Living with a pellet stove. Hints, tips, advice?!

[riff42]

So, Finally got my Lennox Montage Pellet. Rated at 13-32kbtu, and I live in a 900sq ft ranch. Ran it for a day now, and it heats nicely, even on the lower settings. Annoying feeder motor though. Kind of a buzz ever few seconds, not like a constant auger. The stove is one corner of the open end of the house (Hallway in the middle, kitchen and dining/living room open on one end where the stove is, and then bedrooms, etc down the hallway.

However, since there is no centeral air flow like I had with my furnace, the heat doesn't get into the bedroom at the far end of the house, mostly because of the doorway casings (right term I think.....the "wall" above the door that is not ceiling height), and the heat that hovers at the ceiling doesn't flow into the bedroom.
I did order a small fan that had good reviews of it being VERY quiet (55cfm) to put either in the doorway, or in the hallway, pointing down and into the bedroom.

So, what are your tips and advise to have a consistent warm house. I did try turning on the central air fan to see if that helped, but it seemed to chill the air down a bit (return is in the hallway at ceiling height, one in bedroom, and I closed off the others in the rarely used rooms)....

Aside from that: The damper seems to not have the range of motion as shown on Lennox's videos....and my flame changes from hardly any flame, to a short flame, mostly in the burn pot. I've already trimmed DOWN the combustion air pot, and UPPED the feed rate pot. Burnpot hardly has anything in it, popcornning embers. Flame is active and lots of flying sparkles. But....not much of a fire (as shown in videos)....any ideas on this?

Stove: http://www.lennoxhearthproducts.com/products/stoves/montage/

 

[mralias]

One suggestion would be a ceiling fan in the bedroom at the furthest end to assist in the circulation of air. I have one in my bedroom on the second floor and it helps tremendously. I keep it on the lowest speed just to keep the air moving. I can feel the colder air at my feet head down the hall and down the stairs when the pellet stove is operating. Also good investment for the summer to keep the room cool instead of running the AC all the time.

 

[ZBrooks]

Put the small fan you have in the bedroom that you want to warm up and point it towards the stove. When you blow the cold air towards the stove, it should be replaced with warmer air.

Do you have a ceiling fan in the room where the stove is? I have one in my living room where mine is and then another in the dining room next to it. Those two running together will push warm air down hallways and up the stairs. I have also tried the central air trick with little success. Ceiling fans, pushing the air down, have worked great for me.

 

[riff42]

I have a ceiling fan in the living room next to the stove, and in the bedroom. Do you suggest air blowing down, or sucking up at the ceiling? I'll try both and see what helps the best.

 

[ZBrooks]

Ceiling fans, pushing the air down, have worked great for me.

This works best for me. Air movement and mixture is much better.

 

[St_Earl]

Put the small fan you have in the bedroom that you want to warm up and point it towards the stove. When you blow the cold air towards the stove, it should be replaced with warmer air.

i do a variation on the blowing cool air toward the stove idea.
rather than have the fan in the back bedroom, i just have it blowing directly into the stove room from the cooler (closer) dining room.
the principle is the same. just my layout dictates i do it this way.
the displacement is strong though.
when the fan is blowing into the stove room, i can feel the heat absolutely rolling back out under the door arch.

i also have 2 vornados high up pointing back to the back bedroom, (one at the living room arch and one further along) but they work much better with the inward blowing floor fan displacing the heat from the stove room.

depending on outside temps, we use various combinations of speeds with the fans.
when it's warmer i will often not need the inward blowing fan and sometimes even turn off one of the vornados.
but when it's cold, the floor fan blowing in is key to powering the convection loop.
it just keeps the hot air pouring out of the stove room for the high up fans to catch and help along.

it took me a while to get it perfect, but i can control the back bedroom temp on demand (my wife's demand) now.

 

[riff42]

This is my layout. Maybe one fan on the floor on the closer end of the hallway, and then a casing fan blowing higher heated air into the bedroom? Or one on the top and bottom of the bedroom doors blowing in the right direction. long green thing is just the couch.

Ceiling fan above living room.