lowering my feed rate
- Thread starter snodays700
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I usually set the feed rate and fan higher at night when it is colder, and drop them both down during the day when I don't need as much heat.
snodays700 said:
There is no problem lowering your feed rate. I do not understand why you would want to lower your feed rate below the optimum value you set according to the manual.
The feed rate control on a P68 is not used to control heat output. Read your manual, and set the feed rate according to the procedure in the manual. The feed rate control on your P68 sets the Max. fuel that can be fed to the burn pot. Once the feed rate limit is reached, the stove cannot put out more BTU's. Although feed rate control can be used to raise and lower burn rate, it is not the normal way it is done. Use the Room Temp/Stove Temp control to regulate the heat output. If you are able to maintain room temperature at a feed rate of 2, you would not use any more fuel at a feed rate of 4, maintaining the same temperature. If you were in stove temp mode and had the feed rate set at some low number and the stove temp set higher, you would not be able to reach the stove temperature you set. The feed rate would limit the stoves ability to reach the set temperature by limiting the amount of fuel that would be fed to the burn pot.
Read the manual several times until you understand how the controls work. It it confusing at first, but after you understand how Harman designed the fuel controls, you will be very satisfied. The design allows you to burn different grades of pellets without the typical problems that some pellet stoves have (like not being able to burn on the lowest setting, for example).
Do a search, and you will find some good explanations, and a few bad ones, of how the feed rate control is used. There is a person on this forum that explains it very well, unfortunately, I don't remember the name. Good luck
In room temp mode the stove will ignore what you set the feed rate at and it will determine for itself the best amount of pellets to feed itself..in stove temp mode though the downside to lower feed rate is the auger will have to turn more often with less pellets to maintain the same temp you set it at oppsed to a higher feedrate which would turn less often and feed more pellets...
It really depends on the stove you have. My stove has all manual controls, so the feed rate and blower setting do control the heat output.
I reduce the FEED RATE if my Harmon starts smoking out the vent, in order to get a better fuel/air mix. The Harmon does not have an AIR or DRAFT adjustment. My last batch of pellets must have had a little higher moisture and were causing smoke to come out of the vent and I was getting a creosote build-up with them too. So I slowed the fuel delivery with the FEED RATE. It reduced the fuel of the fuel/air mix and pretty much eliminated the smoke. Did get a few puffs of smoke with these pellets but not very often.
When I get new pellets I'll increase the FEED RATE until it starts smoking and tweak it back a bit.
I don't use the FEED RATE to regulate temperature or reduce pellet usage...........it doesn't work with my Harmon. From what I have read on other forum threads, the ESP probe and control board are going to demand fuel until room temp = thermostat temp.
When I get new pellets I'll increase the FEED RATE until it starts smoking and tweak it back a bit.
I don't use the FEED RATE to regulate temperature or reduce pellet usage...........it doesn't work with my Harmon. From what I have read on other forum threads, the ESP probe and control board are going to demand fuel until room temp = thermostat temp.
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