Harmon PF100 installation

[gitmo234]

Hey guys,

I have purchased my Harmon PF100 forced air pellet furnace. My intent is to use this as the primary source of heat in my house all winter, and if possible depend on it 100%. Well, I will be using it 100%, i may just have to use electric heaters as well, depending on how well it heats 2500 square feet with one room of cathedral ceilings or i may freeze again all winter.

In anyways, I have an HVAC guy that I've been using for stuff on my propane furnace that works good, guarantees his work for life, has the best prices i've ever seen, but he is always late. I dont mean like an hour late, I mean like once he was 13 hours late. showed up at 1 am, Tuesday I booked him for 4pm to 10pm but he showed up at 10:30 pm and worked for two hours, no-showed on weds, and today he was supposed to arrive early morning and work all day. It's 5:15 pm and he has yet to show but promises to work until finished once he does.

From what I can tell, he overbooks and talks a lot burning time. He quoted me $1400 to install the furnace into my existing ductwork, not including parts (supply and return vent, etc)

Long story short, I'm very "handy man" inclined. From general jobs to airplane mechanics (yes I used to be on in the USAF way back). When he arrived after 10 pm, I had him walk me through the installation and what it entailed, wiring the motor (watch him do that once before), electrical hook up, where and what to use to connect to various ducts, etc. After listening, I'm fair confident its something that i could do myself, since I'm tying into already existing ductwork and not messing with my old furnace.

Any thoughts on this? Wiring to the breaker box is easy, I'm not worried about electrical hook ups. I'm wondering about how complex it is to hook up the various duct work. plugging into my current system, the cutting of wholes in the return and supply ducts and connecting.

Any thoughts?

 

[Skippydo]

This is going on my 4th heating season with a PF100.
My son also got a PF100 at the same time.
I heat over 3500 sq ft of a 4500 sq ft house. I do not heat
the garage and the bedroom above it. Too many rooms for just me
and the wife. Yes I also have catheral ceilings in kitchen (14f) which is
a large kitchen 20x20, a living room 28x14 with 18 feet high ceilings. And
an open loft.
The spacing in the house is very open with large openings from room to
room. Three floors are heated. I also have ductwork in the garage, but I also
have a wood stove in the garage (a man thing)
I built the house myself (4 1/2 years), so I also installed some electric
baseboard heaters in some of the rooms (just in case) for -0 days. I am also
from Pa, North of Pittsburgh.
Could go on and on.....
Yes, this unit will heat your house. I go through 7 to 8 ton of pellets.
As far as the duct work, I got my and sons installed for $650.00 each.
This was for the duct work material and the installation. The setting of the
unit, wiring, and venting we did.
Everything went fine.
If I can be of more help, let me know....there will also be a few PF100 users
checking in.....but maybe not till it gets a little colder. To be 37 here tonight,
and 40 tomorrow night......Just checking, is this September????
I saw a flock of geese V'd up and flying south. That scared me, and with these
low temps.....what are we in for this winter?
Good luck on your install.

 

[gitmo234]

Nice. That's the kind of input I was looking for on how well it heats. My catherdal ceilings are in the living room and they are 25 or 30 foot, and my house is a lot of empty room. I've posted before but I re-measured my insulation and its sitting at about R-19 at the lowest and most common points, in some peaking to R-25. I'm about halfway through laying down R-30 over top of that in the back half the house. I have the insulation all purchased, but the entry into the attic isnt big enough to fit a whole role through so I have to unroll it and pull it through, adding time, and its only gotten cool enough to really do it during the day now. So far I've layed down about 8 rolls, with about 12 more to go for one half of the house.

Last year I ran my propane furnace for about a month and half max and went through almost a 1000 gallons of propane at $3.35 a gallon. That was keeping it set to 68 degrees. With the harmon I plan to have the thermostat in a room that isnt catherdal ceilings, the living room will just be a bit chillier.

So its now 9pm and Ive heard since about noon he would be here soon. Now hes saying he'll be here and also at 7 am tomorrow. If it doesnt get some major progress tomorrow, he's fired.

 

[Skippydo]

Sounds lilke you really have a character there. How you want to get something done and
over with, and he is holding you up. You seem to still have a lot of installation yet to do.
But sounds like you know what you are doing.
You really sucked up the propane last year....wow
Last spring I got my 325 gallon tank filled, and as right now, I am at 55%.
I changed over my propane hot water to electric, now no blow outs during
those windy winter days.
Your downstairs/furnce room will be very very comfortable from the heat from the
PF100 unit.
I spend a lot of time downstairs in my 'mans cave' with the wood fireplace on, relaxing,
watching tv, and I can close off the vents downstairs in the first level kitchen and mans cave,
along with the other two bedrooms and bathroom. Garage I always keep turned off.
Love the constant heat from the PF100, you will notice that you will not have any cold areas.
Even when the fan is not on, you will get hear.

 

[dmaclaren]

I heat 3600 sqft which 1/3 is the unfinished basement. I keep it at 70 with the up and down from the main floor ate 67-68. I use between 2 - 2.5 bags a day and I have never felt better than I did last year with with this. The PF replaces the propane and I can't wait to turn it on. I save a boat load with pellets. I have a little over 5 ton and will stock up when they go down in price.

I have used Green team, stove chow, fireside.

 

[gitmo234]

I went with the highest option I was offered... a 1638 CFM blower. Hopefully that will be reasonable.

 

[dmaclaren]

I'm sure you will be fine. Keep the heat steady and don't do a wide swing day/night and you shouldn't have the cold come off the walls.

 

[nateschisler]

@gitmo...sounds like you're right behind me on my PF100 install. I spent (literally) 2 months lurking on here before buying my Harman PF100, then most of the summer lurking about install ideas (dampers, vent pipe, etc.). I think I've read the install manual 3 times cover to cover. I too consider myself an "Advanced Handyman". HVAC was the one trade I haven't had much experience with (installed a powered humidifier last year, and ran new flex duct lines to my addition). I'd be happy to share my findings!

I just ordered install parts today...will be hard at it next week.

 

[gitmo234]

I you have any pictures of your setup or any thing you've learned about it, I'd love to swee them. I just fired my my contractor tonight.

 

[dmaclaren]

I you have any pictures of your setup or any thing you've learned about it, I'd love to swee them. I just fired my my contractor tonight.

What are you looking for. I did mine myself and had a local hvac place make what I needed. It's pretty simple once planned out.

 

[gitmo234]

Well the fired contractor showed up 5 minutes after I fired him via text, so I gave him some lip and let him get to work. He worked overnight from about 10:30 til 5:30 am, and did the same tonight. He's a slow worker. Strangely enough he did a bunch of other stuff too. I had ran internet cable throughout my house like tv cable for my computers, for no good reason, he properly mounted the wires along teh wall, hung my switch on the wall, organized the wires,etc. Cleaned up around my basement and stuff. Why? who knows. Its nice but I'd rather he worked.

Long story short, he just needs to hook up the return air tonight and we're good. We fired it up at 7 am today and it was putting off roughly the same amount of air as the 2000cfm blower i have in my 120k btu propane furnace.

Its actually installed a bit away from my current furnace at the end of a supply duct, so I'm going to suffer a bit on that, but its near the side of teh house I want most of the heat in. Its still matching the power of my propane furnace with its 1638cfm motor, without the supply hooked up, so there's no negative pressure to help out. Feels wierd to actually hear air coming out of vents. I'm actually really excited to try this out. i bought 5 bags of pellets last night to test it, this morning it was fired up and going.

the HVAC guy tested it out without waking me up and promptly filled a room or two with smoke by having the feed set too high. With some adjustment it worked well.

 

[dmaclaren]

Wow, you slept while the man work in your house over night?

 

[gitmo234]

yeah, twice in a row. I told him from the start that I was taking a pic of his license plate and getting a copy of his ID, then steered the conversation to guns and how i like owning weapons, etc. Then I set an alarm clock and got up every few hours and just checked in on him.

It's crazy. I'm at work now and all I want to do is get home to test out my furnace

 

[gitmo234]

Any idea as to why my thermostat seems to be operating backwards? If I set it low, the heat kicks on, if i set it to 80 degrees...nothing. Do I need to reverse the wiring on the wall thermostat?

 

[gitmo234]

actually i think my thermostat is just dead. If I turn it down to 55 degrees I get the warning light saying no thermostat is connected. When I turn it up that goes off, but at 80 degrees it doesnt kick on