I admit it.... I'm a newbie

[mascoloj]

Hey Everyone,
I just bought a pellet stove - Napoleon NPS40 - and I bought 3 tons of Spruce Pointe Premium Pellets. Not sure how good either are but I have been reading posts in the forum and I don't think I did all that bad for a beginner at this. I'm wondering how people use their stoves - do you leave them on all day or shut them off while at work or sleeping, what settings is your stove at as far as auger speed, blower rate and damper? Seeing as I am new to all this I really want to find out how to get the most out of the stove and keep my house warm as best I can through the winter months. Thanks for all replies.

 

[gw2kpro]

Hey Everyone,
I just bought a pellet stove - Napoleon NPS40 - and I bought 3 tons of Spruce Pointe Premium Pellets. Not sure how good either are but I have been reading posts in the forum and I don't think I did all that bad for a beginner at this. I'm wondering how people use their stoves - do you leave them on all day or shut them off while at work or sleeping, what settings is your stove at as far as auger speed, blower rate and damper? Seeing as I am new to all this I really want to find out how to get the most out of the stove and keep my house warm as best I can through the winter months. Thanks for all replies.

Everyone uses their stove in a different way, a lot has to do with your lifestyle.

If you're planning on leaving the stove running while unattended (while sleeping, while at work) you'll really best off hooking it up to a programmable thermostat. If it's cold enough, (it will be most of the winter) run it on high/low which will burn your stove on a low setting when the thermostat is not calling for heat and a higher setting when it's calling for heat. Then you can set the room for a lower temp overnight and a warmer temp before you get up and during the day.

 

[imacman]

I decided to go with the programmable stat for my stove. I located it about 20 ft from the stove (stove shop owners advice so the stove doesn't fool the stat into thinking the whole area is heated too soon).

There's no one home during the weekdays, so I set my stat to do the following:

Weekdays-
4:45am - stat at 71 degrees- to take the chill off
7am - 65 degrees - when everyone is out of the house
3PM - 71 degrees - an hour before anyone gets home
10:45 - 65 degrees - bedtime

Weekends-
7am - up to 71 degrees
11:30 pm - down to 65

I have the stove set now for med.-Low fuel feed, and max blower speed. I'm sure as the weather gets colder, I'll have to go up to Med. on the fuel, and maybe higher for those really frigid days in Jan-Feb, but I'm hoping the program. stat will save me some pellets w/o sacrificing warmth.

 

[rap69ri]

I have a very similar setup compared to macman, and so far so good.

And admitting your a newbie is the first step in the healing process ;-)

 

[imacman]

...And admitting your a newbie is the first step in the healing process ;-)

Yes, it takes a while to get rid of the withdrawal symptoms of burning oil or propane :lol:

 

[mascoloj]

Thanks everyone for your input. I'm going to look into the thermostat idea but I have to tell you, it's only about 40 degrees here and I have the stove cranked up to bring my downstairs temp to 70 - upstairs a little cooler by 7 degrees. I am starting to think that the pellets I bought (3 tons) will not be enough for the season and may have to resort to oil come Feb-March. Next year I will buy 4 tons or more if the price is right! I'm also thinking about floor registers to let the heat more easily access the second floor but I still think I will need more pellets next year. Thanks again for the replies, ohh the growing pains! :cheese:

 

[rap69ri]

Did you happen to install an Outside Air Kit to draw combustion air from outside the house? Several folks have seen better performance from their stoves after installing this item. I'm not familiar with your stove, so hopefully another member that is will chime in.

 

[imacman]

Crop, just a little more info to help you through the withdrawal:

First of all, don't count on the stove heating much more than the room it's in...these are basically overgrown room heaters. yes, they will heat other areas, but you'll have to "help it along" with fans possibly.

Second, the floor registers idea doesn't really work....it's been discussed on here often (like people putting the stove in the basement and thinking the heat will go up the stairwell...it won't).

It all seems to come down to the size of the area you want to heat, and the layout of the house.

"when you take the pellet from my hand Weedhopper, then it will be time for you to go" - Kung Fu TV show back in the 70's (wait a minute...... maybe it wasn't a pellet... )

 

[mascoloj]

The outside air vent is not installed but I was thinking about it and still am. As far as the overgrown room heater - I have been coming around to that conclusion as it heats the downstairs great. These are my living areas and they will be nice during the time I'm in them. Do either of you find that you supplement with a regular furnace, either gas or oil, on really cold days/nights? I have to say that the info you are giving is great too.

You read all these great articles about people switching to pellet stoves and how great it is, I assumed (I know really bad to do) that there houses were hot boxes like a wood stove would produce. I can remember being at a friends house during winter months and I always had to wear shorts in his house but would still sweat my butt off.

 

[rap69ri]

My house is solely heated with pellets. My boiler is turned on only to make sure my pipes don't freeze on those really cold nights. My house is a cape with a room added on wither end, and 2 bedrooms upstairs. The layout on the first floor is very open with the stove on one end of it. The livingroom is about 20' feet away and it stays in the low 70's without too much effort from the stove. The 2nd floor is in the mid 60's for the most part, which is a nice sleeping temp.

Try the OAK and I think you'll find it works better for you.

 

[Saltair]

I have the insert version of your stove and have had it up and running for a week. I too am coming to the conclusion that it will not be enough heat. I was surprised as my folks heat their place with no trouble. It is a smaller tighter house than mine but theirs is so hot I figured ours would be warm enough. Nope. I am still working the bugs out of operating the stove and playing around with fans. The shop owner I bought it from sold me a bill of goods I feel. I guess I should have done more research. He is out of business now. The heat the stove produces is nice jus not enough.

 

[imacman]

Yes, I have had to turn on the oil burner a few times, as my master bedroom is just too far from the stove, but it has only been for a max of maybe 15-20 minutes once in a while, plus heating the DHW. In the end, I'm sure I will save considerably on the oil.

But as for the rest of the downstairs, I just had the stove turned up to #3 (out of 6) on the heat setting (it's 37 degrees out here). Now the Great room (where the stove is) is 75, the kitchen is 71, and the back hallway (with the aid of a small 12" fan blowing from the great room) is 70. I just stood in front of the stove to check the pellet level, and that thing was HOT!

So, all in all, I'm happy so far. It will take a while to figure it all out, but I'm sure you guys will.

 

[imacman]

Hey newbies, just one more thing i just thought of.....in case you haven't thought of it, get yourself a decent surge supressor...you paid a decent amt. of $$ for your stoves, protect it a little...the electronics are not happy with voltage spikes.

heres the one I got and posted on the forum a while back. We went back & forth about how good a $9 unit could be, but in the end, it actually is a pretty good unit.

www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/24676/

www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2454735&cp;

 

[tinkabranc]

First of all, don't count on the stove heating much more than the room it's in...these are basically overgrown room heaters. yes, they will heat other areas, but you'll have to "help it along" with fans possibly.

I have noticed some may become dissapointed with their stoves because they expected them to heat
the whole house. If it does, you are one of the lucky ones.
But as macman mentioned, they are really overgrown room heaters, not house heaters.

 

[Smudge88]

A Newbie at heart...But you have the cridentials to be a Pellet Pig already... ;-)

Hey Everyone,
I just bought a pellet stove - Napoleon NPS40 - and I bought 3 tons of Spruce Pointe Premium Pellets.

 

[mascoloj]

A Newbie at heart...But you have the cridentials to be a Pellet Pig already...

It's funny you say this because it gets me very excitedly happy to buy lots of pellets. My friends with stoves can't find any pellets at the moment and I just smile at them knowing I have 3 tons. I can't wait to stock up on more!

 

[j00fek]

your settings will vary depending on your house size and area your heating with the stove, i put mine on 4/4 @night now prolly be 5/5 when its colder

check your burn pot for a nice sized lighter hole, many people have had to drill this out for better lighting. i set my damper on 2 but i crank it to 5 when im lighting to get the pellets going. (these settings will vary if you have an outside air kit)

another thing that people have told me when they bought their NPS40, that there is alot of over spray from the factory that got on the inside electronics, i took off my side panels and looked at all the connectors that had spray on them and made sure the connections were not compromised by this. (of 10 stoves iv seen this be a problem on only 2) this spry would creat problems for the temp sensors for the stove.

 

[mascoloj]

your settings will vary depending on your house size and area your heating with the stove, i put mine on 4/4 @night now prolly be 5/5 when its colder

check your burn pot for a nice sized lighter hole, many people have had to drill this out for better lighting. i set my damper on 2 but i crank it to 5 when im lighting to get the pellets going. (these settings will vary if you have an outside air kit)

another thing that people have told me when they bought their NPS40, that there is alot of over spray from the factory that got on the inside electronics, i took off my side panels and looked at all the connectors that had spray on them and made sure the connections were not compromised by this. (of 10 stoves iv seen this be a problem on only 2) this spry would creat problems for the temp sensors for the stove.

j00fek - How long have you owned your Napoleon? My stove does have an issue starting at times but few and far between. As for setting the stove to 4/4, how many bags of pellets do you go through in a day - my guess is about 1.5 to 2. I go through about a bag a day right now but I am not running the stove while at work. I also find that the damper needs to be open to about the same setting as the auger, maybe a little less, to avoid pellets and clinkers accumulating in the burn pot. I think of it as the "sweet spot" when you are burning pellets and they are not accumulating in the burn pot but still have a good flame dancing around. The amount of pellets you are going through though I would find helpful along with how often you are running it.

 

[j00fek]

i installed the hopper ext on mine and it holds 2 bags, i would say running the stove for 48 hrs on 4/4 takes about 1.5 bags

 

[MrKLeen]

Mine lights fine but I did have a lot of ash build up in the burn pot. I am hoping that it is due to the pellets.

I live in a 2 story colonial (<2000 sq ft), open concept downstairs and a fairly open stairway and the heat seems to travel up there pretty well. Of course the real test will be after a week of 10-20 degree weather. In current conditions setting it on 2-2 the house is staying at a decent temp.

 

[kathimcgraw]

Has anyone else had a problem with starting their NPS40? It often takes more than one 15-minute cycle for me to get the igniter to light the pellets and I'm wondering whether the igniter needs to be adjusted to a stronger initial setting. If so, how do I accomplish this - it's not addressed in the manual. I've tried numerous initial pellet feed and air settings, to no avail. Also, I clean out the burn pot once every day or two. I have another stove (Baby Countryside) and it lights within 5 minutes every time.

 

[mascoloj]

Kathi,
I have found the Napoleon to be a little tempermental at times. Make sure the burn pot ignitor hole lines up well with the ignitor, you may have to adjust the burnpot a few times to get it right. You can also try drilling the ignitor hole out a little so that it is larger - others have found success with this. When I first started using my stove I used to get so upset that I couldn't start it - 45 minutes and no flame. Now, It starts fine most of the time as long as the hole lines up. If I have any issues I throw in a firestarter brick. Just remember to breathe!

 

[hossthehermit]

I still don't see the big attraction with the programmable t-stats. I work in a paper mill, day shift, my wife works at home. I installed with an old-fashioned wall mounted, wired t-stat, $10 Lowe's special, slide the slider thing to turn it up or down. It's got numbers on it, but they don't mean much. If we want the house warmer, we slide the slider up to the right. When we go to bed, we slide the slider down to the left. Works for us.. BUT, gotta admit, we're simple folks.

 

[kathimcgraw]

Kathi,
I have found the Napoleon to be a little tempermental at times. Make sure the burn pot ignitor hole lines up well with the ignitor, you may have to adjust the burnpot a few times to get it right. You can also try drilling the ignitor hole out a little so that it is larger - others have found success with this. When I first started using my stove I used to get so upset that I couldn't start it - 45 minutes and no flame. Now, It starts fine most of the time as long as the hole lines up. If I have any issues I throw in a firestarter brick. Just remember to breathe!

Thanks for the advice. How did you enlarge the hole - using a drill or a metal file?

 

[mascoloj]

I actually drilled mine out today with a drill. It's slightly larger than it was and started up within 5 minutes of being turned on.