Stay warm and save pellets? Naw..

[Tonyray]

well, into my 4th season burning pellets and after expirimenting every which way I could to try to stay warm and also try to lower pellet consumption, I have given up the ghost....

tried all different settings each year, stove mode/ temp set in the high 60's/low 70's,low fan speeds.
same with room mode.. auto/manual. mix it up. all around the dials for weeks at a time..
different feed rates etc.

well, with a Big Harman P61A, Your gonna use a certain minimum amount if you want to have a very warm house. unless u live in a closet or a 1 room cabin..
like 74 degrees or so...

my house is not well insulated.. more windows than wall space..Insulated glass but like 24 windows..
[old 1920's 2 story..[not gonna knock out windows just to put walls in place] kinda bass akwards I think...love the views..

I use good to excellent pellets, hardwood and Soft, but still, my stoves has a big burnpot...
a big burnpot holds lots of pellets.. lot's of pellets fall out of the hopper to fill that burnpot....anyways,

all this winter I have kept my stove on room mode auto...74 degrees temp set/ half fan speed.feed rate# 3 or 4 depending on small or longer pellets.
house has been consistantly warm all winter and my pellet consumption thru out cold spells where as the stove would be running 24/7 has been approx 12 hours per bag....2 bags per 24hrs at these 35 degrees or lower days/nights.Best I can do.... less consumption of course during shoulder season.
heat makes it upstairs and is a brisk 66 degrees.. fine for sleeping.

even used douglas firs, which are hands down the hottest cleanest pellets I have used with just about zero ash give me [maybe] an extra hour/half of burn time.. same as Hamer Hot ones].....

and of course, if you have a house that is tight as a baby's but, I'm sure you get lot better mileage.with the P61 Beast..!!..
also might mention I had the oil tank filled Sept '2016 and have used half tank since for domestic hot water.

 

[alternativeheat]

I run mine to be warm too Tony and yes, that takes pellets.

 

[railfanron]

As the old saying goes "There is no free lunch". It takesso many BTUs to heat a house and energy can be converted to BTUs. The amount of BTUs in a given form of energy is constant. The stoves efficiency can be varied but only a small amount as you have found out. Insulation is where it's at!! You can make back most insulation dollars in less than 5 years. If it was my house here's what I would do.
1) Look and fill every crack in the house you can find. No matter how small they all ad up and cost money. Filling them will be instant savings.
2) Insulate the attic to a minimum of r38. More if you can do it yourself easily. Mine is insulated to r115.
3) Insulate the walls to the maximum thickness. If they're not insulated or done shabbily get them foamed.

My house is a 65 year old block shack with 17 windows and 3 doors that I've completely rebuilt and added on to over the years. It's 2250 ss ft all on one floor and I can heat my house and my hot water with 500 gallons of Propane and 3 tons of pellets. Half is heated to 73 and the other half to 68. And included in the 500 gallons of Propane is the heat for my 1600 sq ft workshop which I heat to 60 about 30 days a year. With my pellets being run of the mill hardwoods at 189.50 a ton my total heat bill for this winter will be 1200.00.
Ron

 

[GeHmTS]

Burning fireside on setting of 4 stove temp and temperature is 78F. Outside is 20F. I try not to save pellets because the cost is very affordable and much cheaper than electricity.

 

[Tonyray]

As the old saying goes "There is no free lunch". It takesso many BTUs to heat a house and energy can be converted to BTUs. The amount of BTUs in a given form of energy is constant. The stoves efficiency can be varied but only a small amount as you have found out. Insulation is where it's at!! You can make back most insulation dollars in less than 5 years. If it was my house here's what I would do.
1) Look and fill every crack in the house you can find. No matter how small they all ad up and cost money. Filling them will be instant savings.
2) Insulate the attic to a minimum of r38. More if you can do it yourself easily. Mine is insulated to r115.
3) Insulate the walls to the maximum thickness. If they're not insulated or done shabbily get them foamed.

My house is a 65 year old block shack with 17 windows and 3 doors that I've completely rebuilt and added on to over the years. It's 2250 ss ft all on one floor and I can heat my house and my hot water with 500 gallons of Propane and 3 tons of pellets. Half is heated to 73 and the other half to 68. And included in the 500 gallons of Propane is the heat for my 1600 sq ft workshop which I heat to 60 about 30 days a year. With my pellets being run of the mill hardwoods at 189.50 a ton my total heat bill for this winter will be 1200.00.
Ron

yes. that would help alot but,
my post wasn't really to complain about pellet consumption.
I'm content to come to the conclusion that a 74 degree house on 2 bags a day for 24/7 in very cold weather is not that bad concidering what I save on heating oil per year.
although a warmer winter than most, I am just over 2 tons this winter burned.

 

[bogieb]

FWIW, I've burned over 4 tons this year and have a much smaller house than you at a total of 1,650 sq/ft. It has much less window space (and all were replaced 2 years ago with triple pane / argon filled), all exterior walls torn out and new insulation and vapor barrier along with thicker sheetrock installed, and new roof. Oh, and I don't keep it nearly so warm; the main floor is 68-70 and the basement is 72-74 (to keep the main level flooring warm).

So, to me, you've done outstanding .

 

[vinny11950]

Yeah, on cold, windy days like we have been experiencing the last week, 2 bags a day. I don't stress it anymore. Of course some people like the front of the house at 72-78 degrees. The good thing is when the temps go to 45, then half a bag a day.

 

[salt & battery]

yes. that would help alot but,
my post wasn't really to complain about pellet consumption.
I'm content to come to the conclusion that a 74 degree house on 2 bags a day for 24/7 in very cold weather is not that bad concidering what I save on heating oil per year.
although a warmer winter than most, I am just over 2 tons this winter burned.

I have a P43 and I use 2 bags a day when real cold and cant get past 66 degrees and if the wind is bad it gets up to 60 that's it. I have 15 year old house 6" walls double pane windows 9" in the ceiling and 1400 sq ft. how are you using 2 bags a day with bigger stove bigger house bad insulation and 10 degrees warmer? do not understand

 

[vinny11950]

I have a P43 and I use 2 bags a day when real cold and cant get past 66 degrees and if the wind is bad it gets up to 60 that's it. I have 15 year old house 6" walls double pane windows 9" in the ceiling and 1400 sq ft. how are you using 2 bags a day with bigger stove bigger house bad insulation and 10 degrees warmer? do not understand

Something is not right.

 

[DneprDave]

My house has lots of windows also, I use my pellet stove to primarily heat a glassed in 500 square foot porch. The stove runs 24/7 on the lowest setting and uses a little less than a bag of douglas fir pellets per day and keeps the porch between 60 and 65 F. I heat the house with an oil fired forced air furnace and keep the thermostat at no more than 65F, anything over that and I feel too hot. As the weather warms, I open the sliding glass doors to the porch, and the pellet stove also heats the house nicely, still on the lowest setting.

You could save on pellets by turning down the thermostat and wearing a sweater instead of cranking the heat when you are chilly. A sweater is way cheaper than burning more fuel

 

[Tonyray]

I have a P43 and I use 2 bags a day when real cold and cant get past 66 degrees and if the wind is bad it gets up to 60 that's it. I have 15 year old house 6" walls double pane windows 9" in the ceiling and 1400 sq ft. how are you using 2 bags a day with bigger stove bigger house bad insulation and 10 degrees warmer? do not understand

don't know what to tell you....if u can't get past 66 degrees it sounds like your stove is underperforming quite a bit or too small for house size...i Passed on a Harman P43 for that reason and went with bigger..
dealer told me we should have at least 50K btu unit for our setup.

we put a bag in every 11-12 hours when burning 24/7....room auto mode/ temp set at 73-74 fan speed medium. Never Full speed...
furthest room away downstairs is kitchen whereas it drops couple degrees.. other than that,
my whole house is somewhat smaller.but not much. approx 1200 sq.... did mention that upstairs get's to mid 60's or so.Also use ceiling fans on low to circulate our pellet heat..
If my stove could not get passed 66 degrees i would find another heat source.

 

[GeHmTS]

Our his house has very poor insulation that is not able to hold heat. 1400sq ft should be no problem for a P43.

 

[Tonyray]

ya know, burning 24/7 means different things to people..
one might think the stove is feeding constantly, never ramping down or, ramping down and doing a maint burn for long periods of time.

Our house faces East... we get loads of sun directly into out house good bit of the day..stove reacts accordingly by ramping down, and sometimes off for a while depending on outside temps.
we also have insulated curtains over all the windows which are closed overnite...
we may also get lot less wind than someone else might..think i mentioned ceiling fans to circulate heat..

point is, can't compare house A and house B even when using the same exact stove just because both houses are same size..
or, a smaller stove that is working overtime just to keep up/
Too many variables..different room configurations play into it also....open space as opposed to broken up rooms where heat just won't go around corners to well. list goes on......

 

[alternativeheat]

I have a P43 and I use 2 bags a day when real cold and cant get past 66 degrees and if the wind is bad it gets up to 60 that's it. I have 15 year old house 6" walls double pane windows 9" in the ceiling and 1400 sq ft. how are you using 2 bags a day with bigger stove bigger house bad insulation and 10 degrees warmer? do not understand

It could be your house layout, open designed houses work best with a stove, or at least wide doorways out of the main living area vs small. If your stove is kind of boxed up in a room it's pretty hard to get heat where you need it or want it. If you are using two bags a day as Tony is and I often do with our P61's vs your P43 we all are burning the same BTU, the bigger stoves though have more surface area to transfer the heat with but I doubt that is really your problem. You know in some modes you can burn two bags a day and put most of the heat out the vent ?

 

[bogieb]

Or he is using ThermaGlo's - which seriously only put out luke-warm air even using a P61.

 

[Tonyray]

Or he is using ThermaGlo's - which seriously only put out luke-warm air even using a P61.

I have a P43 and I use 2 bags a day when real cold and cant get past 66 degrees and if the wind is bad it gets up to 60 that's it.

I think this here is key.....if anything doesn't sound right, this would be it..
if the poster would read other postings, he would see that 2 bags a day in coldest weather for a warm house is more the norm than not..
btw: I'm burning Okie platinums and Hamer Hots for the coldest days.,, 2 xcl pellets....

 

[bags]

On cold days I'm at two bags a day. Very cold extended snaps I've seen three bag days but it stays nice and warm here. Shoulder seasons I might only see 1/2 - 1 bag in 24 hours.

I don't care as long as the wife is warm. She has turned me into a convert also. You only live once so you might as well do it comfortably. I still never really run my stoves in tandem but 90 + % of the time only the P68 is doing everything we need here.

I am going to try to finalize my shack here and I may rearrange a bit an relocate the PC45 somewhat. Then I may run in tandem all season. I'm curious how that will effect my usage. It will go up because I will run two stoves at all times but it may not be by much overall since I think it will keep more warm air available at all times. I expect more pellets burned but the question is how much more in a season???

 

[Tonyray]

On cold days I'm at two bags a day. Very cold extended snaps I've seen three bag days but it stays nice and warm here. Shoulder seasons I might only see 1/2 - 1 bag in 24 hours.

I don't care as long as the wife is warm. She has turned me into a convert also. You only live once so you might as well do it comfortably. I still never really run my stoves in tandem but 90 + % of the time only the P68 is doing everything we need here.

I am going to try to finalize my shack here and I may rearrange a bit an relocate the PC45 somewhat. Then I may run in tandem all season. I'm curious how that will effect my usage. It will go up because I will run two stoves at all times but it may not be by much overall since I think it will keep more warm air available at all times. I expect more pellets burned but the question is how much more in a season???

SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN.....

 

[bogieb]

On cold days I'm at two bags a day. Very cold extended snaps I've seen three bag days but it stays nice and warm here. Shoulder seasons I might only see 1/2 - 1 bag in 24 hours.

I don't care as long as the wife is warm. She has turned me into a convert also. You only live once so you might as well do it comfortably. I still never really run my stoves in tandem but 90 + % of the time only the P68 is doing everything we need here.

I am going to try to finalize my shack here and I may rearrange a bit an relocate the PC45 somewhat. Then I may run in tandem all season. I'm curious how that will effect my usage. It will go up because I will run two stoves at all times but it may not be by much overall since I think it will keep more warm air available at all times. I expect more pellets burned but the question is how much more in a season???

I don't remember if you have any of them on thermostat (versus running room temp using the probe). But running in tandem, I think that would be key to keeping the pellet usage at an acceptable rate.

 

[alternativeheat]

I've run coal in tandem, basically a furnace type thing in the basement and the old coal stove I built and placed in the living room. That was a long time ago that I ran those in tandem and instead ran a kerosene heater down there. And this winter I have run my little kerosene heater in the basement on the coldest days or just cold days but with a strong east or sw wind. Those are my houses drafty directions, always has been, one direction from a cold room, the other from the basement. Anyway, running the two coal stoves vs cranking one I found to use pretty near the same fuel amounts but a lot more comfortable. I found the key was sticking with it and not turning one on, the other off all the time. That was to be key because you don't have that recovery to make up.

This little kerosene heater does ok but I'd rather have a stove. I'll say this: I turn that little heater on in the basement and it's not a half hour or so till the P61 flame drops in height. Within two hours, the kitchen floors are warm enough to walk around bare foot. It's a convection heater, so it's heat rises right up to the floor joists. It of course takes longer yet to actually heat the basement if it's cold but it does do it . Kerosene has gotten expensive here though, I think a second stove will good investment for us especially where I have a wood working shop down there in the basement.

 

[Tonyray]

I have actually stayed constant this season of using room/auto pretty much thruout the season.
paid for the technology so why not use it most of the time..
I have noticed that the longer the stove is running and keeping a constant temperature day after day,
the pellet usage seems to exstend to an extra couple hours.. so, at times we get close to 14-15 hrs out of a bag.
that is due to lot of ramping down in room/auto mode whereas every bit of heat get's squeezed out of the stove
with the distribution blower hanging in there much longer than room manual mode.

placement of my Harman probe was a game for couple seasons of placing it every whichwhere.....
it is now taped to the top back of the hopper and just peaking out above the back side..
[alternativeheat has his probe in the same place I believe]
this is another crucial thing and can affect pellet usage...

 

[alternativeheat]

The worst night this winter cleaned out the hopper in the p61, some pellets clung to the side of the hopper though, if that had not happened I'd have refilled it in time in the morning. As it was the flame was almost out. I pushed the pellets into the chute, turned the stove off and back on again and within minutes all was well again. Otherwise It's been normal 12 hour fills. It's interesting to note that when that happened I had the feed rate at 3.5 instead of 4 - 4.25. Interesting that it used the most pellets of the season at the least feed rate setting of the season ! I had turned it down because I had some short pellets and getting a quite full burn pot. Maybe I should have left it alone. I used to run this stove at feed rate 4.5 actually.

Back to that ThemaGlo comment Bogie made, I agree they are not the hottest pellet out there for sure..

 

[tbear853]

Two bags a day to heat a 1920s 2 story house with 24 windows and poor insulation in cold weather to low 70s ....
..... ain't bad if that's all one is heating with.

I strive to keep the house mostly in mid - upper 60s and use infared heater for nearby spot heat as needed. I keep main house heat set lower 60s so it stays off usually unless we are gone longer than stove will run or cut stove off. The flannel bed linens really help. In the AM, pellet stove kept it at 65+, the infared heaters "tune" the temp up in the kitchen and loft pretty fast.

 

[Tonyray]

Two bags a day to heat a 1920s 2 story house with 24 windows and poor insulation in cold weather to low 70s ....
..... ain't bad if that's all one is heating with.

I strive to keep the house mostly in mid - upper 60s and use infared heater for nearby spot heat as needed. I keep main house heat set lower 60s so it stays off usually unless we are gone longer than stove will run or cut stove off. The flannel bed linens really help. In the AM, pellet stove kept it at 65+, the infared heaters "tune" the temp up in the kitchen and loft pretty fast.

as i said, we get lot's of east sun and at night we have insulated curtains on the windows for nights.
we use good pellets, keep the stove cleaned regularly, and use a few ceiling fans.
[clockwise, lowest speed or else you wil get a cool draft going...

 

[bags]

There are some good points above.

No Bogie, I do not run stats on either stove. I just set the temp and run room auto mostly. I do run room manual at times in the shoulder season depending on outside temps.

We have had another good cold snap here with lows into the teens at night and highs just below freezing. With the crazy winds though it says it has felt like 19* for daily highs though. Tonight is only down to 21* and 44* tomorrow.

I am way do for a cleaning right now but things have been chaotic and I've not had the time or felt like doing it. I plan to tomorrow. Dad passed Jan. 16th and then my mom the 6th of March.