Rated BTU's Englander 25-PVD / 25-PVDP and others

[Dhosh]

I"m wondering what the BTU rating is/should be on my stove, compared to other stoves in the Englander line? Granted, mine is an older unit, and I know 'rated' BTU an 'actual' BTU might be significantly different. All I've seen as consistent rating on these is the square footage they might heat... not a whole lot on BTUs. I did see a few entries where a 25-PVD was listed as being able to heat a 2,000 sq foot area. .. and was a 24,000 BTU unit. My propane furnace is something like 150,000 BTU's, and my little propane log thing in the livingroom is at 25,000. I can't imagine heating a 2,000 sq ft area with only a 24,000 BTU unit. ... unless it was super insulated, an open area, and the stove was left to run 24/7...

 

[yrock87]

I"m wondering what the BTU rating is/should be on my stove, compared to other stoves in the Englander line? Granted, mine is an older unit, and I know 'rated' BTU an 'actual' BTU might be significantly different. All I've seen as consistent rating on these is the square footage they might heat... not a whole lot on BTUs. I did see a few entries where a 25-PVD was listed as being able to heat a 2,000 sq foot area. .. and was a 24,000 BTU unit. My propane furnace is something like 150,000 BTU's, and my little propane log thing in the livingroom is at 25,000. I can't imagine heating a 2,000 sq ft area with only a 24,000 BTU unit. ... unless it was super insulated, an open area, and the stove was left to run 24/7...

Maybe 24k btu output? Opposed to the input that many appliances are rated e with? Is your England able to throw more heat than your gas fireplace?

 

[shawnfire]

my 25 heats 1800 sf it is in the living room with cathedral ceiling it's 74 dg living kitchen din area open floor beds rooms are about 65

 

[Dhosh]

It's hard to compare the propane log set with the Englander .. as they work so much differently, but I might guess they are indeed similar outputs. If the Englander was upstairs in our living room, I have no doubt it would heat the whole upstairs (1,800 sf), just fine. I guess they tend to heat well, as it's a constant heat output.

 

[mchasal]

Many ESW stoves list the actual BTU specs in the manuals, but I see the PDV does not. In all the cases I've seen the specs published, it has been output BTUs as yrock87 states. So you have to figure that when comparing other sources that may list the input BTUs.
According to the current site (http://englanderstoves.com/25-pdv.html) the PDV is listed as a 2200sf stove, which puts it on par with the IP. The IP has a rated output of 35k BTU (per the manual).
I'm making some inferences here, but I would guess that ESW has a pretty standard (but arbitrary) BTU to Square foot equation that they're using, so I'd make the guess that the current PDV output is something around 35k.
I'm also aware that there was some change in the PDV line around 2004, but not sure if that would have affected the output.

 

[kofkorn]

BTU ratings are a bit tricky. They are showing you what the potential output of your device is. Your stove is rated for 24K btu/hr and your furnace is 150K btu/hr. Don't forget that your 25 PDV is intended to be used very differently than your furnace. Your furnace is designed to heat up a tank of water very quickly and then shut off. Most furnaces have a nozzle that is rated for between 0.75 and 1.25 Gal/hr. If you ran your furnace constantly, you'd go through a tank of oil in a little under two weeks. So if you actually record the amount of time the furnace is actually running over one hr, I think you'd find that it's probably only putting out between 15-20k btu/hr on average.

On the other hand, your stove is rated for continuous use. It will be putting out close to the full 24k btu in one hr.

I'm currently running a 25-PDV ('08 model) and am heating ~2800 sq ft with it. My house is well insulated, but is a pre-fab built in 1980 with a couple of additions. We have some solar panels, but those don't provide much heat in the dead of winter, and certainly none at night. During the coldest nights, my stove will heat the whole house (struggling, but keeping up), keeping the downstairs around 67 and the upstairs about 63. It certainly is very feasible to heat a home (with the right layout and reasonable insulation) with one of these stoves.

Good luck!

 

[Harvey Schneider]

The last word on BTU output is the number of pounds of pellets you burn per hour. Pellets vary depending on composition from about 7500 to 8500 BTU per pound. If you know what brand you are burning you can find the BTU rating of that pellet. Don't use the dry rating, use the "as received" rating. The as received rating is always lower and is what is actually going into your stove. If you know the efficiency rating of your stove great use that, otherwise use 76%.

BTU/hr out = pounds/hr in x BTU/pound x stove efficiency.

What is actually needed to heat your house depends on too many variables to list.
My MVAE heats my first floor of 1200 sq ft and takes the chill off the second floor (100 sq ft) as well.
My PDVC heats a drafty, uninsulated, 1200 sq ft, concrete basement. If the thermostat didn't stop it at 70, it would be too hot to work down there. Without the pellet stove, winter temperatures in the basement get down into the 40's.

Oil fired, and gas fired boilers and furnaces are usually significantly oversized so that they can warm a cold house quickly. You don't need that much to maintain temperature.
An example:
This week I had a flooring contractor in to sand and finish the floors. We were out of the house for four days and left the oil thermostat on the first floor at 60. In order to vent the fumes from the floor finish the contractor left some windows open for the last three days he was there. When we got home the house was at 53. It took the pellet stove (MVAE , input rating of about 60KBTU/hr ) over three hours to get the house up to 70. After that pellet consumption was still high while the solid objects (furniture etc.) soaked up heat. The boiler was assisting until the temperature reached 60. The boiler could have done the same job by itself in well under an hour.

 

[Dhosh]

Very good Harvey ittle ...
Yes ... that 'constant on' thing is how those little electric heater boxes with infared lamps, etc, can make their heating ability claims.
BTU/hr out = pounds/hr in x BTU/pound x stove efficiency.

Tthe Kirtland pellet folks and they claim their pellets were tested at about 8,300 BTU ('as received') .... so my theoretical low and highs, assuming the 76% efficiancy rating, are:

40lb/24 x 8,300BTU/lb * 76%= ~10,513 BTU with feed rate set to '1'
40lb/12 x 8,300BTU/lb * 76%= ~ 21,026 BTU with feed rate set to '9'

Thanks!

 

[Harvey Schneider]

Very good Harvey ittle ...
Yes ... that 'constant on' thing is how those little electric heater boxes with infared lamps, etc, can make their heating ability claims.
BTU/hr out = pounds/hr in x BTU/pound x stove efficiency.

Tthe Kirtland pellet folks and they claim their pellets were tested at about 8,300 BTU ('as received') .... so my theoretical low and highs, assuming the 76% efficiancy rating, are:

40lb/24 x 8,300BTU/lb * 76%= ~10,513 BTU with feed rate set to '1'
40lb/12 x 8,300BTU/lb * 76%= ~ 21,026 BTU with feed rate set to '9'

Thanks!

Remember also, in making comparisons that, the oil and gas furnace or boiler is subject to an efficiency derating. My oil boiler runs at about 82% efficiency. So it's rated 160,000 BTU/hr input results in about 130,000 BTU/hr output.
Considering that it is sized to heat two floors as well as provide domestic hot water, that leaves less than 60,000 BTH/hr per floor. That is reasonably close to what the MVAE provides for the first floor