Installed Electric Heat Cheaper than using the Pellet stove?

[4124elad]

So I have a bunch of electric baseboard kicking around that was removed from a remodel project.

My Sante Fe has perplexed me by the fact that it does not heat my 672 square foot mobile home completely and I am really doubting the stove is living up to the manufacturer's specifications. Or maybe it is a fuel problem. Anyway averaging a bag and a half a day to heat 672 square feet is quite a lot of btu per square foot. 770 per square foot if 345000 per 40lbs is correct.

So I started installing electric heat. It took 14 feet of baseboard to duplicate the results of the pellet stove. By this I mean the same temperature in every room.

Turns out that now I have some numbers to work with. Electric baseboard uses 250 watts per foot. 14 feet of baseboard equals 3500 watts or 3.5 kilowatt's. Take that 3.5 kw and multiply by 3,412 and the btu potential is 11942 btu per hour.

So I started reading the electric meter over the last few days. The last two days I have used 55kw per day to heat the place.

At .16 per kw that is $8.80 per day. Pellets are 5.98 per bag.

That 55 kw represents 119560 btu used per day to heat 672 square feet and the electric heat is 100% efficient. The Sante Fe using 1.5 bags for the same time frame would use up 517000 btu and at the rated 80% efficiency would toss 103500 up the chimney. If the stove is only operating at 75% then that is 155250 btu up the chimney.

I can heat the place for the amount of heat lost up the chimney.

The the 3500 watts of baseboard represent 17.77 btu per square foot and would equal a stove with a high output of 11942 btu.

I am going to mix the numbers with degree days and see what that looks like.

So can this be correct?

 

[Souzafone]

Something is seriously wrong with your pellet heat set up, unless you're trying to heat an igloo.

 

[MCPO]

usage of electric baseboard sounds low, 250w/ft? otherwise, looks like the right track,i guess

250 watts per ft is the norm.

 

[GVA]

sounds like the baseboard is heating better because of natural convection currents in the home....
The stove should heat that area but drafts will enhance the baseboard performance and hinder the stoves performance....
Also do you have An OAK on that install...
But you seem to be on the right track with the numbers.
efficiency plays into any setup.......you can't beat 100%.......as long as the cost is cheap per Kw, electric is the way to go...

 

[Skunk]

The the 3500 watts of baseboard represent 17.77 btu per square foot and would equal a stove with a high output of 11942 btu.

If all the numbers are roughly right (seems like it to me), it sounds like your stove isn't performing anywhere near optimal and there must be an issue whether stove, install, or fuel related... You're certainly burning more pellets than that heat output would suggest.....

 

[sparkydog00]

Did you try closing your windows and doors that open to the outside?
675 sft should be able to be kept warm with a can of zippo fuel and a lighter.

 

[HD41]

A pellet stove is a space heater and saves a lot because you don’t waste heat putting it where you don’t need it. Even if the cost per BTU (making adjustments for efficiency) are equal you probably can pay for a pellet stove in a few years. Baseboard spot heating would do the same thing.
Getting back to your electric baseboard vs. pellet stove experiment; I find some science behind it and some caution. Plug your numbers into the Washington University Heating System Calculator.

Check out the following link (broken link removed)

 

[pkitfox]

It was in the mid 20's here last night. We have a open designed 2200 sf tri-level (open between 1st and 2nd levels). Our new Accentra had no problems keeping the lower level at 75, the middle at 72 and the upper at 68 degrees last night. I am hoping for a few cold nights so I can better compare it's performance to our natural gas 20,000-40,000 btu input, direct vent Enviro FS stove on the middle level. Our house is not that well insulated, and has big dog doors that I can feel cold air coming in though. We are also in the process of removing the cheap prefab fireplace (it's out with the wall covered and taped, next week we will finish). So the house is pretty" leaky". If you cannot heat 700 sf with your stove, something is really wrong.

I am aware that our gas stove is less expensive to operate than the Accentra with gas at $1.15 per therm, but at 12.5 cents per KWH, if we had electric resistive heat, the Accentra would kick you know what. I have figured that if pellets are under 450 per ton, pellets are cheaper than electric. They got to get near 175 per ton to beat our DV gas stove.

 

[Mr Whitfield]

You neeed to check your stove, I heat a 1800 sq ft home with my Whitfield Advantage II Insert, Last night it was in the low 30's my stove was on the # 2 setting and the house was 68 .. On number 2, a 40 lb bag of pellet would last 20 hours or more.

 

[4124elad]

The QuadraFire Sante Fe is properly installed with the outside air kit (OAK for those who wonder what that means). The stove is cleaned daily and the fuel (pennington hardwood) completely burns leaving just ash and no clinkers.

The first time if plugged the Sante Fe in and watched it burn my first thought were that it was shoving way to much heat up the chimney. With the control board on number six setting for the Sante Fe I can hold my hand a quarter inch from the heat exchager tubes indefinately.

In addition to the Sante Fe and the electric heat I have a Rinnai 1001f in the same room as the pellet stove. The Rinnai is rated between 15000 and 38400 btus. The Rinnai on the lowest setting possible will just idle and keep the place at 70. I would rather use the electric than pay the propane supplier an inflated rate for propane.

One of the reasons for installing the electric was to create something I can measure. My space is so small that it works out that I have created what is termed a "caloric bomb test".

A "Caloric Bomb Test" is used to test the efficiency of different types of heating systems. The electric heat is used to give a baseline measurement. Then another heat source is used to heat to the same temperatures.

The electric has given me a baseline on how many btus it actually takes to heat the space. 17.77 btus per square foot is the number to duplicate the Sante Fe in everyway.

The fuel calculators do not apply to a space that requires so few btus per foot. The Sante Fe would need to put out 25 btus per square foot at 30000 btus to heat 1200 square feet. As Craig likes to say a btu is a btu.

My son has a Castille in his home and it exceeds what I would expect.

Maybe it is the stove of the fuel or a combination of both.

I now have a way to measure and figure out which it is.