First of all, I'd like to say that I LOVE the idea of heating my whole house with pellets instead of dead dinosaurs. But I have some questions and issues.
I moved into a house that already has an Enviro EF2 insert, my first stove. A local technician convinced me to fix some things with it rather than buy something new. I probably spent around $600 replacing the auger motor and main blower fan. The stove also needed a couple little tweaks to get it in good shape. After this work I find out that the insert is undersized for my house. Rated at 1,500 sq ft, house is 2,000. Here are my issues:
I don't know if it's feeding pellets properly. With the convection blower turned down, I can hear when the auger rotates. Sometimes it will go up to four or five turns before anything comes out. When something does come out, it can be a huge handful two turns in a row, or just a couple pellets. This can cause the flame to vary a decent amount. Normal? In a question specific to this model, if there's any users out there, could you estimate how many seconds pass between rotations on the auger at high and low settings? Even at the low setting it turns more than I would expect. Maybe the new motor is the wrong one? Maybe my potentiometer is going? There is a difference in settings, don't get me wrong. The high setting throws out so many pellets that I probably can't even use it without burning up the stove. Maybe I'm just not used to how hot it can safely get.
The way it's feeding, I can get 21.5 hours out of a bag on almost the lowest setting (just above the blue zone). That seems like a lot based on some posts here. I would think I could easily get through 24hrs on a very low setting.
Also, staying right in between medium and low, the convection blower automatically goes to high (safety feature) so if I go anywhere near the higher setting, I think the auger turns off (safety feature).
If I am pushing a smaller unit too hard, am I losing efficiency? DO you get more heat per pound of pellets out of a larger stove because it has a larger heat exchanger, or do you have to burn through a proportionally higher amount of pellets for that increase in heat output?
I know there are a lot of variables which is why I tried to stay away from how many bags to keep the house at x degrees when it's y degrees outside etc.
Sorry for the long post....
I moved into a house that already has an Enviro EF2 insert, my first stove. A local technician convinced me to fix some things with it rather than buy something new. I probably spent around $600 replacing the auger motor and main blower fan. The stove also needed a couple little tweaks to get it in good shape. After this work I find out that the insert is undersized for my house. Rated at 1,500 sq ft, house is 2,000. Here are my issues:
I don't know if it's feeding pellets properly. With the convection blower turned down, I can hear when the auger rotates. Sometimes it will go up to four or five turns before anything comes out. When something does come out, it can be a huge handful two turns in a row, or just a couple pellets. This can cause the flame to vary a decent amount. Normal? In a question specific to this model, if there's any users out there, could you estimate how many seconds pass between rotations on the auger at high and low settings? Even at the low setting it turns more than I would expect. Maybe the new motor is the wrong one? Maybe my potentiometer is going? There is a difference in settings, don't get me wrong. The high setting throws out so many pellets that I probably can't even use it without burning up the stove. Maybe I'm just not used to how hot it can safely get.
The way it's feeding, I can get 21.5 hours out of a bag on almost the lowest setting (just above the blue zone). That seems like a lot based on some posts here. I would think I could easily get through 24hrs on a very low setting.
Also, staying right in between medium and low, the convection blower automatically goes to high (safety feature) so if I go anywhere near the higher setting, I think the auger turns off (safety feature).
If I am pushing a smaller unit too hard, am I losing efficiency? DO you get more heat per pound of pellets out of a larger stove because it has a larger heat exchanger, or do you have to burn through a proportionally higher amount of pellets for that increase in heat output?
I know there are a lot of variables which is why I tried to stay away from how many bags to keep the house at x degrees when it's y degrees outside etc.
Sorry for the long post....
