Which setting for Quad CB1200

[kobalt]

Hi Everyone,
This is my first year with a pellet stove and I have a question to throw out to all you veterans. I am wondering what setting to run my stove at. I have a Quad CB1200 with a set back programmable thermostat, would I be better to let it run at the high setting and cycle on and off more often or at a lower setting and let it run a little longer?

Regards to all,

Kobalt

 

[TboneMan]

The easy answer is, "It depends". How big of an area are you heating?

I bought my 1200 last year and I did a lot of experimenting early on (the first couple of months).

My situation: 2500 sqf house, stove located in 500 sqf great room (peak of ceiling is 13' from the floor) with an open floor plan to the rest of the house, the stair case to the second floor is about 8' from the great room and acts as a direct conduit for the heat to travel upstairs. Needless to say, that's a lot of cubic feet of air to deal with.

The stove is vented straight out (no vertical pipe), which drives some of my setting options.


Here's what I learned and do:

The stove is a bit undersized for how I use it. I accept that as aesthetics weighted heavily in the purchase decision. We didn't care for the cast iron - wood stove look of the Mt Vernon.

I almost exclusively us high combustion setting to keep the convection air as hot as possible, although I know I'm blowing quite a bit of heat out the vent pipe at times.

While sleeping or at work (or away from home for an extended period) the convection blower is on low (except for the coldest nights).

I use the high convection setting when I return from work until the temperature has recovered to the thermostat set point. Once set point temps are reached I use the medium or low setting (depending on outdoor temps). I flip the stove back to high when I get up in the morning and flip it back to low when I leave for work.

A programmable thermostat is used more for security than temperature control. The stove is connected to a 750VA UPS. I've tested this and the stove easily runs an 1.5 hours (high comb. fan, low conv. fans and auger). I use the thermostat to shut the stove down from 10:00am to 2:30pm (a low set point). I gamble that no power outage (longer than an hour or so) will occur from the time I leave home (6:30am) until 9:00 and again after 2:30 (I'm home by 4:30). I rely on the UPS to hold until 1) programmed shut off time or 2) I return.

I'm comfortable with the risk that an outage longer than an hour could occur within the 5 1/2 hour "unattended" period of the day. I'll likely get a larger UPS this season but keep the time settings the same.

The thermostat is set such that when we are home, the stove runs continuously during the coldest months.

I realize this sounds like a lot of work, but it becomes routine.

I burned an averaged of 1.3 bags/day for the season last year and reduced my propane use by 600 gallons.

 

[kobalt]

Thanks for the reply Tboneman. I never thought about getting a UPS. Great idea though. My house is 1975 sq/ft and I have the stove in a rather large hallway in the center of the house. I am not worried about the basement as I have infloor heat downstairs. Great information. Thanks!

Kobalt