Harman XXV-TC, looking for setting tips

[Maritimewannabe]

Seems like we are going thru a bag a day and its only fall, should I turn the feed rate down, the fans up? Anyone have any practical best practices?
I can ask the shop were we bought it but, because this line is more state of the art, they seemed less knowledgeable on all its settings, plus they sell pellets so its prolly in their best interest not to help me set it most efficient.

Thx

 

[alternativeheat]

Depending on the house size, insulation and present weather conditions, having a 50,000 btu stove burn a bag a day might be considered good. The fact that it's fall doesn't mean much if it's cold out and the house poorly insulated non the less. What settings are you using now ?

 

[Maritimewannabe]

Depending on the house size, insulation and present weather conditions, having a 50,000 btu stove burn a bag a day might be considered good. The fact that it's fall doesn't mean much if it's cold out and the house poorly insulated non the less. What settings are you using now ?

The auto settings its programmed with. Auto Sensing room Temp.
Should i dial back the feed rate?
Were in Iowa and the lows have only been in the 30's and the house is well insulated, 6" outside studs, newer home.

Also seem to have more Ash than others say they have.

my burn pot

• Maritimewannabe
• Nov 3, 2018

 

[Mt Bob]

I agree everything alternative said.You might want to give more info--how big is house,windows,floors,etc.Unless you have an infrared survey done,how new the house is means nothing,IMHO.Also,I hope your flame goes much higher than that.

 

[alternativeheat]

You can scrape the ash off any time with the stove running. Lots of ash is usually pellet related not stove related. In that photo you have an ash bound burn pot and crappy flame pattern. Scrape the ash out of there.

Feed rate isn't going to matter a whole bunch on a Harman, most of us run between 3 and 4. Room Temp Auto is good, keep your sensor off the floor about 3 ft and also not in the air stream of the room vent. Some of us coil it up behind the stove, actually taped to the back of the stove with sensor element sticking out to the side a little and as I said, about 3 ft off the floor. Run the fan speed mid way, the XXV has a tremendous distribution fan, you might even get away with under half way.

How is it heating the house ? Does it ever shut down ? What is your installation like ?

 

[Mt Bob]

You can scrape the ash off any time with the stove running. Lots of ash is usually pellet related not stove related. In that photo you have an ash bound burn pot and crappy flame pattern. Scrape the ash out of there.

Feed rate isn't going to matter a whole bunch on a Harman, most of us run between 3 and 4. Room Temp Auto is good, keep your sensor off the floor about 3 ft and also not in the air stream of the room vent. Some of us coil it up behind the stove, actually taped to the back of the stove with sensor element sticking out to the side a little and as I said, about 3 ft off the floor. Run the fan speed mid way, the XXV has a tremendous distribution fan, you might even get away with under half way.

How is it heating the house ? Does it ever shut down ? What is your installation like ?

His is an TC,the new digital model.I have never worked on one,but you have to go into programming to adjust the settings,and,I think the room sensor may have a specific area where it is supposed to be,I.E. the room return air intake?

 

[Maritimewannabe]

His is an TC,the new digital model.I have never worked on one,but you have to go into programming to adjust the settings,and,I think the room sensor may have a specific area where it is supposed to be,I.E. the room return air intake?

Yes The TC sensor is fixed, I can purch a wireless room sensor but they are pricey.
It heats the lower level fine (except the back room), and the upstairs what we have open.
I have the reg Furnace fan running all the time and and we put in a return vent up above the stove, closed off all other returns and unused rooms. 2 story 2560 sq ft, living area, basement unfinished, open and outer walls insulated but vents down there closed. The whole house is a pretty open floor plan, cape cod. 2x6 walls with max insulation and over 18" in attic

Maybe a bag a day is normal? and yes I have already woke up to a cold house because i thought the bin was pretty full when I went to bed then was empty and shut down the next morning. I admit we originally thought it was just going to do the one room, but the Shop we got it from I think oversold it as being able to heat our whole house and will pay for itself in no time.

I would like to find somewhere close that has the softwood pellets. There is one place an hour away but I dont have a truck so i can only grab 30 at a time and after paying more for them plus gas, I dont think I would save anything.

Dont get me wrong we love the stove and the idea of pellet heat. Along with the idea of alternative pellets in the future that might be even better and cheaper. We are just new to this and fell a little lost and just trying to figure it out.

 

[Mt Bob]

OMG big house! Bag a day is fine!!

 

[Ssyko]

yeah what Bob said!!

 

[rich2500]

The room sensor should have slack in the wire inside the stove but it's wire tied, You have to open up the stove and cut the wire tie. I have my sensor mounted on the wall in the corner behind the stove. As for changing settings I tried playing with the settings and found no difference when running in room temp. With that size home I would have opted for the Absolute 63 if you wanted a T/C stove.

 

[alternativeheat]

I didn't realize it was the newest model or it didn't register anyway and am not up on their controls. So I'll bow out about running the stove here.

That said, you're heating a large area for that stove, probably up near it's max capability, a bag a day doesn't sound unreasonable in 30 deg weather at that rate, new controls or not.. I'd venture a guess and say when real cold hits then your most economical means of heat will be to combine the central heat and stove. This way neither system works very hard. I do that in my house and have for decades now, even when we burned coal and oil, now pellets and oil. With a little fiddling with controls I get it so I maintain around a bag a day, maybe 1-1/4 a day and 4 cycles of the central oil heat, keeping the house at a constant 69-70 deg. Very comfortable with less cold spots in the house.

 

[Dataman]

I have older model I got in April. I go thru 1/2-1Bag a day with 20's at night. Turned off last week or so it's so warm and Distribution Fan has bad bearing (waiting on repair parts and repair under warranty). One thing I dislike is small hopper. I think I will be filling it when I go to sleep at 9am when it's really cold. I have about 2000sq ft upstairs and 400 downstairs, but heat downstairs is elec or none.

I get a lot bigger flame on my stove. I can feel the difference when it's hungry, stove is hot compared to warm. I was going to get Cab50 and changed my mind. Wondering if I made mistake. When it's -10f I will know. If I am wrong will get another very small pellet stove for laundry room. But Jury still out on that one.

Replaced Blaze King "King" that was too much, but it would heat house to almost 90f in living room.

 

[Maritimewannabe]

The room sensor should have slack in the wire inside the stove but it's wire tied, You have to open up the stove and cut the wire tie. I have my sensor mounted on the wall in the corner behind the stove. As for changing settings I tried playing with the settings and found no difference when running in room temp. With that size home I would have opted for the Absolute 63 if you wanted a T/C stove.

How hard is it to open up? do I need to remove the pipe and pull out the stove? The XXV was the compromise with my wife, I get a stove so Im not cold anymore and she picks the style.

 

[Maritimewannabe]

If a bag a bag a day is OK then Im OK. Thanks All

 

[kenora]

If a bag a bag a day is OK then Im OK. Thanks All

You must remember that the heat load of the house you are trying to heat is issue.

Look at your old heating bills and see how much energy (btus) you were using on a monthly basis to keep the house warm... the stove needs to produce the same number of btus to heat it as well.

In my case the cost of that heat by electricity is waaaaay more than the cost by pellet stove (here in NW Ont Canukistan the delivered cost per kwh is 26 cents my guess your electric cost is closer to 10c)... pellets here are $300/ton... heating with electricity is about $700/month.. with pellets (at a bag a day) is $180.... just do the math... (I'm heating 900 sq ft)

 

[stovelark]

A bag a day is pretty low, its only 1.5 lbs/hr. That's around 12000 btus input, about 8-9K output btus, not a whole lot. Sounds to me with that big of an area, its running pretty light. The TC units are really nice, easy to use. Most folks use the constant burn mode unless they want the wireless room sensor (a really nice feature in a larger area to heat) to use in auto burn. Enjoy your new stove, sounds like she is doing great for you.

 

[Maritimewannabe]

A bag a day is pretty low, its only 1.5 lbs/hr. That's around 12000 btus input, about 8-9K output btus, not a whole lot. Sounds to me with that big of an area, its running pretty light. The TC units are really nice, easy to use. Most folks use the constant burn mode unless they want the wireless room sensor (a really nice feature in a larger area to heat) to use in auto burn. Enjoy your new stove, sounds like she is doing great for you.

I may try the Constant burn method and see about moving the sensor. The auto mode may be cooling down a starting up, is it more efficient to leave it run..I guess I will see.

 

[BKM-540]

I'm heating a 1800 sq/ft ranch with vaulted ceilings with an older style XXV so with that being said... Leave it running, especially in the 30's. Would think in the mid 40's with your size house would be the spot where you need to contemplate shutting it down or letting it burn. Try on Room Temp. and just let it trickle along. If it's ramping up, settling down, ramping up and maybe then shutting off then turn your feed rate down. Switch to "manual" instead of "auto" mode and it will just plug along without shutting down. As your needing more heat turn your feed rate back up to the normal position (4-4.5). Turning the feed rate back helps with the ramping up and settling down effect you get in the shoulder seasons. Also keep the distribution fan in the middle. Had mine almost maxed out at 80-90% my first year thinking more distribution meant the more heat I was going to get from it, not true. It has an adverse effect with the temperature of the air coming out... imho. If you have a ceiling fan in the room with your stove leave it on but have it's rotation so that it pushes the air towards the ceiling not down on you. It'll be more comfortable to you and it will keep the warm air from just sitting up high in the ceiling. I don't see any benefit to turning the ceiling fans on in the back rooms either but you can try. Also, running the HVAC fan on is a waste, others may have different opinions but for me it's a waste of electricity.

 

[Maritimewannabe]

I'm heating a 1800 sq/ft ranch with vaulted ceilings with an older style XXV so with that being said... Leave it running, especially in the 30's. Would think in the mid 40's with your size house would be the spot where you need to contemplate shutting it down or letting it burn. Try on Room Temp. and just let it trickle along. If it's ramping up, settling down, ramping up and maybe then shutting off then turn your feed rate down. Switch to "manual" instead of "auto" mode and it will just plug along without shutting down. As your needing more heat turn your feed rate back up to the normal position (4-4.5). Turning the feed rate back helps with the ramping up and settling down effect you get in the shoulder seasons. Also keep the distribution fan in the middle. Had mine almost maxed out at 80-90% my first year thinking more distribution meant the more heat I was going to get from it, not true. It has an adverse effect with the temperature of the air coming out... imho. If you have a ceiling fan in the room with your stove leave it on but have it's rotation so that it pushes the air towards the ceiling not down on you. It'll be more comfortable to you and it will keep the warm air from just sitting up high in the ceiling. I don't see any benefit to turning the ceiling fans on in the back rooms either but you can try. Also, running the HVAC fan on is a waste, others may have different opinions but for me it's a waste of electricity.

thx

 

[Maritimewannabe]

I have been burning in constant burn and the house seems warmer, pellet use rate is the same and the ash build up the same (maybe its the cheaper hardwood pellets). Bu t I do like this mode better now that its getting colder. anywhich way, we we love the pellet stove and have yet to turn on our normal LP furnace.

 

[Johnstabuin]

Yes The TC sensor is fixed, I can purch a wireless room sensor but they are pricey.
It heats the lower level fine (except the back room), and the upstairs what we have open.
I have the reg Furnace fan running all the time and and we put in a return vent up above the stove, closed off all other returns and unused rooms. 2 story 2560 sq ft, living area, basement unfinished, open and outer walls insulated but vents down there closed. The whole house is a pretty open floor plan, cape cod. 2x6 walls with max insulation and over 18" in attic

Maybe a bag a day is normal? and yes I have already woke up to a cold house because i thought the bin was pretty full when I went to bed then was empty and shut down the next morning. I admit we originally thought it was just going to do the one room, but the Shop we got it from I think oversold it as being able to heat our whole house and will pay for itself in no time.

I would like to find somewhere close that has the softwood pellets. There is one place an hour away but I dont have a truck so i can only grab 30 at a time and after paying more for them plus gas, I dont think I would save anything.

Dont get me wrong we love the stove and the idea of pellet heat. Along with the idea of alternative pellets in the future that might be even better and cheaper. We are just new to this and fell a little lost and just trying to figure it out.

Buy the remote sensor it's a game changer, well worth the money. The stove should come with one as standard equipment, but they have not done this yet. It keeps the room temperature where you want it. At my place we spend most of the time in the big room with a wall of windows and door, when I put the remote there the room is perfectly comfortable.