Mt Vernon AE insert not heating the square footage as I would have thought (at all!!!!)

[afd_82]

I have a 4 year old house well built chalet style home with loft and replaced a useless gas fire place with a quad mt Vernon insert. Now I'm not looking to heat my whole house (2000 sq feet total) but keep the front room warmer since it has 17 ft ceiling and the front room is 26x16. I understand heat rises, and have a nice hunter fan above the fire place, and a little heat will go into the loft but after installing this I can can't even get this room above 70, when I Bought this they said it's the biggest insert quad makes and I wanted the biggest and best I could buy due to the fact it's a focal point of my house and every one said how it will "roast me out". Quad says 1,300 - 2,900 sq ft. Can be heated by this stove and I use premium pellets, high btu and low ash. I have checked the thermostat and every thing looks right, and is on high heat, soft wood, 80 degrees manual and can't get this room above 70 with the ceiling fan on and 65 with no fan on. Hoping some one can help I'm just very upset on speeding 5 grand to not have this room any warmer then the forced hot air I use to use...... Thanks Shane

 

[Harvey Schneider]

I have a 4 year old house well built chalet style home with loft and replaced a useless gas fire place with a quad mt Vernon insert. Now I'm not looking to heat my whole house (2000 sq feet total) but keep the front room warmer since it has 17 ft ceiling and the front room is 26x16. I understand heat rises, and have a nice hunter fan above the fire place, and a little heat will go into the loft but after installing this I can can't even get this room above 70, when I Bought this they said it's the biggest insert quad makes and I wanted the biggest and best I could buy due to the fact it's a focal point of my house and every one said how it will "roast me out". Quad says 1,300 - 2,900 sq ft. Can be heated by this stove and I use premium pellets, high btu and low ash. I have checked the thermostat and every thing looks right, and is on high heat, soft wood, 80 degrees manual and can't get this room above 70 with the ceiling fan on and 65 with no fan on. Hoping some one can help I'm just very upset on speeding 5 grand to not have this room any warmer then the forced hot air I use to use...... Thanks Shane

We had this discussion last year.
What settings are you using? For maximum heat output put the thermostat/controller in manual mode and set the heat output to 5.
The heat output sets the feed rate. If you want to generate more heat you have to burn more pellets.
Automatic mode works well for milder weather, but there you have to use the flame height setting to control feed rate.

 

[afd_82]

It is on just that manual, 5.... so cold

 

[tsmith]

Check and see if your convection blower is on quiet mode or normal mode, you want normal. Also, did you adjust your flame height as per the manual? It should give plenty of heat.

 

[afd_82]

Check and see if your convection blower is on quiet mode or normal mode, you want normal. Also, did you adjust your flame height as per the manual? It should give plenty of heat.

Yes it's on normal and the tec had adjusted the flame height for me and it is correct per manual.

 

[Mt Bob]

How many windows,how many bags a day?

 

[tsmith]

Ok, so you are on manual high 80 degrees, softwood pellet setting, normal blower. Is the flame burning high and do you feel good heat coming out from the blower? what is your flame height set at?

 

[tsmith]

Also what is your temp differential set at and where is your thermostat located in relation to the stove? does the thermostat ever show that it is 80 degrees, or what is it telling you the current temp is?

 

[tsmith]

What brand pellets are you burning?

 

[afd_82]

8 windows 2 doors with no problem when using Forced hot air

 

[afd_82]

I'm trying a few, just burnt 200 lbs of Vermont wood pellet going to try energex tonight.

 

[hyfire]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the btu rating of the insert? You have a lot of window area, at night you will lose alot of heat, the R value of the glass is not very good compared to your walls I bet...unless they are double or triple pane windows...

 

[Mt Bob]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the btu rating of the insert? You have a lot of window area, at night you will lose alot of heat, the R value of the glass is not very good compared to your walls I bet...unless they are double or triple pane windows...

Yep huge heat loss,even high dollar windows.But depending on outside temp.would expect better.

 

[afd_82]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is the btu rating of the insert? You have a lot of window area, at night you will lose alot of heat, the R value of the glass is not very good compared to your walls I bet...unless they are double or triple pane windows...

They are double pane but it's rated for 1300 to 2900 sq ft. Door are just exterior doors.

 

[Mt Bob]

Can you burn 2.5 or more bags in 24 hours?

 

[afd_82]

Right around 2+ bags maybe up to 2.5 I would guess

 

[hyfire]

From the specs its 60k btu, it should roastu out of the room, something is wrong..you should be able to burn a 40lb bag in 5-1/2 hrs on high..

 

[Mt Bob]

If you are burning that much,blower on high,1 foot or 2 in front of stove should be unbearable heat,if so,heat loss problem,if not,heat going up chimney,installation problem.Heck you should be able to cook in front of that stove.

 

[afd_82]

Sooooo what should I do?

 

[Mt Bob]

How is the heat coming out the front?Was unit installed in a full chimney?Was chimney sealed inside?

 

[hyfire]

Not sure if this helps you...

 

[hyfire]

Make sure the vents behind the baffle are clean ...as in the video..

 

[afd_82]

I can clean it but only has had 200 lbs of pellets threw it.....

 

[Harvey Schneider]

If you are burning that much,blower on high,1 foot or 2 in front of stove should be unbearable heat,if so,heat loss problem,if not,heat going up chimney,installation problem.Heck you should be able to cook in front of that stove.

I have measured 315 at the output of the convection blower when burning at heat output 5. It is uncomfortable to stand directly in front of the insert when loading pellets and the flame isn't as big as shown in the demo video above.
The insert heats my 1200 sq ft first floor even with 14 windows two doors and a slider (modified salt box design house). I keep the thermostat at 70 and the stove satisfies the thermostat setting even in sub zero weather.

 

[Mt Bob]

I have measured 315 at the output of the convection blower when burning at heat output 5. It is uncomfortable to stand directly in front of the insert when loading pellets and the flame isn't as big as shown in the demo video above.
The insert heats my 1200 sq ft first floor even with 14 windows two doors and a slider (modified salt box design house). I keep the thermostat at 70 and the stove satisfies the thermostat setting even in sub zero weather.

That's inof trying to get from him.Good description.