Skyteck 3301p questions

[shtrdave]

I received mine the other day, bought from Amazon, and now it is wanting to be hooked up and used. I understand the hook up of it, but still have a few questions for those that use one or something similar.

I currently shut my stove off during the day, I live alone and am gone from 8:00am to 6:00ish pm so during that time my electric heat is set at 60, when I come home I fire up the stove and run it all night. Average temp in house is around 69 with the stove on when it gets warmed up.

Where do you put your remote? Or is it a case of putting it in several different places to find the best spot?

I read where one person switches the auto ignite to manual when using the stat and just lets it burn all the time. Is that the way to do it or leave it in A I and allow the stove to shut down and restart when needed. I understand this may be beneficial when temps are mild.

Do you set your temp back on the remote during the day and leave the stove on, this would be nice i could make it come on at 5:30 and come home to a warmer place. or do you just keep a constant temp?

I know there is more I just can't think of them right now.

Thanks for the help folks I appreciate it.

 

[mepellet]

I placed mine about 15 feet from the stove and not directly in the path of the convection air blower. Seems to work for me. Keeps my two lower living levels of the house at the thermostat setpoint.

I run in auto (with a +/-3 deg swing temp) during warmer temps while home and off while away. During colder temps I run in manual 24/7 at 68 from 5am-7am, 64 from 7am-4pm, 68 from 4pm-9pm and 64 from 9pm-5am. Setback temps save pellets period. No matter what anyone says, they do and always will. The point of conversation when it comes to setbacks is how long does it take to bring the temp up to the higher desired level. That is unique to each house, personal comfort level and schedules. Only you will be able to figure out what setback works for you.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

Why are you using a thermostat on a Harman P-43?

Eric

 

[hockeyfan]

Remote placement requires some trial and error. Some of the key things to consider:

1. Of course the remote has to remain within range of the receiver. It's not line-of-sight but nevertheless (for safety reasons) it's designed to be a pretty short distance from the remote to the receiver.
2. The remote should be installed in a location where it will not be moved/damaged/picked up by children, etc.
3. If you don't have good heat circulation, pick a location that is 'temperature neutral' compared to the areas you want to heat. If you choose a location that is relatively warm, the calls for heat will be shorter and the remaining rooms will feel cold. Conversely if you choose a cold location, the calls for heat will last longer and you'll have some rooms with uneven heat which are too warm.

I had to try 3 locations before I was satisfied the remote was working as I wanted it. The first was the 'warm room'. Worked great but the family complained the rest of the house was too cold! Then I moved it to a temperature-neutral location. The next morning, there was no heat. I had placed the remote just outside the range of the receiver, and the connection to the stove turned out to be intermittent. Finally, I picked a slightly colder room well within range of the receiver, sacrificing a little bit of uneven room heating for family peace.

One anecdotal note about auto versus manual: I use auto mode all the time with a thermostat (with a swing temperature of +-1). I am concerned about the balance between saving on pellets versus saving on ignitor cycles, but in my experience the ignitor is actually used very infrequently even in auto mode, at least with my particular stove and my particular house, heat loss, etc. The reason for this is that even in auto mode after the call for heat has ended, the stove remains in a maintenance mode for a time while the auto shutdown process is executing gracefully (burning remaining pellets in burnpot, etc). If the next call for heat happens before this pseudo-maintenance mode completes, I believe (based on the ignitor LED not being illuminated) the stove jumps right back to auto mode without even using the ignitor.

So, if your house is marvelously insulated or you're using a large swing temperature or for some other reason the auto mode results in a complete shutdown for most calls for heat, use manual mode when it's cold to save on the ignitor. If (like my setup) the stove doesn't often reach complete shutdown mode, auto mode at all times seems to work well.

By the way, solving the problem of maximizing pellet savings while preserving ignitor cycles is quite the differential equation. My head spins just thinking of all the contributing variables and interacting factors...........................

 

[imacman]

Why are you using a thermostat on a Harman P-43?

Yeah....really. Why?

 

[SteveB]

Why are you using a thermostat on a Harman P-43?

Eric

Yeah....really. Why?

Age old debate - https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/temp-set-and-forget-or-up-and-down.83716/#post-1073710

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

To provide a time period set back, just like you might do with your t-stat imacman or I do with mine or jtakeman does with his.

 

[shtrdave]

I should not use a thermostat on a P43? The thermister deal works okay, but the temp swing is about 6 degrees, using my heat pump thermo as a gauge the stove set under 70 runs to a temp of 73 on the stat then shuts down by the time it has completed the shutdown the temp is at 69 and it drops to 67 before it refires, I figured a remote thermostat may make the temp changes a bit closer.

My home is 4 rooms and 18x26 kitchen/living room, a 9x14 BR and 9x14 Bath and a 14x18 br, it is built inside a concrete block building that used to be a garage, the walls were studded out with 2.6 and insulated the floor is raised and insulated 2x4 on the floor only has 2 outside walls, lower ceilings but has 2x2 foot air ducts in the ceiling.( I suspect a fair amount of my heat is going up into them)

Both of the people that responded show Harman stoves in their sigs. So it must not be unheard of.

 

[SteveB]

Shtrdave,
I have one on mine to set the temp back some at night and during the day while the wife and I are at work. When we are at home in the evening the stat goes to 80 so the stoves temp probe can do its thing, which ours does very well. I'm surprised yours ranges so much. Have you tried it at different places in the room?

 

[shtrdave]

No I have not tried moving the stoves probe/sensor around, the installer said he just allows them to hang behind the stove, and it made sense to me it hangs right where the room air is pulled back into the blower so I left it there.

I reread my post that is referenced above before I posted this, it looks like I will just have to try different ways and find out what seems to work best for my situation, it would be different I guess if i didn't live alone or had critters (other than some spiders and an occasional mouse) to keep warm.

If others have info or anything to add I would love hearing it.

I really like this thing so far even though it has not really been that cold yet, but I don't mind that at all.

 

[SteveB]

No I have not tried moving the stoves probe/sensor around, the installer said he just allows them to hang behind the stove, and it made sense to me it hangs right where the room air is pulled back into the blower so I left it there.

As you said in one of your earlier posts, maybe a lot of heat is going up into your ceiling ducts especially if there is a return air path somewhere. That might be causing your temp swings. I extended my temp probe with thermostat wire and put it on the other side of the room away from the stove, where it works pretty well. In another part of the room I have a thermometer that usually reads a few degrees lower than my stat, but it is reading a consistent temp.

Edit: I keep my wireless stat where the room temp probe is, just to try to be consistent.

 

[mepellet]

Why are you using a thermostat on a Harman P-43?

Eric

Why wouldn't you is the better question?

 

[imacman]

Why wouldn't you is the better question?

Maybe I'm missing something, but even though I'm not a Harman owner, don't all their stoves have a "room temp" setting that is supposed to keep the room at the temp selected?

 

[SwineFlue]

Maybe I'm missing something, but even though I'm not a Harman owner, don't all their stoves have a "room temp" setting that is supposed to keep the room at the temp selected?

Yes, but a programmable t-stat can automatically change that setting throughout the day.

 

[imacman]

Yes, but a programmable t-stat can automatically change that setting throughout the day.

I understand that. OK

 

[mepellet]

Yes, but a programmable t-stat can automatically change that setting throughout the day.

Bingo! Gotta love automatically having a lower setpoint during the night and while gone to work and not think about it. Now the stove can truly be set it and forget it.