Can we compare stoves?

[olddawgsrule]

I'm looking to upgrade for upstairs, but really want to know what the 'big boys' are doing.

So let me start this and see how it goes.

My name is Olddawg.
I own a USSC Forester.
Rated as 30 to 40k BTU (depending on who you talk to).
Convection blower will go 200-215 degrees on medium for 9 hours tops.
Low for 13 hours tops, usually 150 degrees.
Using a 40lb bag.
Best value so far is $.32 an hour using Firesides.

Question?
What is yours doing???

 

[Como]

Sitting on the back of my truck, just wondering how I am going to get it inside and unpacked.

 

[DexterDay]

Main stove is a Quad CB 1200 (Till next winter, Installing Fahrenheit Furnace by then, if I don't sell or trade it off)
Quad is rated at 47,300 BTU's
Blower temps on Low are around 250-265 depending on pellet brand
on Medium around 285-300
on High Not Needed, only use for a quick boost after cleanings to regain the temp inside the house. Never measured temp
I use about 2 bags in a 24 hr period on Low (when its really cold out, around 10 or lower) Otherwise about 1.5 bags a day is my Average, around 30 degrees. 1 bag above 40 degrees. Keeps 2,180 sq ft @ 76 degrees.
Calculations are based on 1.5 bags a day.

Best value is $.21875 cents an hr/Using Somersets @ $175/ton --

Next best is $.22125 cents an hr/Using Presto-Logs @$177/ton --

$.22 cents an hr or $5.25 a day. I hope that new Control board there sending you does something for the operation of this stove. I just inherited a 4th stove today. Trading a guy my Old "Timberline" wood-stove, that I got for Free from my parents a few years back, for a 2001 Englander 25-PDV. Probably gonna Clean this one up and give it to my Father. As a Fathers Day gift. He has been complaining about Propane again and he is the one who gave me the wood-stove. So its his if he wants it. Gonna try to start buying/trading pellet stoves around here. A little Cleaning, lubing, and TLC is all most need . A bunch of cheap stoves in my area. Every year the hobby (sickness) gets better.

 

[IHATEPROPANE]

I always run the blower on high
One bag will last about 16 hours temp about 180 on low

My usually setting is 2 which does one bag every 12 and
The temp is about 230.

 

[Turbo-Quad]

my sister just bought a Cumberland. I installed it a week ago. We have had a cold spell 40 at day and 20 at night. It has been burning an average of 1.8 lbs per hour to keep her well insulateghted pretty tight house at 73 degrees. I'm impressed, mostly with how well her house is insulated. The stove is ok too. Priced reasonbly also. The manual is confusing, It says the stove is 45000 btu but a burn test revealed it only burns 32000 btu's per hour. Tech's are telling me the manual is a mispprint. Who knows. She llikes it so far so I reckon that's all that matters.

my quad is a pellet pig it uses a bag a day on its lowest setting and keeps my uninsulated loose house at about 67.

 

[arnash]

Gonna try to start buying/trading pellet stoves around here. A little Cleaning, lubing, and TLC is all most need . A bunch of cheap stoves in my area. Every year the hobby (sickness) gets better.

Behold, it is good for man to have a local pellet stove doctor to give the needy some TLC (and make a few bucks in the process).

 

[olddawgsrule]

my sister just bought a Cumberland. I installed it a week ago. We have had a cold spell 40 at day and 20 at night. It has been burning an average of 1.8 lbs per hour to keep her well insulateghted pretty tight house at 73 degrees. I'm impressed, mostly with how well her house is insulated. The stove is ok too. Priced reasonbly also. The manual is confusing, It says the stove is 45000 btu but a burn test revealed it only burns 32000 btu's per hour. Tech's are telling me the manual is a mispprint. Who knows. She llikes it so far so I reckon that's all that matters.

my quad is a pellet pig it uses a bag a day on its lowest setting and keeps my uninsulated loose house at about 67.

Wow! 1.8 lbs an hour!
That's like 22 hours on a 40lb load!!
Impressed.
Almost half of what I'm burning...

Curious, how'd you measure the BTU output of the stove?

 

[DexterDay]

my sister just bought a Cumberland. I installed it a week ago. We have had a cold spell 40 at day and 20 at night. It has been burning an average of 1.8 lbs per hour to keep her well insulateghted pretty tight house at 73 degrees. I'm impressed, mostly with how well her house is insulated. The stove is ok too. Priced reasonbly also. The manual is confusing, It says the stove is 45000 btu but a burn test revealed it only burns 32000 btu's per hour. Tech's are telling me the manual is a mispprint. Who knows. She llikes it so far so I reckon that's all that matters.

my quad is a pellet pig it uses a bag a day on its lowest setting and keeps my uninsulated loose house at about 67.

Wow! 1.8 lbs an hour!
That's like 22 hours on a 40lb load!!
Impressed.
Almost half of what I'm burning...

Curious, how'd you measure the BTU output of the stove?

BTU's are measured by ---- Pounds per hour x BTU's of Pellets.
Example ---- 1.5 lbs per hr x 8,000 BTU pellet = 12,000 BTU's.

Most if not All stoves can go down to around 8,000-12,000 BTU's at there minimum setting.

 

[Turbo-Quad]

Curious, how'd you measure the BTU output of the stove?[/quote]

To find out what it could do at the top end I put 40 lbs in it and put it on its highest setting and let it burn until it ran out. 10 hours later it was empty and the house was 96 degrees with a few windows open half way. So thats 4 lbs per hour times 8000 btus per pound = 32000 btu's per hour. The manual said it was a 45000 btu stove. Tech told me manual was wrong....go figure. He said the stove was actually a 35000 btus stove. I told him its only making 32000 and he told me all stoves vary. I'd be pretty pissed if I had bought the stove since that is clear and outright false advertising, but my sister was too excited about the stove to go off on a rant. We'll see how she feels about it on a -6 degree day with 40 mph winds. I bet she'll be wanting thos extra 13000 btus per hour that the manual claims but the tech denies.

 

[olddawgsrule]

my sister just bought a Cumberland. I installed it a week ago. We have had a cold spell 40 at day and 20 at night. It has been burning an average of 1.8 lbs per hour to keep her well insulateghted pretty tight house at 73 degrees. I'm impressed, mostly with how well her house is insulated. The stove is ok too. Priced reasonbly also. The manual is confusing, It says the stove is 45000 btu but a burn test revealed it only burns 32000 btu's per hour. Tech's are telling me the manual is a mispprint. Who knows. She llikes it so far so I reckon that's all that matters.

my quad is a pellet pig it uses a bag a day on its lowest setting and keeps my uninsulated loose house at about 67.

Wow! 1.8 lbs an hour!
That's like 22 hours on a 40lb load!!
Impressed.
Almost half of what I'm burning...

Curious, how'd you measure the BTU output of the stove?

BTU's are measured by ---- Pounds per hour x BTU's of Pellets.
Example ---- 1.5 lbs per hr x 8,000 BTU pellet = 12,000 BTU's.

Most if not All stoves can go down to around 8,000-12,000 BTU's at there minimum setting.

Have to say, that's a bit easier than:

Technically, since 1997 the Standard air calculation has been revised to accommodate for humidy. The original factor of 1.08 is for dry air.

BTUH = 60 x 0.075 (0.24 + 0.45W) x CFM x Delta T

BTUH = 4.5 x .2445 x 3 x 10

BTUH = 33

Where:
60 = min/hr
0.075 = lb(dry air)/ft3
0.24 = specific heat of dry air, btu/(lb* degrees f )
W = Humidity ratio, lb(water)/lb(dry air)
0.45 = specific heat of water vapor, btu/(lb* degrees f )

When W = 0.01 the value = 1.10
When W = 0.02 the value = 1.12
When W = 0.03 the value = 1.14

Thus, because a value of W = 0.01 approximates conditions found in many air-conditioning problems, the Sensible heat change (in btu/h) can be found as;

BTUH = 1.10 x CFM x Delta T

The preceeding was extracted from 1997 ASHRAE Handbook "Fundamentals", page 28.15.

You're numbers have me blowing away my stove on high....

 

[will711]

I like my Harman I get 24+ hrs out of a 40lb. bag thats 1.6 lbs./hr if I did the math right. There is more details about my stove and house in another thread about Great American Pellets. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[olddawgsrule]

I like my Harman I get 24+ hrs out of a 40lb. bag thats 1.6 lbs./hr if I did the math right. There is more details about my stove and house in another thread about Great American Pellets. Just my 2 cents worth.

Nice!
Appreciate the input!

I'm seeing a dust cloud behind where I'm at....
You guys are blowing me away with efficiency.

Using the simple calculator given earlier (not that calculation I showed..), you're producing the same amount of heat for almost twice the time as I am.

Impressed?
Heck ya!

Now have 2 stoves to check out.

Bring it on folks!
I'm learning here (and a few others I hope).

 

[arnash]

The BTU output and length of time a bag lasts only tells half story. The other half is; "how warm does the temp. in the room/house get?" That's determined by factors such as how much heat is going out the exhaust vent, how well insulated is the house/room (and the windows), how high is the humidity to begin with, and how low is the room/house temp to begin with? A whole lot of variation is possible, so in a test of similar situations, the results could be quite different depending on those factors.

 

[Fsappo]

On the Europa, its 325 degrees at 1.6lbs per hour and thats using pellets that we sell for $5.20 per bag retail.

I dont have any idea how you come out with the cents per hour, but I like to comparisons.

 

[olddawgsrule]

On the Europa, its 325 degrees at 1.6lbs per hour and thats using pellets that we sell for $5.20 per bag retail.

I dont have any idea how you come out with the cents per hour, but I like to comparisons.

I built a spreadsheet to compare pellets and keep misc notes.
Being new to this, I needed some way to start.

Tracking the start and finish times of a 40lb bag and knowing the cost per bag.
Cost per bag / hours run = cost per hour.

1.6 bags per hour = 25 hours of burn time.
5.20 / 25 = .208 cents an hour
At a very nice heat output!

Where do you measure the heat?
I measure with an oven temp gauge hung on the blower grate.
Probably not the best way, but it gives me a comparison on different pellets.
At grate gauge 180 degrees.
Infra-red shot at top of stove standing in front, 3' away, 215 degrees.
Run on medium.

 

[Taperbill]

How to compare stoves?


Look at the pics.
We do more research on stoves than we do for our women.

" Where do you measure the heat? "

" Tracking the start and finish times of a 40lb bag and knowing the cost per bag.
Cost per bag / hours run = cost per hour.

1.6 bags per hour = 25 hours of burn time.
5.20 / 25 = .208 cents an hour
At a very nice heat output! "

So if your wife weighs in at 3 bags..and you know the start up cost..

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

....

So if your wife weighs in at 3 bags..and you know the start up cost..

No comment :zip:

 

[jtakeman]

I use the warmth factor at the coldest time of year.

Omega with outside temp at -20ºF = House toasty warm with stove set on medium.

Other 2 stoves I owned with temps at 0ºF = We froze our freakin a$$'s off even with the stove maxxed out! :ahhh:

 

[slls]

I use the warmth factor at the coldest time of year.

Omega with outside temp at -20ºF = House toasty warm with stove set on medium.

Other 2 stoves I owned with temps at 0ºF = We froze our freakin a$$'s off even with the stove maxxed out! :ahhh:

How many pellets did you burn to get toasty warm at -20 F.

 

[jtakeman]

I use the warmth factor at the coldest time of year.

Omega with outside temp at -20ºF = House toasty warm with stove set on medium.

Other 2 stoves I owned with temps at 0ºF = We froze our freakin a$$'s off even with the stove maxxed out! :ahhh:

How many pellets did you burn to get toasty warm at -20 F.

No more than 2 bags a day. Same amount as other 2 stoves or maybe even a bit less. Better efficiency I'd assume?

 

[arnash]

I think you meant 1.6 bags per 25 hours, not 1.6 bags per hour

"1.6 bags per hour = 25 hours of burn time. $5.20 / 25 = .208 cents an hour "
If the price per bag is $5.20 then that needs to be multiplied by 1.6 otherwise you're ascribing the 25 hour burn time to just one bag. So it's 5.20 + 3.12 = 8.32 per 25 hours, or $0.333 per hour, not .208

 

[Turbo-Quad]

OK this is really gonna blow your mind. My sister was gone last weekend. She filled the 62 lb hopper in her Cumberland 8 am Friday morning. I told her I would stop by and start her stove on Sunday, thinking it would be out cold. I show up Sunday night about 8 p.m. and the fire is still going with about 5 lbs left in the hopper. I couldn't believe it. It was 68 in the house. I wish my place was as well insulated as hers.

 

[olddawgsrule]

I think you meant 1.6 bags per 25 hours, not 1.6 bags per hour

"1.6 bags per hour = 25 hours of burn time. $5.20 / 25 = .208 cents an hour "
If the price per bag is $5.20 then that needs to be multiplied by 1.6 otherwise you're ascribing the 25 hour burn time to just one bag. So it's 5.20 + 3.12 = 8.32 per 25 hours, or $0.333 per hour, not .208

Looks like I was typing too fast...
Original post is how I worked it and mine should have read 1.6lbs an hour.

Sorry...

 

[olddawgsrule]

OK this is really gonna blow your mind. My sister was gone last weekend. She filled the 62 lb hopper in her Cumberland 8 am Friday morning. I told her I would stop by and start her stove on Sunday, thinking it would be out cold. I show up Sunday night about 8 p.m. and the fire is still going with about 5 lbs left in the hopper. I couldn't believe it. It was 68 in the house. I wish my place was as well insulated as hers.

Wow!

And I agree with you... wish mine was as well insulated.

 

[will711]

So the moral of the story is that it's not the stove ,but how well your structure can contain the heat