Pelpro PP60-B Electrical Consumption - Measured

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FlyFish'n

New Member
Oct 23, 2021
63
OH
All,

I did a test run of the PP60 pellet stove today. I did the initial 30 minute break-in outside just to give it a run. As I did so I measured the power consumption.

When running the meter bounced between about 64 watts and 79 watts. This was surprising. The sticker on the back showed .9 amps running - this would be up around 112w at 125v.

When the igniter was running on start-up the wattage went up to about 303w. This didn't last long, just a few minutes. Pelpro states the start-up cycle can last up to 20 minutes. I imagine this depends on the pellets used. So maybe I got some good pellets. I think the fire flamed up within about 4-5 minutes of the igniter going. When you first start the stove from dead cold it runs the auger for 2 minutes (it goes real slow) to fill the fire pot.

The whole cycle I ran was right about 35 minutes. In that time I used .05kwh, or 50wh of power.

Doing the math - at 79w it would use 1.896kwh in a day, at 64w it would be 1.536kwh. Without doing a long-term measure of the actual consumption and having the power bounce between 64-79w when running, if I split the difference and call it an average of 71.5w that would be 1.716kwh in 24 hours.

The .05kwh in 35 minutes included the ignition cycle that pulled over 300 watts for a period of time so you can't simply extrapolate that .05kwh from 35 minutes up to 24 hours - that math would give you about 48 ignition cycles (one every 1/2hr) in that 24 hour period. I'd say you may only have one if you do a daily cleaning and run the stove consistently.

Needless to say, I am really surprised. That is significantly under what the sticker ratings were on the back of the stove.

The point of the measurements are with respect to the question of how much electricity a pellet stove consumes in the perspective of running off of alternative energy or back-up power. With that being the perspective - at the wattage this thing draws I could even run it off of my power inverter (it is an 800 watt inverter) - and even during an ignition cycle still have power left over. That is very surprising in a good way. It gives me an option to keep heat going if I am out back swapping generators, changing oil, or what not.
 
For reference here is the set up. These meters are great - I have a couple of these for AC and a bunch more for DC systems.

Ladder is there as a support for the stove pipe for the test run, didn't really need it but I felt better with it.


20211104_135902 small.jpg


The meter here shows right before I turned the stove's dial to "off". I did not measure how much power it took past that, but I left it "off" to cool down for maybe a 1-1.5hrs.

20211104_142045 small.jpg
 
What type of logger is it that you are using?
 
What type of logger is it that you are using?
Something like what is in the link here:

meter

I have it set up with a piece of 12g Romex and M/F 5-15's. The meter takes the place of a Kill-A-Watt meter that I used to use. I find these cheaper and better - the Kill-A-Watt doesn't work right and has a much much lower amperage/wattage ability. I've used my other one of the 2 to meter my welding machines. The large one I've seen pull 60-ish amps at 245v. So they will handle some juice.

If the open wiring scares you these are pretty easy to panel mount also. You could easily build this in to, say, a 2 gang box with a blank switch plate with a rectangle cut out for the meter to pop in to. I've thought about doing just that - maybe a 3-4 gang box with a duplex 5-15 or 5-20.

20211104_135902 cropped small.jpg
 
Beautiful looking stove and in money could you estimate what the electricity would cost you a day for us (not so good at calculating these things) For all those wire mentions you would have to be a electrician...But beautiful stove and a great idea with that ladder..lol old clancey
 
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in money could you estimate what the electricity would cost you a day for us
Figure up what your cost per kilowatt-hour is from your electric bill.

If your electricity is 13 cents per kwh, for example, then it would work out as follows:
1.716 kwh x .13 = 22 cents/day.
 
Oh Brother that is toooo much for my brain--lol lol but at least I know the formula to figure it out if I want to from my kwh electric side of the bill. So with your stove and all your figuring put it in money a day after you tire yourself out with math...I would appreciate...How much does it cost you a day to run your beautiful pellet stove after all that figuring...lol clancey
 
That is what I gave you -

22 cents a day

IF the cost per kilowatt-hour from your electric company is 13 cents. That is a general number, it varies around the country to around 10 cents on the low end to near 30 cents on the high end (per kilowatt-hour)
 
Something like what is in the link here:

meter

I have it set up with a piece of 12g Romex and M/F 5-15's. The meter takes the place of a Kill-A-Watt meter that I used to use. I find these cheaper and better - the Kill-A-Watt doesn't work right and has a much much lower amperage/wattage ability. I've used my other one of the 2 to meter my welding machines. The large one I've seen pull 60-ish amps at 245v. So they will handle some juice.

If the open wiring scares you these are pretty easy to panel mount also. You could easily build this in to, say, a 2 gang box with a blank switch plate with a rectangle cut out for the meter to pop in to. I've thought about doing just that - maybe a 3-4 gang box with a duplex 5-15 or 5-20.

View attachment 284821
Thank you!

Ill have to get me one and do some tinkering.
 
This is awesome.
why did the ignitor fire so many times?
Sorry for the late reply. I have not been on the site in a while.
If you are referencing the point about the igniter running 48 times in a 24 hour period - you are misinterpreting. The test I did was roughly 1/2 hour. At the beginning of that 1/2 hour was an ignition cycle. I did not test beyond the 1/2 hour or so mark.
With the power consumption that I measured - that included the ignition cycle. So I made the point that you can't take that total and multiply by 48 to get the 24 hour cycle consumption - because that math would include 48x ignition cycles also. You have to remove the ignition cycles for the math to work. So I used the median power consumption when running instead - that is a more accurate way to measure. Though, more accurate beyond that would be to actually record the power consumption when running 24 hours. I have not had an opportunity to do that yet.
 
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