Pellet stove to suppliment oil boiler questions?

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Shield1561

New Member
Jan 11, 2009
20
Mooers, NY
Hello all. I haven't been on in a while, but I wanted to pose a question or two. I have an 1840 Victorian home that I'm trying to figure how to save some money this coming winter with. I have a Oil boiler with cast iron radiators throughout the house and its seperated into multiple zones. I also have a Harman P68 centrally located in the house. The Pellet stove won't heat the whole house obviously, as it is a 3 story 4200sq ft house, but I keep hearing people talk about using the pellet stove to "suppliment" the oil boiler. Can someone explain this to me? If the boiler is running anyway, won't it cost more money to burn oil and pellets? I thought about turning off the boiler at times when I don't need full heat, but the boiler also supplies the hot water to the house and I've heard turning Boilers on and off are actually not good for it. I run the boiler at 180/200 in the winter, as I have been told this is the optimum temperature for Cast Iron Radiators. Can someone fill me in on their thoughts? I'm in the Plattsburgh, NY area. Pellets are running about $220 a ton right now. Oil is at $3.50.

-Justin
 
think of it in terms of raw energy. if you are asking the pellet stove to add 60K BTUs to your house, that is 60K BTUs you re not asking your boiler to put in the house, and since pellets, per BTU are less expensive than Oil...you save some money. The more pellets you burn the more you save. You need not necessarily turn your boiler off, but that would really curb your oil use. I don't know much about radiators, so I cannot comment on that aspect.
 
How well insulated is your home?
 
doghouse said:
How well insulated is your home?

Not well insulated at all. I'm working on that too, but its gonna be a slow process and money is short at the moment. Already have pellets in the garage so it won't cost me anything more out of pocket like the insulation will. Insulation will most likely be done at some point next spring.
 
You are using two methods to supply heat. First, you have your centralized unit (oil) which if you ran it solely, will supply heat on demand to the zones that are calling for it. With your pellet stove you are using zone heat. The zone is the living space surrounding the stove, usually located within a space to which you use the most. If you reside around the stove and it is comfortable, then your oil is not coming on in those zones, hence your curbing of oil and your savings would be calculated by the oil energy you are not using.

In such a large and I'm going to fetch that it is insulated in kind with its age, it is difficult to actualize the full potential of your zone heating system as the warm air quickly escapes or dissipates. If you put the same stove in a 1500 sqft house, even if also poorly insulated, you would be able to maintain heat better as the space you are heating is just not as vast.

You may be referring to running a pellet heating system in tandem with your boiler and to do that most effectively you would need a pellet boiler system running inline with the oil boiler. If you had this setup you could simply make the water temp of the pellet boiler higher than the oil boiler temp and the oil system would not turn on except for when the pellet system could not handle the load. Harman makes the Flex 60 and the PB 105 from their centralized heating products to do this. They cost 4-6k and would also require some plumbing to tie them in tandem. They can also supply DHW for your home. Centralized pellet heating is a whole new creature though, in a home like yours it is typical to go through 10 tons or more a year which may also necessitate the installation of some kind of bulk storage and auto feed system unless you want to personally receive, stack and load more than 500 bags of pellets. Bulk delivery would then be an option for you from a local company...and this would limit what brand of pellet you would use as you would be using some kind of commercial grade pellet.

There is a way to tie in the P68 inline with your oil system thermostat on a zone but that would really be more trouble than it is worth. If you are running the stove on Room Temp mode you are in effect already crating the same effect.
 
Is the pellet stove located in the area of the house that you spend the most time in? If so, turn those zones down on your boiler thermostat thereby relying more on the pellet stove to heat those zones. Maybe the pellet stove can actually heat a much larger portion of your home. Or just turn the boiler thermostat down for all the zones and possibly consider ways to get some of your pellet stove heat to the zones where it isn't located. Obviously you're somewhat limited on how much you can achieve with this, but consider opening doors, using fans for better movement, etc. Also, perhaps when you have the money, buy a smaller pellet stove for the second and third stories of your home where your current pellet stove heat can't reach. In the long run, the investment might be easily recouped since I would bet oil will not be getting much cheaper anytime soon.
 
$5 spent now on insulation is $10 saved this winter.

charge it if you have to, but i think insulation is worth paying interest on.
 
Hello

I put our pellet stove in the basement in the middle of the house from front to back and side to side. The heat rises and heats the whole house. Now our oil zones are all shut down! Only use oil for DHW. My last oil fill was Sept 31,2010 for $2.59 per gallon. I hope oil is not much higher because we will need more in a few weeks!!!
 

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Could look at a pellet boiler. I have some customers heating 3000+ sqaure feet with them. They are rated for 4000 ft, but I have yet to sell one for that type of application
 
I heat about a 3400 sq ft ranch with full basement and my oil consumption went from about 700 gallons to just under 200. Also, the heat is a lot cozier, ask my wife.
 
I live in an 1890, 3200 square foot, three story American Four-Square. It has cast-iron radiators, but only a single zone. After I started using my pellet stove--a fireplace insert, I got a call from my fuel oil supplier, "Is anything wrong with your furnace?"

We had cut our fuel oil consumption so much, they noticed.

Heat rises, and my stove is in the living room with outflow to the sitting room open stairway to the second floor. I've thought about putting registers (grills) in the ceiling for direct flow to the second floor bedrooms, but that hasn't been necessary.

Full disclosure: I'm sitting in central air now, but I feel I mitigate any guilt about that by being able to keep my oil thermostat at the bare minimum--mid 50s.

After all, you can always add another layer in the winter, but there's a limit to how many clothes you can take off in the summer.
 
"After all, you can always add another layer in the winter, but there’s a limit to how many clothes you can take off in the summer."

I found that limit and the neighbors were not to happy about it.
 
C'mon now, let's keep America beautiful!

That's why I limit my clothes shedding when outside…. :)
 
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