What is your temperature of room air coming out of your pellet stove

[Jonkman]

Running on Heat level 4 burning Barefoot or Green Team I see 385-450F depending on how recently I cleaned the stove. That is after about 12 hours continuous burn. Measured with a K-type thermo at the exchange output. Average I would say it hovers around 400F.

That's some serious heat. I just wonder if part of the probe was touching metal. Just seems super hot to me for actual air temp. If that is accurate for you and for "Don2222" that is impressive. I am also guessing that both of your stoves are higher BTU output than mine to begin with!

 

[Lake Girl]

Per manufacturer literature:
Enviro M55C = 45,000 BTU Edit: 55,000 BTU
Harman P61 = 60,300 BTU
Quadrafire Castile = 38,700 BTU

Similar to pellets, not all stoves are created equal! I would imagine these BTU numbers are from the most optimal conditions using the hottest pellets YMMV.

 

[NYBurner]

yes, I have the probes set in the middle of the openings and are not touching any surface.

Lake Girl - did enviro drop the btu rating? was 55k btu which is where i believe the "M55" came from?

 

[Lake Girl]

yes, I have the probes set in the middle of the openings and are not touching any surface.

Lake Girl - did enviro drop the btu rating? was 55k btu which is where i believe the "M55" came from?

Sorry ... it is 55,000 BTU. Wasn't paying attention to the actual stove that came up for the search of Enviro M55c and I got the PS4 automatically on the Enviro site One of their newest?

 

[Jonkman]

NYBurner, that is impressive heat output. I am thinking a larger stove would help me out...my little Quad Castile could barely keep up last winter burning the Isabellas pellets only putting out 175-180 degree air. And it had to run 24/7 and last winter was a mild winter. I'm glad I can at least be cranking out 225 degrees this next winter with different pellets. I only have around 1300 sq ft on our main floor, but it's an old farmhouse (1860) on top of a hill...I thought it would have handled it, but I was wrong I guess. Live and learn.

 

[NYBurner]

Hey Jonk - the wood pellet stoves really dont have the heating power of a true wood stove, but they do ok. The downside of the bigger pellet burners is that they also chew through pellets. We used just about 6 ton this season, heating the house exclusively with the wood pellet. On the REAL cold winter days (single digit and below) the stove struggles to keep up, and upstairs temps will drop into the mid 60's. I guess this is expected somewhat....heating 3k sqft+ with a temp differential in excess of 65f is asking a lot. We are considering adding another stove on our main floor.

 

[Jonkman]

Hey Jonk - the wood pellet stoves really dont have the heating power of a true wood stove, but they do ok. The downside of the bigger pellet burners is that they also chew through pellets. We used just about 6 ton this season, heating the house exclusively with the wood pellet. On the REAL cold winter days (single digit and below) the stove struggles to keep up, and upstairs temps will drop into the mid 60's. I guess this is expected somewhat....heating 3k sqft+ with a temp differential in excess of 65f is asking a lot. We are considering adding another stove on our main floor.

I went through just over 3 tons with our mild winter and our old house with the Castile insert. I am going to buy 4 tons for this next year as I doubt we will have another mild winter but you never know. I just think with a larger stove it would not have to run full bore like mine does, I could actually turn it down on some days...I would like to have that option. I am happy with my Quad, it has been problem free so far and looks great and is easy to clean. Thanks for the input!

 

[bogieb]

If you can possibly do it, especially since you seem to like the Castile, put in a second small stove in another part of the house (as NYBurner is doing). You will have more consistent heat throughout the house and neither stove will work overly hard. So, on the really nasty winter nights, you will have an abundance of BTU's available to stay toasty warm no matter where in the house you are.

I am certainly happy I got my second stove - and if I had done that to begin with, I wouldn't have the P61, but a smaller P43 type for the basement also). However, if I ever decide to dig in an underground bunker, I'll be able to heat the heck out of it .

 

[Jonkman]

Adding a second stove would be cool (er...hot), but with our layout, there literally is no place to put it. We really didn't even have room for this one..which is why I put it in the stairway wall to the basement as an insert. If you were at my house and walked around, there would be only one place to put one, but it would screw up one room massively with it's placement. (either as a second stove or even the original stove). So I am stuck with just the one. If we decide to stay here for years and years, then I might upgrade to a Mt. Vernon insert or the Accentra 52i in the same location.

 

[NYBurner]

Adding a second stove would be cool (er...hot), but with our layout, there literally is no place to put it. We really didn't even have room for this one..which is why I put it in the stairway wall to the basement as an insert. If you were at my house and walked around, there would be only one place to put one, but it would screw up one room massively with it's placement. (either as a second stove or even the original stove). So I am stuck with just the one. If we decide to stay here for years and years, then I might upgrade to a Mt. Vernon insert or the Accentra 52i in the same location.

Jonk - This is not an economical suggestion.....but an alcohol stove can be used vent free to warm 'cold spots' that are only used occasionally. Some of the 12-14" burner models can put out 10k+btu which is more than adequate for a single room. Alcohol is expensive to burn though so that is why I say it could be a bandaid option. Im guessing you do NOT have access to Natural Gas?

 

[Jonkman]

Jonk - This is not an economical suggestion.....but an alcohol stove can be used vent free to warm 'cold spots' that are only used occasionally. Some of the 12-14" burner models can put out 10k+btu which is more than adequate for a single room. Alcohol is expensive to burn though so that is why I say it could be a bandaid option. Im guessing you do NOT have access to Natural Gas?

You are correct I don't have access to natural gas. I do have a small electric oil filled baseboard heaters in our back entry and back bathroom. And in our bedrooms I have these

http://www.eheat.com/envi-high-efficiency-whole-room-plug-in-electric-panel-heater-hh1012t/

Just to take the edge off. Only uses 400 watts. So three of these use 300watts less than just one standard heater (most little floor heaters are 1500watts). Electric bill gets a bit higher in the winter but what do you do...

 

[NYBurner]

I understand the dilemma, with the big old 1800's homes there is no easy option because of the multi-room layouts and especially if there is no space for the stove. If you ran your current wood pellet all winter 24/7 on a high burn but only went through 3.5 ton you are going to need to consider other options if you are concerned about a really cold winter coming. @ 3.5 ton it burned ~54.6 MBtu (thats assuming 7500btu/lb) over the duration of time you had it online. 5 months (Nov-March) or Approx 150 days breaks down to ~15.2kBtu/Hr averaged.

Electric is darn near 100% efficient but its an expensive use of it. Heating is not a cheap necessity anymore so I understand the desire to figure out a solution and the problem with making it work i the house. Is a basement burner or possibly a pellet furnace an option?

 

[Jonkman]

I understand the dilemma, with the big old 1800's homes there is no easy option because of the multi-room layouts and especially if there is no space for the stove. If you ran your current wood pellet all winter 24/7 on a high burn but only went through 3.5 ton you are going to need to consider other options if you are concerned about a really cold winter coming. @ 3.5 ton it burned ~54.6 MBtu (thats assuming 7500btu/lb) over the duration of time you had it online. 5 months (Nov-March) or Approx 150 days breaks down to ~15.2kBtu/Hr averaged.

Electric is darn near 100% efficient but its an expensive use of it. Heating is not a cheap necessity anymore so I understand the desire to figure out a solution and the problem with making it work i the house. Is a basement burner or possibly a pellet furnace an option?

Thanks for the math NYBurner. I guess the only option for me is just to use our furnace when needed on the really cold days. We had it filled last spring and with use in October and just a few instances where it was real cold, we only move the needle on the propane tank from 80% to 70%. At that rate I would only need to fill the tank once every 7 years .

Our house only has a basement (about the scariest and grossest I've ever seen) under our dining room only, so about 12 x 20. Dirt floor, stone walls, etc. The rest of the house is crawl space. So I think I am just going to keep chugging along as is for a while. If we ever put new siding up on our house I would probably insulate too, we already have new windows as of two year ago, and new doors. One goal I have is to insulate the where the sill plate meets the foundation in the basement too, as I know that is where a lot of cold air gets drawn in as the warm air moves up in the house. But who knows how much of this I will ever get done...it all costs $$.

 

[NYBurner]

Thanks for the math NYBurner. I guess the only option for me is just to use our furnace when needed on the really cold days. We had it filled last spring and with use in October and just a few instances where it was real cold, we only move the needle on the propane tank from 80% to 70%. At that rate I would only need to fill the tank once every 7 years .

Our house only has a basement (about the scariest and grossest I've ever seen) under our dining room only, so about 12 x 20. Dirt floor, stone walls, etc. The rest of the house is crawl space. So I think I am just going to keep chugging along as is for a while. If we ever put new siding up on our house I would probably insulate too, we already have new windows as of two year ago, and new doors. One goal I have is to insulate the where the sill plate meets the foundation in the basement too, as I know that is where a lot of cold air gets drawn in as the warm air moves up in the house. But who knows how much of this I will ever get done...it all costs $$.

Amen - the amount we spend to save.....

I love old houses too, but there is no doubt they leave a lot to be desired in terms of efficiency haha. Ill be tackling some insulation improvements this year as well....fun fun.