One bag of Pellets....I get 12 -13 hours..is this right..??

[bigruckus]

I have a new Thelin Parlour 3000 stove and it works great..I clean it everyday 2-3 days...dump ashes out vacuum the base and clean the heat tubes...then cycle the clean mode as stated in the manual...I also have brushed out the vent pipe once...I have burnt around 10 bags so far..anyways the other day I notice the pellet comsumption chart in the manual...it states that I should get 20 to 30 hours on a load (40 lbs) on the low speed...NO WAY..I'm good for only 12 hours or so..Things to mention..my damper is open about 3/4 of the way and I have the stove vented into a lined brick chimney...I'm using about 6 feet of Duravent 3" pipe.. one tee w/ cleanout and one 90 degree elbow..The brick chimney where the vent pipe is mounted into is 30 feet high..it's an old house...heat is good out of the stove. Last weekend I turned the trim (auger feed) down to the the lowest setting trying to reduce pellet comsumption..and the stove went out...so I turned it up to about a 1/4 and it seems to be ok...but I'm still only getting around 12 hours on a load...is the stove acting up OR is the manual a joke..

 

[nate379]

Dunno, but I'd shut that thing down and fire up the furnace. There's no way burning 2 bags a day can be cheaper than burning oil!

 

[PJPellet]

It sounds like you have the stove and everything set up well. What temperature do you keep the house at? That's a BIG factor for me. Going from 74* to 70* on a 30* outside temp. day probably saves me more than 1/2 bag. The insulation, windows, etc. all will have an affect. However for me, the biggest thing has been the temperature that I try to maintain. Hope that helps a little.

 

[BrotherBart]

That is why I shut down the 25PDVC and fired up the wood stove. The Englander consistently ate a bag of Stove Chow every fifteen hours on feed rate 1 in my four day run with it.

 

[kykel]

I averaged two bags a day when the cold sets in. I run the stove on #3 setting and it runs 24/7. that was my old stove.(hudson river saranac) My neighbor also used the same with a different (Astoria Avalon) stove so yours sounds about right to me.

 

[lbcynya]

It sounds like you have the stove and everything set up well. What temperature do you keep the house at? That's a BIG factor for me. Going from 74* to 70* on a 30* outside temp. day probably saves me more than 1/2 bag. The insulation, windows, etc. all will have an affect. However for me, the biggest thing has been the temperature that I try to maintain. Hope that helps a little.

Ditto. Shoulder seasons are tough for evaluating pellet useage. I don't have any science to back this up, but I would imagine our stoves are designed to be most efficient at higher burn rates. So, while it might seem that idling along is saving pellets, you don't really get the heat out of the pellet and into the room. As the stove temp rises, so does its ability to push heat into the room.

Once it's good and cold and you can let it crank and you'll get a better idea. If you are using a high BTU pellet and fell the stove is in good working order, then the heat your house consumes is what it its and you'll need the appropriate amount of BTU's to replace the heat that's lost. If you lose 25,000 BTU per hour, then you'd need to burn about 4-5 pounds per hour to keep up.

 

[pollywog]

This is my first year with a pellet stove. So far i have burned about 16 bags. I have a Harman p38+. If I keep it at 1 to 1-1/2 on stove temp I get close to a bag a day, a little over. I dont like the room temp mode to much fluctuation on temp. I am trying to heat all the way to the other end of the house. So alot of comments on here say to set it higher and let the stove work. How can that use less pellets than being on low all the time? If I use room temp it will burn at a higher feed rate, then slow down, then speed up, etc. Room temp is consistent. 20 sec auger feed, 40 sec auger off. Thats on the lowest setting. 1 to 1-1/2 bags a dayon the low setting. Still cheaper than oil, and I am WARM.

 

[St_Earl]

Ditto. Shoulder seasons are tough for evaluating pellet useage. I don't have any science to back this up, but I would imagine our stoves are designed to be most efficient at higher burn rates. So, while it might seem that idling along is saving pellets, you don't really get the heat out of the pellet and into the room. As the stove temp rises, so does its ability to push heat into the room.

Once it's good and cold and you can let it crank and you'll get a better idea. If you are using a high BTU pellet and fell the stove is in good working order, then the heat your house consumes is what it its and you'll need the appropriate amount of BTU's to replace the heat that's lost. If you lose 25,000 BTU per hour, then you'd need to burn about 4-5 pounds per hour to keep up.

i have heard the same thing about the stove being more efficient on the high setting.
and that the official reported efficiency number for the stove comes from being run on high.

what i've been doing is running on high when i start up in the evening. and getting the far end of the house to the temp we've decided is best. then running on medium w/ the thermostat set to reduce the noise for sleeping time.
the high setting full time (at this point in the season) just makes our little living room too hot over the long run.
on medium with the t-stat set to our desired current level, the living room cycles between 75 and 80 or 81 degrees per burn.
the temp in the living room fluctuates. but the other rooms stay pretty much steady.
we spend most of our time in the other rooms anyway. tv room and computer room and back bedroom.
i still have a lot of experimenting to do with my first season with the stove. and as we get to the really cold 24/7 season.

dexter runs on low afaik. but he has done a whole lot of work reducing the heat his house loses.
i'm *guessing* that is what makes running on low worthwhile.
just maintaining the "soak temp" and not asking the stove to push the heat that far.

we also just got our vornado humidifier today. it is also an air circulator .
the output goes straight up and the inlets are on the bottom to create convection.
it will be nice to harvest the heat from the ceiling of the living room and spread it around better.
properly humid air is also supposed to feel warmer.

 

[bigruckus]

Some good info to think about...I run the stove 24/7..no thermostat..I have an old house.....running just oil for the last couple of years I burned around $3000.00 for the whole year...During the winter months from Nov to Feb it was at least 2 full barrels.....and that totaled around $2000.00. The house temp so far has been around 68 to 74 with the stove on low. As far as the weather it has been in the 40's during the daytime and 20's at night. My house is 30 x 30 and it's a 2 story home...the upstairs gets in the mid 60's at hight. So as I see it I need to jack the stove up and to get a thermostat.....I'll keep an eye on this and plan to add a thermostat..as I see it my Thelin is a pellet piggie!!...welcome to the Pellet Pig Club!!.....ha..ha..

 

[St_Earl]

as i think you know, i'm very new to this. had the stove a week today .
i'm just going from what works with our small one level house.

as long as you're comfortable, it seems like there is still savings over oil.
and as you fine tune your system things will only get better.
my stove is just a simple three feed rate three fan rate set up.so i can't comment on the settings other folks are mentioning.
but i'm really happy with the simplicity so far.

i know this seems obvious. and i'm sure you'd think of it. but mount the thermostat well away from the stove.
we have ours in the middle room of our layout. dining room/kitchen

 

[bigruckus]

as i think you know, i'm very new to this. had the stove a week today .
i'm just going from what works with our small one level house.

as long as you're comfortable, it seems like there is still savings over oil.
and as you fine tune your system things will only get better.
my stove is just a simple three feed rate three fan rate set up.so i can't comment on the settings other folks are mentioning.
but i'm really happy with the simplicity so far.

Well put...it's alot cheaper...and I enjoy it...if it eat pellets..oh well..!!

 

[buildingmaint]

I have read on this forum that pellets produce any where from 7000 BTU to 9500 BTU per pound. So your stove is producing 21000 - 29000 BTU per hour and using roughly 3-4 pounds an hour on the lowest setting. That is way tooooooo much in my opinion for a stove to consume on its lowest setting. I'd hate to see how many pounds per hour it eats on the higest setting.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I have a new Thelin Parlour 3000 stove and it works great..I clean it everyday 2-3 days...dump ashes out vacuum the base and clean the heat tubes...then cycle the clean mode as stated in the manual...I also have brushed out the vent pipe once...I have burnt around 10 bags so far..anyways the other day I notice the pellet comsumption chart in the manual...it states that I should get 20 to 30 hours on a load (40 lbs) on the low speed...NO WAY..I'm good for only 12 hours or so..Things to mention..my damper is open about 3/4 of the way and I have the stove vented into a lined brick chimney...I'm using about 6 feet of Duravent 3" pipe.. one tee w/ cleanout and one 90 degree elbow..The brick chimney where the vent pipe is mounted into is 30 feet high..it's an old house...heat is good out of the stove. Last weekend I turned the trim (auger feed) down to the the lowest setting trying to reduce pellet comsumption..and the stove went out...so I turned it up to about a 1/4 and it seems to be ok...but I'm still only getting around 12 hours on a load...is the stove acting up OR is the manual a joke..

If the stove went out on the lowest setting you likely have the damper open too far. The dampers on the things are not usually opened all that much.

 

[RKS130]

Well, here is my inexperienced 2 cents, having had my stove installed a week ago Monday.

I was also running about 1 1/2 bags a day for the first few days with the stove on a kind of medium setting. Then I posted here about pellet feed rate and got some good information - at least as to my Harman Accentra FS, and I posted a question about the location of the room temp sensor, and got more good information.

The temp has warmed up here (30's at night high 40's day) but I am now burning less than a bag a day with the sensor repositioned so it does not always think the room is cold, the feed rate adjusted and the room temp at 65 night and about 68/70 days. The house is warm. I am going to try stove temp for a while as well.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that even at 2 bags a day pellets are cheaper than oil. If you average 5 months of full out heating from now through March (and I doubt that will be the case) that's about 150 days, or 300 bags of pellets at 2 per day. I know I could never heat my house with oil for the cost of 300 bags of pellets - not even close.

Just sayin.

 

[BrotherBart]

On mine it was just sheer numbers. The auger was pushing 2.66 pounds per hour into the stove on the lowest setting instead of the 1.5 or so I have seen so many places. The pellets burned and the heat was fine. Temps outside don't have a thing to do with how fast the auger turns.

It could be the Stove Chow I was feeding it. With a thermometer on the side of the firebox the firebox temp was only 30 degrees higher on setting three than setting one at steady state before I just loaded it, set it on 1 and let it run to see how long the bag lasted.

Ah the mysteries of life. Sigh...

 

[DexterDay]

Dunno, but I'd shut that thing down and fire up the furnace. There's no way burning 2 bags a day can be cheaper than burning oil!

$4,000 a yr in LP or $800-$1,000 a year in pellets (4-5 ton). 2 bags a day is a little over a ton a month or $3.50 per bag x 2 = $7.00.. $7.00 x 30= $210 x 5 months $1,050. Results will vary with everyone. But if ising LP or Oil and you spent more than $1,200-$1,500 a yr. Then pellets do make sense. Only my 1st year with the 30-NC. But the automation and ease of use, along with the constant temp and only feeding once a day (some stoves more/some less) it still seems easier than wood. Dont get me wrong. I love the 30. But if you account all my time to feed and get the air set for a week. That time is more than the time it takes me to clean my pellet stove every weekend.

My 2 cents.. To each there own. I like them both. But for different reasons.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

On mine it was just sheer numbers. The auger was pushing 2.66 pounds per hour into the stove on the lowest setting instead of the 1.5 or so I have seen so many places. The pellets burned and the heat was fine. Temps outside don't have a thing to do with how fast the auger turns.

It could be the Stove Chow I was feeding it. With a thermometer on the side of the firebox the firebox temp was only 30 degrees higher on setting three than setting one at steady state before I just loaded it, set it on 1 and let it run to see how long the bag lasted.

Ah the mysteries of life. Sigh...

You know those lower three settings that you "ain't" supposed to touch?

Well they have a big influence on pellet consumption on heat range 1 & 2 on your stove BrotherBart.

 

[RKS130]

Hey Smokey - tell me more about the settings I am not supposed to touch - I am always one to live at the edge.

 

[DexterDay]

Hey Smokey - tell me more about the settings I am not supposed to touch - I am always one to live at the edge.

These 3 settings he speaks of are for Englanders.

 

[RKS130]

Thanks Double D

 

[BrotherBart]

You know those lower three settings that you "ain't" supposed to touch?

Well they have a big influence on pellet consumption on heat range 1 & 2 on your stove BrotherBart.

I know Smokey. Later I may dink with them some. This is the grand experiment thinking about how I do it in the future. I have three years worth of cord wood but won't be cutting like in years past so I am looking at the alternatives for when that wood runs out, and I am an even more busted up old sixty-six year old. :grrr:

 

[JHASS]

I don't have a Thelin or an Englander so what I say may not make a difference,
in the shoulder season I run in auto on/off on thermo so my use varies alot from
about 1/4 to 1/2 bag a day. In season I run in hi/lo (3/1) and on thermo and the
most I have burned is 1 bag. Now add to that I live in New Jersey not the cold north.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Hey Smokey - tell me more about the settings I am not supposed to touch - I am always one to live at the edge.

Well you don't own the same stove that BrotherBart does, you have some interesting dip switches and could playing with other auger motors have some fun.

He gets to play with low burn settings both fuel feed and combustion air and the wonderful air on temperature just as a start.

 

[lightyear]

maybe you should also plastic wrap the windows for extra help?

 

[bigruckus]

I don't have a Thelin or an Englander so what I say may not make a difference,
in the shoulder season I run in auto on/off on thermo so my use varies alot from
about 1/4 to 1/2 bag a day. In season I run in hi/lo (3/1) and on thermo and the
most I have burned is 1 bag. Now add to that I live in New Jersey not the cold north.

I'm figuring if I burn a hotter hardwood pellet and add a thermostat it will cut down my pellet usage in time (hours)....I have to realize my stove is running 24/7 right know and it will use more pellets then a stove which is controlled...I just started to burn a hardwood pellet the other day and my house is up 4 degrees...so I think this will help me also...just bought 2 tons of the Geneva pelllets..