Pellets burning too fast and creating a lot of ash

[Joe_P]

Hi All,
I an new to pellet stoves and this forum so bear with me. I recently bought a Comfortbilt HP50 and installed it in my basement. I am trying to heat my 1800 SQ ft house in Central Maryland with it. Even on setting 3 (medium setting) it seems to be burning a lot of pellets (a little over a bag a day) and creating a lot of ash, cleaning the ashpot every 2-3 days. The temperature has only been in the mid 30's to 40's. I read the reviews for this stove and some spoke of cleaning ash pot once a week. This just seems like a lot of pellets and ash when it's not even really cold yet. Should I change my blower setting or any other suggestions? Also it is vented up 4 ft, 90s out through the foundation 90's again up 4ft. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Ssyko]

A lot of variables, stove puts out 50k btu on max setting, your on 3 so that would be 30k ish and in the basement. Pellet stoves are space heater not furnace. Your going to have a harder time heating your living space with it in the basement. but the basement will be warm and dry. How air tight is the home? Well Insulated? Consider another stove on the main floor?

 

[chken]

Hi All,
I an new to pellet stoves and this forum so bear with me. I recently bought a Comfortbilt HP50 and installed it in my basement. I am trying to heat my 1800 SQ ft house in Central Maryland with it. Even on setting 3 (medium setting) it seems to be burning a lot of pellets (a little over a bag a day) and creating a lot of ash, cleaning the ashpot every 2-3 days. The temperature has only been in the mid 30's to 40's. I read the reviews for this stove and some spoke of cleaning ash pot once a week. This just seems like a lot of pellets and ash when it's not even really cold yet. Should I change my blower setting or any other suggestions? Also it is vented up 4 ft, 90s out through the foundation 90's again up 4ft. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Doesn't seem like alot of pellets. A 50k btu stove can burn ~7lbs an hour. You could burn thru a bag in 6 hrs, so burning a little over a bag in a day, isn't really alot, when your stove has the capacity to burn almost 4 bags.

Now, if it's making alot of ash, it could be your pellets. Some pellets make alot of ash. Try some other types that are recommended as being low ash, doug fir would be a good choice to get a baseline on what low ash pellets should be like.

Before you change settings, you have to tell us how it's burning. Is the flame active or lazy? Is the ash whitish/grayish or blackish? Are the walls of the chamber covered in whitish ash, or blackish soot? Is the flame yellow/white, or yellow/orange? If all the signs are pointing to a good burn, then it's the pellets. If the signs point to an inefficient burn, then you need to adjust your air. Good luck.

 

[railfanron]

People need to realize there is no free lunch. If you burn a million btu's to heat your house with natural gas it will also take a million btu's to heat your house to the same level with electric, propane, oil, wood, or wood pellets. The key here is the COST of a million btu's. There are plenty of heat cost calculators that will compare different heat source costs. At the cost of propane and wood pellets in our area this year the amount of money I'm saving is very little. When propane was $4 a gallon the savings were quite a bit. At $1.40 a gallon for propane and $200 a ton for pellets it's very little.
Ron

 

[Joe_P]

Doesn't seem like alot of pellets. A 50k btu stove can burn ~7lbs an hour. You could burn thru a bag in 6 hrs, so burning a little over a bag in a day, isn't really alot, when your stove has the capacity to burn almost 4 bags.

Now, if it's making alot of ash, it could be your pellets. Some pellets make alot of ash. Try some other types that are recommended as being low ash, doug fir would be a good choice to get a baseline on what low ash pellets should be like.

Before you change settings, you have to tell us how it's burning. Is the flame active or lazy? Is the ash whitish/grayish or blackish? Are the walls of the chamber covered in whitish ash, or blackish soot? Is the flame yellow/white, or yellow/orange? If all the signs are pointing to a good burn, then it's the pellets. If the signs point to an inefficient burn, then you need to adjust your air. Good luck.

Chken,
The flame is pretty strong and active and yellow orange and sometimes white in color. The ash is blackish and the Chambers are filled blackish soot.

 

[Joe_P]

People need to realize there is no free lunch. If you burn a million btu's to heat your house with natural gas it will also take a million btu's to heat your house to the same level with electric, propane, oil, wood, or wood pellets. The key here is the COST of a million btu's. There are plenty of heat cost calculators that will compare different heat source costs. At the cost of propane and wood pellets in our area this year the amount of money I'm saving is very little. When propane was $4 a gallon the savings were quite a bit. At $1.40 a gallon for propane and $200 a ton for pellets it's very little.
Ron

Railfanron,
Point taken, thank you.

 

[Joe_P]

A lot of variables, stove puts out 50k btu on max setting, your on 3 so that would be 30k ish and in the basement. Pellet stoves are space heater not furnace. Your going to have a harder time heating your living space with it in the basement. but the basement will be warm and dry. How air tight is the home? Well Insulated? Consider another stove on the main floor?

Thanks for your reply.

 

[chken]

Chken,
The flame is pretty strong and active and yellow orange and sometimes white in color. The ash is blackish and the Chambers are filled blackish soot.

Flame sounds okay, but the ash would indicate a poor burn, not enough air. When was the last time you cleaned it thoroughly? Has it always burned this way?

 

[Joe_P]

Flame sounds okay, but the ash would indicate a poor burn, not enough air. When was the last time you cleaned it thoroughly? Has it always burned this way?

Literally just got it two weeks ago

 

[Jack Morrissey]

IMO, it's in your basement..... It's not a furnace.. You will burn alot of pellets trying to heat your upstairs!!

 

[Tonyray]

Thought about putting a harman P61A [61K BTU] in my basement but it is unfinished so i would be heating the concrete blocks more than the 1st floor,[let alone the 2nd floor]..
Put the stove on the 1st floor [1400 sq ft house] and it heats the downstairs to mid 70's plus keeps 2nd floor bedrooms to 67 degrees.
not even on full throttle....running half blower speed..
on coldest days we burn at least bag/half AND WE HAVE A VERY POORLY insulated 1920's house.

 

[zrock]

People need to realize there is no free lunch. If you burn a million btu's to heat your house with natural gas it will also take a million btu's to heat your house to the same level with electric, propane, oil, wood, or wood pellets. The key here is the COST of a million btu's. There are plenty of heat cost calculators that will compare different heat source costs. At the cost of propane and wood pellets in our area this year the amount of money I'm saving is very little. When propane was $4 a gallon the savings were quite a bit. At $1.40 a gallon for propane and $200 a ton for pellets it's very little.
Ron

Partially true... The key to heating is getting the home to climatize. I heat my home to a much more comfortable level with outputting 1/2 the BTU as my furnace. It takes my small place a full day or more to climatize in the winter remembering this means bringing everything up to temp including air in closets and cupboards. With concrete block walls it may take a week or more to climatize but when it does it will hold the heat for a long time. I heat my home with pellets for a 1/4 the cost of running gas and hydro.. Iv already paid for my pellet use this year by keeping the furnace off

 

[fmsm]

Hi All,
I an new to pellet stoves and this forum so bear with me. I recently bought a Comfortbilt HP50 and installed it in my basement. I am trying to heat my 1800 SQ ft house in Central Maryland with it. Even on setting 3 (medium setting) it seems to be burning a lot of pellets (a little over a bag a day) and creating a lot of ash, cleaning the ashpot every 2-3 days. The temperature has only been in the mid 30's to 40's. I read the reviews for this stove and some spoke of cleaning ash pot once a week. This just seems like a lot of pellets and ash when it's not even really cold yet. Should I change my blower setting or any other suggestions? Also it is vented up 4 ft, 90s out through the foundation 90's again up 4ft. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What are you burning for pellets?

 

[Joe_P]

What are you burning for pellets?

AP hardwood from Lowes

 

[olddawgsrule]

So many of us have run through so many different pellets to find what 'our' stoves really like to burn. Looks like it's now your turn to run through some different bags and explore.

I personally buy from a local Stove Shop and find his worst pellet is superior to anything I have bought from the Big Box Stores.

My favorite (my stoves actually) is Douglas Fir. So happy to see Okie's are back!

 

[Joe_P]

So many of us have run through so many different pellets to find what 'our' stoves really like to burn. Looks like it's now your turn to run through some different bags and explore.

I personally buy from a local Stove Shop and find his worst pellet is superior to anything I have bought from the Big Box Stores.

My favorite (my stoves actually) is Douglas Fir. So happy to see Okie's are back!

Olddawgsrule,
Thanks for your reply, that's exactly what I am going to start doing this weekend. I'm going to try some from Home Depot, they have softwood and hardwood. I am also going to try a stove store near me. Thanks again!

 

[Ssyko]

The frustrating thing is they all can change from year to year.

 

[Joe_P]

The frustrating thing is they all can change from year to year.

Haha unfortunately that can be said about a lot of products these days!

 

[FirepotPete]

The frustrating thing is they all can change from year to year.

Even batches seem to have problems sometimes. That's why I love burning corn.

My first load this year was corn from last year's harvest so I knew all my stove settings were good to go. Now the next load will be from this year's corn making me aware that I might have to change things a little. But at least I know when it might change saving headaches as the tweaks are usually minor.

 

[bogieb]

My main floor stove went down this past Sunday night - burning up the distribution blower, so that meant I had to depend on my P61a, the basement stove, to heat the whole house. I easily went thru 2 bags/day even thought the temps were in the 30's (some days were windy, which meant more heat loss in the house).

Wednesday night I finally got the main floor stove running again. The temps were colder, with Thursday morning in the mid teens, and I went thru less than two bags between the two stoves.

My basement is only 650/sq ft, and the main floor is 950 sq/ft, so on paper the P61a is certainly capable of heating the area quite easily - but that comes at a cost (and I'll not get into other variables).

The point being, the same as some of the other people have touched upon, heating totally from the basement will probably use more pellets than other heating configurations (two stoves, stove on the middle floor etc).