Do you keep your stove lit all night?

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BrianN

Feeling the Heat
Aug 30, 2012
285
Central BC
With this being my first year with a pellet stove, I am wondering if you keep your stove lit all night? Or do you shut it down and start it in the morning?
Where we are, it is getting down to -10C (14F) outside overnight. When we get up in the morning it is between 14C (57F) - 16C (61F)
 
Mine burns day and night when it's cold out. Have to admit it was hard to leave the house with it burning the first couple of times though!
 
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Mine burns 24/7, when it's cold outside, stopping only for cleaning. I've never given it a second thought.

Dave
 
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Burn mine 24/7 when the weather's "right," but like Eaton, I was worried at first. As long as your install is OK and you have proper precautions (detectors, etc.) you can sleep sound.
 
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Mine will BOTH go 24/7 probably from the middle of November thru the end of March. The P43 gets a maintenance shut down every three weeks. The P61A every 4.
 
Once the temps get low enough the M55 runs 24/7 unless it is shut down for a cleaning, which is about once a week. The Castile will be plugged in and ready to generate heat when the T-stat calls for it, day or night. No worries, especially after having a wood stove for a few years prior to the pellet stoves.
 
Brian, I was worried about the same thing. But then I thought the only difference between this stove and my oil burner is that with the stove I can see the fire; in the burner, it is all enclosed. I have no qualms about either going to bed or to work and leaving the oil heat going!
 
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I definitely run it all night, there's nothing like getting out of a warm bed and freezing you arse off, plus the stove won't warm the house enough before I leave for work. ALSO there are 3 females in the house (my better half, my littler half and mother-in-law half) and I don't think I would be alive today if I shut down the stove overnight and they got up with those temps. Now I will shut down the stove in the morning when we are leaving for the day IF the outside temps are supposed to get into the high 50's / low 60's for the day and my wife will turn it back on when she gets home. Otherwise I'll run it on low during the day just to keep the chill away.
 
Run mine 24/7 as needed. Sure was a strange feeling though the first time I came home at night. Coming down the driveway and looking into the living room, the glow was kind of erie. No issues leaving it running though. I didn't spend $4000+ to be cold.
 
24/7 except to regularly clean it.
 
No not really, I'm a stat user. Stove is setback(68ºF) during the day until stat calls for heat at 2.00 PM. Then I have it bring the heat up to 72ºF until 8.30 PM where it again is set back to 68ºF. If it cooler than 32ºF I have the stove on Hi/lo which basically just maintains the fire. Over 32ºF I just have it in Auto/Off. I can get away with this as my stove will bring the house temp up 2-3 degrees in an hours time. I also get lots of solar during the day. Only exception is the bitter cold days I will leave the stove on hi/lo during the day. Its not the fear of having the fire going, Its that I try to say fuel where I can. I saved about 1/2 ton per season with my stat alone(no over temps) and another 1/2 ton setting it back while sleeping/away with the lower temps.

I don't recommend setting it back if your stove struggles to raise the temps quickly! But adding a stat and using the swing will save fuel if you do get the house too warm trying to idle along. Use the Hi/lo(maintained fire) where possible to help save your igniter(colder days where the stove will try to re fire to much). Warm days you can get by with auto/off when heat loss is lower. Play around a little and see if you can save some fuel.
 
I burn mine mostly at night,fire it up around 5 when I get home from work shut down in the am when I leave for work,during the day I set the oil burner therm. for 62 while nobody is home.
 
No not really, I'm a stat user. Stove is setback(68ºF) during the day until stat calls for heat at 2.00 PM. Then I have it bring the heat up to 72ºF until 8.30 PM where it again is set back to 68ºF. If it cooler than 32ºF I have the stove on Hi/lo which basically just maintains the fire. Over 32ºF I just have it in Auto/Off. I can get away with this as my stove will bring the house temp up 2-3 degrees in an hours time. I also get lots of solar during the day. Only exception is the bitter cold days I will leave the stove on hi/lo during the day. Its not the fear of having the fire going, Its that I try to say fuel where I can. I saved about 1/2 ton per season with my stat alone(no over temps) and another 1/2 ton setting it back while sleeping/away with the lower temps.

I don't recommend setting it back if your stove struggles to raise the temps quickly! But adding a stat and using the swing will save fuel if you do get the house too warm trying to idle along. Use the Hi/lo(maintained fire) where possible to help save your igniter(colder days where the stove will try to re fire to much). Warm days you can get by with auto/off when heat loss is lower. Play around a little and see if you can save some fuel.

Not to go off topic...I think that if the stove has to relight within an hour from shutting down in auto/off due to the temps and/or your setback, then pellet usage is pretty much the same as running in hi/low. This is due to the extra volume of pellets required to relight the stove and get it back up to operating temp, whereas in hi/low the stove stays at operating temp. If the stove can stay off for more than an hour, then auto/off is going to save more pellets. That's my gut feeling as I have not actually tested this theory. Having said that, we tend to shut our stove down when we leave because we have natural gas heat which can maintain our min baseline temp of 65F. The pellet stove is mainly for heating the downstairs living area to a nice toasty 78-80F while we are home. To heat the whole house with the furnace to 78-80F would probably cost more in natural gas than we use in pellets zone heating our living area.
 
Mine burns day and night when it's cold out. Have to admit it was hard to leave the house with it burning the first couple of times though!
X 2
 
Mine has burned 24/7 every winter since I have it. They are meant to be used. As was said earlier if they are installed properly and maintained they will be ok.
 
Once the cold weather sets in, the stove runs on a stat 24/7.
 
On a programmable thermostat here aslo. I think after you get comfortable with your stove that you will start leaving it on round the clock.
 
Install according to manual and its probably safer than your clothes dryer.

I actually dont leave my house with the dryer running...... But I will leave for 2 days and let the stove start and stop. According to what the stat is set at.

There are lots of members who were nervous at 1st... And that makes you cautious. If you were not nervous, that would scare us more. Its the people who are cocky and complacent that have a lot of issues (read: Those that dont read the manual and worry).

Many other things that can go wrong. Depending on what model you have, will depend on how many safety features it has. But most Stoves have a couple. Some more than that.

What model do you have?
 
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