is the Harman p68 a good idea in my situation??

[dabbaah]

I've tried to do alot of research before positing...I've found some very useful information in this forum and thank you all in advance for any opinions you can share.

We currently heat our split ranch home with a wood stove in the lower level 400sq ft family room. We have electric baseboard heat in each room on the main level that we rarely use. The wood stove cranks all winter. We burn 5 cords of wood Oct-Apr. It gets uncomfortably hot in the lower level family room. There is an open stairway. The main level is 1300 sq ft with an open kitchen/living room above the lower level family room. The 3 bedrooms are above the garage and a unheated laundry room. We have loved the warmth of the wood stove, but are done with stacking 5 cords of wood and the mess it leaves. Also we don't know how efficient or even how old the Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove is and feel that needs to be replaced very soon.

So we are looking for a pellet stove to make us warm and happy this season We fell in love with the Harman p68. We'd like to keep the main level living room/kitchen at 72-74 degrees, bedrooms around 68 degrees and well, the lower level doesn't really matter because we are used to it being hot as h*ll!

I'm looking for opinions on these thoughts... Is the p68 overkill in this situation? I've read some threads where people are heating their homes sufficiently with 30-40,000 BTU pellet stoves. It's in our budget, so we figured we'd go with what was perceived to be the best, a Harman. Are we spending money we don't need to spend though? I understand the basement/lower level install of a pellet stove isn't ideal, but can I assume that if the wood stove is heating the whole house that a pellet stove, if sized right, will do the same? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Deb

 

[tsmith]

I have a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon AE that heats my entire home. I have a bi-level home, so it is similar to yours. The stove is downstairs and it heats the upstairs rear bedrooms to 70 degrees. It is warmer downstairs than what we would need, but we can live with that. It is the same BTU as your Harman. The P68 is a good stove and you should be happy with it. You can also use some fans to move the heat around some.

 

[gbreda]

Well, I'll start with a welcome to the forum dabbaah

Even though I heat from the basement up successfully with a P68, I'm not so sure that the basement will be the best place for your setup.

I too am in NH and have about 1600 living space in a 2 floor cape over the basement and I'm comfortable with the first floor around 68 and the bedrooms on 2nd floor around 60. Even then, I run HHO baseboard on the second floor a little when it gets real cold.

Pellet stoves wont radiate the heat the same as your wood stove, and moving the heat up to, and then around 1300sf upstairs might be difficult in the colder months, especially with the bedrooms over an unheated garage. You wont be able to get any registers cut in there to attampt to more heat to the bedrooms.

The P68 is a great stove for me, have you considered leaving the wood stove in the family room and putting a pellet upstairs? I dont think that you would use much firewood and can possibly look into enviro-bricks as they wont be as dirty as wood. This setup would also give you backup in a power outage fron the wood stove.

Keep us posted on your thoughts/decision

Good Luck!

Geno


Hopefully others can chime in with somne advice here as well, but most are against basement up setups.

 

[summit]

the P68 is good for any situation...

 

[dabbaah]

tsmith - your Mt. Vernon is very pretty! Just the heating example I was looking for! Thanks!

Geno - Thank you for your ideas! I do have a fireplace on the main level and have gone back and forth on whether to put a pellet insert there and keep the wood stove below. My main reason for not going with the insert is the kids. They are still young and use that area all day long...I'd be too nervous that one of them would get knocked into it. Also, we have a generator so we should be ok in the event of a power outage.

summit - your post made me chuckle

Keep 'em coming!!

 

[jtakeman]

If your putting a stove on the lower level is a must to put the biggest stove you can afford. Not to mention going from the over power of wood to a controlled heat. Still takes a bit to get used to. I am a firm believer of going big with a pellet stove. Just enough might not cut the extreme cold season. These things run great at low to medium levels. Keep a bit of room just in case. I am also assuming you really don't want to touch the electric heat!

I went "BIG" with mine and don't regret it one bit! I have plenty of power to spare. My basement install was tough on the 2 previous stoves I owned. This beast is just as easy on pellets as the other 2 stoves were, Probably a bit better due to a more effiecent heat exchanger. If there is a power outage(or dummy me forgets to fill the hopper) I have great recovery times. It doesn't take very long to raise the house temps with the extra power. A smaller stove would struggle for a long time to catch back up.

The P68 is a beast of a heater. and should do just fine for you!

 

[defield]

dabbaah,

Welcome to the forum.

We used to have a Vermont Castings Vigilant set in front of our fireplace. A nice stove, but with the large flue size of the chimney, we could not run it hot enough to avoid significant creosote build up. Therefore, sold it and put in a new chimney in another location and a wood boiler.

We now have a Lopi Leyden ( looks much like a Vigilant ) pellet stove in front of the fireplace.

I agree with gbreda, wood stove heat and pellet stove heat are noticably different. Both are good, but with the pellet stove, you do not get that same radiant heat .

I would seriously consider, as gbreda also suggested, keeping the Vigilant, cut back to a cord or so of firewood supplimented with Bio-Brick type products.

Place a nice Harmon, or other quality brand pellet stove, either an insert or free standing, in or in front of your fireplace.

Pellet stoves, unlike wood stoves, have few areas that are dangerously hot to touch. Check with the dealer about child safety, and there are threads on this site that show child safety railings around pellet stoves.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Ranger

 

[Countryboymo]

I would also check into the Quadrafire MT Vernon AE. The one I have seen running is super quiet and a very refined unit. I think these two would be my top choices to look at. I would stick with a larger stove and run it on medium more than going too small and running on high constantly.

 

[gbreda]

I agree with summit on the P68 in terms of it's abilities. Great heat and very easy to clean and maintain. Cant go wrong with it. Same as Jay's Omega in the recovery area. Very quick. If heating from the basement....the P68 or the Omega are great choices. I was looking into the Enviro Maxx or Omega at the time of purchase as well as the P68. My final choice came down to dollars and cents. The Enviro dealer in the area would not budge on price, gave me the "The Govt will give you your discount at tax time" line. Harmon dealer gve me a decent discount on a Labor Day sale.

My g/f has an XXV (and kids/cats) on the upper level of a split ranch with a family room that is built over an added on garage. The XXV is a great unit as well. It does a great job heating that level from the family room. Very large, front to back/cathedral ceiling family/dining room that goes into a small/open kitchen and then a hallway with 3 more smaller bedrooms off of it. The XXV heats that level well, looks great and does not get hot to the touch the way the P68 does.

I have cleaned both and I'll take the P68 any day as far as heat output and ease of maint. The XXV for looks, somewhat smaller heating area, very quiet and luke warm to the touch.

Another thing to think of is noise level if there is a TV in the room.

 

[gbreda]

Pellet stoves, unlike wood stoves, have few areas that are dangerously hot to touch. Check with the dealer about child safety, and there are threads on this site that show child safety railings around pellet stoves.
Ranger

My cousin has 3 kids ranging from 3 months to 4 years old. He build a metal fence with a gate around a Europa pellet stove. Looks great and keeps the kids away from it.

The P68 gets EXTREMELY hot as the walls of the firebox and top are sheet metal.........I have burnt myself once or twice when not being carefull enough. But then again, it is fire we are dealing with. All due respect needed.