Hi, all. I've been quiet for a while because there was no stove news for me. The person I got the stove from was not ready to part with it until very recently (she had central heat installed and the gas company took its time hooking her house up). When the stove was ready to be picked up a couple weeks ago all the installers (of whom there are precious few in my area) were too busy to even answer my calls. I finally got a hold of a great installer recommended to me via PM on this very forum. This guy is very good, punctual and courteous. Did not leave a mess and was a pleasure to deal with. Long story short, as of yesterday, 11/11/09 2 pm my Harman Accentra 2 has been blowing lovely heat into my downstairs. I first started by setting it to 95 degrees for an hour to burn off stuff that remained after I cleaned it out in my driveway before we rolled it into its new home. It looked very neglected, but nothing was damaged. I spent a good hour taking things apart and cleaning (brush and vacuum). It started right up and after an hour or so it was ALMOST too warm in the basement. I have since dialed it down to 65 degrees and it's staying there for now. I need to see what fuel consumption is going to be like. I used electric heat in this space before and in the winter we simply did not use the space (it's where TV is) because we struggled to keep it at 60 degrees (60 degrees cost about $100/month in electricity). I hope the pellet heat will be cheaper. Time will tell. The real cold weather is still ahead.
Anyway, just wanted to say hello to everyone and complete my saga of the installation. As a reminder I had a choice between core-drilling the foundation for vent or going above the foundation line through the wall. I ended up going through the wall with external induction. Harman makes this kit which comes with a thimble and on the internal wall the thimble connects to a double connection: one for intake air and one for exhaust. The thimble also has two air paths accordingly. Smart device, but costs $170. What are you going to do? With external induction the vent can be as close as 18" to the wall opening (door, window, etc.), which was a must in my case. I can post pictures if anyone is interested.
Anyway, just wanted to say hello to everyone and complete my saga of the installation. As a reminder I had a choice between core-drilling the foundation for vent or going above the foundation line through the wall. I ended up going through the wall with external induction. Harman makes this kit which comes with a thimble and on the internal wall the thimble connects to a double connection: one for intake air and one for exhaust. The thimble also has two air paths accordingly. Smart device, but costs $170. What are you going to do? With external induction the vent can be as close as 18" to the wall opening (door, window, etc.), which was a must in my case. I can post pictures if anyone is interested.