High pellet consumption on Harman XXV?

[astruna]

To anyone with the Harman XXV, I am curious to know how many bags of pellets a day your stove burns.

We have had our stove since the middle of November 2011 and it's been running almost nonstop with the brutal winter we've had this year. We are burning a bag of pellets (Lignetics) every 10-11 hours with an average stove temperature setting of 5 or 76 degrees. The house is 2,700 sq. feet. I have tried:

- Fiddling around with the feed rate (set as low as 2 and a high as 5, settling with 4 for most of the season).

- Switching to the room temperature setting but the stove seemed to burn even more pellets since it would never get to the actual room temp (we have 16 foot cathedral above the stove which I suspect traps some heat even with a ceiling fan running in reverse).

- Daily burn pot scrapes and more frequent cleaning (now I clean it throughly after 25 bags since it burns MUCH hotter when clean).

I know this stove is capable of producing up to 50,000 BTU but I didn't expect to burn over a ton of pellets per month and we'll have burned just about 5 tons by the end of March! Is this normal? The dealer said it could burn a bag as long as 18 hours but I have yet to see that. We had a Whitfield Advantage at our previous house (1,400 sq. ft.) and at the absolute most, it would burn a bag and a half over 24 hours. Two tons was plenty for the winter.

We love the XXV and it keeps the main living areas of our house nice and toasty at about 70 degrees. Thankfully it has even reduced our propane bill by about 2/3 which was our main reason for buying the stove.

Anyway, just curious to hear what the average XXV pellet consumption out there is for piece of mind. Thanks!

 

[pfmaloney]

We are heating nearly 3200 sq ft with our Harman Accentra Insert and have been averaging around 2 bags a day. we are using room temp mode with the ESP probe around 22 feet from the insert. we have our ceiling fan on medium and the propane furnace off!

 

[DexterDay]

2,700 sq ft..... 16 ft Cathedral ceiling...... 5 Tons........... My dealer also told me about 2-3 tons a year, was all I would use.... I average between 4 and 5 tons, with 2,180 sq ft Ranch and 8 ft ceilings. Kept at 74-76 degrees. I have burnt 10 bags shy now of 4 tons. So it is looking like a 5 ton winter this year (Pellet furnace not hooked up yet). I use ZERO LP in my house. Our Propane bill was around $3,500 average a year. So spending a $1,000 on pellets is just fine by me. Your 5 tons sounds about right to me. Some people say they can do it with "2 Tons a year" , but they are also using LP, Nat Gas, or Electric heat. For the house you are trying to heat, thats about "par for the course". IMHO

Is your house a Ranch, Cape, Split, etc??.. Is your stove centrally located in your home?

 

[checkthisout]

To anyone with the Harman XXV, I am curious to know how many bags of pellets a day your stove burns.

We have had our stove since the middle of November 2011 and it's been running almost nonstop with the brutal winter we've had this year. We are burning a bag of pellets (Lignetics) every 10-11 hours with an average stove temperature setting of 5 or 76 degrees. The house is 2,700 sq. feet. I have tried:

- Fiddling around with the feed rate (set as low as 2 and a high as 5, settling with 4 for most of the season).

- Switching to the room temperature setting but the stove seemed to burn even more pellets since it would never get to the actual room temp (we have 16 foot cathedral above the stove which I suspect traps some heat even with a ceiling fan running in reverse).

- Daily burn pot scrapes and more frequent cleaning (now I clean it throughly after 25 bags since it burns MUCH hotter when clean).

I know this stove is capable of producing up to 50,000 BTU but I didn't expect to burn over a ton of pellets per month and we'll have burned just about 5 tons by the end of March! Is this normal? The dealer said it could burn a bag as long as 18 hours but I have yet to see that. We had a Whitfield Advantage at our previous house (1,400 sq. ft.) and at the absolute most, it would burn a bag and a half over 24 hours. Two tons was plenty for the winter.

We love the XXV and it keeps the main living areas of our house nice and toasty at about 70 degrees. Thankfully it has even reduced our propane bill by about 2/3 which was our main reason for buying the stove.

Anyway, just curious to hear what the average XXV pellet consumption out there is for piece of mind. Thanks!

With 16 foot high ceilings, you need in floor radiant and a pellet boiler.

I would say your pellet consumption is normal.

 

[chris288]

I have 1,100 sq ft and burn 1 bag a day, so your doing o.k. with 2,700 sq ft. not out of line at all..

 

[johnnycomelately]

I have a Harman XXV and was told that I would need no more than 2 tons a year by the dealer that sold it to me. Now hear me out.....I also was able to apply a smidgen of common sense to form a conclusion to the contrary prior to purchasing my stove. You see, I have a neighbor who bought the same stove from the same dealer (Trading Post ) and they told her the same line of crap. She burns 5 tons a year in a 2600 square foor house. I have a 3100 square foot house with an all-glass front. The sales rep came to my house and looked at the set up and told me where the stove would go and that I would need 2 tons a year. I knew that wasnt true but just for ha has I wanted to hear him say it. I do 5-6 tons of Turman pellets a year. The dealer tried to tell me that I use that much because the Turmans are not good. If anyone here is familiar with them you will know that they are the BEST I tried many different ones and those are the hottest and cleanest ones ever.
Bottom line is.....stove dealers want to sell the stove and will tell you what they need to say to get you to part with your benjimans!
But our house is always 72 degrees and we cut our oil usage from 2200 gallons a year to about 600. And we used to keep the house at 66 degrees. Brrrrrrr.

 

[DAKSY]

The XXV is rated at 50K input if it's 75% efficient, that's 37.5K output.
In a well insulated New England home, we use a figure of 30BTU/sf
for heating purposes & that figure is for ESTIMATING only & by no means exact.
37.5K/30per sf = 1250 sf MAX. That is ALL I'd expect to heat with one XXV,
& that's what I tell my customers. I don't create expectations that are gonna
come back & bite me in the a$$..
In an average winter, we expect our customers to burn 3 - 4 tons of pellets,
using their appliance for supplementary heat - not the main source...
I'm into my 4th ton - maybe 10 bags & this has been a much colder than
average winter, so I'd say 5 tons might be the norm this season.
Last winter was a lot milder & I burned about 3.25 tons...

 

[Lousyweather]

I have a Harman XXV and was told that I would need no more than 2 tons a year by the dealer that sold it to me. Now hear me out.....I also was able to apply a smidgen of common sense to form a conclusion to the contrary prior to purchasing my stove. You see, I have a neighbor who bought the same stove from the same dealer (Trading Post ) and they told her the same line of crap. She burns 5 tons a year in a 2600 square foor house. I have a 3100 square foot house with an all-glass front. The sales rep came to my house and looked at the set up and told me where the stove would go and that I would need 2 tons a year. I knew that wasnt true but just for ha has I wanted to hear him say it. I do 5-6 tons of Turman pellets a year. The dealer tried to tell me that I use that much because the Turmans are not good. If anyone here is familiar with them you will know that they are the BEST I tried many different ones and those are the hottest and cleanest ones ever.
Bottom line is.....stove dealers want to sell the stove and will tell you what they need to say to get you to part with your benjimans!
But our house is always 72 degrees and we cut our oil usage from 2200 gallons a year to about 600. And we used to keep the house at 66 degrees. Brrrrrrr.

well, ok, but geez....why do you purchase a stove from a dealer who (seems) to be less than truthful?! I dont get it. I hope their service and warrantee work arent the same way! Guess you will find out.

 

[summit]

XXV is ideally rated at 1800 sq ft.. so for 2700 sq ft and hgh ceilings, the pellet consumption seems pretty normal. Running it in stove temp is a good start to stay on top of it, I fel its a better mode of operation for these cold times we are having now... On thing you could experiment with would be running room temp in "manual"... the stove will stay warm, even when in idle, but the pellet feed rate drops considerably when on standby.

 

[jtakeman]

No matter what the heat source being used, It takes "X" amount of BTUs to heat the dwelling to desired temp. Changing to an alternative heat source still requires the same amount of total BTU's. Changing the heat source doesn't effect the BTU usage. You would need to tighten the dwelling to reduce the total BTU usage, Add some permanent pellets, Reduce the interior temp level or Reduce the total heated area. The savings we see with pellets isn't on BTU amounts, Its in BTU dollars. The overall cost per BTU pumped into the dwelling.

You also cannot compare to a smaller dwelling due to other variable besides just the sqft of the dwelling. Plus the fact we are having a colder than normal winter compared to the last few seasons. If its colder outside its relative to say it will require more BTUs inside to maintain its internal temps.

That all said, Your XXV isn't doing a bad job considering the large area you are trying to heat.

 

[heat seeker]

I have a St Croix, and heat most of 2400 square feet with 1 ½ bags/day, house is around 70-72º. I would assume most pellets stoves are comparable in efficiency, so I'd say you're doing well. As mentioned, there are lots of factors involved, not the least of which is your insulation and window tightness.

 

[mjbrown]

heating 1200 sq. ft. with a harman p38. t-stat is set to to 70*. i have burned 4 ton of mwp"s since the start of the season at 2 bags per day(one bag goes in at 5 am, the second at 5 pm) and my stove goes 24/7. i only shut down for about 1 1/2 hrs on sunday mornings for a good cleaning. going for a 5th ton this week.

mike

 

[tinkabranc]

Heating 2700sqft with 16ft ceilings, going thru 5 ton does not sound
unreasonable to me if you are burning 24/7.....Especially this winter.

I heat approx 2800sqft (2floors) with 8 ft ceilings and I normally average 3-4 ton a year.
However, this year I am going through my supply much faster than normal.

With the exception of the shoulder seasons, I always run my stoves on stove
temp, feed rate 4, at 75 °F. Keeps my home a more consistant temp and less
wear and tear on the ignitor.

 

[Vinelife]

My Sante Fe will do about 1.5 bags a day on a cold day. About 2 bags on a day below 10 F. Above 23 it will do 1 bag a day. 1400 square feet and 16 foot cathederal ceilings with two big hunter ceiling fans up there pushing it all down clockwise.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

With a high ceiling and your square footage I would say you are right in line. I would really consider adding a second stove in the house. Good luck.

Eric

 

[lightyear]

I have the xxv and 2500 feet in my house. I use the room temp mode and don't put the feed rate above 3. I usually leave it set at 2.5 (between 2 and 3). I also set it at 70 degrees because I know the room hits about 76-78 before it shuts down.

I would say that your heat is going straight up the ceiling and not being blown back down. Is there a way to use the fan on a higher level (ceiling fan). Can you close any doors and make your bigger space smaller, or do you have wife and kids moving a lot?

We went through a ton a month about here, but I don't regret it. Last year we had a big winter here in southern maryland and our heating bill was outrageous. Plus we were always cold. After the pellet stove install we have not turned on our heat once here, and our bill dropped almost 300 bucks. we went from $340 in Feb last year and being cold, to 77 this year and loving life. Good luck!

 

[lbcynya]

- Fiddling around with the feed rate (set as low as 2 and a high as 5, settling with 4 for most of the season).

- Switching to the room temperature setting but the stove seemed to burn even more pellets since it would never get to the actual room temp (we have 16 foot cathedral above the stove which I suspect traps some heat even with a ceiling fan running in reverse).

-

Feed rate is a governor to prevent burning pellets from spilling over the edge of the burn pot when high burn is required, all based on the type of pellets you use. You should set it so you have about 1" of ash between the burning pellet line and the edge of the burn pot (stove temp setting 7). Setting of 4 is pretty good, if you have room to turn it up, do so, it will increase the stoves ability to produce the demanded BTU for comfort.

With that said, I wish Harman would do away with this 1970's temperature probe concept and just give us a good old thermostat to set and forget the temp. The probe works great if you understand that you need to "tune it" to have it read consistent with the temperature setting on the dial. For example, for my install the probe is 2.5 feet off the floor, on the wall, just off the back corner of the stove. The heat loss off the wall and the heat from the stove work together to give me an honest reading on the temp dial. I originally had the probe on the floor and 70 on the dial would give me a room temp of 76...not good. Once you have this nailed, then you can let the ESP and the circuit board do the work and modulate the fuel to maintain comfort and efficiency.

Also, for the high ceilings, ceiling fan should be set to draw cold air up and push the warm air down. And, a few strategically placed Vornado (530) air circulation fans make little noise (on low) and they do a great job of pushing the cold air up / warm air down. We added one of these upstairs where the wood stove is and it increased the room temp by 3-4 degrees...easily.

So, if you're using good pellets, moving the air around and not overheating the house for comfort, 2 bags isn't that bad considering the cubic feet you are heating...

 

[astruna]

Thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate it! I will experiment a little more with various settings but glad to know pellet consumption is normal for this model stove.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate it! I will experiment a little more with various settings but glad to know pellet consumption is normal for this model stove.

With your area, room temp, and ceiling height, pellet consumption would be normal for ANY stove capable of putting out 50,000 btu's. Don't blame it on the stove. :cheese: