Creeping near -40 degrees F and the P-68 is working like a Charm!

[AlaskaCub]

Well just thought I'd let you all know how much my family is enjoying our P-68 right now, the temp outside at my house is -39 F and we are supposed to see -40 for lows for the next 7-10 days or longer. The P-68 is keeping my house at a comfortable 74 degrees in the main living areas and kitchen and 67 or so in the bedrooms. What a dream this pellet stove has been this season. I am burning about 1 bag and a 1/2 a day right now with our current temps and cleaning out the inside every 3-4 days right now, though I dont like shutting it off for very long. I had a wood stove in the house last winter and it scared my wife to death, she hated it! But she is madly in love with the Harman workhorse. For all of you that want to see what really cold winter weather is, check out our 7 day forecast, can it get any colder?....grin

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=AKZ222

 

[bungalobob]

Hope my new P-68 never see's that kind of weather in CT! Doing great so far with what we been getting. As yourself, we couldn't be happier with the performance so far. Good luck up there, could not handle that kind of temp myself.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Sounds like you've got a very well insulated, and not "too" large home to keep it in the 70s with -40 degrees outside.

I'm doing well to keep my 2000 square feet at 70+ in the room with the insert when the temperature is about 10 degrees, that's about the lowest we've seen so far this year...I don't expect to see much colder here in the south land of NJ.

 

[AlaskaCub]

My house is well insulated but this thing puts out some serious heat. I could make my house 80 if i wanted to. I am running it on a feed rate of 3.5 and room temp fan at midway with thermostat set at 75. I believe that the layout of a home makes a big difference too. My house is 2100 sq ft, single level ranch style with almost 20 ft ceilings in the living room. I have a huge ceiling fan that I run on low reverse all the time so the heat is well dispersed. I have friends with pellet stoves in multi level homes and they dont get as even disperssion as I do, they'll have one floor thats 82 and another thats 67 degrees, its harder to disperse the heat evenly I think in 2 story or multi level homes.

As to the comments about the cold, this is just a cold snap for us, last week the temp was like -6 to 10 above, but we do get these nasty cold snaps and they can last from a few days to a couple weeks, never know for sure, but life goes on for the 100,000 people who live here.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

Good to see a happy "camper". I'd suppose all buildings in Interior Alaska are well insulated. Even in NJ I have R38 in the ceiling and R19 walls...but I also have a lot of windows.

I'd guess it takes some getting used to, but people adapt and -40 degrees is just business as usual, not a crisis.

 

[itworks]

Well just thought I'd let you all know how much my family is enjoying our P-68 right now, the temp outside at my house is -39 F and we are supposed to see -40 for lows for the next 7-10 days or longer. The P-68 is keeping my house at a comfortable 74 degrees in the main living areas and kitchen and 67 or so in the bedrooms. What a dream this pellet stove has been this season. I am burning about 1 bag and a 1/2 a day right now with our current temps and cleaning out the inside every 3-4 days right now, though I dont like shutting it off for very long. I had a wood stove in the house last winter and it scared my wife to death, she hated it! But she is madly in love with the Harman workhorse. For all of you that want to see what really cold winter weather is, check out our 7 day forecast, can it get any colder?....grin

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=AKZ222

You're burning 1-1/2 bags of pellets a day when the temperature is -39F, and your home is approximately 70 degrees F, that could only mean you have one of the very best insulated homes in North America and/or your found the very best combination of pellet stove and pellets that mankind has ever discovered.
Please share your findings with the rest of us.

 

[AlaskaCub]

Its a new construction 5 star home, other than that I dont know what to tell you. The wife might have put 2 bags a day in it yesterday and today ( I am on a 48 hour shift in the fire department) but its close either way. I do have the oil furnace, but when the temps in the rooms are higher than what the t-stat is set at it obviously doesnt kick on at all.

 

[Sawduster]

When it gets to be zero and below, I'm having to burn around 3 bags in my Harmon a day so if you can get away with a bag and a half at those temperatures it truly is amazing. I have the hopper extention and it will hold around 130 lbs. of pellets and I will burn all of it in 24 hours when it is below zero and I have a modest 2 story 1500 square foot house. I admit that it is an old house and is not insulated to todays standards, but it is pretty tight. You must have R60 everywhere.

 

[cac4]

Believable, if the house is insulated with spray-foam. that is amazing stuff. But otherwise...hard to imagine.

 

[AlaskaCub]

Funny story, last night I get a call form the wife on the cell phone at almost midnight and she says theres something wrong with the pellet stove (not a good thing to hear and midnight when your at work and its -41 at the house) she says that the pellet stove went crazy and the living room is 80 degrees. Come to find out the stove thermostat I had stuck on the wall had fallen and she pushed it under a picture frame on an exterior wall before she went to bed. It sure is nice to know how much warmer I could actually make the house if I had to. Which Harman do you guys have that are not understanding the output I am getting?

 

[cac4]

Which Harman do you guys have that are not understanding the output I am getting?

its not the "output" thats incredible; its the amount of pellets used to GET that output.

I use a similar amount of pellets in a smaller house in the face of single-digit +windy temps. House should be considered "well insulated"...its 15 years old, w/ 6" walls filled w/ fiberglass, double pane glass, etc.

 

[buildingmaint]

If you live in Alaska you have to be very durable , and hearty individual/s. So their 72 may be our 58 , stats do lie , all depends on how they are installed , I have seen stats to be 15 degrees off. So be glad that your happy and warm, no matter what temp your house is or how many pellets you use . If it is -41 outside , 40 inside would seem warm , 80 degree difference there.

 

[Jerry_NJ]

When I had a geothermal heat pump installed, the "engineer" did a heat-loss studly and sized the unit to hold the inside at 70 degrees when the outside is zero. This is with the HP running in its higher of two speeds, at about 40K btu. I have to look up to get the exact number. So, that said, I need 40K btu per hour. How many btus is in a 40 pound bag of pellets? Looks like I'd need about a million bts per 24 hours at zero, never mind -40.

Just some numbers to think about. I'm too lazy to look up the but content of pellets, but I bet 1 million BTUs is several bags.

 

[Wet1]

When I had a geothermal heat pump installed, the "engineer" did a heat-loss studly and sized the unit to hold the inside at 70 degrees when the outside is zero. This is with the HP running in its higher of two speeds, at about 40K btu. I have to look up to get the exact number. So, that said, I need 40K btu per hour. How many btus is in a 40 pound bag of pellets? Looks like I'd need about a million bts per 24 hours at zero, never mind -40.

Just some numbers to think about. I'm too lazy to look up the but content of pellets, but I bet 1 million BTUs is several bags.

About three bags.

I too am having a hard time believing 1.5 (or even 2 bags) a day is enough to heat a 2500 sq ft ranch to 60° to 70° in sustained -20° to -40° weather. Very amazing if so!

 

[Jerry_NJ]

I looked up some info I have on my Palm Pilot, I think it is about right/approximate enough.

One ton of pellets has about 18 million BTUs, a cord of seasoned hardwood has as much as 24 million BTUs.

That says for my case a an outside temp of zero degrees, I'd need about 2000 pounds / 18 = 111.1 pounds per 24 hours, that's about 2.8 bags at 40 pounds each, and assumes 100% efficiency for my pellet stove. That not being the case the real usage would run over 3 bags per day. Again, I have a 1986 "all electric" two story (more energy efficient than a one story with the same sq ft. I have about 2000 sq ft, R38 ceiling, R19 wall, all thermal-pane glass, and storm door on the back door that is a full-light glass door.

As I noted above I can heat the house with my wood insert to 70+ in the room with the insert to 60 in the first floor room at the greatest distance from the insert.
The upstairs bedroom may be in the range of 65, heat rises after all. This is with my forced air system fan running on low speed. We haven't had any zero degrees yest, the coldest I've seen is in the low teens, maybe as low as 10 after I have gone to bed and the fire in the insert is burning down to coals.

 

[smokinj]

Well just thought I'd let you all know how much my family is enjoying our P-68 right now, the temp outside at my house is -39 F and we are supposed to see -40 for lows for the next 7-10 days or longer. The P-68 is keeping my house at a comfortable 74 degrees in the main living areas and kitchen and 67 or so in the bedrooms. What a dream this pellet stove has been this season. I am burning about 1 bag and a 1/2 a day right now with our current temps and cleaning out the inside every 3-4 days right now, though I dont like shutting it off for very long. I had a wood stove in the house last winter and it scared my wife to death, she hated it! But she is madly in love with the Harman workhorse. For all of you that want to see what really cold winter weather is, check out our 7 day forecast, can it get any colder?....grin

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?zoneid=AKZ222

Atleast the winds arent 25-45 mph