How my pellet stove saved Christmas

[petejung]

OK... So maybe the topic is a bit over the top... But here goes.

This past Sunday, my family needed to be gone for about 8 hours. Being a new pellet stove owner, and being raised in a "never leave a fire burning in an empty house" household, I don't let my pellet stove run while we are away for long periods of time. So, I (aigh) turned on the gas furnace so that the house, and our dog, would be warm while we were gone and when we came back. When we came back, the house was 69, dog was warm.

Turned the furnace back off, and lit the pellet stove. Ran the stove all day Monday. Turned it off Monday night before bed, and set our alarm for 4AM, as there was "work" to be done in preparation for Christmas morning.

Wife and I got up at 4... I decided to turn on the furnace again so that the house would be at temperature for when the kids got up and came downstairs, but didn't want to run the pellet stove, because of the proximity of chocolate to the stove... So, I crank up the t-stat... And the furnace never kicks on. Make a long story short, the ignitor on the furnace broke (aside here - it's a really fun experience to be working on your furnace at 4am Christmas morning).

Needless to say, the stockings got moved, and the Englander got fired up, and the house was warm for Christmas morning.

 

[hearthtools]

why dont you run the pellet all night long and save of using the furnace?

 

[petejung]

Some nights we do, but most of the time, it doesn't get that cold. We usually burn at the lowest setting during the day anyway... But in the past couple of weeks, it has been slightly colder on some days/nights, and we either ran the stove all night long, or wished we would have, as it took longer than we wanted to to get the house warmed back up in the morning.