Maxing out stove heat output and settings Harman Accentra

[investor7952]

I have only been doing this 3 weeks. I have a Accentra insert. I have noticed a few things and please correct me if I am wrong.Please advice if I am doing somthing wrong. Here goes.
I dont think it matters much where the feedrate is at when temp for settings in not reached yet. If I set room temp at 75 and feed at 3,4,5 or 6 the fedder stays on for the same exact amount of time. I have also noticed it doesnt matter if you set temp dial at 75 or 95 the stove maxes out when it is below temp anyway. My point is If my room temp is set at 75 and my digital temp says 70 I see no difference when I put the stove up to 90. It still feed the same 40 seconds the flame still looks the same and the room doesnt come up any fatser and I also notice when the room my stove is in reaches a max temp lets say 72 or 73 it doesnt matter how high I put the room temp setting it wont go past that temp. I dont know why they have a setting that says 90 when there is no way unless its 50 outside u will see that temp.
My entire point is these stoves have a max output in cold temps no matter how much you turn up temp and feed. The only thing I have found that changes heat output are the pellets I use.To me these dials are just a gimic they could have had 2 feed settings and a max temp of 78 ,because the stove is going to feed at a rate it needs to feed at no matter where your feed is .
Now comes the learning part.Anyone that can help with ways they have pushed out more heat please let me know. But so far I put pellets at 75% of the reason for low heat output and the other 25% on poor maintanance.I know alot would say its 50-50 but I am sure most here do a fine job of cleaning it not that hard and not that time consuming. Also does anyone know roughly what temp reading ahould be coming out of blower vents?
Sorry for the long ramble but I have got to get the most heat out of this $5,000 investment or my wife will kill me lol.
Any advice to share I would love to try

 

[Souzafone]

The first question is where is the temp probe located. You need to get it located where the temperature is the same as the thermometer you're monitoring. The temperature dial is very accurate, but it sounds like your probe is too close to your stove, that is, the heat from the stove is affecting the probe too soon. The end of the probe needs to be exposed to air flow, with no sides resting against a wall or other object to work most accurately.

 

[investor7952]

My probe has been all over the room.Next to the stove about 3-ft only get around 69. I ran it to my oil burner thermostat where temp reads 71 or so. I have hand held temp gauges that I rest the probe right on to monitor the temp. My entire point is just because you set stove at 75 doesnt mean thats what room will heat up to.In my case I feel it doesnt matter if you set feed to 6 and temp to 90 the stove has a max output of heat.Those settings are 1 part I feel the pellets are a huge part of heat output.You cant make the stove output anymore heat from a 75 setting or a 90 setting it has a max output.This is the same in stove temp.You can max out dials and the stove is still only going to put out so much heat under certain conditions.

 

[lecomte38]

investor - it sounds like you have reached the same conclusions that I did. The Accentra insert just doesn't have the balls to comfortably heat my house (1400' ranch) in COLD ( less than 20*) weather. I found that running on room temp/max feed rate I got the longest auger run time, 40 seconds, and most heat. Running on stove temp/7 max temp setting the auger runs about 30 seconds.
However I feel that both settings are wasteful. I 2+ bags a day and the house is cold. If I run the oil heat at 6am and 5pm to bump the house temp up to 68 and run stove temp/4 and the feed rate doesn't apply. I am burning less then 10 bags a week and including hot water I have only burned about 125 gallons of oil. The house is MUCH more comfortable.

 

[bungalobob]

Think I am missing something here. I have the P68, I have not fiddled with my temp probe even once. It is installed coiled up right behind the stove next to the connection. I run in room temp mode at about 74 degrees, distribution blower about three quarters speed, feed at 4.5. I have no problem maintaining 74 degrees in the room the stove is located. It does get to about 75/77 before it cycles down. A room on other side of house is about 71 degrees. I have cranked up the dial to see how hot it would get, and I have gotten the room downstairs farthest away from stove to 81 degrees when the stove was set for 85. Got to hot for me, so I stopped playing around, I am sure I could have got it hotter. (it was about 30 degrees outside) As for the feedrate, I originally set it at for 4 as the manual suggests, but increased it to 4.5 to get that 1 inch of ash in front of the fire that they recommend. When it was at 4, I had about 3 inches of ash, and piled high in front of fire. So, even though I don't understand the feedrate, and have read so many different and conflicting definitions of it on here that it had my head spinning, increasing it did help my ash line. And my temperature dial does work. I'm probably not helping to answer your question, but this has been by experience.

 

[bungalobob]

investor - it sounds like you have reached the same conclusions that I did. The Accentra insert just doesn't have the balls to comfortably heat my house (1400' ranch) in COLD ( less than 20*) weather. I found that running on room temp/max feed rate I got the longest auger run time, 40 seconds, and most heat. Running on stove temp/7 max temp setting the auger runs about 30 seconds.
However I feel that both settings are wasteful. I 2+ bags a day and the house is cold. If I run the oil heat at 6am and 5pm to bump the house temp up to 68 and run stove temp/4 and the feed rate doesn't apply. I am burning less then 10 bags a week and including hot water I have only burned about 125 gallons of oil. The house is MUCH more comfortable.

My P68 can blast me out of the house with the heat it puts out as long as it is above twenty degrees. Below that it still keeps house pretty toasty, but boy oh boy, it eat pellets like one of those hot dog eating contestants on Coney Island. My house is just under 2000 sq ft and two floors, this unit does more than I dreamed it would. But I got to keep the bags of pellets nearby.

 

[cac4]

FORGET ABOUT THE FEED RATE! Its NOT a feed RATE, anyway. its a MAXIMUM output. Set it on "4", like the manual says, and just leave it.

The computer decides how many pellets to feed, no matter how high you set that. It only sets the high limit, so as to keep unburned pellets from being pushed out of the pot. If the computer, for any reason, thinks that you need an amount of pellets less than this "maximum", that's all its going to feed.


Next question: when your stove is failing to bring the room up to the set temperature, does it appear to be burning at at its maximum output? High flame, blowers going full-bore, and staying in this state constantly? Or is it turning itself down to a lower flame?

If its the former, then it is quite possible that the heat load on your house simply exceeds the maximum output of the stove. If its the latter, then something is broken.

The dealer has a gizmo that can be plugged into the stove to read just what that pesky little computer is "thinking". If you put the room probe away from the stove, and next to a thermometer, and the computer is "seeing" a different temperature than what you're seeing, either the probe is bad, or the computer is busted.


How big is your house? are you using an outside air kit? (OAK?)


In my stove room, I have the stove in one corner, the room probe in another corner (wire runs along an adjacent wall), and a digital thermometer in yet another corner (opposite the stove). The stove is running in "room temp" mode, with a moderate flame, set to 75. The thermometer reads 75. (I need to turn it down...its a little warm). The outside temp is 15F. The house is 1500sqft, well insulated.

 

[cac4]

The Accentra insert just doesn't have the balls to comfortably heat my house (1400' ranch) in COLD ( less than 20*) weather.

did you leave a window open, er somethin?

the accentra FS is a lower capacity stove, and its heating my slightly bigger house just fine. (I'm calling it 1500sqft, but thats inside living area dimensions; if you go by outside dimensions, its more like 1800. ). When it gets down into the single digits, or below 0, like a couple of days ago, I'll run the furnace some, but thats mostly because the basement gets dangerously cold.

 

[investor7952]

Flames constantly blairing feed always feeding 35-40 sec. Now if I set room temp down to 68 it does wha its supposed to dies down and maintains. You dont think pellet quality has anything to do with it?When temp is 28 and above I can get 74-74.I have a wide open floor plan family room eating area kithen 1 long room.the room to the right of stove if living room.The downstairs is 1500 sft the upstairs about the same.The room the stove is in 70 the furthest room office past kitchen about 40 ft away 66-67 kitchen 69 upstairs hall 69 3 bedrooms off of hall upstairs 67-68. I am happy with the other room temp I just thought the room the stove is in should be at leat 73 or so.Its 19 outside. This stays the same with this ouside temp even in stove mode.

 

[investor7952]

investor - it sounds like you have reached the same conclusions that I did. The Accentra insert just doesn't have the balls to comfortably heat my house (1400' ranch) in COLD ( less than 20*) weather. I found that running on room temp/max feed rate I got the longest auger run time, 40 seconds, and most heat. Running on stove temp/7 max temp setting the auger runs about 30 seconds.
However I feel that both settings are wasteful. I 2+ bags a day and the house is cold. If I run the oil heat at 6am and 5pm to bump the house temp up to 68 and run stove temp/4 and the feed rate doesn't apply. I am burning less then 10 bags a week and including hot water I have only burned about 125 gallons of oil. The house is MUCH more comfortable.

What brand pellets are you burning?

 

[cac4]

Well, you've got a stove rated to heat 1400 square feet, in a 3000 square foot house. Am I way out of line for calling "duh?", here?

sure, you might be able to squeeze a little more out of those "heating capacity" numbers if you have a newer, tighter house, and less if you have an old, leaky house. But it sounds to me like you're doing really GOOD, getting that much out of your stove in a house that big. In fact, I'd say that your heat distribution is working out better than mine.

maybe trying to attach an oak would help, if you don't already have one. Sucking in cold air through the cracks in the house to feed the combustion can only increase the heat load on the house...which is already at twice the capacity of the stove.

I don't think pellet brand is going to make that much of a difference. The btu's isn't going to vary THAT much. You'd need a university laboratory to measure any real difference. Thats not to say that all the people who report these huge differences in pellets are "full of it"; My observation is that these reports come from people w/ manual stoves. there's no way that a human can make the minute adjustments necessary to get the most efficient burn out of a naturally variable fuel like wood. The computer in the Harman, however, can make such adjustments. If this bag of pellets has less btu's than the last one, the stove will increase the feed rate slightly. if more, it'll turn it down.

 

[lecomte38]

Barefoot Prem. I also have tried NEWP both the red and green. The red (Hard wood) burn very much like the Barefoot. The green (soft) have less clinkers but do not seem to give as much heat.
And cac4 , I believe that the free standing Accentra has bigger, taller heat exchangers, therefore more efficient and more heat into the room. It is worth noting that pellet stove btu ratings are based on pounds of fuel burned not the actual heat transferred into the house. I believe the FS Accentra is a much more efficient stove then the insert.
Is there anyone with the insert that is getting " blown out of the house" with heat?

 

[cac4]

could be. it is standing "out in the room", afterall, and therefore, giving off a bit of radiant heat, as well as blowing hot air. I didn't know that the heat exchangers were any different. The insert "looks" like a FS, without the tall ash pan. Anyway, I looked on the website, and the insert's output is slightly higher than the FS, in terms of lbs of fuel fed...but not by much. 42k vs 40k btu's.

 

[investor7952]

Well, you've got a stove rated to heat 1400 square feet, in a 3000 square foot house. Am I way out of line for calling "duh?", here?

sure, you might be able to squeeze a little more out of those "heating capacity" numbers if you have a newer, tighter house, and less if you have an old, leaky house. But it sounds to me like you're doing really GOOD, getting that much out of your stove in a house that big. In fact, I'd say that your heat distribution is working out better than mine.

maybe trying to attach an oak would help, if you don't already have one. Sucking in cold air through the cracks in the house to feed the combustion can only increase the heat load on the house...which is already at twice the capacity of the stove.

I don't think pellet brand is going to make that much of a difference. The btu's isn't going to vary THAT much. You'd need a university laboratory to measure any real difference. Thats not to say that all the people who report these huge differences in pellets are "full of it"; My observation is that these reports come from people w/ manual stoves. there's no way that a human can make the minute adjustments necessary to get the most efficient burn out of a naturally variable fuel like wood. The computer in the Harman, however, can make such adjustments. If this bag of pellets has less btu's than the last one, the stove will increase the feed rate slightly. if more, it'll turn it down.

Chuck
I have been monitoring the ouside temp today we went from 18 at 7 am to 29 here at 12.10 pm. My room has been at 70 all morning same settings havent touched it.I am now at 73 .I am by far not complaining trying to heat a 3,000sft house with a unit rated for 14-1500.Heck my upstairs is 69 and when I was burning oil i only kept it as 68.I just thought different pellt would tweak another 2-3 degrees .I am still only 3 weeks old to this and your posts and many others have made this much easier !! The guy I gave 5 grand to doesnt have this info.He is the one who told me keep feed at 2 at temp at 68-70 and you will be fine.
What may I ask is an oak?

 

[investor7952]

Barefoot Prem. I also have tried NEWP both the red and green. The red (Hard wood) burn very much like the Barefoot. The green (soft) have less clinkers but do not seem to give as much heat.
And cac4 , I believe that the free standing Accentra has bigger, taller heat exchangers, therefore more efficient and more heat into the room. It is worth noting that pellet stove btu ratings are based on pounds of fuel burned not the actual heat transferred into the house. I believe the FS Accentra is a much more efficient stove then the insert.
Is there anyone with the insert that is getting " blown out of the house" with heat?

Do you know of any air settings with an insert? I read people adjusting things but I have read the book and read alot of posts and I have read nothing about air intake or flu setting.I am guessing it is what it is.

 

[Steve_in_NH]

This is my first year with the Accentra Insert. I'm heating a 1500 sq ft house with a poor layout. The Living end of he house is pretty wide open (living room, dining room, and kitchen) but the bedrooms (3) are down a narrow hallway and a right turn. The stove is set at feed rate of 4 and room temp of between 70-73. This insert keeps the living end of the house at a constant 73 degrees no matter what the temp outside. We get down below zero and it still holds steady. (Just uses more pellets) and my bedroom between 65-and - 68 (keep 2 bedrooms pretty much closed off). I have the hot air furnace set to 68 for two hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening mainly to keep the basement around 50. I've only burned a little over 2 tons of pellets (since October) and about 125 gallons of oil.
I couldn't be happier with the stove. It seems to operate best with a quick cleaning and vacuuming and ash dump once a week and a more through cleaning (heat exchanger scraping ) about every two weeks. Not too much work for a retired old fat man.
My point is that I get plenty of even heat from the insert......

 

[cac4]

OAK = "outside air kit". Its a fresh air intake pipe that connects to the back of the stove, so that it uses outside air for its combustion. Without it, the air that feeds the fire (and it requires a LOT of air), is drawn from inside your house...which must be replaced with outside air that is sucked in through all the little cracks and crevices in your house, filling your living space with cold air. Dealers seem to very commonly tell people that they don't need outside air, too, which doesn't make any logical sense, at all. I'm sure its much more difficult to rig this with an insert, depending on the fireplace setup, but if its possible, I'd definitely try it. Most manufacturers say that, while not "required", it will make the stove run more efficiently. At least one manufacturer does require it in all installations.

 

[investor7952]

Its funny you that that it sucks the cold air from all the cracks and want not. My wife have lived in this house for 4 years and never noticed drafts from the windows We installed the stove and you can feel the air seeping in from windows and under outside wall molding.Also from our glass sliding door.I will run it by the shop I bought my stove and perhaps make this a summer project.

 

[investor7952]

OAK = "outside air kit". Its a fresh air intake pipe that connects to the back of the stove, so that it uses outside air for its combustion. Without it, the air that feeds the fire (and it requires a LOT of air), is drawn from inside your house...which must be replaced with outside air that is sucked in through all the little cracks and crevices in your house, filling your living space with cold air. Dealers seem to very commonly tell people that they don't need outside air, too, which doesn't make any logical sense, at all. I'm sure its much more difficult to rig this with an insert, depending on the fireplace setup, but if its possible, I'd definitely try it. Most manufacturers say that, while not "required", it will make the stove run more efficiently. At least one manufacturer does require it in all installations.

Would this OAK be somthing I will have to mess around with or is it a set and forget it.I cant imagine with an insert where I would have access to and be able to adjust anything other than pulling the stove out.

 

[investor7952]

This is from the Harman site

What does true direct vent mean?
A: Harman pellet stoves have one air intake. This intake provides air for combustion as well as air wash to the glass. When connected to an outside air source it makes the stove a direct vent appliance. The benefit of this is that it allows the termination of the venting to be closer to an operable window or door. Harman Pellet Stoves are the only known stoves to allow this. All combustion air is coming from outside allowing no air from within the home to be used.

 

[investor7952]

Also another dumb thought.Would air from in the house be warmer than freezing outside air?

 

[lecomte38]

My fire place had an "ash pit" dropping down to the cellar clean out. I hooked am outside air hose into this and suck cold air out of the cellar. Not as good as true outside air but better then using warm living room air.

 

[bwoy]

Call your dealer and have them bring out their DDM and hook it up to the stove. It will they you the settings of the stove as the board sees it. I can assure you that if your stove is set up properly, it will provide plenty of heat and react to the differant settings on the board.