New to Everything, any assurances?

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Melissa220

Melissa220

Feeling the Heat
Aug 10, 2012
360
central ME
I am New To both this forum and pellet stoves. My Harman P43 is being installed tomorrow morning. I am excited, nervous and a bit afraid all at the same time. Not looking forward to the hole being cut in the wall for one but that is a necessary evil!

Anyway, I have a strange home layout and the stove cannot be centrally located. It will be at the end of my house in the one story living room in a corner angled towards an archway that leads into the main part of the home that is two story. The heat will need to travel almost 22 feet to get to the main part of the home which is another 22 feet long before going around a corner to reach upstairs.

I understand the pellet stove heat will likely not reach upstairs and I will have to rely on my hot water baseboard for that, but in anyone's experience, will this stove heat this whole length of my home?

I just have this fear I will have spent a good sum of money and not have any advantage from it. any assurances From forum users would be most welcome!
 
my first assurance is that with regular cleaning and a vigilant attitude, that P43 will serve you well! It wont heat all of the upstairs, but I bet it will help! Good luck! Any questions, here's the place! My second assurance, I guess, is that the further ou get from the stove the cooler it will be, but that depends on MANY factors, too many to quantify accurately. I think you'll be happy. Buying the Harman, you are obviously much smarter than average, most likely better looking, and a GREAT asset to the household! ==c
 
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Welcome to the forum and the pellet burnin world. Lots of good people here to help out. I would have to say we are all pretty smart just because we have pellet stoves, no matter the make or model.
 
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Thank you all! Great to feel welcome. :)
 
First of all, welcome to the forum. As for assurances, I'll wager that it will make a dent the heating costs in your home.

You might want to start thinking about where you could place some small floor fans to help move the heat around, but hold off buying anything until you've run the stove for a while and have it "dialed-in".
 
[quote="Lousyweather, post: 1156605, My second assurance, I guess, is that the further ou get from the stove the cooler it will be, but that depends on MANY factors, too many to quantify accurately. I think you'll be happy. ==c[/quote]

;lol Thank you! Here's hoping I don't swelter in the living room while trying to heat everything else. I know this will be trail and error for me: Type of pellets, fan speed, etc. I have been told a weekly general cleaning (vacuuming/scraping/emptying) with an annual professional cleaning should keep me running smoothly. Do you find this to be the case?
 
If you blow the cooler air, low at floor level, toward the stove room, temps will even out all through the house. Use a simple table or box fan running on low speed and place it on the floor in the main part of the house pointing toward the stove room.
 
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Melissa220 said:
....I have been told a weekly general cleaning (vacuuming/scraping/emptying) with an annual professional cleaning should keep me running smoothly. Do you find this to be the case?
Click to expand...

Yes. If you stay vigilant on the upkeep, the stove will provide many years of reliable heat.
 
begreen said:
If you blow the cooler air, low at floor level, toward the stove room, temps will even out all through the house. Use a simple table or box fan running on low speed and place it on the floor in the main part of the house pointing toward the stove room.
Click to expand...

Wonderful suggestion! Thank you!
 
Melissa220 said:
[quote="Lousyweather, post: 1156605, My second assurance, I guess, is that the further ou get from the stove the cooler it will be, but that depends on MANY factors, too many to quantify accurately. I think you'll be happy. ==c
Click to expand...

;lol Thank you! Here's hoping I don't swelter in the living room while trying to heat everything else. I know this will be trail and error for me: Type of pellets, fan speed, etc. I have been told a weekly general cleaning (vacuuming/scraping/emptying) with an annual professional cleaning should keep me running smoothly. Do you find this to be the case?[/quote]

actually, no.....scrape the burnpot every day...with the fire burning. (Scott W, will disagree). Once every 3-4 weeks, dep on yer pellet, shut down the stove, do a thorough cleaning of the stove and pipe. be careful of the ESP! Maybe hire the cleaning guy to do it right (hopefully he does, but there's no assurance there), see if you can do it...theres NO reason you cant do it yourself...many gals here do all their own cleaning and service work, and some of the cleanest stoves I've seen were service by women!

Dont be afraid to play with the heat settings and locale of the room sensing probe...tho I'd leave the feed adjuster at 3-4. I run my p61 on feeder of 3.5, room mode, middle of the range, and the temp at 72. This keeps my 2000 square feet comfy for us, with the upstairs being 6-8 degrees less than down stairs, where my stove is. I burn about 4-5 tons per year. There's little tricks you learn too....

Also, dont be afraid to use your dealer as a resource.....ask questions. If something seems wrong, call immediately (just make sure the stove is clean first!).....dont wait till the warranty runs out.......

The manual does a pretty good job of telling you how to clean it as well......READ THE MANUAL! (but, being a gal with over 160 IQ), Im sure youve already probably memorized it!
 
Melissa220 said:
Wonderful suggestion! Thank you!
Click to expand...

dont do this until you test the unit out tho, you might find you dont need a fan.......natural convection.....well, works for me anyhow.....otherwise, try BeGreen's idea...works for many......just dont see doing it if you dont need to....
 
Lousyweather said:
;lol Thank you! Here's hoping I don't swelter in the living room while trying to heat everything else. I know this will be trail and error for me: Type of pellets, fan speed, etc. I have been told a weekly general cleaning (vacuuming/scraping/emptying) with an annual professional cleaning should keep me running smoothly. Do you find this to be the case?
Click to expand...

actually, no.....scrape the burnpot every day...with the fire burning. (Scott W, will disagree). Once every 3-4 weeks, dep on yer pellet, shut down the stove, do a thorough cleaning of the stove and pipe. be careful of the ESP! Maybe hire the cleaning guy to do it right (hopefully he does, but there's no assurance there), see if you can do it...theres NO reason you cant do it yourself...many gals here do all their own cleaning and service work, and some of the cleanest stoves I've seen were service by women.[/quote]

ESP?
 
Defiant said:
Welcome Melissa and congratulations on your choice of a top quality unit. Lot's of great advice already, keep us posted on your results. Post up some pics, we love pic's you can also include some of the stove;)
Click to expand...

I'll keep that in mind! ;lol
 
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Welcome! Your house layout sounds somewhat similar to mine. Ours is somewhere around 2250 sq. ft. and the design is very close to the one in the photo here:
http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/ig/House-Styles/Split-Level-Ranch.htm
Where the garage is in the photo, that would be our living room level and is is slab-on-grade. I think it used to be a garage previously. The pellet stove is installed on this level on the end of the house pointed towards the stairs that are in the center of the house. We never used this level during the winters prior to getting a pellet stove installed because it seemed too hard to heat with the hot water baseboard heat. The "intermediate" level (half floor above the living room) is a few degrees cooler than the living room level but is very comfortable. Yes our upper levels are cooler but that is where the bedrooms are so it actually works out well because we like it cooler in the bedrooms. Last winter we used about 2.5 tons. I think we will use more this winter because last winter was not very cold and this winter we will have an infant in the house. We installed a ceiling fan in the nursery which is at the top of the stairs so I am hoping that helps out with heating at least the little one's room.

Looking forward to the pictures after the install is done!
 
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