Another question on Harman blower speeds

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freebird77

Feeling the Heat
Hearth Supporter
Jul 4, 2007
305
Hallstead Pa.
Hi to all,
Still experimenting with our P61 Harman, manual light stove. Can someone please tell me if and how the distribution blower speed effects the temp of the stove, and living space?
If I only have the stove set at say 70 degrees does that mean I should run the blower on low? Also, if the blower is on high, does it cool the stove down that much quicker thus feeding more pellets and wasting fuel? Im trying to coordinate blower speed with temp and pellet feed, and would very much value any advice, and opinions. Thanks in advance. Love this site, Doug in Pa.
 
I have that same stove and (like you) i'm still playing around a little to get a firm grasp of how each control plays into equation.

My observation is similar to what you stated. When in "stove temp" mode: The faster the blower runs, the more pellets that wind up getting fed. I'm assuming that this has to do with the fact that more air is going across the heat exchanger...throwing more heat into the room...but of course cooling the exchanger down faster. However, feed rate definitely plays into the equation as well. I am finding if I keep the feedrate set to 1 or 2...but set the dist blower to high and temperature at its highest point, the feedrate seems to "trump" everything and keeps the flame pretty low...even thow the blower is blasting away.
I've actually found that for the space i'm using it in, this is the best setting. My perception is that this minimizes the radiant heat coming off the stove...but maximizes the convection heat getting blown into the room. Since the stove sits in an unfinished portion of my basement...and blows directly into the finished space, this seems to work well for me. I suspect the BTUs i'm getting with these setting are around 10-15,000 per hour (1-2 lbs per hour) which seems to work well for the space.

Disclaimer: It's probably obvious, but this is just my perception of what's going on with the stove. Reality may or may not not line up ;-)
 
If you run on room temp mode, then the high blower speed will do a better job of sucking the heat out of the stove / exhaust gasses and into the room, where the temp is sensed. (One note: the blown air will _feel_ cooler than at low speed, because the differance between what is coming out of the stove and what is coming out is lower)

so in room temp mode, high blower speed = less wasted pellets
 
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