Hello fellow Mount Vernon owners!
I spent a lot of time here back in the spring getting info on what stove to purchase. Back when oil/diesel was $4.89, looking at 1000+ gallons of oil + diesel for the F-350 @12 mpg, I was in a slight panic. I almost sold my truck! Prices aren't what they were, but it was equally important for me to switch to a carbon neutral, renewable energy source. I settled on the Mount Vernon AE Insert because it seemed to have the most modern features, and also had the highest BTU output I could find. Plus I live in Mont Vernon, so it just seemed like good karma. ;-)
I have a 3 story 3900 sq foot S.P. Brooks Timber Frame house, wrapped in stress skin panels...it is tight and efficient. So much so that my two sided center chimney fireplace would inevitably smoke into the house...no outside air. The center great room is open 33' to the ridge with 5 doorways opening onto balconies facing the chimney. I have a hydronic system (oil boiler) for domestic hot water and a heat exchanger to FHA, so I can run the fan only to move air around. There is a return duct way up high. I also have a ceiling fan hanging from a rafter which pretty much runs 24x7. I have a full chimney liner and outside air kit to the top. My furnace has programmable thermostats that were set back to 64 at night, 69 in the AM, set back to 66 during the day, back to 69 when the kids get home from school.
We just finished a good week long cold snap of overnight lows in the teens highs mid-20s. I've been tinkering with the settings since putting the stove in mid-October, finally settled on this:
Upstairs furnace zone hasn't been turned on all year. Won't ever be again near as I can tell. I re-programmed the furnace to run for a couple of hours in the AM, mostly to get the house up to temp quicker and circulate warm air to the 1st floor master bath & mudroom. The setback on the furnace is now 68/63, so the MV will kick in first if needed. In the AM I have the MV programmed to kick in 45 minutes before the furnace. I have the MV set to 69/64. I'm running flame height=0, manual/heat output=5, temp differential =.5, blower speed=normal, fuel type=hardwood pellets. Right now I'm burning Blue Seal premium hardwood pellets. I have 2 tons of them, 2 tons Energex Premium, and 1 ton of some unknown I picked up at Tractor Supply. I fiddled a bunch with the temp calibration to try to align it with the furnace. It is a real bear when it jumps 1.5 degrees holding it in your hands...that is the only reason I wished I had a remote. It probably wouldn't be such a big deal if I mounted it, but I wanted to try it in different places. I settled on the wall right next to the furnace thermostat, 12' to the side of the stove.
I love this stove. My wife & kids don't mind loading, and cleaning is a snap. During the cold snap, which was the better part of a week, I burned 7-8 bags in a week. And I stayed home a few days during the week, so it didn't set back every day. There was a stretch where I burned ~1.5 bags in 24 hours. The oil furnace did run a bit more that I'd like, but mostly because it has a "recovery mode" where it figures out when to fire up to reach the set temp at the set time. So for a few nights it was kicking in before the MV. I think I have that figured out now.
I have to run the ceiling fan on high to keep the temp stabilized, and I still have a 1.5 difference from the first to 3rd floors. None of that reverse direction stuff either, that didn't work well at all. If I just run the fan on the furnace, it will end up 4-5 degrees warmer up there. The 2nd floor bedrooms are noticeably cooler, yet comfy. We all like sleeping under blankets anyhow. The master bath & BR, on the backside of the stove/FP, is the coolest room in the house...bah dum bum.
I had bought another ton of pellets to store in the basement, but we had some rain and I couldn't drive through the yard, got tired of driving them around in the truck, so I ended up selling them to my neighbor (who has the same stove). I'll get another ton if/when I need it.
My only complaint is the fines dust, but not much you can do about it. We keep the bags in the garage, fill a bucket and ferry them in. I try not to dump the fines at the bottom of the bag/bucket in the hopper. Bulk delivery would be a nice improvement at some point to avoid the bag waste. I wonder if they can be recycled?
Now I just need some sheet rock to button up the back side of the fireplace/stove, and goodbye romantic fire, hello big flat screen TV!
