Harman P43 Pellet Usage Just Crazy

[Kevin1024]

Heating a 3000 sq ft house. Very windy and raw out today. I've gone thru 2.5 bags in 24 hrs. I have the thermostat all the way up and feed rate at 4. Auto and room temp mode. I'm maintaining 73 degrees in stove room but 65 on the other side of the house. Any way to reduce pellet usage?

 

[jackman]

When the temps in my house drop below freezing I usually go thru 2 bags/day. It's hard to say in your case. Every house is different.

 

[rich2500]

3000 sq.ft is a lot for a pellet stove, gonna take a lot of fuel to heat that space

 

[Tails1]

Hi Kevin,

What kind of stove do you have? Remember the more heat you produce the more fuel (pellets) you use. It is also windy (very) and cold here and I my stove has cycled several times today and twice last night. I have used about a bag in that time. Before this a bag would last a week or more. My house also is only 800/sf so you would use considerably more trying to heat a 3000/sf space.

 

[Mt Bob]

LOL turn stove off,no pellet usage

 

[bags]

3,000 SQ FT is asking a lot out of a P43. In a house that large you may be better with 2 stoves at opposite ends. That said you will still burn 2 bags a day but the heat will be even and more comfortable and consistent.

What were the outside temps during the 2.5 bag burn?

Also and 8 degree difference between the room that the P43 is in and the farther away areas is common. I experience about and 8* temp swing here as well.

Let us know on those outside temps please. Another thought is that once it is very cold you may have even a more difficult time to heat that much space with a smaller BTU stove output.

There may be some options and advice to help. I assume you are doing a two story home?? Give some details of what type of 3,000 SQ FT you are trying to heat.

 

[bogieb]

I'm unsure why you thought a P43 would heat that large of an area. You need a bigger stove to heat that big of a house; a P61a or P68. And, to make the heat even, as Bags says, adding a second stove on the other end of the house would probably be most effective. But also, as others have stated, the pellet usage most likely won't go down (or at least not by much if it does), just the heat distribution will be better.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

A P43 heating 3000sf is a tall order....

 

[redbill]

got any insulation in your attic? always start there.

 

[railfanron]

Harman Lover is correct. The heat loss on a 3000 sq ft. house extremely well insulated would probably be 100,000BTUs or more at 30 degrees F. A not so well insulated house maybe 150,000BTUs or more. So 3 p43s in a not so well insulated house may well keep up but the cost for pellets would be high. If you paid 600.00 a month for Propane or Oil don't expect pellet heat to be 100.00 cause it ain't gonna happen. JMHO
Ron

 

[MCPO]

My Harman P-38 heats most of my 2400 sq ft home to about 68 in cold weather but I need help from the furnace when the temps get below 20 degrees. I`ll burn 4-4.5 tons plus 350 gals of oil but that includes the hot water. That said the (3) 2nd fl bedrooms (unoccupied) are much too cool.
In summary, the P-38 / P43 is not ideal for more than 15-1800 sq ft and when tasked to heat more than a small home it will burn through a lot of pellets when cranked .

 

[railfanron]

You're right MCPO. My house is 2250 sq ft and extremely well insulated. The attic is insulated to r100 as my ductwork is up there. My p43 will heat the whole house (all on one floor) with the family room at 73 and the far end at 66 in the very cold weather. Two years back the furnace went out when it was -20F. The Harman kept us warm but it took 2 electric heaters to keep the far end of the house at 68. I run the furnace and pellet stove tag team style and this keeps the family room at 73 and the rest of the house at 69. Last years fuel consumption was 3 tons of pellets and 460 gallons of propane. That included all my hot water for the year and heat for my 1600 sq ft not so well insulated workshop for approximately 20 days. People need to understand that those "will heat up to 2000 sq ft" figures that are passed out by the manufacturers are basically meaningless. Before I rebuilt my house the base house was 850 sq ft and I can tell you I'm pretty sure the p43 wouldn't have heated it to 50 on a 40 degree day. Yes it was that bad. As the car manufacturers say "Your mileage may vary".
Ron

 

[Bioburner]

Lets do some simple math and see what if any real problem.
100 pounds of pellets at 8,ooo btus per pound is 800000.
800000 divided by 24 hours is 33,000 btus per hour input.
33000 at 80% efficiency is an output of 26,666 btus.
So the use of a little more than 4 pounds of pellets an hour is not bad to heat 3000 sg ft house.
My propain cost is 1.20/gallon and that would cost 44+- cents an hour as propain is 91,000 btu/G and would be a break even if paying a bit more $200/T

 

[NYBurner]

Yeah, 2.5 bags is nothing to actually heat the house. We are sitting at ~ 28-30F outside right now and Im running about 3 bags a day and that is keeping the main floor @~69F. When it gets single digits and lower.....4-5 bags/day is pretty expected.

 

[Cory S]

When it gets single digits and lower.....4-5 bags/day is pretty expected.

 

[rich2500]

Yeah really I would either sell the house or find another heat source

 

[NYBurner]

Yeah really I would either sell the house or find another heat source

Haha yeah well, big house and a cape cod. Not the best combo for heat retention, but it's heating 3 floors so no complaints.

 

[Kevin1024]

Thanks guys! Great discussion. If you actually break it down, 2.5 bags a day is a little more than my current oil price. However, I'm stubborn and don't want to pay those buggers. Not a big fan of their "auto" fill policy. Seems they always want to keep my 500 gallon tank at 500 without allowing me to burn through it.

 

[silverfox103]

We have a 2300 sq ft, L shaped ranch. Of course there was no central spot to install a pellet stove. So, we installed it in the best spot. We bought a P68 Harman about 9 years ago. I was not going to be held hostage by the oil companies. Because of the shape of the house, one end was always cooler and that was the room we spent most of our time. So, we would have to run the oil boiler to supplement.

Several years later I had a chance to pick up a used P38 for a great price. I installed that in the cool side of the house. What a difference! All 2300 sq ft were toasty. I could now turn the P68 down and the P38 barely idles. That worked for me. Four years ago I found a better solution, head south from Jan to April, that really worked. Drained the pipes and have had no problems.

Tom

 

[jatoxico]

Thanks guys! Great discussion. If you actually break it down, 2.5 bags a day is a little more than my current oil price. However, I'm stubborn and don't want to pay those buggers. Not a big fan of their "auto" fill policy. Seems they always want to keep my 500 gallon tank at 500 without allowing me to burn through it.

So you figure you're paying more to heat w/ pellets than oil? With the added benefit of having to move and load the product? I'd run the oil while the price is down or just use the stove to heat the space it's in for comfort and let the boiler do the rest of the work.

 

[railfanron]

If the heat loss in your house is 43,000 BTUs and you try to heat it with a P43 you're NOT going to heat if efficiently or economically. If you want to really see you heat bill go up go out and get 30,000 BTUs of electric heaters and try to heat the house with them. You won't even accomplish the task and the bill will be a lot more than the pellet stove or the oil heat because they will be running full time. It appears that the heat loss is very close to what the P43 puts out and that IS your problem. I would be looking to seal up any leaks and just as important insulate wherever you can especially in the attic. The savings will be instant in the oil or pellet use and the payback will be under 5 years. Keeping the heat in is by far more important in keeping you warm than generating more of it.
Ron

 

[alternativeheat]

A second heat source is going to work best for you, you could do two stoves or turn up your oil heat.. I would put the P43 in a constant burn state ( the old Stove Temp Mode) and adjust that to where you are ok with pellet consumption. Then turn the heat up in the house to where you want the house to be . You can ring the guts out of that single P43 and it's not going to fully heat the house, especially when it actually gets cold out. Just try what I'm saying, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how much less you oil heat runs and you will be able to just call in an order of oil as you need it. We don't do auto fill, we call up when we need oil, then we can plan on exactly what the charge will be and when. In the super cold weather I do what I mentioned above just so i don't dump so many pellets into the P61, I can set it to burn a nominal 1-1/2 bags per day and use a little oil. Don't ask me which one is supplementing the other but I'd guess the oil heat is supplementing the pellet heat, since it only runs about 4 times in 24 hours. We do have to buy oil anyway though because of heating our tenants apartment.

 

[dozerdean]

I used around 5 tons on a 1300 sq ft house. 1/2 ton or so for my garage. I could have used natural gas for 2 winters at that price! So I decided to burn wood in my wood furnace & use the pellet stove when just gets extremely cold with conjunction with the wood furnace.i used about 2 bags a day.

 

[bags]

We have a 2300 sq ft, L shaped ranch. Of course there was no central spot to install a pellet stove. So, we installed it in the best spot. We bought a P68 Harman about 9 years ago. I was not going to be held hostage by the oil companies. Because of the shape of the house, one end was always cooler and that was the room we spent most of our time. So, we would have to run the oil boiler to supplement.

Several years later I had a chance to pick up a used P38 for a great price. I installed that in the cool side of the house. What a difference! All 2300 sq ft were toasty. I could now turn the P68 down and the P38 barely idles. That worked for me. Four years ago I found a better solution, head south from Jan to April, that really worked. Drained the pipes and have had no problems.

Tom

Ha hahaha! Heading south for free warmth is always a good answer!

 

[bags]

I would seriously consider snagging the sweetly priced Castle Serenity and install one opposite of the P43. It will reduce your pellet use in the 43 some and offer better heat and a better bang for the pellet buck overall. Just an option...