New Pellet Stove User

[rjr25]

As the title states, I am new to owning a pellet stove. Had a wood stove this winter in my house I recently purchased. Due to the time and labor associated with it, I recently put in a pellet stove and had a few questions.

So far I am not seeing much in terms of heating my house. I have had the stove since Friday. I am curious what you all average as far as bag per day usage as I am trying to figure out if I am just babying this or not. I loaded my 7th bag in this morning (today is my 5th full day of burning). The first few days I was seeing some decent heat when it was warmer out (30's day, 20's night) but the past 2 days/nights the temps are much colder here in NH and short of cranking the thing full blast, I am not seeing much for heat.

I purchased the Avalon AGP. My house is only 1600 sq feet. I believe this stove is rated for 2000 and btu around 47000 on high. This stove had manual adjust knobs for both heat and fan (no numbers associated with any setting). Last night I ran the stove probably about a third of the way up on heat and fan. Put a full bag in around 7pm, woke up this morning and check on the stove around 7am and the bag had pretty much been run through, and my thermostat in my living room was reading 55 degress. Cold. I realize I can simply crank it all the way up, but seems like I would be burning 2-3 bags a day and I guess over the term of a full winter next year, I dont see this being beneficial.

So my real question concern is what can I expect to burn on avg a day (i know warm vs cold days will make a difference). People I have talked to have said they have burned 3-4 tons this winter. At 2 bags a day (Nov-Feb) and say bag a day in oct and mar, im looking around 300 bags, aka 6 tons. This doesnt seem right to me. Is my stove simply not burning efficient? For reference my house is a salt box so the living room has very high ceilings, I wonder if I am losing most of my heat there? Also I am burning New England pellets, from what i can tell on here they seem to be decently regarded. When fully cranked up, i can hold my hands in front of the blower for 9-10 seconds before it gets too hot. But I dont really want to/expect to have to run it that high all the time or should I simply accept that and burn 2-3 bags a day?

Sorry for the long rant, just confused/disappointed in what I am seeing so far and was hoping for some advice

 

[Polar Bear]

That seems awfully high. I burn 1 to 1.5 bags per day up here in Northern Ontario. My stove supplies roughly 80% of the heat with convection filling in for the remaining 20%. The highest I have my stove is heat setting 3 out of 9. I know my stove is nowhere near top of the line, however it has always done the trick for me. The fact that your burnt 1 bag in 12 hours overnight is confusing. How bad is the heat loss in your house? Are your ceilings like 9-10 ft. or more like 16 ft?

 

[chken]

As the title states, I am new to owning a pellet stove. Had a wood stove this winter in my house I recently purchased. Due to the time and labor associated with it, I recently put in a pellet stove and had a few questions.

So far I am not seeing much in terms of heating my house. I have had the stove since Friday. I am curious what you all average as far as bag per day usage as I am trying to figure out if I am just babying this or not. I loaded my 7th bag in this morning (today is my 5th full day of burning). The first few days I was seeing some decent heat when it was warmer out (30's day, 20's night) but the past 2 days/nights the temps are much colder here in NH and short of cranking the thing full blast, I am not seeing much for heat.

I purchased the Avalon AGP. My house is only 1600 sq feet. I believe this stove is rated for 2000 and btu around 47000 on high. This stove had manual adjust knobs for both heat and fan (no numbers associated with any setting). Last night I ran the stove probably about a third of the way up on heat and fan. Put a full bag in around 7pm, woke up this morning and check on the stove around 7am and the bag had pretty much been run through, and my thermostat in my living room was reading 55 degress. Cold. I realize I can simply crank it all the way up, but seems like I would be burning 2-3 bags a day and I guess over the term of a full winter next year, I dont see this being beneficial.

So my real question concern is what can I expect to burn on avg a day (i know warm vs cold days will make a difference). People I have talked to have said they have burned 3-4 tons this winter. At 2 bags a day (Nov-Feb) and say bag a day in oct and mar, im looking around 300 bags, aka 6 tons. This doesnt seem right to me. Is my stove simply not burning efficient? For reference my house is a salt box so the living room has very high ceilings, I wonder if I am losing most of my heat there? Also I am burning New England pellets, from what i can tell on here they seem to be decently regarded. When fully cranked up, i can hold my hands in front of the blower for 9-10 seconds before it gets too hot. But I dont really want to/expect to have to run it that high all the time or should I simply accept that and burn 2-3 bags a day?

Sorry for the long rant, just confused/disappointed in what I am seeing so far and was hoping for some advice

There's no way of knowing very precisely without knowing how much energy you were using previously, so you can calculate some equivalents.

Having said that, you should think about a ceiling fan to get a convection current going in your saltbox. Sq footage is not very accurate as you're heating volume and with a saltbox you have some open lofted areas.

For a 47k btu stove, you could burn over 3 bags on max. Last night was a pretty cold night, and with a wind, you could easily burn a bag in 12 hrs or less, seeing as you can burn a bag in about 7hrs on max.

It's hard to say, but I don't think you're on pace for 6 tons, probably 4 to 5. What's your primary heat source?

To be honest, I think your pellet usage is the norm. A 47k btu stove is pretty much the average size, and 2 bags a day is right in the middle of its power range, since it can burn 3.3 bags max.

I look at it this way, for every ton I burn, I save the equivalent of 120 gallons of heating oil. If you burn 6 tons of pellets you save roughly $1200 on heating oil.

 

[Ctcarl]

A bag and a half a day here in Connecticut and my harman p35i gets about 75% of a 1800 split level .very toasty actually

 

[CygnusX1]

My usage, lately, is about 1 1/2 ~ 2 bags a day to keep the house around 68~70 degrees. More, if it gets really cold.

You'll realize that you won't always be burning 2-3 bags a day, it's just been really cold in the northeast lately. When the weather gets warmer, you'll find you'll be using less pellets. For me, I use about a bag a day in Oct/ Nov/ Mar/ Apr.

Don't worry so much about the pellet usage, you'll most likely find yourself averaging 4 tons over the course of the winter. I was the same way the first year I had my stove. I didn't think 4 tons would last the winter. I ended up having 1/4 ton left over.

You'll also find you're spending less to heat your house than with oil.

Try using some small fans placed around the house to blow the cold air towards the stove. You'll set up a nice convection current in your house and should see a difference.
Try adjusting the draft on the stove as well. Sometimes you have to tweak the stove settings to get it to run at optimal performance. Eventually, you'll find the perfect settings for each brand of pellet.

 

[been hot]

New pellet stove user. You have a lot of things to consider, are you comparing this to wood heat or gas heat, gas furnaces are rated to 85000 btu's plus. Pellet for supplemental heat not primary heat. Although with the right setup they can heat a whole house depending on the set up and where the stove is installed at. I have a ranch style 2,200 Sq foot house with a full finished basement. My stove is downstairs and my t-stat is set at 65. I run my stove on a 3 to 4 setting out of 5 and depending on the temp outside my house is 68 to 73. This also depends on the insulation and the set up of your stove

 

[rjr25]

Thanks all for the replies. Seems like my pellet usage is around normal, I was still just expecting a little more hear out of this. For example loaded a bag yesterday morning, 7 am, loaded another bag last night around 9. This morning at 7am probably had 1/4 -1/3 of a bag in the hopper. Was running the unit about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up for heat, and my thermostat registered 57, never got higher than 60ish last night. For the amount of pellets I am burning I feel like I should be getting more heat out of it.

Maybe the big issue is insulation/air movement. My ceiling in my living room probably go as high as 17-18 feet at their highest (again its a saltbox). The stove is in the living room as well so the heat is probably going straight up (although the upstairs isnt really that wamr either). Perhaps installing a fan this summer for next winter will help. Also someone mentioned blowing cold air from around the house towards the stove? How will this help?

Still not quite burning 2 bags a day so ill turn it up a bit more and just continue to play around with it. My main concern is I just wanted to make sure my stove was acting as expected so i am thinking the issue lies more withing my settings and house setup rather than the stove.

 

[Polar Bear]

Perhaps a ceiling fan would be a good idea, if possible, in the high ceiling room to get the air back down to earth. Unless your 8' tall like Shaq

 

[tjnamtiw]

Since you are stuck with 17 feet of useless headroom, you really have no option except to pump enough btu's into your living room to make it 'livable'. That means more pellets, which after all are what creates the btu's. If you only run a bag and a half through the stove, then you are only putting 8000 btu x 60 lbs INTO the stove and getting out 80% of that, if you're lucky, and everything is set up and cleaned correctly. That obviously is not enough btu's so you have no choice but to put in enough btu's. Run the thing at max and see if you get enough heat. There's another very long thread going right now with the same problem and it appears the OP doesn't want to face the reality of perhaps making a poor decision as to heat source versus home design. I hope you can find a solution.

 

[chken]

Thanks all for the replies. Seems like my pellet usage is around normal, I was still just expecting a little more hear out of this. For example loaded a bag yesterday morning, 7 am, loaded another bag last night around 9. This morning at 7am probably had 1/4 -1/3 of a bag in the hopper. Was running the unit about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up for heat, and my thermostat registered 57, never got higher than 60ish last night. For the amount of pellets I am burning I feel like I should be getting more heat out of it.

Maybe the big issue is insulation/air movement. My ceiling in my living room probably go as high as 17-18 feet at their highest (again its a saltbox). The stove is in the living room as well so the heat is probably going straight up (although the upstairs isnt really that wamr either). Perhaps installing a fan this summer for next winter will help. Also someone mentioned blowing cold air from around the house towards the stove? How will this help?

Still not quite burning 2 bags a day so ill turn it up a bit more and just continue to play around with it. My main concern is I just wanted to make sure my stove was acting as expected so i am thinking the issue lies more withing my settings and house setup rather than the stove.

Oh, from your first post, I thought you were only cold in the morning. I'm assuming you let the house cool at night when you sleep, better for sleeping, 1 bag in 12 hrs; but during the day, you should try to warm it up, about 1.5 bags in the 12 daylight hours.

As I mentioned before, the only way you can know if you are getting the proper amount of heat is if you do a baseline comparison with your old heating method. For example, if you are burning about 2 bags a day. That's about equal to 4.8gallons of heating oil.

This is what I'd do:
• Turn up the stove to max and see if you can get the temps up to normal. You'll never know other wise. You shouldn't burn more than 1.6 bags in 12 hrs on max. And, on a day averaging in the teens or less, that could very well be normal around these parts.

• Get some sort of fan to move the air. Ideally a ceiling fan to push the heat DOWN from the peak of the saltbox. Without a ceiling fan you can try a floor fan. I've heard people recommend pointing the fan at the stove. I don't know how that works, but couldn't hurt to try. I'd also try pointing the fan straight up, balance it between two chairs along the front wall pointing at the peak of the saltbox. That's the direction the heat will be rising, and you want to create a convection current.

• Make sure if you have a room blower setting to turn that up.

• Check your flame to make sure you've got good combustion, ask someone who knows pellet stoves to take a look at it.

So, basically, you want to make sure your stove is burning efficiently, once you do that, turn it up, and make sure you are getting the heat into the room, once you've done that, make sure the heat isn't going up to the peak of the salt box by getting a convection current going. While doing that, calculate how much energy you used to use, that's the only way to know whether your stove is sized correctly.

 

[rjr25]

Oh, from your first post, I thought you were only cold in the morning. I'm assuming you let the house cool at night when you sleep, better for sleeping, 1 bag in 12 hrs; but during the day, you should try to warm it up, about 1.5 bags in the 12 daylight hours.

As I mentioned before, the only way you can know if you are getting the proper amount of heat is if you do a baseline comparison with your old heating method. For example, if you are burning about 2 bags a day. That's about equal to 4.8gallons of heating oil.

This is what I'd do:
• Turn up the stove to max and see if you can get the temps up to normal. You'll never know other wise. You shouldn't burn more than 1.6 bags in 12 hrs on max. And, on a day averaging in the teens or less, that could very well be normal around these parts.

• Get some sort of fan to move the air. Ideally a ceiling fan to push the heat DOWN from the peak of the saltbox. Without a ceiling fan you can try a floor fan. I've heard people recommend pointing the fan at the stove. I don't know how that works, but couldn't hurt to try. I'd also try pointing the fan straight up, balance it between two chairs along the front wall pointing at the peak of the saltbox. That's the direction the heat will be rising, and you want to create a convection current.

• Make sure if you have a room blower setting to turn that up.

• Check your flame to make sure you've got good combustion, ask someone who knows pellet stoves to take a look at it.

So, basically, you want to make sure your stove is burning efficiently, once you do that, turn it up, and make sure you are getting the heat into the room, once you've done that, make sure the heat isn't going up to the peak of the salt box by getting a convection current going. While doing that, calculate how much energy you used to use, that's the only way to know whether your stove is sized correctly.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Like you and others have said, i just need to turn this thing up, although there isnt much room left on the dial. Ill play around with some fan options and seriously pursue a ceiling fan as you and other have suggested. Ive never run it at high for over an hour or so. I will do that for a few hours tonight and see how it goes.

Ill report back tomorrow. Thanks again all.