What's a good way to find out how efficient my stove is burning?

[Firenutz]

I've had my stove since mid Feb. last year. I spent a lot of time that remainder of winter trying out different brands of pellets. I was able to observe the differences in the ash and byproduct after they were burnt. I really couldn't tell if one was burning hotter than the other. There are so many variables like outside temps, stove setting, length of burn, etc. The stove heats the house well no matter what pellet I used. I just want to find out what I'm looking for in a good pellet. I heard the lignetics were good yet they left boulder sized clinkers in the pot. I never really had clinkers like that before. The penningtons filled the inside of the stove with a gritty ash at a rapid rate but had no clinkers with them. Is there a standard test or way of knowing when the stove is running better or worse?

 

[jtakeman]

What brand of pellets are burning?

The most efficient way I know is to burn the hottest pellets you can find. More BTU's in the hopper, The more BTU's out the heat exchanger.

You could see if the manufacturer has had the stove through EPA and released the numbers on how the stove performed. I emailed enviro about my Omega and they gladly told me the number. The EPA has been testing stoves for the tax rebate. If your stove pasted and is eligible. Then the stove is over 75% efficient!

You would need a lot of test equipment to do the testing yourself.

jay

 

[Firenutz]

I see some people on here post how many pounds per hour they're burning with pellet A vs. pellet B. Things like that. I have a meat thermometer that I'm gonna start using at various points during the cycle to see how hot the air is coming out of the convection tubes. I'll do that for each brand to see which burns hottest.

 

[jtakeman]

Thats basically what I do (my thermometer is calibrated), Find the hottest pellet that you can afford. I also keep an eye on the ash content. You have to balance both. Great heat and lots of ash isn't good. You are looking for the highest amount of heat with the least amount of ash build up. Less ash is less cleaning for you to do.

jay

 

[CanadaClinker]

I'm with Jay on this..... High heat and low ash to clean up..... I posted the following the other day on how I test for heat from my Lazyboy.... its a lot of fun watching your stove peak in temp....

"..here’s a suggestion on a thermometer for testing.... I purchases for $30 a ‘remote’ turkey/cookng thermometer. It has a probe you can stick in the bird (or in the output of the heat exchanger tube of your stove, out of sight) along with the oven approved heat shield cord which runs about 3 ft to the sending unit. I have my ‘sending’ unit mounted permanently down on the cold floor inside the stove at the rear of the side cover. The ‘receiver’ unit is next to my lazyboy chair so that I can sit back and glance at any time to see what the temp is. I can watch the stove start up and see how long it takes to reach peak temp. Oh, it has a built in ‘count up’ timer which I start when the stove starts up. It had a alarm beeper in it which told you when you were approaching the set temp. but after a week, I snipped the wires to the speaker as it was starting to get on my nerves..... ... bet there are some other good thermometer ideas out there ..... have fun setting up one!

....... CC