I am marginally disapointed in pellet stoves at the moment.

[Delta-T]

pressure cooker allows water to reach temps higher than 212, hence faster cooking, and some extra penetration never hurts. (ummm, in retrospect, that sounds a bit crass, don't it?).

 

[Delta-T]

pressure cooker allows water to reach temps higher than 212, hence faster cooking, and some extra penetration never hurts. (ummm, in retrospect, that sounds a bit crass, don't it?).

& if he could significantly raise his inhouse pressure the water would boil above 198*f,eh?

I think you may be on to something here Pook. MSG needs to seal up the house good and tight. Pump a couple hundred pounds of air into it and then we'll see some real energy savings.

<awaits MSG statistical report from pressurized house experiment using XXV, with OAK of course, otherwise you lose all that pressure>

 

[Clay H]

pressure cooker allows water to reach temps higher than 212, hence faster cooking, and some extra penetration never hurts. (ummm, in retrospect, that sounds a bit crass, don't it?).

& if he could significantly raise his inhouse pressure the water would boil above 198*f,eh?

I think you may be on to something here Pook. MSG needs to seal up the house good and tight. Pump a couple hundred pounds of air into it and then we'll see some real energy savings.

<awaits MSG statistical report from pressurized house experiment using XXV, with OAK of course, otherwise you lose all that pressure>

energy savings result foremost from how the house feels & not the actual temp,genius

Mr Pot, meet Mr. Kettle... LOL

 

[Delta-T]

pressure cooker allows water to reach temps higher than 212, hence faster cooking, and some extra penetration never hurts. (ummm, in retrospect, that sounds a bit crass, don't it?).

& if he could significantly raise his inhouse pressure the water would boil above 198*f,eh?

I think you may be on to something here Pook. MSG needs to seal up the house good and tight. Pump a couple hundred pounds of air into it and then we'll see some real energy savings.

<awaits MSG statistical report from pressurized house experiment using XXV, with OAK of course, otherwise you lose all that pressure>

energy savings result foremost from how the house feels & not the actual temp,genius

Mr Pot, meet Mr. Kettle... LOL

<raises hand quickly> Can I be Mr. Pot??

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I think the simple solutions is you replaced a large stove with a smaller one...40% smaller.

Clay, not sure if there is any solution, i dont like the type of heat a pellet stove produces thats all. My Hearthstone Heritage which is the same rating did great in this house. I upgraded to the Mansfield for more capacity not more heat. However, as i sit here on my day off my living room is nice and warm. The stove has not shut down once.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I think the simple solutions is you replaced a large stove with a smaller one...40% smaller.

Clay, not sure if there is any solution, i dont like the type of heat a pellet stove produces thats all. My Hearthstone Heritage which is the same rating did great in this house. I upgraded to the Mansfield for more capacity not more heat. However, as i sit here on my day off my living room is nice and warm. The stove has not shut down once.

neither does the woodstove eh?

Nope. I dont expect the pellet to shut down either.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Heater is on north end. The wood stove would have blown me out by now if i had kept it going all day. Its 52* right now. On a day like today, i would have started it in the morning and let it go out, then had a evening fire to keep the house warm until morning. With the pellet stove, it just never seems as warm. I have burned through most of a full hopper so far today, and its only 52*.

The traeger is chewing up some nice cherry pellets too..

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

north end was not a problem with the wood stove. Im not going to put a pellet stove in the bathroom on the south end lol. The north end is my living room.

 

[DeePee]

energy savings result foremost from how the house feels & not the actual temp

The 'genius' part was unnecessary, however you are otherwise pulling on the right thread.

 

[lessoil]

Just curious....
How much area are you trying to heat with the stove?

Even though there is no radiant heat, the XXV can melt your eyeballs
if you stand too close.

My main level of my house is 25x50. The footprint is basic, the 25x25 is the main room the stove is in, the back of the house is 25x25 where the bedrooms are. The main room has vaulted ceilings that opens up to a 25x25 loft.

This is not a review of the XXV, i think the stove is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. It WILL melt my eyeballs, just not heat my house like the wood stove did. I think its a function of the different types of heat, and how the heat is delivered more then the unit i picked.

Had a few questions:
1) Total sq ft of your house is around 1250, correct?
2) Have you ever heated with oil 100% for one Winter? If so, how many gallons did you burn?
3) Should you have over-sized your pellet stove a bit??

I guess I am curious how well your house is insulated.
Also wonder how the vaulted ceilings come into play.

Our Cape is 24X32 and we went with the P61. We used 900 gal/yr before the pellet stove install last Fall. (Heat/Hot Water)
Our oil usage went from 900 to 500 gal the first year. Used between 3.5 and 4 tons.
We did have the living room/kitchen area at 78 to keep the upstairs at 64. (When it was -25) Our insulation is not where it should be.
****We found that the heat circulated the best with all fans off except for the one in the stove****

Thanks for listening and I am interested in hearing more about your set up!
Going to be 28 here tonight. Stove is ready to go!

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

My house is in the neighborhood of 1700 square feet. The stove is oversized per my caclulation/experence based on previous appliances.
We do not have fuel oil here in colorado.

House is very well insulated, 2x6 walls, blown celulose insulation, tyvek wrapped etc. I built my house about 6 years ago. Vaulted ceilings always come into play for sure. Radiant heat felt allot nicer in my home, and did a better job of heating then the pure convection stove i have now.

My only other heat source is electricity, which currently is around the $30/million btu range.

 

[lessoil]

Thanks!
We have 1536 sq ft (First and second floor)
2x4 walls and tar paper between the plywood and wood clapboards.
House was built in 1968.

Your house should heat with 4 candles!!

I spent 1 year at Lowry AFB '75-'76 in Denver.
I really liked Colorado!
Our oldest lives in Denver now.

Have a warm Winter and Good Luck with the stove!

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

My house would heat with candles if i didn't live on the dark side of the moon.

where abouts is your oldest?

 

[amick780]

Man this thread has become a runaway freight train....we all just want him to like is stove.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

i wrote what i thought were good logical arguments for the pstove vs HOLTON but the objective bottom line is how many btu were delivered by either & the weight/cost. & no pstove oak definitely changes the contest ithinx.
get a propeller hat & run it in reverse, maybe?

some arguements were pretty good ones pook. bear in mind im not competing but trying to help , in this case figuring out why such an excellent stove as MSG has installed isnt getting the job done. keep tossin the theories out there buddy, makes me think. even when we disagree im still thinking about how you arrived at your theory, ask one of my techs if you ever call in to my shop what my favorite aphorism is "the path to true intelligence is knowing that you dont know" im an "info whore" i'll take it from anyone. think on this, the reason for listening to a theory even if you disagree with it , you research why you disagree to rebutt right? so in researching , you learn , sometimes you might even find yourself wrong, i have. i have even been heard or seen admitting that i was wrong. its a win either way, because i will have learned somthing. i might pick on you sometimes, but dont think i do not respect you, you are wierd , but not dumb by any means.

 

[imacman]

..........you are wierd , but not dumb by any means.

:lol:

 

[Havlat24]

I think anyone comparing and expecting the heat from a pellet stove to be close or better than that of a wood stove is in for a shock.

No way, no how.

 

[yknotcarpentry]

In retrospect, where I agree the heat from the wood stove is more intense I have found that the heat from my pellet stove is more efficient. I had a woodstove in the same room where the pellet stove sits today. When we used to burn wood, that room would get up to 90 plus degrees, and with a fan blowing out of that room it would heat some of the house. I was surprised that with the pellet stove the same room would never really reach more than 80* but the rest of the house was warmer even in rooms that the wood stove never reached???? my Oil consumption was lower with pellets too ie 2yrs ago 3 cords wood 1400g oil, last year 4 ton pellets 500 gal oil

 

[Havlat24]

I've never had a wood stove replaced for a pellet stove..... different houses had different appliances.... I cannot compare like some can I suppose.

 

[tonyd]

What sold me on the pellet stove was, a friend of mine that has enough hard wood cut and stacked for 10 yrs and burned his stove 24/7 bought a pellet stove and he said it was the best thing he has ever done.And he is very frugal with his money.

 

[Vermont-XXV]

Harman "strongly recommends" an OAK and you don't have one.

35 Degrees this am in central Vermont. I couldn't stand within 3 feet of the front of my XXV and stay there. The sides of the stove were too hot to press hard on. I think the radiant heat works fine and the blown heat (using energex) is very hot.

Maybe the OAK really does help. Do you recommend it to your customers?

best wishes for hot tushies!!

clifford

FYI Humidity in house was 50 - 60 percent

 

[amick780]

I agree with Clifford (Vermont XXV) was thinking about this last night. My stove like his is very hot on the sides, and if I put my hands near the convection blower, its extremely hot. Maybe there is some validity to an OAK.

 

[jtakeman]

MSG I feel you pain! I had a 70K BTU wood stove. Doing all the math and asking several stove and HVAC guys. They recommended a 45K to 50K BTU pellets stove.

1st I replaced it with a 44K BTU Quad. House never felt as warm as the wood stove but heat was more consistent(and I didn't have to load the wood in early am.) We ran that stove for 9 years or so and only suffered on the extremely cold days. I would have to fire up the wood stove to help out the pellet stove.

My second stove was a 55K BTU Breckwell bigE and it just didn't perform the same as the Quad. We felt cold even on the 30º days. We only ran this stove for 1 1/2 years and could not stand it.( still trying to sell this one)

My 3rd stove(present) is a 60K BTU Enviro Omega. This stove was the ticket. We feel very close to the warmth as the old smoke bellowing wood burner. And I am using less pellets with this stove too. Due to a better designed heat exchanger. More heat in house-less heat out the flue.

My suggestions would be to add an OAK and reduce the size of your flue to 3 inches if you can or 4 inches max!(6 inches is to large for high altitude). If no change? Then you might want to get some more BTU's from a larger stove! Slide a P68 or an Enviro Omega in there! Bet you'd feel warmer then.

just my 2
jay

 

[iceman]

In retrospect, where I agree the heat from the wood stove is more intense I have found that the heat from my pellet stove is more efficient. I had a woodstove in the same room where the pellet stove sits today. When we used to burn wood, that room would get up to 90 plus degrees, and with a fan blowing out of that room it would heat some of the house. I was surprised that with the pellet stove the same room would never really reach more than 80* but the rest of the house was warmer even in rooms that the wood stove never reached???? my Oil consumption was lower with pellets too ie 2yrs ago 3 cords wood 1400g oil, last year 4 ton pellets 500 gal oil

many pellet companies claim 1 ton of pellets is 1.24-1.5 cords of wood
if you go high that would be 6+ cords of wood which would cut more out of the 1400g....
also it would depend on what kind of wood stove you were running...... an old smoke dragon or a new epa

 

[iceman]

people, people check out my sig... I burn it all!
I can tell you this...

there are ways to "tweak" pellet stoves, furnaces, wood stoves, etc to perform better... every situation is different
it all comes down to personal preference...but
if you wanna save the environment and are more eco then burn pellets or wood (with newer stoves)
if you wanna save money then use your furnace.... todays "new" furnaces are gonna get better eff than most if not all stoves (aka space heaters)
I have owned a total of 3 pellet stoves..... i am partial to harman... but none of them "throw" heat like my woodstove.. and its an insert so imagine if it was freestanding!

HOWEVER, NONE OF THEM HEAT MY WHOLE HOUSE LIKE MY FURNACE!........ with the woodstove you have the famous "curve" of heat, with the pellet stove you have constant heat but ask yourself how long does it take for heat coming outta a pellet stove at say 80 degrees to heat 2000 sq ft? vs 175 coming off a wood stove???(these are just estimates)
and as always... the insulation , the combustion air all have something to with our systems......and how they perform
many people including me want/wanted to heat with pellets so badly that we lost in math except the eco friendly... all the money we spent on stoves could've been offset by upgrading our furnaces(some of us)... for me my furnace runs between 85-88 percent ...... factor that vs price of pellets 250-300 a ton its cheaper to pay for oil.... to those that run 2 stoves... its cheaper to buy oil/lp/nat gas (for most)..... I wanted to save money , so i went with wood... it cost me about 2-400 a year with wood... i still get 1 or 2 tons as i have a pellets stove where electric heat is so you know pellets are cheaper... but if i dont have company it goes no higher than 2.5 with the feed at 3.5 (feed rate depends on the pellets you are using... you can go slower if you are using a good hardwood pellet(2.5-3) but softwood i wouldnt rec less than 3 sometimes 4-4.5 (but rarely)

MSG, you can try all the things possible to try , but if you are used to the "heat" coming off of a stove.... you will never find that intensity off of a pellet stove... simply because of the "curve" ... check that the only way to come close is to turn it all the way up!... also i believe your stove is made outta cast right?
you could try a p61/8 those are straight steel... you might have better luck