Inaccurate Specifications

[holysmokers]

Greetings to all, I bought a hearthstone heritage in July, just installed today. According to the manufacturers specifications in the sales brochure, this model puts out 55,000 btu's heat and is 73% efficent. I noticed there is an EPA tag on it that states something different. It says this model hearthstone heritage #8021 is 62% efficent and heat output is 11,700 to 32,900 btu's. Which one is correct? Silly me, I thought when I bought the stove, I honestly believed and trusted the manufacturer and the dealer when I sized this stove to fit my application. I need 55,000 btu's and 32,900 btu's just is not enough.
Could it be that there is another model of heritage that they shipped me by mistake? I think 22,000 btu's difference is a gross misrepresentation. Any suggestions?
hs

 

[Harley]

That's odd... I'll have to read the tag on mine when I get home... I thought I read the tag when I bought the stove this year, but apparently I might not have read it that close.

 

[Rhone]

The 55,000 btu is MAX btu's/hour. To maintain 55k btu's/hr you'll need to keep a watchful eye maintaining and feeding as necessary and adjusting the air flow. It's like running your car at max rated RPM's, not practical and not healthy to the system because it causes pre-mature wear.

The EPA tells you what btu's per hour their small load of pine/fir produced and is not practical for real world. There's also a disclaimer on the EPA label that states it does NOT test for efficiency. Why they bother putting an efficiency number on the label I don't know, if I recall all secondary burn units the EPA slaps the same efficiency rating.

The Heritage puts out a lot of heat, and higher than usual in efficiency & for burning particulates. Set for an 8 hour burn (which I believe is lowest setting) using average wood (not too high btu wood, not too low) it will throw out 33,730 btu's per hour. Set for a 4-6 hour burn, it should be even higher. Of course, that depends on what wood you burn & moisture.

 

[suematteva]

http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/wood_stoves/heritage/


Wonder if these are the results of the lab testing vs in house? What did the dealer have to say?

 

[holysmokers]

I just spoke to hearthstone, they said when the EPA tests the stoves they don't fill the box, just use a few pieces of fir therefore the numbers don't reflect the actual capacity of the stove's heat output. He also said that most stoves advertised heat output doesn't reflect the EPA's test numbers. Well, I suppose that makes sense. Anyone know how they perform the actual test?

 

[Rhone]

I think this site does a good explaining

http://www.intertek-etlsemko.com/portal/page?_pageid=34,87228&_dad=cust_portal&_schema=CUST_PORTAL

 

[RoosterBoy]

looks like allot of manufacturers post different number like DEQ witch is different then epa like my Avalon epa ticket that was on the door handle when i got it said head output 12,000 to 45,100 btu/hr when in the Avalon brochure it said heat output 74,300 btu/hr cord-wood

so it looks like epa dose there test different small fires using pine

Jason

 

[Roospike]

I need 55,000 btu and 32,900 btu just is not enough.

The biggest and some of the best stoves on the market wont put out 55k BTUs an hour on a 8 hour burn. The big Hearthstone Mansfield at an 8 hour burn will only run at best 41,783 BTU's an hour.

The Big Pacific Energy Summit is only rated at 43,692
btu/hr for an 8 hour burn.

The Hearthstone Heritage is rated at 33,730 btu/hr at an 8 hour burn.

Note The above #' per hour BTU at 8 house is loaded and pushing it. Its max BTU at 8 hours. less hours , more MAX BTU. 40k BTU an hour is a lot of heat and a stove should not bue run at max on purpose for very long.

This is another one of the big reasons "I" tell people to up the size of there stove. A lot of people see a stove rated at 70,000 BTU and think its the stove for them and wouldnt need over 70,000 BTU's of heat. Most stoves under 6 hour burn to put out max is normally only going to run 70% of the max rated BTU's and thats pushing a lot of wood through the stove.

Here is a link to show some guide lines of 8 hour burn time.

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/wscomp8.htm)