Will a Harman Accentra really heat 2,000 sq feet?

As far as heat production capability the Harman unit you are talking about is for all intents the same size (heating wise) as one of your gas stoves.

How much gas did you burn this past winter?

I used close to 600 gallons. I am going to look at the Accentra but I think it may be too small. The seller has a similar layout & sq footage as me but he does not run the stove at night, only during the day. He uses his forced hot air to heat the upstairs bedroom at night. He is replacing the Accentra with a CB1200 or Mt Vernon & thinks it will do a better job.

Some Harman owners dont fully understand the operation of the unit and how its designed to run... Not saying the current owner doesn't? But one never knows. Stove temp, Room temp, Manual, Auto, Feed Rate, ESP, Etc. Its a lot to understand. Some owners constantly mess with the Feed rate and adjust for Mileage.

The Classic Bay is a fantastic stove. But its only 7,500 BTU's more. And thats "Input", not Output. The Harmans have the most innovative Heat Exchanger out there. IMO.

The Classic Bay os an underrated Beast. Just not a lot of features. It comes on and Heats like a Monster, until no more heat is needed. I dont think you would be dissatisfied with either. But the Harman has more Bells and Whistles. But if you dont like to tinker with stuff, then the Quad is a good choice.

The Harman would need to run the equivalent of 134 days at it's mid point (which only the stove really gets to decide on) to cover the BTUs from burning 600 gallons of propane in those vent less units. You need 55 million net BTU and last winter was relatively mild.

You are looking at 4.02 tons of a decent pellet.

You would exceed my druthers for dedicated pellet heating, that stove would cut your propane usage, what it would buy you may make it worth your while.

I believe he was still gonna use the one propane stove? Only trying to cut usage? I know LP is Way Expensive here.

Yes, I understand that, but his question begs the answer I gave.

fishwater,

I'm heating a large chunk (> 1800 square feet) of my house (2688 square feet) using pellets from my basement (well daylight basement) which is always a catch as catch can situation. The temperature difference between floors is between 5 and 8 degrees, my t-stat is set at 73 degrees with a swing of 3 or 0.75 degrees . If the layout was better or I install some interior storms (currently building them) I likely could even things out a bit better. The only air circulation aid I am using is the convection blower on the stove.

Remember running at a 40,000 btu setting will burn 5 lbs of fuel per hour. This is not saying a 40,000 btu stove will only run at 5 lbs an hour but to obtain 40,000 btu you need approx 5 lbs an hour of pellets.

Eric

That could get pricey! LOL

If you don't think the accentra will work, on craig's list in NH there are a few stoves on there if you are looking to buy used. A couple of p61's and a p68.

I'm happy with the way my p61 heats our colonial(1950 sqf) keeps it 76 downstairs. And 71-72 upstairs with the t-stat at 73.

I have sold many Harman Accentra's free standings to customers in the past years, With that being said, will it heat that many sq feet? maybe, but it will be running all the time to do so, i would think it would be better to find a p61 or something bigger so that the stove does not spend so much time on and uses less pellets

Check out the heat diagram in my signature below.

I have a 2400 sq ft tri-level home, there isn't great air movement in my house, due to how things are chopped up.
But, with my Harman Accentra insert, I heat about 1900-2000 sq ft. In winter, when it's at it's coldest, I can get the back bedrooms up to 71-73 degrees.
This is without fans, or anything.

The Harman is a brilliant stove, works well, and is easy to maintain/clean.

Pellet quality does make a difference. Although the Harman can burn anything, I got the best heat output from softwoods such as LaCrete's or Okanagans.

Also, during winter, I keep the stove on Stove Temp - 75 degrees and low. I found that this works better than using room temp/stove thermostat. Because when using the thermostat, the stove has to ramp up and down. When you are trying to heat 2000 sq feet on thermostat, the areas far away from the stove will get really cold as the thermostat doesn't register temperature in other areas of the house. So the ramping up and ramping down of the stove causes much more extreme temperature differences in the remote areas of the house.

Additionally, I found that by keeping the stove on stove temp, the amount of pellets I was burning wasn't noticeably different (even though the stove is always running) from room temp mode.


So, in other words - BUY THE STOVE. You won't be disappointed.

It is a wonderful stove and I heated roughly 1900 sq ft. The only negative thing that I can think of is that it is a bit of a pain pulling it out to clean. Pull your friends out, with his permission of course , and see what you think. I guess that would be typical of all inserts but they do make a neat installation.

He is looking at a FS (Freestanding unit).

Remember these units are supplemental, they will take the bite off of your primary bill.

I heat with Pellets Primarily.

My back-up is LP. Although I haven't needed it in about 4 yrs. The 1st 3 were the Quad 1200 only.

Im to Frugal (cheap) to use LP! !! I found one of my last Bills (on the budget/ means you pay that in July as well as January).
It was almost $400...........

No ProPain in my house

Pellet stoves are space heaters. But depending on the size and layout????

And the space we heat is our entire house....

Mad Dog what heats your water? I guess that is what I call my primary heat source. I have an instant hot water heat oil (fossiil fuel) system for that application and subsidise (sp) that with pellet and wood to keep the house cozy, cooking is with electric oven and propane gas top.
The Accentra is a great supplemental heater, do not see it doing more than that.

We used to go through about 3-4 tanks of LP a year. ($4,000 give or take)

My hot water has been switched to electric. Cooking is still LP. But its been since Nov 09 since my Tank was filled and its still at 45%.

So Primary is Pellet (and Wood starting this last season). My Cooking is LP. But I have thought about electric stove as well.

So 3-4 tanks a yr (500 gal) to 1 tank every 4 yrs ( prob a lil longer).

With an electric Stove. I wouldnt need LP. Period. But I am to big of a Pyro to get rid of Fire for Cooking

I walked into the family pet and garden center in Hanover , Ma. today and watched one of these harman units in action... I was amazed at the heat this thing was putting out (i always found these pellet stoker stoves to fail at producing the kind of heat output of a conventional stove until i saw this thing thing in action! I was so intrigued by it i asked the owner Jim how its reliability has been (mind you he is NOT a dealer of stoves but he has owned and ran many). Jim said this Harmon Unit is his main heat source (and his center is a whole lot bigger then 2000 sq'! Not sure if your from south east Ma. but he seems to keep thing cooking all the time and he would let you play around with the settings and check it out im sure.

Doug it is spelled Harman, sorry could not let it slip by.

Im a drop out, so people better start getting used to my typo's around here fixing now....

Harmon... Hormone? ?

HARMAN....

(I suck at spelling too)

Sorry had to do it, I am a Harming man.

Fishwater - I have a Accentra insert at my house. I have a 2400 sq ft colonial with a pretty open floor plan. It was built in 2002 so its pretty tight and insulated. The stove works fine. I don't even use the oil heat in the winter time. The house stays at roughly 75 in the room that has the stove and the bedrooms upstairs are roughly 68-70. For some reason we get a real cold spell I might need to turn on the upstairs heat just incase it gets below a certain temp. I think I only did that once 2 years ago. I'm located in central MA.

So I think it would work for you just fine. But if you want to be 100% sure I would go for a slightly bigger model. I didn't have an option since this is the biggest insert Harman makes. I also lived in a 1800 sq ft house before this one and the stove came with me since the new owners were not interested in it.

Chris

IMO the harman accentra insert vs the accentra fs the insert puts out more heat (We have tested down here) BUt they are both great stoves but if you can get a bigger one i would the advance, XXV, or p68 are all great options but again this is just my thoughts not fact...

Shawn