Harman HP100 Hot air pellet Furnance

[poconozebras]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to purchase a Harman HP100 which would be an add on to my oil boiler. I have forced hot air. Due to the raising cost of oil, I'm looking to reduce my oil usage. I have three floors and one zone for the whole house.

My question is, is the Harman a good choice or is there something out there that better. Any feed back would be great .

thanks
poconozebras

 

[begreen]

Harman makes some very good products, though I don't know how many of these furnaces they make. My concern would be that when it comes to support that the dealer would be unfamiliar with it. I would ask the dealer how many of these they have sold and are servicing.

This is an expensive investment so it's best to do careful research first. Have you run the numbers on the current cost of pellets in your area vs oil?

 

[hossthehermit]

I looked at the Harman as well, decided to go with the St. Croix Revolution.

 

[sinnian]

IMO I would look at the Traeger/Pinnacle GBU070. You will most likely need to get it out of NY, but it has a longer track record then the Harmon.

 

[jrousell]

I own a harman pf100. Do you have any specific questions for me?

 

[propanevictim]

Hard to imagine the PF100 cranking hot air up to a third floor. It's blower isn't that powerful. I have one and use it to heat only my first floor. It does a fantastic job downstairs in a house with 9 foot ceilings and a mostly open floor plan. It's tied right into my existing duct work, and theoretically, my propane furnace and the PF100 complement one another--propane is supposed to kick on automatically if PF100 dies or runs out of fuel. But I've had some problems with the regulator which senses when to turn on the PF100's distribution blower and when to automatically open the damper (and closing the one on the propane beast).
You should know that pellet furnaces really do eat up pellets when compared to pellet stoves and inserts. In October I took delivery of 7 tons of pellets from Pelletsales.com. Last year, I burned 7 tons starting in mid-November and that got me through the end of April. Even still, 7 tons of pellets, even in this market, is a far better deal than propane or natural gas (at least in my area).
You'll need an electrician to install a dedicated circuit for the unit, a ducting guy to tie it in to your existing duct work--all in addition to whatever your stove guys charge you for installation.

 

[jrousell]

Hard to imagine the PF100 cranking hot air up to a third floor. It's blower isn't that powerful....

well.. I have to respectfully disagree.

I have a 3300 square feet house with three full floors and a heated basement... my whole house is heated warm and toasty

I guess it all depends on your installation.. Looks like you might have put in the wrong blower, or have some ducting issue.

Mine runs on medium speed ( or low in the shoulder seasons)- I don't even need the blower on high speed

 

[propanevictim]

I'm all ears (well--not really). Tell me how you get that heat up to the second floor. I'm eager to stop using portable electric heaters upstairs at night. What kind of blower have you got? Are you on three different zones? I've been wondering if I cut vents into the floors of the upstairs bedrooms if I'd get enough heat up there to make it worth it.

 

[hossthehermit]

Hard to imagine the PF100 cranking hot air up to a third floor. It's blower isn't that powerful....

well.. I have to respectfully disagree.

I have a 3300 square feet house with three full floors and a heated basement... my whole house is heated warm and toasty

I guess it all depends on your installation.. Looks like you might have put in the wrong blower, or have some ducting issue.

Mine runs on medium speed ( or low in the shoulder seasons)- I don't even need the blower on high speed

Just out of curiousness, how's the pellet usage on that? Looked at that model before I bought, but dealer said I was outta luck until next year, got the St. Croix in 3 days. Very pleased w/ it, BTW. Sounds like you've got it set up right if you're heating that space,.

 

[Rattlesnake]

I bought the furnace in June when price of oil was sky high, had it installed in September. Our house is a completely renovated farm house on one side, with kitchen, dr, living room downstairs, three brs and bath on second floor. Also a new addition of family room, cathedral ceiling leading to second floor, master br, office, etc., approx 2800 sq ft total. Presently hooked into the existing duct work of the oil furnace for first floor only. Unfortunately, I did not have time to buy pellets when they were in the low $200's, so I have picked up about 4 tons, never paying over $300 per ton.

So far, the downstairs is a very even and a much warmer 68 degrees with the pellet furnace over oil set at 72. There are no drafts due to the constant on and off of the oil burner. However due to the configuration, I will be adding duct work into the second floor bathrooms as they are a little too chilly for my wife's tastes. I have no idea what pellet consumption will be until I total up the bills at the end of the year, and maybe it will take even longer, as I must admit that I will switch to oil if the price keeps dropping and the pellets remain hard to come by and around $300/ton. I'm green.....as green in the wallet.

 

[hossthehermit]

I bought the furnace in June when price of oil was sky high, had it installed in September. Our house is a completely renovated farm house on one side, with kitchen, dr, living room downstairs, three brs and bath on second floor. Also a new addition of family room, cathedral ceiling leading to second floor, master br, office, etc., approx 2800 sq ft total. Presently hooked into the existing duct work of the oil furnace for first floor only. Unfortunately, I did not have time to buy pellets when they were in the low $200's, so I have picked up about 4 tons, never paying over $300 per ton.

So far, the downstairs is a very even and a much warmer 68 degrees with the pellet furnace over oil set at 72. There are no drafts due to the constant on and off of the oil burner. However due to the configuration, I will be adding duct work into the second floor bathrooms as they are a little too chilly for my wife's tastes. I have no idea what pellet consumption will be until I total up the bills at the end of the year, and maybe it will take even longer, as I must admit that I will switch to oil if the price keeps dropping and the pellets remain hard to come by and around $300/ton. I'm green.....as green in the wallet.

So, I guess you're not actually HEATING the place with your PF100, you're just using it to supplement your main source. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Just one of those "Look how environmentally friendly I am", kinda things, huh? Do ya put pellets in yourself, or does the hired help do that?

 

[Rattlesnake]

Yes, I heat my house with the pellet furnace...if I only wanted to heat a room I would have bought a stove. And I can still take care of my self, my family, and my own property without any help....thanks for your concern, though.

 

[j00fek]

So, I guess you're not actually HEATING the place with your PF100, you're just using it to supplement your main source. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Just one of those "Look how environmentally friendly I am", kinda things, huh? Do ya put pellets in yourself, or does the hired help do that?

and the purpose of this is?

 

[jrousell]

I'm all ears (well--not really). Tell me how you get that heat up to the second floor. I'm eager to stop using portable electric heaters upstairs at night. What kind of blower have you got? Are you on three different zones? I've been wondering if I cut vents into the floors of the upstairs bedrooms if I'd get enough heat up there to make it worth it.

My particular setup was in place before I started using the Harman pf100. I also have a propane fired furnace tied into eth same ductwork, I have backdraft dampoers coming off both systems so I cna user eitheror...

The main ductwork has all the seperate ducts coming off it. Each of those has a separate manual dam,per. I made sure the system was setup lkike that so I could tailor the heating to places that needed more versus places that had too much much tweaking the dampers...

The furnace blower on the harman is the three speed 2000 cfm option. althought I never uise it on high speed so a 1500 CFM blower would be plenty. but I dind;t know that before I bought it so I 3nated the safety of getting one thta would be large enough- besides I like having three speed options...

 

[jrousell]

Just out of curiousness, how's the pellet usage on that? Looked at that model before I bought, but dealer said I was outta luck until next year, got the St. Croix in 3 days. Very pleased w/ it, BTW. Sounds like you've got it set up right if you're heating that space,.

your usage will entirely depend on how many BTUs you need. whether you use apellet furnace or natural gas or oil.. they all will consume the product necessary to fill your heating needs...

If you knwo how many gallons of oil or propane you used last year, you could calculate the M- BTU's you used, then take a efficiency estimate and apply that to pellets...

I happen to live in a very cold climate, on a windy hill, with a large drafty house9 not good)

I use 1 bag a day on shoulder seasons up to 3+ bags a day in the coldest of winter days