New Pellet Stove Questions

[sdknighted]

Hi Everyone,

Brand new to the forum so please excuse my ignorance if these questions have easy answers. I have used the search and couldnt find the answers I was looking for. I am currently using an oil furnace to heat a 1500sqft house, with a relatively open floorplan. Looking to install a pellet stove. My Questions are as follows.

(1) I am looking for quality built stove suggestions. I am aware Harman is ideal, however there current prices are somewhat prohibitive to me. I dont mind maintaining a stove, but I would like to know it is built well.

(2) Electrical use. I have seen some threads which talk about pricing but rarely if ever mention kwh use. I know most stoves list amps used when starting and running so I can calculate wattage from there. However when it says running amps, does that mean that is the electrical draw 100% of the time the stove is running? I would ideally like to use the stove running as much as possible potentially 24hrs a day at time.

 

[jackman]

(1) I have a Harman and yes it was expensive. I'm in year 15 of mine and it's been a workhorse running 24 hours/day from mid-October to mid=April every year. I've had to replace the main board potentiometers, distribution blower and the auger motor is all.

(2) Mine uses an average of 66Khr/month measured using a Kill-A-Watt meter. The minimum current draw is 0.7A and the maximum is 3A.

 

[sdknighted]

(1) I have a Harman and yes it was expensive. I'm in year 15 of mine and it's been a workhorse running 24 hours/day from mid-October to mid=April every year. I've had to replace the main board potentiometers, distribution blower and the auger motor is all.

(2) Mine uses an average of 66Khr/month measured using a Kill-A-Watt meter. The minimum current draw is 0.7A and the maximum is 3A.

66kwh a month is good in my opinion. I have been finding many stoves use around 1.8A and up for minimum draw.

I do like the harman stoves a lot, the minimum price of $4,000 is a little tough to swallow. However I see your point.

 

[gfreek]

Everyone has opinions. I have a 11 year old Harman stove. I replaced the circuit board only because I wanted the upgraded board with automatic temp control..Auger motor replaced first year under warranty due to noise. Replaced auger motor, on my own few years ago to see if it would quiet down, it did... Combustion motor replaced, noisy, and have backup motors with new bearings, Exhaust sensor just because.. They draw the most electricity when starting with the igniter, then usual running draw.. If you do decide on a stove be sure to read and re read the owners manual..lots of info on clearances, installs, usage, cleaning, troubleshooting... I downloaded mine before purchase just to be sure it would meet my criteria for install and use.. Oh and BTW, when the power goes out so does the stove..

 

[johneh]

I have been using an Enviro for the last 20 years
the only part I have had to replace is the convection fan
Yes it was expensive even 20 years ago but you get what you pay for
I see no significant increase in my hydro bill because of the stove and
it runs 24/7 from late October till the middle of April. The big thing to
remember is a pellet stove is a space heater it is not designed to heat
your whole house.
Welcome to the Forum!

 

[Dataman]

Got my Harmon XXV in April 2018. They were selling floor models. $3500 then. They list for $5,100 now. Worth every penny. Replaced Blaze King King. Don't miss the Wood Mess. I use Fan to push air down hall and supplement heat with Oil Electric heater (Bedroom). So talk to Distibutor and ask when they will sell Floor Models. I use AIMS 1250 Inverter/Charger and couple of 100ah Battery along with 800w PSW Generator (just got Sportsman) for power outages. Longest outage in 10+ years has been 10 hours. Then I had only one 100ah Battery and used 30ah battery to get 10 hours. I Plan on upgrading batteries in 2023/24 with Lithium Ion. 400ah I hope or 200ah. Got some maintence to do on OAK this Spring (Small hole in Stub from Panel. (Will replace or put Metal Tape over it).

 

[ChandlerR]

There is also the option of buying used. A used stove in good condition is usually half the price of a new one. I bought my 2008 Harman Accentra 3 years ago for $1500. Private sale. I did a thorough cleaning and it fired right up. It ran for the first year trouble free. Last year I replaced the board and the combustion blower. The stove has been perfect since. Easy to clean, easy to diagnose and easy to repair. I just can't afford a new one.

 

[bogieb]

I run two Harmans during the winter and my electric goes up $30-60 over months when I don't use any type of conditioning for the house - depending on temps of course. And, NH electric prices are some of the highest in the nation.

I love my Harmans. Used to have a St. Croix Hastings for the main floor stove and it performed well. But the weekly maintenance I had to perform was a real hassle. Changing pellets was a pain as I had to adjust the draft (which could take hours). Also no ability to add an extension to the hopper, leading to running out of pellets regularly during the deep of winter (I was away for 13-15 hours/day), was the real reason I started looking and I jumped on the chance to by the P43 when it showed up on CL.

My advice is to decide what your requirements are before looking at stoves. How do plan to use it - as a main heat source or for supplement or for occasional drive off the chills/ambiance? and the related question is how much heat do you need for the output? Do you need a large hopper or ability to add an extension? Do you need a large ash pan? Do you need more simplistic maintenance? Do you need something another family member can easily learn to run and maintain? What type of looks are required? Are you handy and could buy a used stove and install it? What kind of pellelts are available in your area, and at what price?

All those answers will help you narrow down the list. Once you've narrowed the list down, Look at the owner manuals, most are online, and see what it takes to maintain on a daily/weekly/monthly (or ton) basis. Look at the clearances needed and the space you have. Look at the capability of the stove versus what you need (and most would suggest getting a slightly bigger stove than what you "need" just in case you need more at times).

My advice, take it or leave it, is to buy the best stove you can if you plan on running it 24/7. Some stoves just won't do it and some become heavily dependant on maintenance (like the ones that have no ash pan). There are really a lot of good stoves out there, so I'm not trying to say just go with Harman, but the more you understand what you require from the stove, the better you can justify the price of a good or great stove, which is most likely above $999.

 

[mtnbiker727]

I'm a huge fan of my Harman P68. I highly recommend it. I haven't had it long enough to wear out any pieces yet...

Here's my 2 cents worth of advice (in no particular order):

1. Buy a bigger stove than you think you need. My P68 says it will heat a 2,400 sq ft house, but it can also heat a 1,000 sq ft house. What you don't want to do is buy a stove that's just big enough, and then wish it was bigger.

2. Centrally located! If you want to heat your house with it, put it in the middle of everything. I have a basement install because the landlords didn't want a hole in the living room wall, but almost every day I tell my wife how much better it would work if it was in the living room. When my parents designed their house, they put a box in the middle of a sheet of paper, the wood stove, then they drew the rest of the house around the stove.

3. You pay for what you get. With the better stoves, like Harmans, you'll have the ability to set the stove to run based on your desired room temperature instead of just picking a number on a dial. With the fancy touchscreen ones, you can even program it to change temperature at certain times or on certain days. I avoided the fancy tech, because I figured analog had less chance for failure, but lots of people have the fancy ones and like them...

4. You'll be warm! Right now you are throwing money away to middle eastern princes, and probably not all that warm in your house. With a good pellet stove, you will be WARM, and I suspect at a much lower cost per month.

Here's a link to a pretty cool chart I found that compares different prices of pellets and oil and propane. I did not fact check it...

https://www.ecoheatsolutions.com/PDF/oil-propane-pellets-compared.pdf

 

[bogieb]

Here's a link to a pretty cool chart I found that compares different prices of pellets and oil and propane. I did not fact check it...

https://www.ecoheatsolutions.com/PDF/oil-propane-pellets-compared.pdf

Just a note, my state puts out the average cost of home heating fuels, and yours may also. Just search for "home heating fuel cost xxx", where XXX is your state (or Of course make sure you read any notes about how the costs are calculated, wnd the pellet prices are most likely geared more to the BBS & TSC pellets (what my stoves mainly burn), so if you buy really expensive pellets, the actual costs may be higher.

Actually, looking at MA (the OP's state) government site, they just do the basics. NH gives price per mbtus as well as other info. And MA hasn't updated their pellet prices since 2021, but they do update oil/propane prices weekly. They don't show electric or NG rates either. But, I just clicked on the first link that showed up in my search, and I didn't dig any deeper, so there may be others.

 

[rickwai]

I would say you probably would see minimal difference in your electric bill. What ever you are heating with currently is using some electric. I ran 2 pellet stoves 4 refridgerators and a deep freezer along with the rest of the house and I used 605kwh on my last bill. ($60.00). All my appliances are propane. Electric runs lights, pellets stoves and refridgerators.