Pellet usage

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PDawg

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Sep 30, 2008
47
Central NH
I have a Harman XXV that I have been running 24/7 since Mid December. I am currently averaging between 10 and 11 bags per week. I live in central NH. I would like to know on avarage how many bags of pellets ohers living in the same region are burning per week.
 
Here in Lebanon, ME my Maxim is using 1.25 bags a day when it is in the single digits and less on warmer days. some of this will depend on how warm you keep your house, we keep ours at 65 and 61 at night with an automatic thermometer.
 
when the temp is below 23 degrees about 1 and a 1/4 bags a day.
above 23 degrees a little less than 1 bag a day.
heating 1000 square feet @ 69/70 degrees
Breckwell Big E :-)
 
jng518 said:
when the temp is below 23 degrees about 1 and a 1/4 bags a day.
above 23 degrees a little less than 1 bag a day.
heating 1000 square feet @ 69/70 degrees
Breckwell Big E :-)

Do you use a certain brand of pellets, or many different ones? I've got a Big E that I'm very disappointed with as I can't get the house over 62 degrees full blast on cold days. I've got a 1200 sq ft house. Is the Big E your only heat source? Thanks
 
Cannot really compare usage to others as there are too many variables.
My stove has been burning anywhere from 3/4 of a bag to 1 1/2 bags in 24 hours
depending on the weather outside.
 
Shield1561 said:
4 bags a day here in my harman p68.
4 bags a day? Yikes! How much area are you heating and what's the average temp around there? I'm about two bags a day with the P68 when the weather is mid-teens or so. Been about a bag and half lately. Roughly 2000 square feet with two floors, keeping 72 downstairs and 68 upstairs. Not using any oil either, but if I was burning four bags, I think it would be cheaper for me to run the furnace. Dang, four bags a day makes me shutter, all that work and not saving any money.
 
Shield1561 said:
4 bags a day here in my harman p68.
I've installed a couple of p68's. Efficient little beast.
I didn't think it would burn 4 bags a day with the auger on it's fastest speed.
Do you leave all the houses doors and windows open?
 
bungalobob said:
Shield1561 said:
4 bags a day here in my harman p68.
4 bags a day? Yikes! How much area are you heating and what's the average temp around there? I'm about two bags a day with the P68 when the weather is mid-teens or so. Been about a bag and half lately. Roughly 2000 square feet with two floors, keeping 72 downstairs and 68 upstairs. Not using any oil either, but if I was burning four bags, I think it would be cheaper for me to run the furnace. Dang, four bags a day makes me shutter, all that work and not saving any money.

LOL. Yeah. Its pretty sad actually. Its been about the same temp wise here. I have a 4200 Square Foot 3 story victorian built in 1840. Insulation is pretty much minimal. Just bought it so I haven't had much of a chance to work much with it yet. The Prior owners installed the P68 before they had to move for work reasons. All the pellet stove really heats is the first floor, and even at that, doesn't heat very well. Using 4 bags a day I'm getting about 67-68 in the dining room where the stove is, and the living room and kitchen off each side of it stay about 63. The breakfast nook on the other side of the kitchen is usually around 60, and I have a pretty open floor plan. Luckily, the Master suite is on the first floor and its just me here for now, so its not too too bad, but in all reality, I'm thinking it would be better just to burn the oil. On fuel oil keeping the house at 65 it takes about 10 gallons a day, give or take. I figure at 10 gallons a day at 2.29 its costing me a hair under $23/day to heat the house, and the pellets I bought at $250 a ton, so its costing me about $20 a day via the pellet stove. The DHW comes off the boiler, so its running only when needed. At the moment the Oil heat is acting more on the side of a backup system. Depending on how the price of fuel oil goes, that will be the breaker, if it drops to where its cheaper at 10 gallons a day, I'll go ahead and go back to that. Unfortunately, I'm in more of a country setting, and natural gas hasn't made it this way yet, but its supposedly coming, but you know how that goes. Luckily, i'm on a main route in what used to be a small village, so there are a decent number of houses around me that might make it worth NYSEGS money to bring the gas this way, eh, who knows. LOL. One thing I'll never do again, buy a house for its beauty and history vs economy in this day and age, but ya live ya learn I guess.

-Justin
 
mdelmonte said:
jng518 said:
when the temp is below 23 degrees about 1 and a 1/4 bags a day.
above 23 degrees a little less than 1 bag a day.
heating 1000 square feet @ 69/70 degrees
Breckwell Big E :-)

Do you use a certain brand of pellets, or many different ones? I've got a Big E that I'm very disappointed with as I can't get the house over 62 degrees full blast on cold days. I've got a 1200 sq ft house. Is the Big E your only heat source? Thanks

What setting [ 1-5 ] do you have your stove ? I run mine on High /low with a programmable stat. High # 3 low # 1-or 2, . Mine puts out some real good heat. I f you run on manual # 3 it should cook you out of the room the stove is in. I use a ceiling fan you distribute the warm air around. Yes it is the only source of heat I use .
 
I think at this point I may run short on pellets come the end of March. I think I have around 75 bags left out of 3 tons.
 
We are almost at the half way point of the heating season, so I would agree you'll probably be a hair short.
 
I'm a little worried about falling short too... I'm halfway through my 3 tons (a little more actually because I had about 10 bags left over from last season that I burned)... started burning late October. Here's hoping for a mild January/February.

Oh wait, I live in New England.

><
 
Give or take, right now using about to 2 bags a day. Fill 'er up in the morning and then fill 'er up at bed time. Have been running our stove 24/7 with no other source of heat used. But - looks like by the end of this week it's going to get really cold here so we might have to turn the furnace on to help out a little for a couple days. Using Pro Pellets right now.
 
mdelmonte said:
jng518 said:
when the temp is below 23 degrees about 1 and a 1/4 bags a day.
above 23 degrees a little less than 1 bag a day.
heating 1000 square feet @ 69/70 degrees
Breckwell Big E :-)

Do you use a certain brand of pellets, or many different ones? I've got a Big E that I'm very disappointed with as I can't get the house over 62 degrees full blast on cold days. I've got a 1200 sq ft house. Is the Big E your only heat source? Thanks

I have a Breckwell P23I and I keep my stove on 3 non stop and I can't keep my 1100 sq ft about 65. Once the wind starts blowing my house won't get about 63! New windows are going in as soon as Spring comes. I just bought the house and didn't realize how bad the drafts are!
 
We have a Drolet Eco 35. Here in Ontario, attempting to keep our house at about 20*, we are burning about 1 to 2 bags a day. That is on the highest setting, except at night when we go to bed. We are finding though that our kitchen is FREEZING! It keeps the living room warm (the room the stove is in), but in order for the kitchen (the next room) to stay warm the furnace still runs, and the main floor is small, only 1000 sq. ft. We're having a hell of a cold snap now, so our furnace is coming on more frequently than I would like.
We ran into some problems with a few frozen pipes earlier this week as well.
 
during this recent cold snap (single digits to zero) I've been burning 2 bags a day. central heat is great!
 
Our Maxim has gone through 213 bags (4 plus tons) since Oct. 18th. Put in 7 bags Friday night and another 6 bags Sunday morning. This is the first year for the Maxim - but we're not happy.

Checked Degree Days http://www.degreedays.net/# for Hillsboro, NH and see 3083 from 10/19/08 - 1/17/09 vs 2960 from 10/21/07 - 1/19/08 and 2438 from 10/22/06 - 1/20/07. Annuals were 7386 for 2008, 7301 for 2007 and 6445 for 2006.

The estimators for 850 gallons of oil suggested 7.5 tons should heat the house and do all the DHW.

Was the oil boiler a whole lot more efficient than the estimator guessed? Or is the Maxim less efficient? Or are the NEWP Premium Pellets (tan bag, red letters) not giving up the BTUs?
 
Have burned about 2.5 tons to-date. Keep my home warm at 72-75, all rooms, raised ranch. Hot air furnace comes on a few times daily when then temps outside go down in the teens and lower. Can't stand to be cold. Mostly stay in the family room where the stove is. Wife and I don't like lifting the bags but find it much better than lifting logs. We pull in a supply of bags from the garage by using a kid's plastic sled. Helps save on the back!
 
Shield1561 said:
bungalobob said:
Shield1561 said:
4 bags a day here in my harman p68.
4 bags a day? Yikes! How much area are you heating and what's the average temp around there? I'm about two bags a day with the P68 when the weather is mid-teens or so. Been about a bag and half lately. Roughly 2000 square feet with two floors, keeping 72 downstairs and 68 upstairs. Not using any oil either, but if I was burning four bags, I think it would be cheaper for me to run the furnace. Dang, four bags a day makes me shutter, all that work and not saving any money.

LOL. Yeah. Its pretty sad actually. Its been about the same temp wise here. I have a 4200 Square Foot 3 story victorian built in 1840. Insulation is pretty much minimal. Just bought it so I haven't had much of a chance to work much with it yet. The Prior owners installed the P68 before they had to move for work reasons. All the pellet stove really heats is the first floor, and even at that, doesn't heat very well. Using 4 bags a day I'm getting about 67-68 in the dining room where the stove is, and the living room and kitchen off each side of it stay about 63. The breakfast nook on the other side of the kitchen is usually around 60, and I have a pretty open floor plan. Luckily, the Master suite is on the first floor and its just me here for now, so its not too too bad, but in all reality, I'm thinking it would be better just to burn the oil. On fuel oil keeping the house at 65 it takes about 10 gallons a day, give or take. I figure at 10 gallons a day at 2.29 its costing me a hair under $23/day to heat the house, and the pellets I bought at $250 a ton, so its costing me about $20 a day via the pellet stove. The DHW comes off the boiler, so its running only when needed. At the moment the Oil heat is acting more on the side of a backup system. Depending on how the price of fuel oil goes, that will be the breaker, if it drops to where its cheaper at 10 gallons a day, I'll go ahead and go back to that. Unfortunately, I'm in more of a country setting, and natural gas hasn't made it this way yet, but its supposedly coming, but you know how that goes. Luckily, i'm on a main route in what used to be a small village, so there are a decent number of houses around me that might make it worth NYSEGS money to bring the gas this way, eh, who knows. LOL. One thing I'll never do again, buy a house for its beauty and history vs economy in this day and age, but ya live ya learn I guess.

-Justin

mine can burn 3-4 bags if and only if its fully maxxed out all day long..but the last time i tried that on my 120yr old.1900sq.ft 2 story colonial 5bedroom it got insanely hot..the heat blowing from it at 4 feet will literally burn you because its so friggin hot..around 93 downstairs/90 upstairs with ouside temp of 15-20..ah those were the days when i could waste 3.89 a bag and not give a crap..now at $6.00 i gotta be really careful of my settings
 
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