I recently installed an Alderlea T6 stove. It just seems like I'm not getting alot of heat out of the stove. My biggest factors against the stove is a wall with approxiamately 190 square feet of windows and doors on the north side, which is right behind the stove. I did a load calc on that and with double paned windows there is a total heating load of around 20,000 BTUs. So according to PE and the actual BTU/hr for a T6, it's pretty much a wash between the stove and the heat loss from the windows. I also have 19 foot vaulted ceilings. There is a big ceiling fan to move some air. The house furnace fan is circulating all the time, so that is yet another major factor against me. They also seem to not have very long burn times, maybe 3-4 hours with the air on low. The biggest misconception is the stove is advertised as 99,000 BTU's and the whole 3,000 square feet advertisement they thought would meet their needs. Another problem is they previously had a Fisher stove and clarifying between an older stove to an Alderlea is a very gray area. My last resort is installing a chimney damper thinking I am loosing some amount of heat up the chimney with it being so tall. I also am going to have them shut off the fan to the furnace so I'm not competing with trying to heat the entire house. We also installed a fresh air vent with it being a new house, so I think I might plug that up also. Does anyone have any opinions on this situation?
Alderlea T6 problems
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I don't own a PE, but things are a lil' slow around here, so I'll volunteer some ideas.
I would definitely shut off the furnace fan. Focus on getting the stove room toasty, then worry about moving the heat to the rest of the house. If you can't get the stove room warmed up, you have no extra heat to be moving with fans.
(broken link removed to http://www.pacificenergy.net/alderlea/t6.php)
99,000 BTU is a peak value. The stove isn't going to do that all day long. OTOH, 20,000 BTU sounds like about the lowest output you'll get from a 3-cu-ft non-catalytic stove. 20,000 BTU output for, say, 10 hours = 200,000 BTU. A 3-cu-ft firebox will hold a lot more than 200,000 BTU in fuel, probably double that.
How tall is the chimney, and what kind? Pipe damper might be your answer. If loaded full, you should be getting way more than 4 hours out of that stove. . .more like 8-10 hours, or longer.
And lastly, is the wood dry/seasoned - split & stacked for a year? If they are used to burning a Fisher stove, they may be used to burning wood that is not very dry. This kind of wood does not support secondary combustion very well. If you don't have secondary combustion, you don't have a lot of heat with the newer, smaller stoves.
I would definitely shut off the furnace fan. Focus on getting the stove room toasty, then worry about moving the heat to the rest of the house. If you can't get the stove room warmed up, you have no extra heat to be moving with fans.
(broken link removed to http://www.pacificenergy.net/alderlea/t6.php)
99,000 BTU is a peak value. The stove isn't going to do that all day long. OTOH, 20,000 BTU sounds like about the lowest output you'll get from a 3-cu-ft non-catalytic stove. 20,000 BTU output for, say, 10 hours = 200,000 BTU. A 3-cu-ft firebox will hold a lot more than 200,000 BTU in fuel, probably double that.
How tall is the chimney, and what kind? Pipe damper might be your answer. If loaded full, you should be getting way more than 4 hours out of that stove. . .more like 8-10 hours, or longer.
And lastly, is the wood dry/seasoned - split & stacked for a year? If they are used to burning a Fisher stove, they may be used to burning wood that is not very dry. This kind of wood does not support secondary combustion very well. If you don't have secondary combustion, you don't have a lot of heat with the newer, smaller stoves.
I have the feeling you may be onto the issue as wet wood would create problems like this.. The T5 can crank out some big BTU's and I would expect the T6 would be much hotter than the T5.. Another mistake burners of old non-epa stoves make is running with too much air which lets it run up the chimney.. Less air will enhance the secondaries, make for long burns and a hot stove.. Loon had similar issues with his T5 and I believe is quite happy now..
Ray
You've pretty well enumerated some serious problems, not with the stove but with the house. Try turning off the central heating for a while so that the stove can do what it is meant to do, heat an area. Also, take the temp at the peak of the ceiling. I would not be surprised if it was over 100F up there. Note that there is a big difference between heating 3000 sq ft of home with 8 ft ceilings in the Pacific NW where the stove is made and a 3000 Sq ft home with 19 ft ceilings in NE. With those high ceilings you are essentially trying to heat a home with twice the cubic footage. My guess is you need a second stove and perhaps more help at recovering the heat up at the top of the ceiling.
Which way do you have the fan going in? You want to pull air up at the fan ans send it down the walls.
I'm in Southern Ontario, facing North, about 280 square feet of windows. Put insulated curtains up, which I shut as soon as the sun starts to set. Makes a huge difference in heating demand, temps in the house, overall comfort. Strongly recommend getting curatins, if you don't have them. Mounted mine on the wall a few inches above the window frames, jury rigged the curtain rods so they are really long: one set is over 20 feet long. The curtains can be totally drawn when I wish, for a nice clear view.
jdp1152
Minister of Fire
I'm 95% certain your issue the vaulted ceiling. Put your fan on reverse during the winter and see if that helps. If I don't have my whole house humidifier running (moves the air across the main floor through the duct work with a very low fan speed), my bigger insert does a better job heating my upstairs rooms than it does adjacent rooms because of a central stair well.
jdp1152
Minister of Fire
Exactly. Thermal curtains or blinds cut heat loss from a window 30-50%. When we converted to forced air, we put thermal blinds up as well as thermal curtains. It was a huge difference the portion of our house with a ton of windows. Also, don't forget that many custom windows only have wood frames which have little insulation value Caulk the heck out of all the seams and cover them with blinds/drapes. Curtains reduce the thermal bridging of both windows and wood framing.
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