This was my third day of cleaning up after and repairing/replacing frozen FHW pipes in my basement. I'm deeply regretting the pellet stove. I took this week off to enjoy the holiday. Too bad all I've enjoyed so far is the trips to the hardware store to get away from the disaster in my basement.
I hate my pellet stove.
- Thread starter Romy
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Romy said:
We ended up installing our pellet stove in the basement because of something similiar, pipes did not freeze but when we had our propane fireplace on upstairs the furnace would never kick on. It was to cold in the basement.
zap
So....what's the whole story? I'm sure your pissed off at the stove for probably not automatically kicking on or something.
But without the whole story, there's nothing anyone can help you with. I assume you want help or something, right?
I also see you installed the stove from your sig. Did it ever work as expected? More info!
But without the whole story, there's nothing anyone can help you with. I assume you want help or something, right?
I also see you installed the stove from your sig. Did it ever work as expected? More info!
Romy said:
Sorry to hear you had so many problems!
Did you heat your basement before installing the pellet stove? ie thermostat in basement
or did the residual heat from the boiler warm it up?
What temp did the basement stay at?
We were concerned with the pipes in the basement as we put our stove in the living room.
We have a bulkhead door which has a history of letting the cold air in!
I fabricated a heater from a 6 ft section of baseboard and tied it to an unused zone.
I set up a 20" box fan to blow through this "heater" and set the thermostat at 60.
Of course this setup used some oil but we did not run the heat on the 1st or 2nd floors.
Our basement is not finished and is about 24'x32'
This worked well all last winter.
I can post a picture if that would help.
Don't give up yet!!
I'm sure there will be plenty of ideas posted here to help you out!
You might want to check this link out:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/48405/
FYI Our oil usage went from 900 gal to 400 gal. We burned between 3.5 and 4 tons of pellets.
And best of all... We were warmer!
You know when I lived up North. I had a remote temp sensor in my basement and when it got below 35* I would turn on what my wife called the daylight...
one of those 500watt halogen lights.... It would bump up the temp a couple of degrees.....Though not the most efficient way to keep the pipes from freezing.
one of those 500watt halogen lights.... It would bump up the temp a couple of degrees.....Though not the most efficient way to keep the pipes from freezing.
That is why I removed the pellet stove and installed a wood burning stove. It will heat the whole house (including the water lines)with ease. Not to mention the expense of pellets. When I had my stove I was buying them for $2.50 a bag, I saw them at Lowes yesterday for $5.96 a bag! Unbelievable!
Gweeper64 said:
Gweeper, as badly I feel for Romy and his mess from burst frozen pipes, he should have been well aware of the ThermGuard device, as he read and posted in a thread back at the end of Sept in which the OP brought up the question of what happens in the basement of an install almost the same as his.
www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/42174/
Possible frozen pipes and also the ThermGuard were discussed, and even the inventor posted there on how good it was at preventing the exact thing that happened to Romy. I posted about my own problem with a frozen pipe that happened right after I bought this house. Unfortunately for me, I didn't find out about ThermGuard untill well after I had the problem.
Unfortunately, Romy's only comment in that thread was an indifferent "what happens in the basement, stays in the basement".....sounds like he should have taken it a little more seriously.
I can appreciate the things that he has done to save himself money......buying a smaller house, fixing-up a used pellet stove, etc, but in this case, I think the $67 he could have spent on the ThermGuard would have been money well spent.
Just my 2 cents.
Romy said:
Check around the area where the pipes froze. Especially around where the sill and foundation meet. You probably have cracks that allow cold air to come in. Also, if your pipes physically touch the sill plate that could be bad. I sealed all the cracks and insulated the pipes. I also put a small thermometer on the ledge near the sill and checked temperatures during real cold days in a few locations. I never see tems lower than 50 degs and I live in Rhode Island. I am sure things would be worse if I lived further North.
I had to insulate my basement walls, my foundation is granite and fieldstone. I hired a guy to put spray foam on it, worked great and sealed up lots of drafty areas. I also keep a remote thermometer down there and if it looks like it's getting to the danger zone I just turn the boiler on for a bit. Since insulating ,the basement only drops below 40 deg when it's about -10 and colder outside.
We have a separate heat zone in our basement, so it's heated with oil instead of pellets. We're using our pellet stove to heat the main floor of the house. On the main floor the thermostats are set to 64 degrees, so if the stove goes off during the day when we aren't there, the furnace will kick in as needed. So we're using the pellet stove to supplement the oil furnace, but using the oil furnace to backup the pellet stove in areas it's heating.
Sorry to hear of your recent troubles. It's never a good time for something like that to happen & especially near the holidays. Hope you get this resolved so you CAN enjoy the rest of your time off.
Sorry to hear of your recent troubles. It's never a good time for something like that to happen & especially near the holidays. Hope you get this resolved so you CAN enjoy the rest of your time off.
I just got done reading the thread on the thermogard and it seems like a great idea. Way over my head as far as engineering and electronics know how. BUT, this got me thinking about maybe a simpler solution for most people. Wouldnt it be easier and maybe more cost effective to set up a control box to kick in the circulation pump without heating the water and just circulate the water in the pipes every so often. Realizing that this may not work in all situations, especially where the temps get well below freezing.
Or is it safer and more cost effective in the long run to just burn oil/propane and just warm the water while you circulate it?
My house is a 100 + year old farm house with 8" block base walls. I guess in the 40's they literally lifted the house up and dug out the basement with horses and drags and layed block walls. I have a boiler in my basement along with a boilermate for hot water. So when my furnace kicks in to heat my hot water, it creates enough residule heat that I dont have a problem with my heating pipes, so far (fingers crossed)
Before my pellet stove, I had a wood burning stove in its place upstairs in the main living area and never had any issues, so I feel I'm pretty safe. I have installed a remote temp sensor in my basement and the lowest I have seen it is in the mid forties in the past. I also have a few water pipes that run close to the basement walls that I have wrapped with that foam insulation to keep them from freezing.
Or is it safer and more cost effective in the long run to just burn oil/propane and just warm the water while you circulate it?
My house is a 100 + year old farm house with 8" block base walls. I guess in the 40's they literally lifted the house up and dug out the basement with horses and drags and layed block walls. I have a boiler in my basement along with a boilermate for hot water. So when my furnace kicks in to heat my hot water, it creates enough residule heat that I dont have a problem with my heating pipes, so far (fingers crossed)
Before my pellet stove, I had a wood burning stove in its place upstairs in the main living area and never had any issues, so I feel I'm pretty safe. I have installed a remote temp sensor in my basement and the lowest I have seen it is in the mid forties in the past. I also have a few water pipes that run close to the basement walls that I have wrapped with that foam insulation to keep them from freezing.
Romy, you're expecting too much from your stove. It's a SPACE heater and not a primary heating source. It SUPPLEMENTS your main system. Depending on it to keep your pipes from freezing is the WRONG type of expectation you want from the stove.
Don't you have your original heating source on as backup?
How cold is your basement getting? I have a old 1700 sq-ft colonial with a fieldstone basement in western Mass. I have radiators throughout the house with forced hot water. We have a Quadra CB1200i on the first floor. We use it as our primary heat source in the winter with our boiler as backup (thermostat set to low 60's incase CB fails). With the outside temps in the single digits my basement doesn't go below 50 degrees and it's not heated.
How cold is your basement getting? I have a old 1700 sq-ft colonial with a fieldstone basement in western Mass. I have radiators throughout the house with forced hot water. We have a Quadra CB1200i on the first floor. We use it as our primary heat source in the winter with our boiler as backup (thermostat set to low 60's incase CB fails). With the outside temps in the single digits my basement doesn't go below 50 degrees and it's not heated.
Due to the pellet stove is a space heater, when it got colder, like -1 F, I ran my pellet stove 15 hrs and furnace 9 hrs. I did not want to jump through hoops to heat my upstairs.
Romy Seriously, think about installing a floor grate/vent with a fan mounted under it to blow air down into the basement and warm it. Put the vent near the stove, You say you have a 900 sf ranch so that Harmon should be quite capable of pumping some heat down to the basement.
I have thought of doing this myself and do not see why it won't work.
I have thought of doing this myself and do not see why it won't work.
poconoman said:
many people think that a pellet stove will heat the whole house, it wont.
i had the same thing happen to me last yr, live and learn. ask more questions when you make a substantial investment as well.
- Feb 27, 2007
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j00fek said:
I disagree, I live in northern canada, and am heating about 1300 square feet in the basement and 1300 square feet main floor, with a quad sante fe in the basement. Running on medium, the upstairs was 72 degree's. Burning 2 bags a day. In -50 Celcius with windchill weather.
I dont have holes cut in my floor, the stove is almost at the far wall with stairs on the opposite wall, the heat has to rise up the stairway and make its way into the main floor.... seems to work good no fans used either.
Insulate your house, and you shouldnt have any problems.
havlat24,
Romy's problem is that his plumbing is in the basement and his stove is on the first floor. I'll wager there is no insulation in his basement just concrete walls.
When Romy was heating with his boiler it was keeping his basement warm enough so it didn't freeze.
Romy's problem is that his plumbing is in the basement and his stove is on the first floor. I'll wager there is no insulation in his basement just concrete walls.
When Romy was heating with his boiler it was keeping his basement warm enough so it didn't freeze.
Gweeper64 said:
Hi Gweeper,
Thanks for the plug, but just for the record, the product is called "ThermGuard"....not "Thermaguard". Just a mention, there would be more hits with the correct spelling!
Cheers,
John
Topshelf said:
Hi Topshelf,
You can rig a ThermGuard to just turn on the circulation pump with the addition of a relay. I have the schematics as to how to make that work. Also, I just wanted to mention that the engineering that went into ThermGuard was tough, but I make it so the install is VERY easy. 5-10 minuted to install using only a screwdriver. There are only two wires and there is no polarity....either wire can go to either wire on your thermostat (red and white for boilers, or red and green for furnaces).
Cheers,
John
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