was looking at other stoves rated in the 30,000 to 40,000 BTU range. I don't think they would heat my 1500 square ft first floor on a sub zero day unless I supplemented with another source of heat (furnace) - and I have a new house with 2x6 insulation.

We're "toasty" in Connecticut!

 

[teetah222]

I run a stove rated for 2100 sq ft in an 1100 sq ft home. I can always turn it off or down, but if it's cold out that extra capacity is really nice. Go bigger.

 

[PastTense]

Do you plan to keep the propane furnace? There are probably a few nights when it gets well below zero. Do you want the stove to handle these or is it OK to run the propane furnace then?

 

[sweetsncheese]

David,

I have the Mt. Vernon AE as well. It's large and it's heating my 2200sq' home but I wouldn't compare BTUs or efficiencies with my oil furnace and here's why. A furnace normally heats a distribution system of hot air, forced hot water, etc. This distributes the heat fairly efficiently around the house. Have you ever seen a furnace with a couple fans blowing around it to distribute the heat throughout the house? Have you been in a furnace heated home that has 10°F differential between rooms on different floors? A pellet stove is a SPACE HEATER with no efficient way to distribute the BTUs it produces. If money truly were no object, consider multiple smaller stoves instead of one that will overheat one room just to heat another that is farther away.

 

[David48]

Keeping the propane furnace for sure...using its blower to help distribute heat.

Got a good deal at TSC on the US Stove 6041 multi-fuel...$1399 plus 5 bags free pellets.

Heats 2000sf so it should do my 1575sf...I hope!