Castle Serenity - lots of ash

[mudeprived]

That's because you are an experienced operator. d
I was raised on a wood stove and still have one in the shop. So I dont even notice a few degrees here or there as it is just normal for me to not have every inch of the house or shop or wherever at the exact same temp. I get in my vehicle, start it, let the oil pressure get to normal and maybe set there 30 seconds or so changing the heater settings or radio dial, but I then back out and leave. I dont start it and go back into the house for any length of time unless it is 10 degrees out. But then I dont have any reason to drive at that temp, so..........But it does not bother me to drive in a cold vehicle for a mile or two as I know it will warm eventually. I know a few people that cant fathom such an act.

Hey, I drive two very old jeeps that......remind me of my childhood when it comes to heating (wood stove, chopping wood, hauling wood inside, etc). But then again I am attached to a woman who wants warmth NOW andi pay the bill........and...you know the rest. lol.



If it were just me then I would have the stove running full time. I'd sleep in the living room if I had to.

 

[alternativeheat]

Yeah the pellets I got from TS are burning just fine. I dunno what alot or little is pertaining to dust yet so I will learn that soon and then I can tune the stove and judge pellets better.

So far the fan trick is working. My kitchen is 73 degrees and rising (highest it's ever been in winter), however, the living room is 89 degrees on setting 1. LOL

If you don't have a ceiling fan in that room you might consider one . Or you could place a portable in there and blast the ceiling with it and encourage/knock some of that heat out of there. So you would be pushing cold air into the room at floor level, and knocking heat out of the air locked environment at the ceiling level. I have a fan up on my mantel right now doing exactly that myself. I've been running the Harman in Stove temp mode for the last day or so and it's gotten a bit hot in here. So I decided to help it out of the room for a while today.

 

[DrewBoogie]

You could try running one of these in the corner of the room opening.

I have a cheap white corner door fan that doesn't move much air, one of these would be much better but not look as nice. i have it blowing from the kitchen where the stove is into the TV room, and the small fan on the floor blows at the stove from the TV room. It evened out the temp across the whole first floor and now i run my stove on a lower setting with a warmer house.

 

[DrewBoogie]

This is what I have and it works but doesn't move as much air as the one I posted above.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007N5LHM/?tag=hearthamazon-20

 

[Nvnv]

I have a mini split as my primary source of heat/cooling. It is mounted up high on the wall of the living room so when I have the stove on I turn the mini split on fan mode and it moves a good bit of the heat throughout the house.

 

[mrbeal]

OK, I have "news" to report.

First, the ash problem. I've burned 4 bags of FSU and there is little ash in my ash hole. Whether that is better pellets or just having things set right I still don't know. I just topped off the hopper with the TS hardwood pellets and will monitor that bag... probably tomorrow night or Thursday morning before I know anything .

Second, fans. I have 1 fan in the living room that is pushing warm air down the hall and around the corner and another that's around the corner pushing the warm air down the hall. This was the original setup I had that didn't "seem" to be working. I tried putting a fan on the floor in the bedroom at the end of the hall to blow cold air back to the living room but that really didn't work. Temps have been pretty steady the last few days and, with this setup, my bedroom topped out at about 61 degrees. Moving that floor fan back down the hall has made a significant difference... it is currently 65 in my bedroom and 32 outside. I think this setup is a winner!

I'd love to get creative and run a 6" round tube down the hall on the ceiling with a cutout and fan for each bedroom to suck the warm air down the hall and right into the bedrooms but that's a project for another day.

 

[rich2500]

Is the spark issue definately solved now.

 

[alternativeheat]

OK, I have "news" to report.


it is currently 65 in my bedroom and 32 outside. I think this setup is a winner!

I'd love to get creative and run a 6" round tube down the hall on the ceiling with a cutout and fan for each bedroom to suck the warm air down the hall and right into the bedrooms but that's a project for another day.

I don't think your round tube idea will do a whole lot personally, not unless you had a powered plenum over the stove or some kind of direct pressure system like a furnace has and there may be legalities involved in that, should you have an "incident" . And you still need a return loop anyway. You're better off sticking with moving room air along the ceiling and floor. The floor fan moving return air towards the stove, should set up a loop. What that fan moves along, then by natural physics has to be replaced and the source of replacement air is warm ceiling air.

65 is a decent sleeping temp, now if you can maintain that when it gets cold out is the question.

 

[alternativeheat]

I have a mini split as my primary source of heat/cooling. It is mounted up high on the wall of the living room so when I have the stove on I turn the mini split on fan mode and it moves a good bit of the heat throughout the house.

The best part of the mini split from what I can tell from other posters, is that they cool in the summer and can move some air in the winter. Maybe it's the nature of who we get in the forums but as point of observation only, it seems very few are happy with them as a heat source. It seems they get costly to run and not really heat the house in colder winter weather. But they do mix air if you have another heat source like a pellet stove. I've wondered too, about the cost of mixing mini split heat with pellet heat vs ringing out a stove to get the heat from and burning more pellets. I bet it wouldn't cost any more and maybe less than just one heat source or the other heat source by itself. Something to keep in mind for the coldest part of winter. I do this with oil heat sometimes, when the temps get down around -0 f.

My kerosene heater for my basement comes today, FWIW ( have a work shop down there, mostly wood working). It's a substantial heater of 23,800btu, considerably more btu than my old kero heater was, plus it's convection, the old one reflective. I'll get some use out of this low investment and if I don't like it in the long run, then I'll put in a second pellet stove down there. It will be nice to have the basement warm again when it's single digits outside.

 

[mudeprived]

The best part of the mini split from what I can tell from other posters, is that they cool in the summer and can move some air in the winter. Maybe it's the nature of who we get in the forums but as point of observation only, it seems very few are happy with them as a heat source. It seems they get costly to run and not really heat the house in colder winter weather. But they do mix air if you have another heat source like a pellet stove. I've wondered too, about the cost of mixing mini split heat with pellet heat vs ringing out a stove to get the heat from and burning more pellets. I bet it wouldn't cost any more and maybe less than just one heat source or the other heat source by itself. Something to keep in mind for the coldest part of winter. I do this with oil heat sometimes, when the temps get down around -0 f.

My kerosene heater for my basement comes today, FWIW ( have a work shop down there, mostly wood working). It's a substantial heater of 23,800btu, considerably more btu than my old kero heater was, plus it's convection, the old one reflective. I'll get some use out of this low investment and if I don't like it in the long run, then I'll put in a second pellet stove down there. It will be nice to have the basement warm again when it's single digits outside.

How big is your basement?

Mine is I believe approx 44x22 divided by one wall down the middle with three rooms on the left side and one big long one on the right with no doors. I leave the Kerosene heater on the right side and it warms that entire area to about 70 but the left side remains around 65. My basement is only 1/2 underground so it's naturally colder than a normal underground basement. It gets down to 37 degrees in the dead of winter. If yours is underground then it should work very well in heating that space up.

 

[mudeprived]

OK, I have "news" to report.

First, the ash problem. I've burned 4 bags of FSU and there is little ash in my ash hole. Whether that is better pellets or just having things set right I still don't know. I just topped off the hopper with the TS hardwood pellets and will monitor that bag... probably tomorrow night or Thursday morning before I know anything .

Second, fans. I have 1 fan in the living room that is pushing warm air down the hall and around the corner and another that's around the corner pushing the warm air down the hall. This was the original setup I had that didn't "seem" to be working. I tried putting a fan on the floor in the bedroom at the end of the hall to blow cold air back to the living room but that really didn't work. Temps have been pretty steady the last few days and, with this setup, my bedroom topped out at about 61 degrees. Moving that floor fan back down the hall has made a significant difference... it is currently 65 in my bedroom and 32 outside. I think this setup is a winner!

I'd love to get creative and run a 6" round tube down the hall on the ceiling with a cutout and fan for each bedroom to suck the warm air down the hall and right into the bedrooms but that's a project for another day.

I thought about the fans suggested above. An idea I came up with was to install a open/close vent above the door way on both sides of the wall and install the fan inside that vent. That way the fan can move the heated air out of the stove room plus it's concealed. You would think it's just part of a central air system. This will get the heat into the next room but not sure about moving it further down the house.

 

[alternativeheat]

How big is your basement?

Mine is I believe approx 44x22 divided by one wall down the middle with three rooms on the left side and one big long one on the right with no doors. I leave the Kerosene heater on the right side and it warms that entire area to about 70 but the left side remains around 65. My basement is only 1/2 underground so it's naturally colder than a normal underground basement. It gets down to 37 degrees in the dead of winter. If yours is underground then it should work very well in heating that space up.

The part I want to heat is about 970 sq ft., there is more basement than that because of an old coal room and then 500sq ft crawl space under the apartment we rent out, but that area is completely separate from the main basement under our house, I can just block the doorway leading over there if it becomes an issue.. It's fully under ground but it isn't greatly air tight, there are some gaps here and there that can be tightened up.. My old heater was one of those old reflective single wick heaters and it took the chill out, enough to work without a sweater and not freeze your butt off. This one should be fine, it's got to produce at least double what the old one did. I really didn't want to spend a minimum of $1000 right now, I'll try this first. My old heater got rusty and I tossed it out, haven't had heat down there in a few years now and so I just avoided being down there in Jan and Feb.

 

[mrbeal]

Is the spark issue definately solved now.

I haven't checked recently BUT I also haven't heard from any of the neighbors either. I'd say turning the exhaust fan down was the cure.

 

[mudeprived]

Wow what a mess. I decided to try the Temperature setting. According to the manual you set the room temp and the stove will run at full blast till it reaches this temperature. I set it to 80 while the room was 64. It ran at full power but was blowing unburnt/half burnt pellets all over the inside of the stove. I just cleaned it out prior to the turning it on and now it's a mess all over again. No sparks out of the exhaust though.

 

[alternativeheat]

Wow what a mess. I decided to try the Temperature setting. According to the manual you set the room temp and the stove will run at full blast till it reaches this temperature. I set it to 80 while the room was 64. It ran at full power but was blowing unburnt/half burnt pellets all over the inside of the stove. I just cleaned it out prior to the turning it on and now it's a mess all over again. No sparks out of the exhaust though.

If it's blowing half burned pellets out of the burn pot then you probably need to turn your combustion blower down a bit. It seems to be a pretty popular adjustment to make on those stoves. also the damper setting matters, 1/3 open is the starting point with that, then tweak from there.

 

[mudeprived]

If it's blowing half burned pellets out of the burn pot then you probably need to turn your combustion blower down a bit. It seems to be a pretty popular adjustment to make on those stoves. also the damper setting matters, 1/3 open is the starting point with that, then tweak from there.

I think my blowers settings are this:

1: 85
2: 90
3: 95
4:100
5:105

the lowest you can go is 80 I believe.

I am 1/3 open on the damper (the lowest)

 

[mrbeal]

If it's blowing half burned pellets out of the burn pot then you probably need to turn your combustion blower down a bit. It seems to be a pretty popular adjustment to make on those stoves. also the damper setting matters, 1/3 open is the starting point with that, then tweak from there.

There is no "combustion" blower on the Serenity. The only adjustment is the damper, the room fan and the exhaust fan (unless one of the fans is combined with a combustion fan).
mudeprived - I'd say you need to close your damper down a bit - mine is happy at about 1/4 open, I'd bet yours is half open or more. ALSO, I've found that using the stove on MANUAL is my preference. I have my fan settings changed on LOW and MEDIUM settings, which are the ones I primarily use, and everything seems happy now.

 

[mrbeal]

I think my blowers settings are this:

1: 85
2: 90
3: 95
4:100
5:105

the lowest you can go is 80 I believe.

I am 1/3 open on the damper (the lowest)

Try manual on MEDIUM with your exhaust blower on 80 and your blower on default... double check your damper really is closed down.

 

[mudeprived]

Try manual on MEDIUM with your exhaust blower on 80 and your blower on default... double check your damper really is closed down.

I ran manual with 80 on the first setting but the room hit 90 degrees. I have the damper as closed as it will go. I'm guessing it's ok to remove that screw to close it even more?

I wanted to try the Temp setting to see if I can maintain the temp instead of it slowly climbing till it's unbearable.

 

[alternativeheat]

I ran manual with 80 on the first setting but the room hit 90 degrees. I have the damper as closed as it will go. I'm guessing it's ok to remove that screw to close it even more?

I wanted to try the Temp setting to see if I can maintain the temp instead of it slowly climbing till it's unbearable.

Unbearable or not, you want your combustion right.

 

[mrbeal]

I ran manual with 80 on the first setting but the room hit 90 degrees. I have the damper as closed as it will go. I'm guessing it's ok to remove that screw to close it even more?

I wanted to try the Temp setting to see if I can maintain the temp instead of it slowly climbing till it's unbearable.

It doesn't, don't bother. My initial thought on these stoves was you set a temp and it kept that temp for you. It doesn't.
My place is (I think) 950 sq feet and the living room and kitchen are half that. My stove keeps my living room at (currently) 77 degrees (41 outside temp) and the kitchen a few degrees cooler. It's on LOW/80 exhaust/105 blower and stays comfortable - I wear shorts and a t-shirt happily. I've found the higher BLOWER speed takes the heat off the stove faster so it stays a little cooler/more comfortable. If I lower the blower speed it'll hit 90 easy.

 

[alternativeheat]

There is no "combustion" blower on the Serenity.

Combustion blower/exhaust blower = same thing. Different manufacturers just call it different things but they serve the same purpose.

 

[mudeprived]

It doesn't, don't bother. My initial thought on these stoves was you set a temp and it kept that temp for you. It doesn't.
My place is (I think) 950 sq feet and the living room and kitchen are half that. My stove keeps my living room at (currently) 77 degrees (41 outside temp) and the kitchen a few degrees cooler. It's on LOW/80 exhaust/105 blower and stays comfortable - I wear shorts and a t-shirt happily. I've found the higher BLOWER speed takes the heat off the stove faster so it stays a little cooler/more comfortable. If I lower the blower speed it'll hit 90 easy.

Alright I'll try these settings and see what happens. My original settings netted very little ash but temps that keep climbing. We'll see how your settings do.

My house is 960 sq ft so we got similar sized homes.

How's your ash?

On a side note I picked up a dust bag for my 6 gallon Shop Vac and brush piece. Worked like a charm to clean it out.

 

[mudeprived]

Unbearable or not, you want your combustion right.

I'll get it!

 

[mudeprived]

Well it hit 90 again with MrBeal's settings. My kitten is laying on the floor like a cooked turkey. lol

Gotta tune it some more.