How much sq ft does your pdvc really heat?

mystove said:

no insulation- almost 100 y/o house.

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I think you can use any type of heat and it will struggle... I realize adding insulation to a finished house is really annoying, but something's got to give. Have you ever had another heat source that was able to keep up?

I also have a pdvc (new) and i'm not impressed with the heat output at all. I have about the same square footage and 2 stories. Doesn't heat the upstairs at all and I struggle to keep the downstairs at 62. The bedrooms further away from the stove are lucky to get to 60. Like you said, if it's below freezing, this thing has to be 9-9 to keep at those temperature ranges. I've tried putting it in C mode and changing pellets. I think I probably bought a stove a little undersized for the house, but was trying to save money. Should have just bought the pdv or something else from the start. I'll probably end up selling this one since it's still in good shape and go that route.

No insulation is the problem not the stove. Insulation provides an INSTANT PAYBACK. Most generally paying back in full in less than 3 years. I heat my 2250 sq ft ranch with no basement easily with either a 53000 btu Propane furnace or my 43000 btu pellet stove. I generally use a combination of both because I need to burn 500 gallons of propane a year to keep my 500 gallon tank. I need this for my stand by power generator as the smaller tanks can't boil off enough Propane. I can also cool this house with only 2 tons of cooling easlily. Part of the house is 64 years old but all of it is extremely well insulated. Before insulation I couldn't heat the original 1200 sq ft with 60,000 btus.
Ron

Heating 1800 sq ft with my PDVC. 18 Degrees out right now, stove is on 7 and it is 68 in the house, oil furnace is not running. Pretty good insulation and newer windows.

The 25-PDVC will heat 1000 - 1500sqft, but you need to have the area air tight as well. The 25-PDVC outputs around 22,400 BTU. The stove can struggle when temps drop below 20F, it's not the stove's fault as such, that is, if the area you are heating is not / well insulated, when the outside temp drops, the stove starts to struggle to heat the space.

I have just over 1500sqft home, when the temps got to 17F outside the stove started to struggle - last winter was brutal.

I now have a new stove that puts out more heat, over twice the heat -- 48,000 BTU. With the temp outside around 10F - 8F I can keep most of my lower part of the house at 75F and upstairs in the low to mid 60's without the oil guzzler running, but with that extra heat output, the new stove requires more pellets to produce the heat.

my PDVC will heat my 1100 sqft basement with no problems. The basement is leaky and has bare concrete walls and floor. In less than an hour it can take the basement from about 50 to 70. That is when running with settings at 9/9. The thremostat, set at 70 then kicks it down to idle.
You must have some serious air infiltration problems based on what you have described. Streamers made of strips of tissue paper will show you which way the wind blows. mount them wherever there is a perforation (windows, doors, light switches, ceiling fixtures, etc). Then get to work sealing the leaks.
You might want to consider having an energy audit done.

I have a 3 month old Modular with R24 in walls and R38 in ceiling. Just my LCD TV running keeps my living room at 65. Propain boiler is %95 efficient, but Ive never had anything other than Nat Gas, so I grabbed my Englander as supplement... 1600 sq ft. Ill report how it makes out..

1800 sf ranch open liv kitch dining and foyer hall and 3 bed rms heating the open area to 73 on setting 3-4 bed rms run about 65 if the doors left open. wood floor are cold but real happy so far

mystove said:

Thanks for the input. If only insulating was as easy as just that I would have had it done, wiring would be a safety issue if it were not to be redone first so that must be done and then so on and so forth. $$$ is the answer to everything I am afraid.

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Any rebates available where you are? I IKO foil'd my entire house essentially for free. It added R-12 to my existing R-28 walls. Score

mystove said:

Thanks for the input. If only insulating was as easy as just that I would have had it done, wiring would be a safety issue if it were not to be redone first so that must be done and then so on and so forth. $$$ is the answer to everything I am afraid.

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While stuffing the walls with insulation may not be possible at present, sealing air leaks can be as easy as going around with a couple of rolls of "moretite" and pressing it into the seams of windows and other openings. For stationary fixtures like ceiling light fixtures, ordinary caulk will usually do it and for bigger gaps urethane foam ("great stuff").
I believe that more heat is lost to air infiltration than to conduction through the walls. Loss through window glass is another issue, it's conduction is much much higher than wood.

I'm heating about 1200 sqft. Its staying at a nice 71f on 3. I have an older Mobile home that has okay insulation but really cheaply windows.

My house is a split entry, about 1500 square feet total, but my pdvc is upstairs (900 square feet) and my harman p61 downstairs. With the Harman off the PDVC keeps upstairs at 72 with the thermostat cycling it between 1-4 and 4-4 when it is 10 degrees out. No problem hearing upstairs to over 80 when it is 0 out. House built in 1983 and I have done some work to seal air leaks, but still have some.

I have 1200 sq ft rancher and wind chills have been single digits all day here.stove is set on 5 blower on 7 and it's been 74 in here all day back rm furthest away from the stove is at 71,no complaints here love this little thing.

First year with mine...basement install, basement is well insulated....temp outside -15c main floor at 24c, basement at 29c.

When the temp floats around -5 to 0 outside we end up cracking a window or 2...it gets a little too warm

Love the pdvc!....but the house design is a big factor in how well it works