2nd season, suggestions on stove related ideas/patterns

[mpcm]

Entering my second burning season with an enviro empress, with a newly replaced auger motor and ignitor under warranty. Burned slightly more than 1/2 ton of NEWP last dec-to-spring, and finished up the remaining bags over the last few weeks.

My wife is fully onboard and loves the thing, so it's burning 24/7 pretty much, except when cleaning aligns with us going out for excessive amounts of time. With the stove running, it means two of the hydro zones in our house do not call for real amounts of heat, and don't draw heat from the oil boiler. Hopefully it'll mean a less tanks of oil over the course of the winter. Tracking all the data, so looking forward to seeing what it says for our old nh home (this is also my second winter in this house). No matter what though, this end of the house is warmer and everyone is much happier, including the cats!

Starting this season with 2 tons of newp and a 1 ton of okies. Just moved 1 ton of the newp, into an unheated enclosed porch for easier access.

So, my question is what now? Should I be looking at doing filtering of the pellets to remove dust/debris, should I be interleaving okies and newp, or for that matter mixing them?

No thermostat attached to the stove, so I'm using the manual heat settings and just moving the excess heat through the house, and keeping it cozy in the stove room. thoughts?

 

[jtakeman]

Save the Okies for the bitter cold(you'll see why) and Burn the Newps now.

Add a stat to help reduce the fuel burned and it will keep a nice even temp for you. A plus would be the programmable stat. Lower temp will away or sleeping. Then nice and toasty will active about the house. Get 2 and add one to the furnace if you don't have one already. You 'll save some oil too!

 

[gbreda]

x2 on NEWP now and save those Okies until the real cold hits.

 

[mpcm]

Save the Okies for the bitter cold(you'll see why) and Burn the Newps now.

Add a stat to help reduce the fuel burned and it will keep a nice even temp for you. A plus would be the programmable stat. Lower temp will away or sleeping. Then nice and toasty will active about the house. Get 2 and add one to the furnace if you don't have one already. You 'll save some oil too!

I'll stash those okies until the temps drop then, thanx for the device.

A thermostat seem like the next logical step, I'll do some searching over the forums about them.

I don't have an OAK installed, but my 1890's farm house is far far from tight. The stove room was once a small barn that got attached and updated/insulated within the last 3 years, but prior to me. But I am pretty sure I am going to have to redo the first level floor/subfloor at some point in that room though.

We keep the house set at 60 via oil, it's only the pellet stove that lifts it above that at the moment. Not sure I'd want a programmable lowering it more than that. Guessing the next steps are also more air leak stoppage, thermal drapes, and perhaps interior storms.

Last year I had these stats:
906.4 gallons of oil during the heating season
2378.71 in cost of oil over the season
1 ton of newp (lightly used)