Well, after adding a second stove for my basement office I decided to estimate my pellet usage for the winter. It's a bit difficult because I'm not in the office all the time but when I am it's nice to have the little Whit going and it's great to supplement the Quad on the main floor and avoid using the heat pump. The Whit doesn't have much in the way of sophistication (no ignitor or stat connection) so it was tough to estimate it. Local suppliers often run out of pellets by late in the season or charge sky high(er!) prices, so I want to try to have what I need on hand without going too far over because we may want to do some work in the pellet storage area over the summer.
So,.. my estimate for Season To Date usage is right on track at 48 bags since Oct. 1. But I over-estimated for October and under-estimated for November. Let's see where the rest of the season lands...
Oh, BTW... The heat pump has run less than five hours in total since Oct. 1. Three hours of that was for testing and getting ready for the season (getting ready to have ducts sealed, so was measuring output at each register) and 2.75 hours were on Saturday, when I took both stoves down for a good cleaning and replacement of door gasket on the Whit. And our electric bill last month was the lowest since we bought the house over three years ago! Now if only my wife wasn't making me put up outdoor Christmas lights...
