Mode to run P43 stove on for heat and efficiency

[kk49]

We just purchased a p43 (size recommended by dealer) it is installed on my lower level of a 2000 sq ft home, with open staircase and open upper level. Mainly we were concerned about heat for the lower level, (but if we could benefit on the upper level that would be super) where our family room and childs bedroom is, due to the insufficiency of our heat pump. Our home is 5 yrs old. and insulated. We find the manual vague as to directing us how to get the most heat and efficiency. Should we run it on constant burn or room temp? if so what numbers? and how many bags of pellets should we expect to use on an average day? Currently temps are dropping to low 20 or high teens at night, and going to mid 20 or 30 daytime... Usually we run our house thermostat between 68-70 daytime and 66 nite...
thank you in advance..
KK

 

[alternativeheat]

First, when I want more heat upstairs or in out rooms I boost the output fan ( room fan) speed to high. The stove will respond accordingly to a certain extent. In order to get a constant high fan speed this means the igniter switch has to be on ( so called Auto mode) when running lower heat settings ( below 5 on the dial). I have found pellet consumption to be directly related to weather conditions. People get all hung up overt feed rates etc here but in the end for me at least, it comes down to weather. That said, you gain some control, at least in terms of expected consumption, by running in Constant burn. as the name implies, the stove puts out a constant heat thus predictable day to day pellet use accordingly. In Room Mode you will get more variation. But your house being virtually new and probably well insulated changes many variable that I live with personally. You can probably get your house to the heat you want it at and live with about 1 to1-1/3 bag day where mine would require two bags going through my P61.

 

[kk49]

Ok so now we are on week 3 with our new p-43. We have run it on constant burn , auto for igniter , feed rate 4,blower high . We are going thru 1and half bags of pellets. And last two days temps haven't risen above low 20 . I am cold and finding I have to turn my thermostat for elec heat pump up to keep us warmer.. Is there something we can do differently to make us warmer and maybe less pellets. BTW we buy pellets from the stove place and they are supposed to be top grade .. Did we buy undersize stove for the job?
Thank you again
Kk

 

[Peterfield]

I think I would first burn in room temp mode set at 70 and see if the stove keeps it at 70 in the living room. If it can't, chances are your stove is undersized but I'd change pellet brands before coming to that conclusion. If your home is drafty at all, an outside air kit might help if you don't have one already. It may simply be you're going to burn through two or more bags when it's really cold out.

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Every situation is different.

Put it in a room temperature mode, and set the temperature to around 75* and see what happens.

I have my room sensor attached to wall next to the stove, does well there. You can put it closer to floor to get a return air reading instead, so the stove will keep the room a little warmer (The lower the sensor the colder it sees the room etc...)

4 feed rate is fine, you can run a lower feed rate maybe 2-3, to get longer burns, a higher feed rate will feed more pellets quicker to reach setpoint (When needed)

Your stove is only technically undersized, if you have it at max feed rate, set to a high temperature, and it runs FULL burn, and never reaches setpoint.

 

[alternativeheat]

Ok so now we are on week 3 with our new p-43. We have run it on constant burn , auto for igniter , feed rate 4,blower high . We are going thru 1and half bags of pellets. And last two days temps haven't risen above low 20 . I am cold and finding I have to turn my thermostat for elec heat pump up to keep us warmer.. Is there something we can do differently to make us warmer and maybe less pellets. BTW we buy pellets from the stove place and they are supposed to be top grade .. Did we buy undersize stove for the job?
Thank you again
Kk

The first disclaimer in any of these stove conversations is stove placement and room layout, house condition and insulation of the house of course. But continue reading with that aside for the moment.

My house is most evenly heated if I boost the oil heat along with the stove. It's an old loose somewhat drafty cape. But the stove will heat it quite warm ( P61a) on it's own, you gotta crank it up !! You burn more pellets doing that of course. The thing about pellet consumption is it is directly related to pellet quality, consumption settles right down with high quality pellets. I wouldn't say you are using too much fuel but I would say another stove setting might do better for you. Constant burn is just that, you set the stove and it puts out one constant output according to feed rate and output level, as well as fan speed. If that output is not enough to heat your house then you will be cold. But it is an excellent way to mix heat sources as you are doing, because house temp doesn't ever affect that output. That said , you stated your fan speed and your feed rate but not the temp output level.

Regardless of all that room mode might be a better bet unless you want to mix heat sources. One thing about running a stove and mixing heat sources is you will find that your central heat runs much less often and for shorter duration than with no stove, it's actually an economical way to heat a house evenly.. But if you want to try and go with the stove alone, I suspect you need to switch to room mode. Set the dials feed rate 3-4 someplace, medium to high fan and room temp knob at about 74. I'd tape or otherwise attach the room probe to the back of your hopper up high on the back with the probe end sticking out to one side or the other, see what you get like that. You might sacrifice a bag or two of pellets while you experiment. I'm guessing you have no where near hit the highest output of your P43 as yet. Keep this in mind, you don't have too little stove till the stove is running at max full out potential and you're losing ground on house temp ! For a P43 that would be probably at about 4-1/2 bags of pellets a day.

FWIW: I ran my stove in what you guys call Constant Burn ( mine is older it wasn't called that then but was called Stove Temp Mode, same thing), output 3-1/4 or so, feed rate 3.5, fan full to get heat upstairs. That's great it was very comfortable around and certainly a nice comfortable temp for sleeping upstairs and 21 deg out with wind. Our outer kitchen area is a cold spot and I have a studio that stays closed at night but open in the day. Those cold spots bring an element of cool air to the main floor especially in the morning like this when I open everything up. Rather than crank the stove for all it's got, I just up the thermostat. That will heat all radiators in this house for a few hours in the morning by letting the heat run a full cycle or so, maybe 40 minutes of oil heat . I also turned the stove up to output level 4 to aid in all this. The house is going to end up close to 75 deg within an hour of all this, then the oil will get turned down to 68 and the stove either in Room temp mode 72 deg or stove mode 3-1/2 again. And it will be 72 around here all day . But the day temps outside will warm a bit and the sun will aid in maintaining day time temps significantly. This is all a matter of evening the heat out, getting rid of floor drafts from opening up the house etc. The oil heat won't run again today till tomorrow morning most likely. Now I could crank the stove right up and burn 3 bags of pellets in 24 hours or do some other whacky thing like put up with the drafts till the house levels out around mid morning. For what ? A stove is a stove, it's a pin point source of heat with diminishing return the further you move away from it. If you want outer room to be warm by stove heat only, you will have to overheat the area closest to the stove. It's how it works with stove heat. Or you can give it a boost with central heat.

 

[miteclipse]

I agree that weather plays an important role here.

Here is what I've noticed for my P68 the past few days (high's only in 20's, wind chills down to single digits/teens, split foyer house)

Room Mode:
Temp dial 80, feed rate 4, fan - medium
-Downstairs stays at 80 maybe a little higher, upstairs 68/69

Stove (constant) Mode:
Temp dial #4 feed rate 4, fan - medium
- Downstairs 80, upstairs 74

Phew, I'm hot, have to turn the heat down
Turn the dial to 2 1/2
- Downstairs remains at 80ish, upstairs 71/72

So for me, if the wind is blowing and I'm in Room Mode, the house gets no more than 70 upstairs if the high's remain in 20's. However if no wind, the house gets to about 72. Right now I'm in Room Mode, temp dial 75, fan on Low, its 70 upstairs

In Stove Mode, I can push upstairs to 72/74 then back down the temp dial ( have gone as low as 2) to maintain that. Granted I do use more pellets in stove mode but I once read that in order to make heat, burn burn burn


I'm curious to what brand of pellets you are using and what are your current temperature settings.

 

[alternativeheat]

Also, a smaller stove has less ability to recover heat if it's in a situation even where it can maintain heat well. So a boost of oil or other central source will more quickly get the house up to temp. Larger stoves have more reserve power. It all comes at a cost of energy, just depends which energy you want to spend it on. The best scenario for any stove is to be able to maintain house temp rather than recover it. In fact in this house that has proven to be true even with the central heat. If it were not for the fact that we have a couple of relatively new cats to the house the studio door would stay open 24/7 and if it were not my exercise room it could stay closed 24/7 LOL ! The cats have a way of getting in trouble at night, so those doors are shut only for that reason. But far and away it's best to heat evenly in a house, don't have big swings in temp unless the low is to be for a couple of days at a time. In my experience, It takes too much energy to recover back to the comfy heat level. When a house cools down you have way more mass to heat than just room air, you have all the solid objects to bring up to temp as well.

 

[bags]

Turn the distribution blower up to max as that will push more heat out. You should be able to heat your place with that stove. Also try using some fans to move the air around some.

Establish a base line first. Try setting your temp dial at 75* or just above. Run your stove on room temp auto igniter feed rate 4. Run like that for 24 hours and see where your pellet consumption is and how the set up does. Playing with all the different settings and knobs is futile until you get a good feel for your new stove.

Welcome BTW. If you are in a newer place insulated average etc; the P43 should be able to give the results you want. Every situation is different but you need to get a base line established and go from there. Any ceiling fans going? Key is moving air and circulating it throughout your home.

Also keep in mind the farther from the stove you are you will experience cooler temps. My farthest reaches of my place I usually see about 4* temp variances up to 8* - 10* differences when it is extremely cold outside. This is fine and I can have the living room where the stove is at 76* and the farthest bedroom upstairs is 68*. I am doing 2,350 SQ FT two levels and high ceilings with tons of windows and glass doors. Granted I'm running a P68 but this place is not a typical or "normal" construction either.

If you have 8 ft. ceilings and a new place you should be able to get the 43 to do it. Or the bulk of the heating requirements.

 

[scajjr2]

P43, 1600 sq ft 2-story house built in 1983 well insulated, stove just off to side of stairway to upstairs (3 bed & full bath).

For the past 3 weeks have been running in room temp, igniter on manual, temp dial between 75-80, feed varies between 2-3 (real cold & windy 3, otherwise 2) fan on med during day while we're at work, I adjust for comfort/noise when we're home.
The temp in the house has ranged from 71 downstairs and 67 up on the cold/windy days to 74 down/70 up the rest of the time. Pellet use is about the same as when using the thermostat mode on the wireless thermostat we have on it (cold & windy 1-2 bags, otherwise usually a bag a day). Now I just leave the wireless thermo in run mode and with the settings I use above, the house has been a constant warm temp for 3 weeks.

Sam

 

[alternativeheat]

P43, 1600 sq ft 2-story house built in 1983 well insulated, stove just off to side of stairway to upstairs (3 bed & full bath).

For the past 3 weeks have been running in room temp, igniter on manual, temp dial between 75-80, feed varies between 2-3 (real cold & windy 3, otherwise 2) fan on med during day while we're at work, I adjust for comfort/noise when we're home.
The temp in the house has ranged from 71 downstairs and 67 up on the cold/windy days to 74 down/70 up the rest of the time. Pellet use is about the same as when using the thermostat mode on the wireless thermostat we have on it (cold & windy 1-2 bags, otherwise usually a bag a day). Now I just leave the wireless thermo in run mode and with the settings I use above, the house has been a constant warm temp for 3 weeks.

Sam

I bet if you set the feed rate to about 3.5 or even 4 and leave it there, then over the course of the entire winter you will find you didn't use any more pellets and had a warmer house in those varying weather conditions, maybe even have to turn that control down a little bit because at 74 the house might hit 74. I've run feed rate 2, even 3 sometimes won't heat this house to where I want it with my P61 in the cold weather and it results in longer high flame burns for not so much gain. Oh low feed rates works fine when it's 37 outside but at 17 and blowing 40 MPH, no. The idea here is to ramp up the flame , get some heat out of it, then ramp back down. In a low burn the stove could even regulate itself back to feed rate 1. When I set my control at 74 it's then 74 in my dining room, the next room over from the stove. I set it at 72 , it's 72 in there. Just sayin.

 

[jackhammer]

This is my first year with a Harman stove. I am heating a 2000 sq/ft colonial, pretty open floor plan with the stove in the first floor living room. I am still learning, as Bags said, give it some time and try The above posters suggestions. Lots of knowledge here! Plenty of variables on stove set up, location, outside air kit(referred to here as oak), temp sensor location, pellet type. That doesn't even get into stove settings, which on Harmon stoves are vast. I have my oil furnace fire up in the morning, set at 65. When I get up, I turn the stove up to maintain a temp of 75 in living room, around 70 in the rest of the house. No problem maintaining that temp no matter the weather outside. At night when we go upstairs to bed, stove goes down to 65, oil furnace back to 60. Stove in room temp mode, temp 75, feed rate of 3, igniter set to manual. Keep in mind, I'm still learning and will adjust as the cold temps finally get here in New England! My Harman is a way different (and so far better) stove than my previous Breckwell, though it does consume more pellets. Try not to get frustrated, just take the time to experiment, read up on your stove on this forum and enjoy!

 

[kk49]

Turn the distribution blower up to max as that will push more heat out. You should be able to heat your place with that stove. Also try using some fans to move the air around some.

Establish a base line first. Try setting your temp dial at 75* or just above. Run your stove on room temp auto igniter feed rate 4. Run like that for 24 hours and see where your pellet consumption is and how the set up does. Playing with all the different settings and knobs is futile until you get a good feel for your new stove.

Welcome BTW. If you are in a newer place insulated average etc; the P43 should be able to give the results you want. Every situation is different but you need to get a base line established and go from there. Any ceiling fans going? Key is moving air and circulating it throughout your home.

Also keep in mind the farther from the stove you are you will experience cooler temps. My farthest reaches of my place I usually see about 4* temp variances up to 8* - 10* differences when it is extremely cold outside. This is fine and I can have the living room where the stove is at 76* and the farthest bedroom upstairs is 68*. I am doing 2,350 SQ FT two levels and high ceilings with tons of windows and glass doors. Granted I'm running a P68 but this place is not a typical or "normal" construction either.

If you have 8 ft. ceilings and a new place you should be able to get the 43 to do it. Or the bulk of the heating requirements.

Ok so now we are on week 3 with our new p-43. We have run it on constant burn , auto for igniter , feed rate 4,blower high . We are going thru 1and half bags of pellets. And last two days temps haven't risen above low 20 . I am cold and finding I have to turn my thermostat for elec heat pump up to keep us warmer.. Is there something we can do differently to make us warmer and maybe less pellets. BTW we buy pellets from the stove place and they are supposed to be top grade .. Did we buy undersize stove for the job?
Thank you again
Kk

I am very grateful to all the suggestions here, maybe they can be compiled and added to the accompanying manuals that come with our Harman stoves , that give operating instructions only.. LOL.. but then after reading all these suggestions, in their defense (harman's) we can see all the variables that change how to, when to. etc etc etc... So again many thanks for this active forum....
Ok, first here are the two brands of pellets that we are using.. Country Boy White Lightening, 100% solid oak hardwood, ash 1%. and Greenway also saying Oak hardwood... these were supplied from dealer when we made our stove purchase.
Today it is 37 outside no wind, cloudy... We brought our house temp up to 68 (we turn it to 65 at night) via the electric heat pump. Meanwhile we vamped the stove to either room temp mode 75, auto, feed rate 4 and full blower. or in constant burn , auto, full blower, 4 or 5. Once it begins to hold the heat (meaning our heat pump isn't running nonstop, we kick either of those modes back room temp, 72, feed rate 3.5 mid blower, or constant burn , auto, mid blower feed and output rate 3.5.. and here we are hearing the pump kicking in to maintain the house at 68. So, I put it in constant burn, auto, full fan and output and feed at 4... It seems to do better. How does this sound? anyone see any thing that gives them a red flag of sorts...I am so afraid that we will have to use lots of pellets to maintain this...
KK

 

[alternativeheat]

I am very grateful to all the suggestions here, maybe they can be compiled and added to the accompanying manuals that come with our Harman stoves , that give operating instructions only.. LOL.. but then after reading all these suggestions, in their defense (harman's) we can see all the variables that change how to, when to. etc etc etc... So again many thanks for this active forum....
Ok, first here are the two brands of pellets that we are using.. Country Boy White Lightening, 100% solid oak hardwood, ash 1%. and Greenway also saying Oak hardwood... these were supplied from dealer when we made our stove purchase.
Today it is 37 outside no wind, cloudy... We brought our house temp up to 68 (we turn it to 65 at night) via the electric heat pump. Meanwhile we vamped the stove to either room temp mode 75, auto, feed rate 4 and full blower. or in constant burn , auto, full blower, 4 or 5. Once it begins to hold the heat (meaning our heat pump isn't running nonstop, we kick either of those modes back room temp, 72, feed rate 3.5 mid blower, or constant burn , auto, mid blower feed and output rate 3.5.. and here we are hearing the pump kicking in to maintain the house at 68. So, I put it in constant burn, auto, full fan and output and feed at 4... It seems to do better. How does this sound? anyone see any thing that gives them a red flag of sorts...I am so afraid that we will have to use lots of pellets to maintain this...
KK

You're zeroing in ! I mentioned in my other post you might sacrifice a few pellets to get it . Something you may not understand is that Harman stoves adjust their own feed rate. In Room Temp Mode When you set it to say feed rate 4, that is the max feed the stove Can draw pellets at. It doesn't mean it will, but the more times you lower your house temp and then look to recover that heat, it then is all the more likely it will draw pellets at level 4 feed rate to make that recovery happen. The programming constantly changes feed rates anyplace from 1 on up to your set limit. Just because you set it at 4 doesn't mean it's feeding at 4 non stop. But when the stove needs to make heat it can. And then it will ramp back down and sip along on a lower feed rate all by itself.

In Constant Burn the flame modulates up and down to maintain a vent temp by ESP reading and that temp is adjusted according to how the control board interprets your available feed and the Numerical setting on the control dial. In this mode you are likely not to see a real high flame ever appear, nor a really low maintenance burn either. The flame will modulate a little higher and a little lower according to what the ESP calls for. Thus: The term Constant Burn, it doesn't say lowest feed rate, nor does it say Max feed rate, LOL !

On another note,it's going to take X amount of BTU's to heat your house. Those BTU's will be generated by your stove, your heat pump, a combo of the two. There is no magic trick going on here. So all that said, just about everyone in the forum comes down to cold weather burning at feed rates between 3 and 4 or a little more. Some of that is based off the pellets you burn and you also get to know a history with the stove and pellet use past. If your pellets are really hot ones, and they are cut fairly short you can probably run a feed rate nearer 3. If they aren't the hottest on the planet and or they are cut rather long or lots of random long ones mixed in, the feed rate will probably work well to be nearer or on 4, even over 4. But there is no crime done if you slip up !!

 

[Tonyray]

This year is 1st time we actually set the temp to 75 degrees on room/auto..instead of 70 past couple years..
we keep this temp set regardless if using room mode or stove/constant..
really made a difference this year.....fan speed around midpoint and feed rate #3 since the Lignetics pellets are on the small size...

 

[scajjr2]

I bet if you set the feed rate to about 3.5 or even 4 and leave it there, then over the course of the entire winter you will find you didn't use any more pellets and had a warmer house in those varying weather conditions, maybe even have to turn that control down a little bit because at 74 the house might hit 74. I've run feed rate 2, even 3 sometimes won't heat this house to where I want it with my P61 in the cold weather and it results in longer high flame burns for not so much gain. Oh low feed rates works fine when it's 37 outside but at 17 and blowing 40 MPH, no. The idea here is to ramp up the flame , get some heat out of it, then ramp back down. In a low burn the stove could even regulate itself back to feed rate 1. When I set my control at 74 it's then 74 in my dining room, the next room over from the stove. I set it at 72 , it's 72 in there. Just sayin.

Is yours running in room temp/auto or room temp/manual? I set it to auto from manual this morning, temp dial set at 75, feed at 3.5, fan between low-med and the house was 76 downstairs when I got home. Right now with it 18* out with a 16mph wind it is so nice and toasty in the house. Especially after just coming in from taking the dog for a walk, opening the back door to be greeted with that nice warm air.

Sam

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Basically stove mode is always going to put out the same amount of heat, and not change based on weather. So if weather changes, you have to change it.

Room mode, it is going to adjust to the setpoint.

Auto is more efficient than manual. Manual will respond quicker to a temperature change since their is no restart time.

Feed rate - Controls the MAX pellet output of the stove in a given a time.
For example:
You open your door, sensor gets cold. The stove will ramp up gradually to your max feed rate of 2 until it reach set point and backs down.

If you have it set it to 4, it will gradually reach the max feed rate of 4 until you reach set point and it backs down.

As your room temperature slowly fluctuates the stove will feed more/less, but feed rate only affects the maximum output.

When we open the door at -40, my stove ramps up a big a flame to catch up to setpoint, but most the time it isn't a huge flame, as it never needs to go full bore.

 

[kk49]

Can someone explain why the ignite switch should be on either manual or auto, beyond having to start the fire ... In other words , once you have stove in either room temp or constant burn mode, pellet feed and output feed set, where does switch need to go???
kk

 

[jp99]

Can someone explain why the ignite switch should be on either manual or auto, beyond having to start the fire ... In other words , once you have stove in either room temp or constant burn mode, pellet feed and output feed set, where does switch need to go???
kk

If the 43 works like my 45 (and I think it does), this is how it works:

Room temp mode
Auto igniter: allows stove to shut down, then restart when heat is needed. Starting stove in this mode uses igniter.
Manual: stove will slow down to a low idle mode when no heat is called for, ramp up when heat is needed. Stove started in this mode needs manual starting - fire starter gel.

Stove or constant burn mode
Auto igniter: stove puts out heat (distribution fan). Also uses igniter for starting up
Manual: stove runs like a fireplace - fire but distribution fan won't turn on unless stove is hot and needs cooling. Also used for manual start up without igniter, and when fuel feeding begins (auger runs) you can switch to auto igniter to run distribution fan.

 

[Tonyray]

kk49,

that is your choice really.. you will see what mode works best for you.
I have a poor insulated house so my heat loss can be quicker.. that said, I want my blower kicking heat all the time and not sending it up the exhaust so, I can run in Stove mode/constant or, I can lower the feed rate enough that the blower never shuts off in room/manual because it cannot catch up to shut the blower off.. have to keep it at #5 or #75 to do this. but I digress.

in Room/Manual mode, there is no ignition because the stove will not shut down. only ramp down or as I call it, Simmer mode. But, cannot start a fire in Manual mode. Have to manually Ignite with a gel or whatever.. Most people get it started with room/auto then put the switch down to manual.
in Stove auto or Constant, same deal... stove will Not shut off...
Stove Manual is more of a Ambiance mode.. Nice fire/no heat..[ well, there is heat but it's all going up the exhaust pipe unless your put the temp number to #5 or higher which will kick on the Distribution blower.
jp99 explained it good.. I just reworded it.....