best efficiency settings for Santa Fe

[Courtney]

I'm off grid now, and with record cold here in the NE I hoped to get an opinion on efficiency operations.

rancher, 2 santa fe's one in finished basement one first level. 1.5 tons Penwood so far. this season

Have been running both on Med fan thermostat at 68, they cycle on and off throughout the day. With it so cold they reach temp and shut down, but restart in 30 min. Should I just run them on low fan so they don't shut off and on, (I know it burns dirtier though on low) or let them cycle? WIth multiple shut downs and restarts I thought I might burn out the igniter....

so, burn low and more constantly, or higher and with more shut offs?
THanks!!

 

[reallyte]

Efficiency in what respect? Electricity or pellets? Personally I prefer to run 24/7 as the restarts burn more pellets and electricity. The ignitors on these can handle restarts just fine.

 

[tjnamtiw]

If you're off grid, then you must be running off of solar panels and batteries, right? The largest consumer of your precious watts is the igniter so I would definitely run them on low and if necessary, bump it up to medium or high when the temps start to fall or turn the thermostat all the way up, let them run on medium and adjust the feed rate to maintain temps. I run my Castile on low almost all the time and just bump it to high for about 30 minutes or so once a day. The Sante Fe runs on high all the time with starts and stops.
I have a solar system/batteries as a backup that I would use to run the stoves as outlined above. Another alternative is to unplug the igniters and light the pellets by hand if they shut off. Not very practical though.

 

[SwineFlue]

With it so cold they reach temp and shut down, but restart in 30 min

To avoid the short re-starts, you can also keep it on Medium and close the feed gate in the hopper to reduce the heat output (pellet burn rate). The Castile gives a +/- 20% difference in feed rate. I would think the Santa Fe would be similar.

However if you are more concerned with electrical efficiency because you are off grid, then run it on Low to use less electricity. You can then open the feed gate to get more heat if needed.