New purchase…

[clipse270]

Hi all,
Having read through these forums for about a years I finally purchased a quad Castile freestanding stove to help heat our house. We have had it for about a week and are so far disappointed. The quad heats the living room nicely but beyond that nothing. Our house is from the ‘70s and is a colonial so it’s not very open. We have had it pretty much on high since we purchased it and it just can’t keep up. I know it’s been very cold here in southern PA but are we just asking too much from it or what? Thoughts appreciated.

 

[mralias]

Pellet stoves are space heaters. Sometimes you get lucky and the airflow in a house is such that the heat spreads evenly and sometimes not. In your case, I would be looking at the insulation in the house (attic), windows and outside doorways as potential reasons why your house is not holding in the heat. If you have done this already, then not much you can do IMO.

 

[johneh]

This past week is not a far trial
It has been very cold so much so
that my stove struggled to maintain
70 in the area I use it for heat . It
normally will blast you out of there .
A pellet stove is a space heater not
a 190,000 BTU forced air furnace so do not
expect it to preform as one .
With the moderation in temp you may find
it heats better

 

[Jhawknseattle]

Fans can help move air around. We are fortunate I'm that we have a ceiling fan next to the stove and one in the furthest back part of the house. One thing we did to help was put that plastic stuff they sell at home depot or other stores that can help add additional protection from drafty windows. That alone raised the temperature in the back of the house 2 degrees with similar outside conditions and inside settings.

 

[zrock]

One thing to take into consideration as well... once your home temp falls depending on the construction, insulation, drafts, etc. It can take hours or days to climatize your home again to a comfortable level. My home I shut everything down at night furnace will not let it drop below 15. In the morning if I do not turn on furnace in the morning to bring the house up to temp it will take the pellet stove most of the day to get up to the same temp. Once the house is up to temp from the furnace the stove will hold a constant heat for a few hours while everything in the house comes to same temp their are a lot of things and spaces in a house to heat. Once everything is up yo temp it will start rising to the point I have to shut things down or boil to death...

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

 

[Jhawknseattle]

A good point on bringing a house to temperature. It typically takes me a couple hours at max setting to bring my house from 60 to 72. But if I get my house up to temperature or close to it the stove does an amazing job of keeping it at temp and more at the lowest settings

 

[clipse270]

Good points everyone. Thanks! Hopefully in the coming days I will get s better feel for it as the temps climb

 

[stovelark]

This past week has been rough here in the east. Let winter get back "up" to normal temps, think you'll like your Castile better. Stay warm.

 

[bogieb]

Just how the stove is set up and the house is layed out can make a huge difference. This is a tale of two stoves, both of similar capabilities (heat ouput wise), installed in the same spot in my 900 sq/ft main floor. The first was a St. Croix Hastings. I had a true corner install in my living room. It pumped out heat but the air flow was pointed at a dead corner so I had to use lots of fans (tower, doorway and ceiling) to force the heat down the hallway. The heat to the bedrooms was still not as good as I would have liked and my house was very noisy with all the fans.

The next year I ran into a killer deal on a used P43 and jumped on it. The nice thing was it was not as wide as the Hastings, so I could turn it so the airstream was pushed straight down the hallway. Bedrooms stay warmer - even in the extreme cold temps we have had lately (lowest was 64*)

So here is the layout for the P43. If you substitute the Hastings in it's place, the air stream was going to that outside corner of the LR/Bath. The doorways trap a lot of heat. With the P43 throwing the air down the hallway, it is much, much better.

This may, or may not have any relevance to your set up but is a great example how just a tiny change of turning stoves 45* can make a huge difference on perceived performance.

 

[kappel15]

Small 6" fans that are quiet to run, pushing floor air into the room the stove is in, will help push the hot air out. kap