New House, Have Questions

[Luckyksc]

We just bought a home with a pellet stove. We just started using it and I have some questions about pellet stoves in general. We have a Breckwell P24FS from 1994. Our home is about 1600 sf and our bedrooms have wall heaters. Our living room, dinning room, and kitchen are all open to each other with the bedrooms being in the back of the house. It is one story. I have attached are really rough drawing to give an idea of what it looks like. Please forgive my ignorance as I have only ever had baseboard heating my whole life and pellet stoves are not common here.

1. How long do pellet stoves last? Ours is 19 years old and seems to work fine but I am wondering how much longer we can expect this thing to keep going.

2. How do I keep the house from over heating? It seems to get up to about 73 degrees really (two hours) quickly but then we just shut it off or it will keep getting warmer. Then it gets cold again at the end of the day and we have to re-light the stupid thing which is a big pain. In the winter I will not want to shut it off all the time to keep it from over heating the house.

3. What is the best way to get the heat around to the rest of the house? The stove is in the corner of the living room and that area gets really warm but the rest of the house, not so much. We have a ceiling fan in the middle of the living room that we run but I am not sure how much help it is.

We bought 2 tons of pellets for the winter (we live near Seattle so winter is not too bad here) to see if it saves us any money on heating. If not then we will just put in two more wall heaters in the living room.

 

[jtakeman]

Welcome to the group, Enjoy your stay. Lots of info if you don't mind diggin through old threads. We have covered many many details in trying to heat with pellets.

1.) Pellet stoves last as long as you don't get tired of them. Some have gone to the wayside due to parts being obsolete. But you can usually sub a replacement. If your willing to invest some money into them, You usually can keep em in service.

2.) If its a manual light unit, Not much choice but to turn it down to low or shut it off. That stove should be able to connect a stat if it has an igniter. Download the manual, Should have stat connections on the rear and a jumper set(Manual-hi/lo-auto/off). If no igniter us the hi/lo connection. Manual bypass's the stat.

note: The control board for your stove(analog) is obsolete, But it can be updated with the later digital boards and a wiring harness.

3.) Fans move the air around and seem to work better if you keep the fan low and aim the cold air back towards the stove. Cold air is low, denser and seems to move easier than the lighter warmer air. Ceiling fans also work, But usually run in reverse.

Pellet stoves are room heaters, But most of us do a decent job heating the whole house. Trial and error is getting the heat to move where you want it. As pellets have grown, Many of us are now looking into pellet furnaces to heat the whole home at an even level.

 

[Luckyksc]

Thanks for your answers, very helpful. The stove is a manual lighter so I guess I can't hook it up to anything to turn it on and off. I am not sure if the stove is really worth it for us, only time will tell but at least we did not buy it if it turns out to be a bust. Now I just have to figure out the best way to light the thing. Some days it just does not want to catch, leading me to long for my baseboard heaters.

 

[imacman]

According to your owners manual, you can run the stove on a millivolt stat:

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Welcome to the forum

As mentioned, a pellet stove can last a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

Parts can be an issue for some of the odd duck brands that did not last on the market long.

Your stove should have parts available through the aftermarket for a long time.

As far as heating goes, just to give an example, we have 3 stoves in a 2300 ft ranch style house.

We have a tiny Whitfield in one corner of the living room that handles the heating during milder weather, a large one on a raised hearth in the family room, and an an automatic one in the back of the living room to deal with heating if we can't be home over night.

We use the stoves in combination depending on the weather.

This type of heat makes for a very cozy house.

We have used pellet stoves since 1991 and have never looked back.

We are into alternative fuels, and have used hazelnut shells for fuel since 91.

Just a way of life here, tending the stove and such.


Depending on fuel costs (oil, gas, electric etc) a pellet stove can be a real blessing cost wise.

Enjoy

Snowy

 

[Luckyksc]

Thanks for the info! I missed that section in the manual. I guess we were to busy looking at how to clean it and start it. I have one more question, my stove manual says not to leave it on low for too long or it can cause damage to the stove. Why is that? How long is too long, like a few hours, days maybe?

 

[jtakeman]

Thanks for the info! I missed that section in the manual. I guess we were to busy looking at how to clean it and start it. I have one more question, my stove manual says not to leave it on low for too long or it can cause damage to the stove. Why is that? How long is too long, like a few hours, days maybe?

Some stove tend to load up when run on low for days on end. A day or so isn't gonna hurt too much.

 

[krooser]

Stoves like to run on higher settings... most are pretty inefficient when running on low. I hope you bought some of those good west coast Doug Fir pellets... your stove should like those.

 

[imacman]

I think the term "damage" is a bit much. I think they needed to say that the stove won't run as well, and will get loaded up with ash in the burn pot, etc, as was mentioned above. As Jay said, 2-3 days won't cause anything other than a dirty burn pot and probably the glass too.

 

[save$]

How to light it, I have been told that a squirt of hand sanitizer on a small handful of pellets in the burn pot will quickly catch. No need for a blow torch.
I don't know how you will heat that bedroom off from the office, but as jay said, put a fan on the floor and move the air toward the stove. If you don't mind a cool bedroom, that should do it.