Hi folks. New here... just purchased a Piazetta Sabrina a few weeks for a 2200 Sq ft 3 story ski house I own in Maine. The house is heated with FHW oil and prices were getting up there... This is a 2nd home for us; we use the house two 4 day weekends per month and rent it when we are not there. I was originally going to buy a wood stove (what we use to heat our primary home) but a local dealer talked me into buying the Sabrina pellet stove saying it would be easier for my renters to operate; just dump in the pellets and set the thermostat. Ease of use and heating capacity was the main features I was looking for. I now have this installed and ordered a ton of pellets to go with it. I probably will not have a chance to talk to the stove shop for a while (they are a bit of a drive away and only open 9-5 when I am not around) so I thought I would try to get some info on here. Questions I have are:
- Reading through the various posts it seems like people are doing a lot of adjusting on the controls. When we are there we are usually out of the house usually from 7 AM till 5 PM, home the rest of the time. I have the pellet stove thermostat set at 74 (I think I have it set at +/-2) with power at 2 when we are in the house and turn it down to 65 at night or when we are out. When we leave to head home after the weekend I turn the stove completely off. I am telling our tenants to do the same. I have not looked at making any other adjustments than that. Any issues with that?
- Every time a bag of pellets gets loaded in the hopper dust comes up and the smoke alarm on the stove goes off... the stove has to be turned off for a few minutes before it can be restarted. Any way around this? Pellets I am using are "Maine Woods Pellet Co"; not sure if they are hard or soft wood. I seem to be going through 1-1 1/2 bags of pellets per day.
- Initially I was told the ashes needed to be cleaned out weekly but after the stove was installed (I wasn't there to ask questions; I left the key for the installer, he left behind the manual) I read in the manual that the grate needs to be cleaned daily. I have been doing this when I am there but I can't guarantee others (tenants, my wife or my daughter) will follow through. What happens if the grate doesn't get cleaned for a few days? Does it create a hazard or just cut down on efficiency?
- I was hoping to use this as an alternate heat source as well in case we lose power for several days. I am guessing a small generator is the way to go?
- House is 3 floors; 2nd floor is open to the 3rd by a lofted cathedral ceiling. Pellet stove is on the first floor in a living room (walk out finished basement, R11 walls) next to the 36" open stairway connecting the 1st & 2nd floors. There is 16" square laundry chute going from the 3rd floor master bedroom to the first. I was hoping this would act as a return as there seems to be a natural draft going down, however the pellet stove is blowing the air into the room and not up towards the stairs directly to the right of it (stupid me was thinking passive wood stove radiating heat). I found I can get the upstairs to 64-66 when the first floor is at 74 but it takes a while. Any thoughts on how I can direct the air flow up rather than out? I was thinking of somehow blocking the front grill and using the hole meant for the humidifier. Currently I am setting all 3 zones of the boiler at 68 (one zone per floor) when we are there so the top 2 floors are only getting minor supplemental heat from the pellet stove.
Any other thoughts or advice you might have would greatly appreciated. I have been heating with wood for many years but this is my first experience with a pellet stove. I am starting to think that the wood stove may have been a better choice... a bit cheaper up front, no electricity, just load and empty the ashes weekly.
Thanks....
• daily adjustments - home on 74, sleep and out on 65, off when away. Nope that sounds fine, but the feed rate depends upon the temp differential. While feed rate 2 works for me a lot of the time, when the temp differential between outside and in is less than 40 degrees, when it becomes more, you/they may have to raise it to level 3 and even 4.
• loading pellets - I've never had the alarm on the stove go off when loading pellets. Perhaps, it's the 60 second hopper alarm? If that goes off, then yes, it takes a few minutes for you to reset it. If I load dusty pellets, I put my ash vac hose right up next to the hopper to suck any dust.
How do I load without triggering the hopper alarm? While pouring in pellets, try to hold the lid button down every once in a while. That will prevent the 60 sec hopper alarm from stopping the stove.
MWPs are DUSTY! Usually the bags I see are a blend, but they also sell a 100% softwood, but those are harder to find. 1 to 1.5 bags in 24 hrs is just a touch less than average. I burn 1.5 bags on an average winter day, of about 40 degree days, or about 25 degrees. Every 10 degrees colder I burn 0.5 bags more. The most I've burned is 3 bags.
With weekly ski tenants, I'd use the cleanest pellets you could find. Tenants tend to be lazy, so they'll make a dusty mess, and you don't want them calling with problems. I particularly like the LGs, very, very clean pellet. There are others, but in general, a Super Premium has less dust and less ash.
• ashes - Weekly? Nonsense. A premium pellet needs ashes sucked out every other day. A super premium pellet has by definition half the ash, so it could go 3 or 4 days. I use a very convenient ash vac, the PowerSmith. Takes only 5 secs to stick it into the ash pan and suck things out.
If your combustion is good, you'll find almost no residue in the grate. I can easily go 2 or 3 days without scraping. However, it all depends upon the pellets you use, and how good your stove is running. You need to dial in your stove, and then it'll run cleaner longer. If your combustion is poor, you can find buildup in your grate after 12 hrs.
A poor burn is not a fire hazard, but it just won't burn well, and it tends to get worse quickly, ultimately, you'll have to clean your vent because you'll get so much fly ash buildup. Did I say dialing in your stove makes all the difference?
• generator - most people here use a 1000watt inverter like the Honda. I have a whole house standby generator and the stove works fine with it, as it does the auto restart as expected. I did recently wonder if I could use an inverter with my Prius just to power my stove. Seems like others have used their Prii to power fridges and TVs. Haven't read of anyone powering their pellet stove, but everyone says you need a pure sine wave.
• moving heat - I'd think about putting a box fan on the open laundry chute and force the convection current, instead of passively waiting for it.
• other thoughts - I'd turn up the convection blower on all your feed rates, unless silence is important. I have my convection blower on max on feed 3,4 or 5, instead of just 5. Blower is next to max on feed 2. You can access your stove settings by using access code E9. The most commonly adjusted settings are feed rate and air. Mine are:
Feed 1 - 3.3secs, factory set 3.3
Feed 2 - 4.5secs, 4.3
Feed 3 - 5.7secs, 5.4
Feed 4 - 6.9secs, 6.5
Feed 5 - 8.1secs, 7.6
Air1 - 2100rpm, factory set 1820
Air2 - 2200rpm, 1950
Air3 - 2350rpm, 2100
Air4 - 2500rpm, 2250
Air5 - 2650rpm, 2470
In general, I and another Sabrina owner used manometers and tweaked our air settings to improve combustion. It turns out both of us had to raise air quite a bit. My stove really works much better now. As I noted, I can easily go 2 or 3 days without scraping the grate, where before, a day was the limit.
The thinking is that EPA requirements forced the mfr to lower air, in order to reduce particulate emissions.
