Pellet Consumption

[glenc0322]

I am new to this Forum and just purchased my first pellet stove It is a Harman Accentra Insert i also had the stove installed professionally. My question is i seem to be going through a bag of pellets every 12 hours i have the stove on stove setting with the temp on 70 and the feed rate on 3.5 i was just wondering if this is normal or if i am burning to much thanks for your help

 

[buildingmaint]

Do the math , 40 devided by 3.5 is 11.43 hours. So that sounds right.

 

[pollywog]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

 

[glenc0322]

thanks on your setting 1 what do you keep your feed rate on and i know every layout is different but what is the temp of your house i also know that outside temp has a lot to do with it i am just looking for an estimate to see what works best for others

 

[buildingmaint]

If you use 40 lbs in 12 hours and you have the stove set to burn 3.5 lbs per hour , 3.5 lbs x 12 hours = 42 lbs , if you devide 40 lbs by 3.5 hours , you get 11.43 hours of burn time . I'm sure the math is right, now if the 3.5 setting is not lbs per hour , then the math would be wrong.

 

[glenc0322]

I don't thing the numbers on the feed is lbs per hour i am not sure what they represent i know the stove has a max feed of 5 lbs per hour and a minimal of 1 lb per hour i though that there was a ratio to the rate of feed and the number but i am not sure thanks for all the info

 

[subsailor]

If your Harman is like my Harman P61A, then the numbers on the feed rate is max lbs./hr. I run mine at 3.7. Never touch it. Although I might bump it up to 4 as we have some bitter air coming Tues-Wed. The temp setting determines how much is fed to the stove. My stove feeds pellets once a minute. If I have my feed rate at 1, it might feed pellets for 25-30 seconds. If I have my feed rate at 3.7, it might feed 8-10 seconds or less. Harmans run based on temp, not feed rate like other stoves.

 

[subsailor]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

FYI - My dealer told me to run my feed rate on 4. I don't see how you can keep your house warm at a feed rate of 1.

 

[DneprDave]

I suppose it depends on how tight and how well insulated your home is.
I read about a super-insulated house which was heated with incandescent lighting!

Dave

 

[Trickyrick]

I am new to this Forum and just purchased my first pellet stove It is a Harman Accentra Insert i also had the stove installed professionally. My question is i seem to be going through a bag of pellets every 12 hours i have the stove on stove setting with the temp on 70 and the feed rate on 3.5 i was just wondering if this is normal or if i am burning to much thanks for your help

Glenn,

Your stove is trying to provide the BTUs that it can generate to your house. The question shouldn't be what you have it set on but What does it take (BTUs per hour) to keep your home in steady state at what you consider to be comfortable.

I run mine in Room temp mode and with a set back Tstat in the day and at night. Now that we are in deep winter it is switched to manual to keep the spove always burning but at a .75 pounds per hour rate.

I can tell you that this Dec I just put in bag number 25. (note we were gone for 4 days for Xmass)

How are you running it stove temp or room temp?

Also how often are you doing your cleanings?

 

[kcellwood]

I run in room temp/auto. Feed rate, at least on my P68, represents the max seconds the auger will run each minute. Setting of 4 means the auger will run up to 40 seconds per minute and will be off at least 20 seconds. Set the feed rate as high as possible without running the pellets out the front of the pot. I have mine set at 5.5 and have never overflowed the pot. Look at the feed rate as a flow limiter. Even if the room temp is not satisfied the auger will not run for more time than the setting allows. It will run for less time if the room temp is satisfied.
I am approaching 2 tons burns this season but I also live in a large poorly insulated log home. Have not turned on the central heat yet and don't plan to. Base on the amount of propane I have used in the past I am very happy with the amount of pellets burned so far.

 

[roadking88]

i have a P43 and run it on room temp..
have the feed rate @ 4, blower @ 1/2 way, temp set @ 70.......
just dumped bag 49 in and clean it every 10 days..
oil and wood back up never touched yet this year...
house with a maintained heat of 70 degrees...
house is fairly new and well insulated.......

 

[pollywog]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

FYI - My dealer told me to run my feed rate on 4. I don't see how you can keep your house warm at a feed rate of 1.

Subsailor

The stove temp setting is on 1. The feed setting is meaningless in stove temp mode.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

FYI - My dealer told me to run my feed rate on 4. I don't see how you can keep your house warm at a feed rate of 1.

Subsailor

The stove temp setting is on 1. The feed setting is meaningless in stove temp mode.

Sorry but that is incorrect. Feed rate on Harmans has been discussed ADNAUSEUM here this season. Do a search.

 

[Trickyrick]

Glenn,

You mentioned this is the first year with the stove. What was your previousl method of heat and how much did you use in Dec? If we know that then we can estimate how much you should use for the same heat.

One trap thet many of us are guilty of is that when our heating bills were high and running oil, propane ot electricity we tend to turn down the temp in our homes and add more layers. Now that we have a pellet stove the temp in the house is easily 5 degrees higher and you would be surprised how many extra BTUs go into keeping a home that warm. My story is that I have reduced my heating bill by about 600 a year but gained a wife that enjoys the warmth. I on the other hand wear shorts all winter now when I'm home......

Rick

 

[pollywog]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

FYI - My dealer told me to run my feed rate on 4. I don't see how you can keep your house warm at a feed rate of 1.

Subsailor

The stove temp setting is on 1. The feed setting is meaningless in stove temp mode.

Sorry but that is incorrect. Feed rate on Harmans has been discussed ADNAUSEUM here this season. Do a search.

Not incorrect. No need to do search. My P38 is set at stove temp 1, and no matter were i put the feed setting. other than test, it doesn't change the feed rate.

 

[subsailor]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

FYI - My dealer told me to run my feed rate on 4. I don't see how you can keep your house warm at a feed rate of 1.

Subsailor

The stove temp setting is on 1. The feed setting is meaningless in stove temp mode.

My dealer told me that too. I mentioned that on here and a lot of people said that my dealer didn't know what he was talking about.

 

[Harman Lover 007]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

FYI - My dealer told me to run my feed rate on 4. I don't see how you can keep your house warm at a feed rate of 1.

Subsailor

The stove temp setting is on 1. The feed setting is meaningless in stove temp mode.

Sorry but that is incorrect. Feed rate on Harmans has been discussed ADNAUSEUM here this season. Do a search.

Not incorrect. No need to do search. My P38 is set at stove temp 1, and no matter were i put the feed setting. other than test, it doesn't change the feed rate.

Well I guess we can agree to disagree but I have had Harman stoves for more than 15 years and have developed quite a bit of knowledge during that time. If you are running your stove on ST 1 and you adjust the feed rate and see no difference, that doesn't surprise me. You are running it at it's absolute lowest possible output and therefore it doesn't require a significant feed of pellets. As I'm sure you've read here before, a Harman feed rate setting is an upper limit or max that the stove will feed pellets "when required". I would hazard a guess that if you ran your stove on ST 7 and feed rate 1 you won't have a very large fire. If you adjust the feed rate up to the recommended 4 in your owners manual you will see a noticeable increase in the fire size in the burnpot. Feed rate does work in ST mode. JMO

 

[subsailor]

Not sure about your math comment. I run mine on stove temp always. Always on setting 1. So should I get 40 hours of burn time? I cant get 24, usually about 17. I did notice that the combination of auger on time added to auger off time always equals 1 minute. If on 1.5 feed i might get 28 seconds auger on and 32 seconds auger off. On setting 1 I would get 22 and 38. with barefoots I got a little less auger feed on time due to the hotter pellet. 15 on 45 off. Not sure if its worth the extra $50 ton. With my house layout this works for me.

FYI - My dealer told me to run my feed rate on 4. I don't see how you can keep your house warm at a feed rate of 1.

Subsailor

The stove temp setting is on 1. The feed setting is meaningless in stove temp mode.

Sorry but that is incorrect. Feed rate on Harmans has been discussed ADNAUSEUM here this season. Do a search.

Not incorrect. No need to do search. My P38 is set at stove temp 1, and no matter were i put the feed setting. other than test, it doesn't change the feed rate.

Well I guess we can agree to disagree but I have had Harman stoves for more than 15 years and have developed quite a bit of knowledge during that time. If you are running your stove on ST 1 and you adjust the feed rate and see no difference, that doesn't surprise me. You are running it at it's absolute lowest possible output and therefore it doesn't require a significant feed of pellets. As I'm sure you've read here before, a Harman feed rate setting is an upper limit or max that the stove will feed pellets "when required". I would hazard a guess that if you ran your stove on ST 7 and feed rate 1 you won't have a very large fire. If you adjust the feed rate up to the recommended 4 in your owners manual you will see a noticeable increase in the fire size in the burnpot. Feed rate does work in ST mode. JMO

I agree with Harman Lover. However, even if you increase the feed rate to 4, if the stove temp setting is left on 1, your stove won't get much hotter than 200 degrees. The stove temp setting is the exhaust temp measured at the ESP probe.