P68 went through a bag in 7 hours!

[bdaoust]

I've been experiencing with settings on my P68.

Tonight I had a full bag of TSC brand and set the settings as follows :

Feed Rate 4
Temp - 4 (70)

Room Temp Dist blower on low -

Stove is in a partial finished basement - room sensor is upstairs in living room. 1,200 sqft.

Went out for the game and 7 hours later - the stove is shutting down! Pellets gone.

Does this seem excessive or is it me? Outuside temp in low 40s i believe.

 

[mikkeeh]

Seems like alot, but alot of variables. If the stove is on room temp in the basement, and the probe is upstairs, the stove will obviously fire till the probe reads 70 degrees...more or less. If the heat doesnt circulate well, that could be an issue. To burn that much, your stove had to be running at about 75% capacity for 7 hours. Maybe with the blower on low, the heat couldnt reach the probe....so it just kept firing????

 

[P38X2]

I agree. Stove kept feeeding trying to reach the stat setting. It was prob running closer to 100%. Must have been hotter than hell in your basement, though A LOT of heat was wasted out the vent! Is this the first time it's done this?

 

[Harman Lover 007]

I agree with the others. Sounds like a lot but most of it was going out the exhaust and never satisfied your temp setting. Are you using wired or wireless stat?

 

[TheMightyMoe]

Did you burn last winter just fine?

I am assuming stove was in room / auto mode.

How cold was house when you started up stove?

Was it extremely overtemp when you got home?

You leave a window open possibly?

I suggest turning the distribution blower to high to maximize heat transfer as mentioned by others.

I can burn 2-3 bags at -40...

 

[bdaoust]

Upstairs was 61 when I started the stove. Seven hours later when I got home - the living room was 72.

Did a lot get lost because I didn't have the blower high enough?

Stove was on auto mode. Should it be manual?

 

[Lousyweather]

your issue is more likely related to the fact that youve chosen to put the thermostat upstairs while the stove sat downstairs.......its taking its readings from the thermostat on a different floor.....that P68 can consume pellets....68,000 btu/hr, equates to roughly 8.5 lbs of pellets per hour (est 8k btu/lb), so, 8.5x7=59.5 lbs of pellets....definitely do-able. Get used to it when you locate a thermostat remotely to the stove........

 

[lbcynya]

Sounds right. Once you reach equalibrium usage should settle down. With that said, your situation will require lots of pellets since you'll need to overheat the semi finished space to drive heat upstairs.....

 

[john193]

Your blower settings are not set in stone as the stove will ramp up the speed as the heat output demands it. It will however never go below your set point.

A pellet stove is just an overpowered space heater. Therefore overcoming the basement to push heat upstairs is taxing. Especially if you have an uninsulated basement. Given the location of the stove and the sensor, this doesn't sound abnormal.

 

[Bioburner]

If you had a full basement you heated 2400 sq.ft. Stove probably shoved some heat out the exhaust because it wasn't exchanging room air enough. As John stated its a overpowered space heater. The larger the space the more air needs to be moved to make up for heat loss and heat absorbing into walls and furniture.

 

[mik_kane]

Like someone asked above how cold was the basement? You said the basement was partially finished, what does that mean, insulation, bare walls? You have to remember that everything in the basement has to get warm before you are going to get good heat upstairs. How does the heat from the basement get upstairs? Do you have central air with ducts? Maybe you should look into a ThermGuard to distribute the heat.

 

[silverfox103]

Like has been said, you're trying to heat two floors with the stove. It looks like that may be a bit of a challenge, where it's not even really cold yet. I'm sure you had your reasons, but if your main goal is to heat the upstairs, the stove is in the wrong place. The stove should be placed on the floor where you want to heat. Make sure you have plenty of pellets, as I think you will be going through quite a few.

Tom

 

[bdaoust]

Basement is insulated. including the walls on the unfinished side.

Not sure how cold basement was when I started. There isn't any other form of heat in the basement (no baseboards at all).

Last year I burned about 3 ton and kept the house pretty warm 68-70 on average. Previous home owner said he use to burn 5 ton running no oil heat.

I have two registers in the basement floor, but when I put my hand on one of them, I don't feel much air coming through it. Thinking of getting a fan for that register.

 

[Bioburner]

Getting that space and mass up to temp will initially take some btus then should taper back. I have the same issue with first firing. It's easier to maintain with a pellet stove than try large swings.

 

[bdaoust]

Ok - I'll just let it burn 24hours and use room temp to scale back temperature when I'm not home.

 

[Jack Morrissey]

That's a lot How much do you think youll go through when it gets cold for real??

 

[bdaoust]

Not sure. I'm hoping it's just a matter of getting to an even temperature and then usage goes down.

 

[hockeyfan]

I'd set the distribution blower to a higher (or perhaps near the highest) setting, at a minimum. Try to get the hot air out of the stove and moving out towards the rooms. Otherwise, the call for heat from the above room is not going to be satisfied, leading to your situation.

I blast the air up an open staircase, and although my setup is probably different than yours, the distribution blower is basically always set at the same setting, very high. I let the stove dial down if the call for heat is satisfied, not by changing the distribution blower setting.

The only time I'd ever have a 'low' dist. blower setting would be if I only wanted to heat the immediate area of the stove. Otherwise, it sounds like it would be nearly impossible to heat the upper floor with a low fan setting.

 

[bdaoust]

Ok - I'll give that a try - thanks.

I should have mentioned, besides the two registers, I also have an open staircase.

I'm thinking fans as well to get the air moving along.

Thanks everyone!

 

[kinsmanstoves]

I've been experiencing with settings on my P68.

Tonight I had a full bag of TSC brand and set the settings as follows :

Feed Rate 4
Temp - 4 (70)

Room Temp Dist blower on low -

Stove is in a partial finished basement - room sensor is upstairs in living room. 1,200 sqft.

Went out for the game and 7 hours later - the stove is shutting down! Pellets gone.

Does this seem excessive or is it me? Outuside temp in low 40s i believe.

The P-68 can burn over 8.5 pounds of pellets per hour. The stove will only do what you tell it to do.

Eric

 

[Heat Slinger]

I'm having the same experience with my P68...I think it's because I'm not running it all the time. I'll put it on for the day, and it takes 2-3 hours before it really starts to heat the upstairs. To avoid overheating the house (it's not real cold here yet[) I'll turn it off after 8-10 hours. I think the initial recovery chews up the most pellets. I think when it gets colder out and I'm running the stove for longer periods my pellet consumption will improve. I don't have great airflow between floors either, just the staircase, so I'm sure that doesn't help.

 

[bdaoust]

If I only had forced air system and could duct the P68 into the existing system.

 

[P38X2]

Ok - I'll give that a try - thanks.

I should have mentioned, besides the two registers, I also have an open staircase.

I'm thinking fans as well to get the air moving along.

Thanks everyone!

I bet your best bet is to blow air DOWN through your registers. Let the stairway be the conduit for the warm air. 1 or 2 of those little 5" square stove fans above each register will force the heat up nicely I think. They are very quiet and around 50 CFM. Mount em on a board that is the same size as the register opening.

ETA- You'll still have cold air returning down the staircase, which is good. In my last house, the stove was in the basement and I put said small fans on the register blowing UP. It did NOT work. From the basement tons of cold air was always pouring back down the return, despite the fan blowing the other way. It was a losing battle. When I turned the fans over, the heat was much better upstairs. You gotta work with how the currents naturally flow in your house, and enhance them with the fans.

 

[hockeyfan]

I'm having the same experience with my P68...I think it's because I'm not running it all the time. I'll put it on for the day, and it takes 2-3 hours before it really starts to heat the upstairs. To avoid overheating the house (it's not real cold here yet[) I'll turn it off after 8-10 hours. I think the initial recovery chews up the most pellets. I think when it gets colder out and I'm running the stove for longer periods my pellet consumption will improve. I don't have great airflow between floors either, just the staircase, so I'm sure that doesn't help.

In the shoulder months, 2-3 hours to heat the upstairs seems like a long time. I think airflow is still the central problem there.

Also, if you have to turn off the stove to avoid overheating, you must have the thermostat set very high if the stove itself cannot do this task on its own. Uneven heating is another indication of an airflow problem.