New to pellets.....Need some help

[Ifish]

We moved into a 1600sq/ft farmhouse a couple months ago. We would like to install a pellet stove to heat the whole home. The house has replacement windows and was wrapped and sided a few years ago. It's not air tight, but no where near as drafty as the old farmhouse we used to live in. I'm working on cutting back as much draft as I can with caulk, foam, etc.

With doing some reading online and visiting a couple dealers, it appears that we should be looking for a stove 50k btu or above. Though, I think that we could get by with less than that because we like the bedrooms(which are upstaris) cool for sleeping, and will most likely shut the bedroom doors at night to sleep. There are electric baseboards in the bedrooms if needed at night, or we also have space heaters from are old house.

I just do not want to get too much stove and be too warm in the fall and early spring. So we were thinking about a HArman p43, but were told by two dealers that we should look at the p61 or p68. So we went to another dealer that carries Enviro. The m55 is a great looking unit, but at over 4k + intall it was coming to over $5k.

While in the Enviro store my wife fell in love with a Breckwell spc50. I too have to admit that it's a good looking stove, and the way it works is really neat. No need for a generator if the power goes out, very quiet operation, more like the wood stoves that i'm used to. Salesman basically told us that the stove is too small for our needs and kept steering us back to the Enviro.

I would love to purchase a p68, Mt. Vernon, M55, etc, I just do not have that amount of money in the budget right now after purchasing our new (to us) farm. Not finding many on craigslist either, and when I do, the stove is already sold.

So anyway, teh Breckwell is in the budget, as is the Quadrafire Classic Bay, p43. After talking with dealers though it seems that those stoves will not be enough for our needs, but I feel that they would do just fine. So any advice would be appreciated.

 

[TimfromMA]

You want a stove that will provide most of your heat at a mid range setting. This way, you will have the flexibility to turn the stove up or down as desired. Pellet stoves require electricity so some form of backup power is needed if you wish to keep warm during a power outage. I use batteries for short outages and have a generator for longer ones.

 

[Ifish]

Thanks for the reply. I understand that some type of backup is needed. I have a honda generator if need be, but was told that the Breckwell will run about 12 hours on a car battery. Will most pellet stoves run off of batteries? Not having to use the generator would be great.

 

[TimfromMA]

Thanks for the reply. I understand that some type of backup is needed. I have a honda generator if need be, but was told that the Breckwell will run about 12 hours on a car battery. Will most pellet stoves run off of batteries? Not having to use the generator would be great.

My stove isn't set up for batteries so I use an APC with a pair of 90Ah marine batteries wired in which will give me 8 - 10 hours of run time in a power outage.

 

[TimfromMA]

... but was told that the Breckwell will run about 12 hours on a car battery.

They probably meant a marine deep cycle battery.

 

[mr47930]

Tim, can you tell me more about this APC? I would like to hook up a surge protector/battery backup in case we ever lose power. Its rare for us since our power lines are under ground but dont want to have a heart attack in the middle of the night if the house fills with smoke.

Do you need Marine batteries wired in? I was under the impression that the purpose of the APC was to provide battery backup. Did you wire them in to add longer backup time?

 

[TimfromMA]

APC's use deep cycle batteries just not very large ones. I wired in the big batteries to get a longer run time than the APC would normally provide. One thing I had to be careful with was that my stove does not communicate with the APC and will not shutdown automatically before the batteries over deplete. I put a low voltage sensor on my batteries and wired it to a relay I connected to my auger motor. When the batteries get too low the relay opens up, pellets stop feeding, the fire goes out and the stove shuts down. Ideally, you never want to deplete these batteries more than 50% of their rated capacity.

Also, keep these batteries far from the stove. They produce hydrogen when recharging. Google the Hindenburgh if you don't know what happens when hydrogen gets too close to an open flame.

 

[md2002]

In response to your question I would get the highest BTU stove you can afford. I was given that advice and didn't listen. On the very cold nights I need to turn my stove up all the way to keep the house warm, I don't personally think the stove is meant to be on it's highest setting for days at a time. In my case, a bigger stove wouldn't have much use because we sit 3 feet from the stove and you can only turn it up so much before it's too hot in the family room, but at nights it's nice to have the heat rise. I'm OK with the decision I made though, it suits my needs. The thing is you can always turn a stove down, you can only turn it up so much.

Also, I have an Enviro Milan and love it!! They have great customer support as well, that was a big part of my decision. If you read up on support a lot of the stove companies get bad reviews. My dealer told me they stopped carrying a lot of stoves, one which was Harmen, because the support is terrible. They tell me that Enviro is always easy to deal with when they need something.

 

[mr47930]

APC's use deep cycle batteries just not very large ones. I wired in the big batteries to get a longer run time than the APC would normally provide. One thing I had to be careful with was that my stove does not communicate with the APC and will not shutdown automatically before the batteries over deplete. I put a low voltage sensor on my batteries and wired it to a relay I connected to my auger motor. When the batteries get too low the relay opens up, pellets stop feeding, the fire goes out and the stove shuts down. Ideally, you never want to deplete these batteries more than 50% of their rated capacity.

Also, keep these batteries far from the stove. They produce hydrogen when recharging. Google the Hindenburgh if you don't know what happens when hydrogen gets too close to an open flame.

Ahh im well aware of the Hindenburg disaster. Thanks for the heads up though. When we had our unit installed we had an outlet wired behind the wall so we wouldn’t have a cord showing. So im thinking that an APC would be out of the question for us since the space behind the stove where the unit plugs in is limited. Guess we'll just have to hope for continuous power. I should probably still get a surge protector back there.

 

[TimfromMA]

Here is what my battery backup looks like. This room is directly below the stove upstairs. It's wired into an outlet right next to the stove.

 

[MikeNH]

Ahh im well aware of the Hindenburg disaster. Thanks for the heads up though. When we had our unit installed we had an outlet wired behind the wall so we wouldn’t have a cord showing. So im thinking that an APC would be out of the question for us since the space behind the stove where the unit plugs in is limited. Guess we'll just have to hope for continuous power. I should probably still get a surge protector back there.

A surge protector is a good idea for minimal protection. There are some ups that are pretty small and might fit behind the stove - might be worth checking out.

 

[Ifish]

In response to your question I would get the highest BTU stove you can afford. I was given that advice and didn't listen. On the very cold nights I need to turn my stove up all the way to keep the house warm, I don't personally think the stove is meant to be on it's highest setting for days at a time. In my case, a bigger stove wouldn't have much use because we sit 3 feet from the stove and you can only turn it up so much before it's too hot in the family room, but at nights it's nice to have the heat rise. I'm OK with the decision I made though, it suits my needs. The thing is you can always turn a stove down, you can only turn it up so much.

Also, I have an Enviro Milan and love it!! They have great customer support as well, that was a big part of my decision. If you read up on support a lot of the stove companies get bad reviews. My dealer told me they stopped carrying a lot of stoves, one which was Harmen, because the support is terrible. They tell me that Enviro is always easy to deal with when they need something.

Thanks for the advice. The biggest new stove of the ones we looked at that is in budget would be the Classic Bay @ 47k btu. The Breckwell is listed at 42k btu. I just called about an Enviro m55 on craigslist and left a message. I'm trying to stay around $5000 for the stove, install, and 5 tons of pellets. My wife is really pushing for the red colored Breckwell

I have read that the customer service of some of the companies is terrible, and some like Englander, are top notch. Hopefully we won't need to use them very much. I'm pretty handy as far as cleaning, or replacing parts on teh stove, and I could probably install it as well and save some money there. I'm a little intimidated with making a roof penetration or hole in the wall for the vent. I will be making my own hearth board to save a little money there. Plus this forum seems to be a fantastic resource if I run into any issues.

 

[apandori]

You could always get an Englander. People seem to love them. That's why I bought one.

 

[Ifish]

You could always get an Englander. People seem to love them. That's why I bought one.

Very true. Been looking at them

You could always get an Englander. People seem to love them. That's why I bought one.

That's is very possible. I did some reading last night on the Englanders. They sound like a decent stove, but seem to be on the lower end of BTU's that i'm being told I need.

Also, I go on hunting and fishing trips in the fall for a week or so at a time. HAving a stove that is easy to clean, or can go multiple days without a cleaning would be a big plus. My wife isn't very handy, and won't even use a charcoal grill. She can put pellets into the hopper, but relying on her to scrape a pot, and other stuff everyday is asking a lot.

 

[TCZON]

We heat a large 4brm farmhouse with a 45btu stove. Fans help to distribute the heat. It burns constantly in colder weather, shut downs only to clean, but the size range you are looking at sounds right based on our limited experience. We are still able to sit in the room with the stove, though we are pretty toasty. Without the fans it wouldn't work at all. There are experts for all stoves. Pick the one you think you can afford, with the level of maintenance you are happy with, and enjoy. Our stove was picked primarily due to price on kijiji, and availability of parts since it was used. Best investment we ever made.

 

[bbfarm]

Ours is 40 or 45,000 btu. We heat an old 4 bedroom 2 story farm house. Our stove does a good job. My only complaint would be the amount of pellets it holds

 

[TimfromMA]

Ours is 40 or 45,000 btu. We heat an old 4 bedroom 2 story farm house. Our stove does a good job. My only complaint would be the amount of pellets it holds

How about a hopper extension?

 

[Tonyray]

During a power outtage, we have a 7500 Watt generator with a 10 circuit transfer box and run our Oil Furnace along with
most of the house....
I don't Energize the stove as the dirty or fluctuating power from the Genny might harm the sensitve circuitry..
The big ugly plug connects the Generator to a 30 Amp outlet on the back porch which comes back to the Transfer box.