How low an output can a Harman P61A be run at?

[Pete Zahria]

Stove Temp for me works when I want to mix oil heat with pellet heat in the ultra cold days of mid winter and limit my pellet consumption to X amount per day.

Exactly what I do.. only I do it so the extremities of the house get a little more heat..
('cept I have natgas)

Dan

 

[Tonyray]

Not if your toggle switch is on auto.

Sorry folks...didn't type what i meant....
as far as the fan shutting down quite sometime,
I was referring to room temp/manual mode.. not constant/stove mode........my Bad..
[aware of the ambiance mode of flame but no heat in constant manual..]...

Curious. why constant/stove mode auto as opposed to room temp/manual

 

[alternativeheat]

Exactly what I do.. only I do it so the extremities of the house get a little more heat..
('cept I have natgas)

Dan

LOL, that too. Seems I can't include everything in one post.

 

[alternativeheat]

Curious. why constant/stove mode auto as opposed to room temp/manual

In my case Stove temp Auto run against the oil burner,the stove just puts out a constant heat a little below what it would take for the weather conditions, so that trips the oil heat on periodically to kick things up. It levels out the house temp, monitors my pellet use to 1-1/2 or 2 bags per day and the heat circulates maybe 4 times in 24 hours for 20-30 minutes or so. But I did not learn this with the pellet stove, it's how I ran my coal stove which had no digital control what so ever, never mind anything like Room Temp mode. I'm just mimicking what I had done for more than 35 years with coal is all. Why ? Because it works well.

When running dual heat sources both in a form of room temp mode, well one is going to win vs working in unison.

Last year we had this conversation Tony. I think you tuned out when I mentioned setting my oil heat at 72. I don't think you ever got the concept that the oil isn't doing all the work to keep the house at 72 or that I have cast iron radiators. So when the heat shuts down, those radiators are still giving off heat for quite a while and the house is back up to 74 for hours at a time on the stove till the weather catches up and the radiators cool down etc. My goal is 4 cycles of the oil burner in 24 hours and it burns .65 gal an hour. And the house is very comfortable, almost too warm on the second floor. Course that can be adjusted to personal taste.

 

[Tonyray]

In my case Stove temp Auto run against the oil burner,the stove just puts out a constant heat a little below what it would take for the weather conditions, so that trips the oil heat on periodically to kick things up. It levels out the house temp, monitors my pellet use to 1-1/2 or 2 bags per day and the heat circulates maybe 4 times in 24 hours for 20-30 minutes or so. But I did not learn this with the pellet stove, it's how I ran my coal stove which had no digital control what so ever, never mind anything like Room Temp mode. I'm just mimicking what I had done for more than 35 years with coal is all. Why ? Because it works well.

When running dual heat sources both in a form of room temp mode, well one is going to win vs working in unison.

Last year we had this conversation Tony. I think you tuned out when I mentioned setting my oil heat at 72. I don't think you ever got the concept that the oil isn't doing all the work to keep the house at 72 or that I have cast iron radiators. So when the heat shuts down, those radiators are still giving off heat for quite a while and the house is back up to 74 for hours at a time on the stove till the weather catches and the radiators cool down etc.My coal is 4 cycles of the oil burner in 24 hours and it burns .65 gal an hour. And the house is very comfortable, almost too warm on the second floor. Course that can be adjusted to personal taste.

good explanation......sounds like you have it down to a science..
keep forgeting that in stove/constant mode, the blower never shuts off as it does in room/manual.

do you ever use room manual at all?

 

[alternativeheat]

good explanation......sounds like you have it down to a science..
keep forgeting that in stove/constant mode, the blower never shuts off as it does in room/manual.

do you ever use room manual at all?

Not so much, Room auto wins out as most usage given our climate here on Cape Cod. Depends on the winter though.

 

[Pete Zahria]

In my case Stove temp Auto run against the oil burner,the stove just puts out a constant heat a little below what it would take for the weather conditions, so that trips the oil heat on periodically to kick things up. It levels out the house temp, monitors my pellet use to 1-1/2 or 2 bags per day and the heat circulates maybe 4 times in 24 hours for 20-30 minutes or so.

ZACTLY!!
The furnace is only thinking it needs to go up ~2°... not 40° or more..

Dan

 

[TonyVideo]

I also use stove or constant mode when the temps fall below 20. I set my furnace for 72 and raise and lower the contant burn temp in relationship to my kitchen in the back part of the house which I keep at 65. If the temps fall in the kitchen I turn down the temp on the stove so the furnace kicks on more. This way I ensure my pipes don't freeze. Unfortunately they were run to the kitchen next to the foundation and a corner kitchen sink which is on the predominate side of the house where most of the wind originates in winter here.

 

[Tonyray]

In my case Stove temp Auto run against the oil burner,the stove just puts out a constant heat a little below what it would take for the weather conditions, so that trips the oil heat on periodically to kick things up. It levels out the house temp, monitors my pellet use to 1-1/2 or 2 bags per day and the heat circulates maybe 4 times in 24 hours for 20-30 minutes or so. But I did not learn this with the pellet stove, it's how I ran my coal stove which had no digital control what so ever, never mind anything like Room Temp mode. I'm just mimicking what I had done for more than 35 years with coal is all. Why ? Because it works well.

When running dual heat sources both in a form of room temp mode, well one is going to win vs working in unison.

Last year we had this conversation Tony. I think you tuned out when I mentioned setting my oil heat at 72. I don't think you ever got the concept that the oil isn't doing all the work to keep the house at 72 or that I have cast iron radiators. So when the heat shuts down, those radiators are still giving off heat for quite a while and the house is back up to 74 for hours at a time on the stove till the weather catches up and the radiators cool down etc. My goal is 4 cycles of the oil burner in 24 hours and it burns .65 gal an hour. And the house is very comfortable, almost too warm on the second floor. Course that can be adjusted to personal taste.

wondering how that would work out with regular baseboard heat as opposed to cast radiators..

 

[TonyVideo]

The nice part of this is you can keep where you are warmer than heating the whole house at that temp. Zone heating. It definitely lowers my gas bill by 75% using this method. Wife is happy, pipes don't freeze and I save money when it is below 20 out.

 

[alternativeheat]

wondering how that would work out with regular baseboard heat as opposed to cast radiators..

All you can do is try it Tony, but I think you would be surprised at how little the central heat actually runs.

In my case I have to run oil anyway to heat the attached apartment we rent out, so it's a matter of how much more oil vs pellets will I burn. Big difference between baseboard heat and cast radiators, the apartment is well insulated and has hot water baseboard. Over there the heat may run for an hour if our tenant came home and had had the heat down and then turned it up. But it will circulate for the hour and the burner run in very short spurts, for every ten minutes of circulator time the burner might run for 2-3 minutes once up to running temp. With radiators it takes forever to get them hot enough that the burner might cycle and by then the house comes up to temp and everything shuts off. So in 30 minutes run time the burner is on pretty much right through but then the radiators heat for a long time after shut down. In both cases it's the same boiler with a .65 ( per hour) nozzle, so if it runs for a half hour for the main house it used 1/3 gallon of fuel more or less and heating 1800 sq ft. then it's off for hours while the stove maintains. I aim for 4-5 cycles of oil in 24 hours in single digit or colder weather, so 1-1/2 gallons used and pellets about 1-3/4 bags used. Oil is 2.59 right now , pellets 5.18. that paired usage of heat works out pretty close to even, it's always proven to be my most efficient way to heat this house in the severe cold weather, even when burning coal.

 

[TonyVideo]

It took me a couple of years to dial in the most efficient way of heating our 1880's home. First year I think as my stoves were new I went through a lot of pellets. Had a frozen pipe when the temps got into the single digits. This prompted me to spend some more time on optimizing. Tweaking is half the fun depending on the temp outside I now know what stove to run, how high and when. Colder temps stove mode. Shoulder season or temps above freezing room temp and no gas.