Do you run your stove all day?

[fishsniffer]

Howdy all. Just found this site today and have been browsing it for a few hours learning. What a great wealth of info.

The wife and I recently purchased a Lopi Yankee Bay insert to replace our woodstove. She refuses to chop and carry wood, so this was the next best thing. On the weekends I wouldn't be home, I would often come home to find her extremely frustrated at the woodstove sitting on the couch wrapped in several blankets. Anywho, I got a good stove from Craigslist, installed it myself and fired it up this monday not due to temperatures but to find out what brand of pellets I want to buy.

I have bought a few different types of pellets to run in the stove and finally settled on the one that I want to buy in bulk from a local pellet manufacturer Atlas Country Pride pellets.

I had a question about how much to buy.

When we ran the woodstove, we usually would start it around 4pm (I get home before her and would get the fire going a couple hours before she got home). We keep our house cooler than most folks (around 64 to 68 degrees). During the weekends when we were home we would burn all day long.

This usually equated to about 1 3/4 cords of wood each winter.

What would this relate to in pellet fuel?

Thanks in advance for your help.

EDIT: Forgot to add. Heating a 1400sq foot home with vaulted ceilings.

 

[save$]

You will find many comments on what a cord of wood equels in pellets. I have no scientic way of comparing them, but I can tell you that for many years, I heated about 2000 sq feet with a wood stove and 5 cord of mixed seasoned hard wood. I now use about 4-5 tons of pellets to heat the same space. The wood stove ran hotter. I have also added a lot to the insulation of this home. Otherwise, I don't think the pellet stove would be able to heat the place. Also have furnace that comes on if the outside temp drops below 15 degrees. Usually runs only a few minuts. I use very little oil from year to year. Mostly have it for my hot water.
I would run the wood stove, and now the pellet stove day and night if the temp were less than 50 degrees. My wife likes it warm inside. Usually about 74-76 or she is letting me know how unhappy she is.

 

[briansol]

Most of us run 24/7 (off for cleaning only) from November through march.

Pellet has far better heat regulation than a wood stove, especially if you have a model that supports a thermostat.

On low, I use about 1 bag a day, which means i use about 3 tons a year. My house stays a toasty 65-68 in most rooms of my house which is more than comfortable for me. The hallway gets almost too hot, but it makes the living areas nice and cozy and the bedrooms stay a bit cooler for better sleeping. I use very little oil (just what my hot water demands, backup, lower level room that heat can't get to etc)

 

[krooser]

All day and all night...

 

[smoke show]

All day and all night...

x2

 

[BadDad320]

All day and all night...

Me too................

 

[nailed_nailer]

Welcome aboard,

I heat a small cottage all winter in New England on 3-4 tons of pellets a year only. I have an oil furnace that I use as backup. I have used < 100 gallons of HHO in 3 years. My DHW is propane.

I have an older Enviro EF-2 freestanding pellet stove that I love. In the dead of winter on a cold windy day I burn 2-1/2 bags, Most of the heating season it is about 1 bag a day.

I try to time it about every third day so that the stove will run out of fuel about 2 hours before I get home while I'm at work. That way I can give it a clean out and the fire it back up. I do a deep clean (disassembly of the stove) after each ton gets burned.

It is hard to judge what a quality pellet is during the non-heating season. Heat output is not just how they burn but how many BTU's they contain and give up while burning.

Last couple of seasons I have enjoyed spruce pellets from the Pacific Northwest (Okanagan's) I like how they burn and I love their heat output.

One other consideration about pellets is how clean they burn. Is a low quality <$5.00 a bag pellet worth it if you have operational issues (jammed augers, burned out motors, soot, ash, etc)vs. a high quality pellet that is easy on the stove and gives off lots of heat even if it costs >$6.00 a bag? That is for you to decide.

Good luck,
---Nailer---

 

[imacman]

All day and all night...

x2

X3

BTW, the Lopi stove was a good choice. Keep it clean and it will run w/o problems. Hopefully, you did a complete inside cleaning of all the ash traps behind the back wall, removed & cleaned BOTH blowers, oiled the convection blower, and made sure all the holes in the burn pot are open.

 

[magsf11]

welcome, I also run my stove 24/7 from november-march. my house is only 1400 sq feet. my furnace doest come on at all, I just start it once a yr to see if it does work incase i need it. on my med heat setting i use 1 bag a day, really cold days 1&1/2 bags, so i burn 3-3 1/2 ton a year. all depends when i have to turn it on in the early and late season to get the chill out of the house.

 

[krooser]

All day and all night...

Come to think of it I used to have a girlfriend like that...

 

[fishsniffer]

All day and all night...

x2

X3

BTW, the Lopi stove was a good choice. Keep it clean and it will run w/o problems. Hopefully, you did a complete inside cleaning of all the ash traps behind the back wall, removed & cleaned BOTH blowers, oiled the convection blower, and made sure all the holes in the burn pot are open.

Yes sir. I took that thing down to half mast and cleaned out everything the owners manual told me to and more. When I was done it looked like a brand new stove. The previous owners said they only used it for a year and I called Travis industries which is right down the street from me and they said it was manufactured in 2008.

 

[Vinelife]

Well, I guess it depends where you live. I have a woodstove I use to use. I would go through 9-10 cords from Oct-May. Here in northern michigan winter is long and cold. I would use the stove to heat day and night, keeping the house around 75. Plus my woodstove wasn't one of those newer ones that burn wood very slowly, mine went through wood pretty good. But with my Sante Fe, I know I will need 5 tons to get me through Oct-May and maybe even more. I am expecting when its really cold for the thermostat to never shut it off and it will be running all the time. It should keep the house between 66-70 which is better than 75-80 I had with the woodstove.

 

[little_hawk_59]

burn all day every day whens it cold which its not here yet

 

[krooser]

I used the pellet stove last night since it was in the 40's... nice and toasty when I got up this morning.

 

[Pellet-King]

Runs all day, all night, all week, and run's when i'm at work and nobody's home!, you gotta have trust in your stove.

 

[LIpelletpig]

Welcome to the forum! I run 24x7 from November to March as well.. My cutoff point is 50 degrees. Sometimes if it's a cold rain and 50+ we'll run to take the dampness out of the air. It's hard to say how many tons you'll use b/c a woodstove BTUs vs. Pellets is a pretty good difference. Being it's your first season with pellets it going to be an experiment. The rule of thumb for most not ALL is 3 tons. Really depends on home installation, floor plan, location...many factors play a role. Have fun with it. Most of us on this forum I could admit its become a hobby along with heating our homes.

 

[smalltown]

I also run ours 24x7. All last season the wife did not need to put pellets in the stove I took care of that.
My routine is to top off the pellets before I went to bed and check them when I awoke in the AM.

We use a thermostat so the heat lowers late in the evening, and raises in the AM about 1/2 hour before anybody gets up.
I also try to do a cleaning about every 3 to 4 days. After you get your routine going, and you are used to how your stove runs you will be able to clean, quickly and be back in service. My down time is about 1/2 hour.

 

[teetah222]

My house may be closest in size to yours, and I have a stove that's rated for heating something nearly twice the size that I'm heating. Last year was my first year, and I didn't finish the install until nearly Thanksgiving. I used about 1 and 1/3 pallets until I shut it down in early April. And I was running it with no thermostat until about February when I finally broke down and bought a remote therm for it. (Best thing ever for my electric bill, by the way, as my back-up heat is electric and it was coming on while I was away at work and chewing up the watts... but that's another story.) So this year I am starting it up with the remains of the pallet of Armstrong pellets that I was left with end of season in April. I just bought some super cheap pellets at $159 per ton that are pine, so I may need to clean more frequently, but the cost difference between them and the Armstrongs was substantial. Bought 3 tons and that should more than take care of the heating season unless something extreme happens. Time will tell.

 

[tinkabranc]

Welcome to the forum!

The Harman XXV is my primary stove and runs 24/7.
It does a good job of heating the basement and keeping the 1st floor fairly comfortable as well.

Only been one season with the Advance, but found we only needed to fire it up when the windchill
temps got below zero.

I average about 3.5 to 4 ton of pellets a season.

 

[lessoil]

24/7 here also from mid to late Oct through April
We use the Harman temp sensor (Thermistor) and manually adjust temp.
Keeps temp +/- 1 degree
75 daytime and 68 at night (Heating about 1500 sq ft small Cape)
Check/Fill morning and night.
Use about 3.5 tons and have cut our oil usage by 54% and are warmer too!!
Pellet heat has been great even at -25!!
Welcome to the forum! Many knowledgable folks here.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Welcome.

24/7 here when the season starts 1800+ square feet (vaulted ceiling first floor great room) basement install in what is basically a raised ranch.

Slightly less than 5 tons a year and the temps vary because I manually fire the stove. One of these days I might install a thermostat (it just might cut down on amount of pellets I need), but I'm having too much fun figuring out how to fire the thing.

 

[jtakeman]

I found if I run my stove on Auto/Off stat mode in the shoulders saves pellets, But once the daytime highs dip into the low 30's I put the stove to Hi/Lo stat mode. So from Mid December to late February my stove is 24/7. Pellets are my Primary heat source and I use wood as a backup(Power outages).

I have a programmable stat that has 4 time set points for the weekdays and weekends. I set my stat swing set to 2ºF. While we are home/awake the house is keep to 72ºF and away/night temp is set to 68ºF. I heat a near 2K sqft house with 3 to 3-1/2 tons per season.

 

[mark d fellows]

24/7

 

[jo2fst4u]

24/7 Here shut down once a week to give a quick clean and once a month for a good clean......

See sig for info on stove

I love my Harman was playing with it today got the temp on front up to 850...........It keep my house to warm we run on low most of the time.

 

[Vinelife]

I wont know if i'm a 24/7 person. This is my first season with my Sante Fe, heating about 1000 square feet.