# How many people use their pellet stove to heat their entire house....honestly?



## Turbo-Quad

I'm curious if anyone actually heats their whole house with a 60.000 btu pellet stove.  The guy I bought this Quad Mt Vernon (non AE) from told me it would be too much stove for my 1200 sq ft house.  I have half the house shut off and have to run this stove wide open to keep it at 70.  I did the cleaning...yes tore it apart and cleaned.  I admit the house it a block greystone house that is only insulated in the ceiling so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.  From they way the seller talke I thought I would be able to run this on low and burn less pellets to heat my little house.  Turns out I'm blazing on high the whole time I'm home.  So are you really heating the entire house or do you shut off parts of your house and cozy up to the pellet stove running wide open to stay comfy?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head arouns a 2500 squre foot home being heated entirely by one of these stoves.  Maybe I just have a lemon.  The stove seems to be functioning fine although a bit noisy.


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## rickwa

I am heating a 1600 sf basement with a 40k pellet stove and it only uses about a bag a day to keep it at 70. And a 40k corn stove to heat upstairs 1600sf it will run you out of the house if you dont keep it under control.  keeps the upstairs at 74 easy with 50# corn a day.


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## Fsappo

I heated our poorly insulated house with a wood stove (1500 sf or ) that I know for a fact would be outperformed by a decent pellet stove.  A decent 40-50K btu pellet stove can be the sole source of heat for a 1500 sf area provided you can get the air moving.


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## richkorn

Heat 1650 sf 2-story cape cod style entirely with Lopi Leyden. Have it on a Skytech Tstat and maintain it 68-70 downstairs. Upstairs usually 2 deg lower. Stove usually runs on medium/high medium (3/4). Only run on high (5/6) when need to heat house up more quickly when it was shut down while we are away all day.

Only downside is that basement gets real cold since boiler only kicks in to heat hot water.


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## hearthtools

20 seasons using many different pellet stove as only heat. have only use my furnace a few time to make sure it works.
1900sq feet Ranch style.
Current stove Enviro Omega running with ON and OFF stat Mode running on Mid feed rate.
Located at One end of 75 feet long house.


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## Trickyrick

I have the data to proove the heating of an 1880 sq ft colonial with a 40,000 BTU pellet insert.

The room the insert is in is warm (77*) but the rest of the house stays over 70* as long as the outside is above 0 and the wind below 10MPH.  I see no problems.  As the temp goes below 0 and the wind picks up the upstairs bedrooms have dropped to 68* but the stove has held it there.  I'm sure I could normalize the temps better is I put in some vents from the upstairs to the livingroom but so far so good.

I will say this your stove feeds X pounds of pellets I have gotten some bad pellets that just do not yeild the heat for whatever reason.  

I would try a differnt pellet (Okies are good, green team too) and another cleaning.

Do you know how many BTUs it takes to heat your house without the stove?  How many therms, gallons, KWh etc.  then convert this to BTUs.  If you need 70,000 then a stove that burns 60,000 and is 75% efficient isn't going to get you close enough.


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## tinkabranc

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> ..  I admit the house it a block greystone house that is only insulated in the ceiling so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.  ....



No insulation in the walls??
Stoves are meant to be space heaters, but IMO amount of insulation and type of floorplan have ALOT to do 
with if the stove can heat the whole house or not.  

My XXV is rated at 50K BTU and is the primary heat for my home.   Heats approx 2800sqft - 2 floors.
Open floorplan and very well insulated.


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## SmokeyTheBear

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> I'm curious if anyone actually heats their whole house with a 60.000 btu pellet stove.  The guy I bought this Quad Mt Vernon (non AE) from told me it would be too much stove for my 1200 sq ft house.  I have half the house shut off and have to run this stove wide open to keep it at 70.  I did the cleaning...yes tore it apart and cleaned.  I admit the house it a block greystone house that is only insulated in the ceiling so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.  From they way the seller talke I thought I would be able to run this on low and burn less pellets to heat my little house.  Turns out I'm blazing on high the whole time I'm home.  So are you really heating the entire house or do you shut off parts of your house and cozy up to the pellet stove running wide open to stay comfy?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head arouns a 2500 squre foot home being heated entirely by one of these stoves.  Maybe I just have a lemon.  The stove seems to be functioning fine although a bit noisy.



Well let's see now your house is basically a hollowed out rock which means heat loss like in an uninsulated basement only worse.

Tell us, what is the firing rating on your 'saur burner in the basement?

I heat slightly more than 1800 square feet with my stove.  I have a finished insulated basement with the stove sitting in the 500+ square foot room and 1344 square feet on the main level.

The house is well sealed and insulated.  I have only run my stove for a full day on setting 3 of 5 once.  The heat loss of the house is 21,000 BTUs/hr at 0°F, My oil fired dragon has a firing rate of 75,000BTUs/hr my stove's maximum firing rate is approximately 40,000 BTUs/hr.


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## newf lover

Heat my 1400 sq. foot ranch with great room and 14 foot ceilings, skylights, and obnoxious dog that wants to go out every 5 minutes no problem.


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## Sawduster

I heat my entire 1500 sq.ft., poorly, impossible to properly insulate, VT farm house, with a stone basement, with my P61a honestly.  I keep most of the house at an average temperature of 72-75 even in the coldest weather.  It may take me 3 bags a day to do it when it is below zero, but I can do it!!


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## Arnold

*  We heat our 2000 sq ft cape cod (1 1/2  story) with our pellet insert.  The insert handles it quite well as long as you don't have to start from a really cold (50* or so ) house to start with. 
   If it gets real  cold ( 0* outside), or exceptionally windy outside, we have had to turn on our other fireplace (Gas) to keep the house at 70*.  But once we run the other fireplace for an hour or so to make up for the temps outside, it gets like a sauna with both running. The secret is not to let the house get too cool initially, as the pellet stove can't quickly recover the houses temp like a whole house furnace with over double the BTU. 

I use about a bag per day & heat quite comfortably with that amount.  Where we live  (Ohio) I figure about 3 1/2 tons per season (approx 175 days of heat ).  buying pellets in the off season at $200 per ton (just missed them at $175 a ton (somersets @ Menards)...makes about $700 per year to heat our house & it feels much warmer than our gas forced air furnace heat ever did.

Tom in Oh*


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## nanama72

I heat most of my 2500 sq foot home with a pellet insert exclusively.  I say most of because I close off one of the downstairs rooms and 2 of the upstairs rooms.  I have an open floor plan with a cathedral ceiling and the downstairs is in low to mid 60's and the upstairs low 70's with no fans on in the house.  We go through about 2.5 bags/day.

I am thinking about insulating my basement and possibly putting in a wood stove down there to see if that would warm up the house any.


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## slclem

I close off two rooms upstairs making the total sq. ft. at approx. 1,700 (1200 down, 500 up). I run room temp mode with feed rate 4, fan speed medium and temp set at 66ish. The hallway (25 ft. away) stays at 66-67. Upstairs stays at 66. I am convinced the stove would basically match any temp setting. 68-70 deg. would be too warm for us. My wife drops the stove setting to 64-65ish at bedtime. The downstairs stays 64-65. Upstairs stays at 65. I use 1.6 bags a day in relatively cold temp (20s at night). In 40 deg weather, stove cruises in low most of the day. So far I am very happy with this stove.


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## pastera

My stove is in a 700 sft room above an unheated garage with a lot of glass (including an 8' all glass french door on the north side).

On low it will do an approximate 10-20% duty cycle to keep the room at 70-72 with windy single digits outside.

On high it will send the room well over 80 if I let my 9 year old set the thermostat (So far 84 is the highest it has gone before I discovered it - may have gone much higher when I wasn't around)


Aaron


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## preacherbiggin

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> I'm curious if anyone actually heats their whole house with a 60.000 btu pellet stove.  The guy I bought this Quad Mt Vernon (non AE) from told me it would be too much stove for my 1200 sq ft house.  I have half the house shut off and have to run this stove wide open to keep it at 70.  I did the cleaning...yes tore it apart and cleaned.  I admit the house it a block greystone house that is only insulated in the ceiling so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.  From they way the seller talke I thought I would be able to run this on low and burn less pellets to heat my little house.  Turns out I'm blazing on high the whole time I'm home.  So are you really heating the entire house or do you shut off parts of your house and cozy up to the pellet stove running wide open to stay comfy?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head arouns a 2500 squre foot home being heated entirely by one of these stoves.  Maybe I just have a lemon.  The stove seems to be functioning fine although a bit noisy.




I heat our 1200 sq ft house with a USSC 6041 no prob at all. in fact if its above 30 outside the stove stays at the lowest setting ( Cr-1) when it gets into the 20s out side it will go to Cr-2. we've only had to bump it up into 3 when we were getting a blizzard here a couple weeks ago. its 28 outside right now and im running on the lowest setting my house is a cozy 79 degrees. i wonder how much heat youre loosing in your walls ( rock soak up heat) and i wonder how much draft you are using on your stove? you might be sucking a lot of heat out the exhaust.


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## nailhead

We are heating our entire 2500 sq ft house with a Mt Vernon AE insert. The heat pump has been off for a month. The house is a 2 story colonial, about 9 years old, and no trees around to block the wind, as we are on a mountain ridge in the Poconos.


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## Snowy Rivers

We have a triple wide manufactured home set permanently on a full daylight basement.

2300 Sq ft upstairs and a fully self contained 1000 Sq ft apartment in the basement.

The aprtment has a 1000 series Quadrafire to heat it.  Thats the only heat source.

Upstairs we currently have a 1000 series Quad, a Whitfield Prodigy II and were using a WP50 Earth Stove.

The WP50 was sold a week ago Sunday and I am replacing it with a Whitfield Advantage II T

We use only the Pellet stoves to heat with.

We use combinations of the 3 different stoves depending on the heating requirement and the outside temperature.

The Quad takes the helm when we need to be gone for longer than just the day because of its automatic operation. Also if during more moderate weather with the little stove on low the house gets a tad too cold at night the quad will come on and warm things a bit.

Keep the Quad set at 64F and it stays off most of the time.

The Prodigy is great for warmer weather when a constant large fire will simply run us out.

During very cold weather at time all three may be used.  (Temps in the teens or below)


Yup pellet stoves are a way of life around our house and not just a novelty.

Snowy


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## Turbo-Quad

Sounds like I need to find out what is wrong with the Quad or insulate my house....lol.


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## save$

Heat my split ranch with 1300 upstairs and 1000 ft on the lower level.  70+ upstairs and 74-80 on the lower level.  House is well insulated right down to the cement floor on the lower level. (and that is mostly carpeted)  Furnace kicks on for a few moments when the temp goes below 15 degrees F.  More so if it is real windy.  But still have a little under a half tank of oil from my fill up last April.  Heat my hot water from this same oil tank that feeds the furnace.  There will always be those who will tell you a pellet stove is a space heater.  The reality is that any source of heat is a space heater unless it has some form or way for distribution of the heat.  Air flow and insulation are essential for optimal heating performace.


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## ruegway

I have a 2000 sqare foot ranch in Southern Indiana, and heat my entire house with my Accentra insert.  The furnace has not been on all season, other than to see if it is working.
It stays around 73 degrees in my family room where the insert is located, and 67-69 degrees in the back bedrooms.  I have no basement, but a very well insulated sprayed foam crawlspace (temperature 53-55 degrees this winter), and a very well insulated attic (12-15 inches).  The house was built in 1959, so it's not exactly an energy efficient marvel, but does have new windows and doors.
Up until this season, we had used the gas furnace (got the Accentra installed this past summer), and set the thermostat on the gas furnace to 65 degrees to keep from breaking the bank.  Man o man 65 degrees is cold!!  You had to wear a sweatshirt, and flannel pants to stay warm.  Now, I can wear shorts, and a light long sleeve shirt, and I and the wife are nice and cozy.
Vectren, our energy supplier, estimated our bill for about 2 months (Nov-Dec), not realizing we weren't using the gas furnace (only gas water heater).  Well, in January, they read the meter, and we had a surplus of $112 for our Feb bill (Feb was very cold in S Indiana).  Our March bill was $89 (electricity and gas for the water heater), counting the excess $112 in the account.
Best move I ever made, and you can get pellets here for less than $200 ton.  No more cold temperatures in my own house for me!!


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## Souzafone

Same size house, 1200 sq. ft., built in 1964, but insulated. We heat the whole house with our pellet stove, on the coldest nights I fire up the furnace so the pipes don't freeze in the basement. A single tank of oil will last at least 5 years. I honestly think we could get the heat in the tropical range if we liked, but we keep it at 70-72.


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## Tailrace

I heat my one story 1400 square foot house completely with my Englander 25PDVC. The stove is in the dining room at one end of the house and our bedrooms, which are on the other end, are toasty warm. Usually when the dining room is at 70 degrees the bedrooms are at 68 degrees  :cheese:


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## Trickyrick

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> Sounds like I need to find out what is wrong with the Quad or insulate my house....lol.



Insulation is always the best payback until you get above an R-40ish range.

What is your existing heat source?  Do you know what the estimate of your monthly usage is on this heat source?  If you have some rough numbers I can give you a fairly rough estimate of what your current usage condition is.


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## Brokemofo

I heat an 1800sq.ft. two story home with mine. I can usually keep it 70 downstairs. My pellet stove is in my living room. If I had my walls insulated I could chase you out of the downstairs. Once and a while I use a little bump from my forced air oil pig. I used a little less than a 1/4 of a tank of oil and 3 tons of pellets so far this year. Between the tax rebate and the money saved on oil my pellet stove has paid for itself already. My house is warmer with the pellet stove than it was when I ran on only oil heat.


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## breklaw

I heat my 1800 ft/2 2 level house with open 1st  floor plan, 3 bedroom and a huge master bath up. My living room in always 70ish, with no problem at all. The heat warms the floor of the second story, and goes up the stairs as well. Mt basement is brutally cold, as the dino comes on only to heat the big zone, an 80 gallon superstore DHW heater. I never worry about pipes freezing anymore. Hasn't happened when it has been below zero. I do open up cabinets in bathroom upstairs then, they are on outside walls. Part of my basement is crawlspace, and it is also the farthest from my full height basement. I have a temp probe stuck down where the laundry pipes come up in my mudroom, and when it is REALLY cold, I check the digital readout in the mudroom. The crawlspace is totally unheated, far away from the basement, uninsulated, and never gets below 34 degrees. You don't freeze pipes until somewhere lower than 30, my guess. ( I know, water freezes at 32, but not under pressure, but is it higher or lower, I can't remember?).  Other comments about the pstove not being able to heat the house rapidly from a cold temp are true. If I wake and the stove is out because I fell asleep (DUH!) and forgot to feed it, when it is really cold, I'll fire the dino for 15 minutes to take off the chill.   My oil burner is rated at 115,000 BTU, my pstove is 38,000. New double insulated windows and doors everywhere, and at least R14 in all walls, none in the floor. Makes the place feel cold because of the cold floors- need to fix that! Burn around 3 3.5 ton/year. Currently loving Energex, some Cubex for the really cold nights, but pellets here are not cheap. 
My kingdom for a 3 ton, autofeed hopper!
All the best!
Bill


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## mjbrown

i heat my home..1100 sq ft. solely with the P38. my home is originally a 1960's 12 x 60 mobile home, and i put a 16x 40 addition on. for the past two winters, i have used the pellet stove as primary heat with the furnace set to 65*. when the temps dip way down, the furnace kicks on to help out and keep the pipes from freezing, and a half barrel of oil has gone me 2 winters. i burn approx 4.5-5 ton of pellets, and the house rarely sees temps below 70*. we keep the bedroom doors closed during the day when we are gone, and open them about an hour before bed to warm them up...doing this, i get by with 1.5-2 bags of pellets per day depending on how frigid it is. with outside temps being 35-40, i can get by with 1 bag a day(24 hrs).

mike


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## hossthehermit

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> I'm curious if anyone actually heats their whole house with a 60.000 btu pellet stove.  The guy I bought this Quad Mt Vernon (non AE) from told me it would be too much stove for my 1200 sq ft house.  I have half the house shut off and have to run this stove wide open to keep it at 70.  I did the cleaning...yes tore it apart and cleaned.  I admit the house it a block greystone house that is only insulated in the ceiling so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.  From they way the seller talke I thought I would be able to run this on low and burn less pellets to heat my little house.  Turns out I'm blazing on high the whole time I'm home.  So are you really heating the entire house or do you shut off parts of your house and cozy up to the pellet stove running wide open to stay comfy?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head arouns a 2500 squre foot home being heated entirely by one of these stoves.  Maybe I just have a lemon.  The stove seems to be functioning fine although a bit noisy.



Last time the oil furnace kicked on was mid October


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## SmokeyTheBear

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> Sounds like I need to find out what is wrong with the Quad or insulate my house....lol.



I vote insulation and sealing.

It is always a matter of being able to overpower the heat loss.

You never did tell us the rating for your 'saur BBQ.   That should help give you an idea of what is needed for BTUs from a pellet stove or a feel for how much insulation and sealing is needed.


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## wetpellet

I heat 1600 sq' with my Ecoteck Ilaria 34,000 btu unit.  The room it is in stays at about 74 and the other rooms are about 70.  The house is a 1930's house with half the house being reinsulated and the other half I assume is still from when it was built. Probably none!
The stove runs on #1 during the day and #2 during the night all winter.  The stove burns about a bag aday average and a little more in the really cold days. Runs mainly off thermostat.


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## THE ROOSTER

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> Sounds like I need to find out what is wrong with the Quad or insulate my house....lol.



Well what is the heat output temps of the stove???  My advice would be to insulate the walls...


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## yknotcarpentry

well I must admit I hae burned 200 G of oil, but it has been pellets running 24/7 mostly on setting 2 . downstairs stays 70's + and upstairs is 60 + . Shut down the big E on the front porch all of Jan as no one was using the room, but I imagine I would have saved on oil if it was on.


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## Pellet-King

Insulate the wall's?, dead air space is the best insulator, insulate your attic, insulating walls only way i figure is to drill holes and blow in or rip walls down and install new sheetrock.......not a good idea
Heat a 1952 cape with my whitfield, burned maybe 1/8 of oil since oct....hate forced air, the noise and the dryness!!


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## tsmith

Heating my 1500 sq. ft. bi-level home with a Quadra Fire  Mt. Vernon AE as only source. The stove is downstairs and the upstairs  far bedrooms are 70 degrees, burning one bushel of corn per day.


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## SmokeyTheBear

Pellet-King said:
			
		

> Insulate the wall's?, dead air space is the best insulator, insulate your attic, insulating walls only way i figure is to drill holes and blow in or rip walls down and install new sheetrock.......not a good idea
> Heat a 1952 cape with my whitfield, burned maybe 1/8 of oil since oct....hate forced air, the noise and the dryness!!



Dead air space is very poor insulation,  you do not need to rip down walls to insulate them although it is easier to get uniform coverage if they are removed.  Holes are frequently used to insulate wall cavities and can be done several ways. 

Spend a bit of time with a heat loss calculator and you quickly discover that walls can be one of the biggest heat losses in a building, usually more so than the cap.

However the worst possible heat loss is frequently air infiltration and above grade basement walls.


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## Wi Thundercat

I am new to burning pellets as i just installed a week ago. Heating around 1500sft. single story ranch home with open floor plan at one end that is pretty well insulated with a st.croix prescott EXP running in smart-stat mode and set on heat range #3. Have a wireless t-stat mounted in the hallway next to the gas t-stat and have it set at 74 °F. Open end stays at 74 and the rest of the house is 70 to 72. It really helps having a small 10" fan mounted near the ceiling at the begining of the hallway to move a small amount of heated air to rest of house. The fan on low was too much so i built a variable speed fan control to plug it into and can now dial it so low one can hardly here it running and it doesn't cool the air its moving. Gas monster hasn't ran since i fired up the pellet stove a week ago with it being below zero at night ( -9 last night) and twenties during the day the house remains a constant temp all the time. ;-)   Have burnt a little under 5 bags of pellets in seven days!


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## Phatty

let me put it to you this way the gas company sent me a leter wanting to change my gas meter .


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## jtakeman

I honestly heat my 2k sqft. house with pellets and only pellets. Wood stove has gone to a back up for power outages only. Raised ranch style. And a total no no with the stove in the basement. I stress insulation as a must. Every year I have added more. Double layer in the attic ect ect. I have my usage down to 3 to 4 tons total per year. My 60,000 BTU Omega is just purring on the 3 medium setting. I use high/low in the extreme and Auto/Off in the shoulders. Love the pellet heat, We are much warmer than using the electric. House is more consistent that when we used the wood stove. 

Maybe have an energy audit done. Its pricey, But you will see where you are loosing the battle. Get the big losers and you will notice a difference quickly.


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## ChandlerR

I'm heating a 1200 square foot first floor of my two family.  I have the regular thermostat set at 60. The stove is in a 20 by 24 foot addition. I'm using a thermostat in this room and keep it set at 70. The rest of the floor is cooler but the oil burner has not kicked on in a while. I had 3/4 of a tank of oil at the beginning of the season and still have 1/2 a tank left. I've used almost a ton and a half of pellets so far.  I spent a ton of time and money when I rehabbed the house on insulation and windows.  I'm now enjoying the fruits of my labor 

Chan


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## Snowy Rivers

My home came with full electric heat  OMG the cost to run that would be outragous

With the nutshells it costs me Less than $1 a day to keep the shack warm.

I have friend that has a manufactured home the same make and model and his wife will not allow a "Burning" device in the house.

They are paying about $1600 a month for electricity.  I pay $300 a month and that is including the downstairs living quarters.

Electric heat is a very inefficient way to heat.

The shells cost $80 a ton and sometimes less so I use $1 a day as a standard.

Real cold weather will cost $2 a day running two stoves.

Snowy


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## Lousyweather

New England here, burning a Harman p61, 2000 square feet (2 floors), stove in living room, and has heated my home for the past 8 winters....I still use oil for hot water, but my baseboard heat hasnt come on in 8 years.


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## arcticcat1

Oil man darkens my driveway just once a year and that is for hot water purposes only!


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## Don2222

Hello

 This is our 1st season heating our entire house in Southern NH NOT using oil! Our OLD Valliant 155,000 BTU Oil Fired Boiler is only heating hot water now! We purchased a Avalon Astoria made by Travis Industries who also makes the Lopi Leydon. Our 45,000 BTU Astoria is similar to the Lopi Yankee and Leydon.
  We have an 1,100 Square foot Split and a center chimney. I carefully choose a center basement install using this chimney and installing a stainless steel chimney for the old oil boiler.
  Our house was built in 1962 and has R7 insulation in the outside walls and attic. I replaced the attic insulation with R4 reflextix foil under faced r19 (To do this I added 2x2s to the 2x4s to make 2x6s) and then criss crossed it with unfaced R30 for a total of R53 !!. This saves heat and money no matter what but enabled the Wood Pellet stove to run at lower settings.
  The basement install requires an OAK (Outside Air Kit) otherwise it would not heat very well at all! The basement ceiling has NO insulation. I also cut 2 registers in the Kitchen and Living room and ran 6" pipe from them to above the stove and built in a fan into the 6" pipe. Now the doorway to the basement must be open and I installed a doorway fan which also moves air upstairs. Both fans are connected to the cooling contacts on a Honeywell SPDT thermostat so they start running when the air over the stove climbs above 74.5 degrees.

The following chart shows the heat setting to make the whole house comfortable. Basement 75-80 degrees and upstairs 67-71 Deg
The chart below shows the Pellet Stove Heat Settings we use with the Air Restrictor on 2, and the Convection Fan on 6 (Highest)

Outside            Wind Speed
Temp                +or-5 MPH
+or-5               5    10    20
Degrees

00                      4     5     6
10                     3     4     5
20                     2     3     4
30                     1     2     3
                  Astoria Heat Setting (1-6)

Example1: Early Saturday morning on 01-30-2010, The wind speed was 20 MPH and outside temperature was 4 degrees. the chart says 6 for the heat setting. At that time, we had it set to 5 when we were asleep and 6 when we woke up for more warmth and comfort!!

Example2:
 02-07-2010 at 2 pm, the temperature was 27 degrees F, and the Wind Speed was 9 MPH. Therefore, the chart above puts the heat setting between 3 and 2 (slightly closer to 2) We have it set to 3 for comfort although 2 would be adequate!!

Even though it did not go below Zero in this region I used approx 2.5 Tons this year and we had a cold snowy winter!
Good luck with your stove.
Don


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## glockshooter

28'x30'x2 stories.  I can keep the downstairs at 78+ and the upstairs about 5 degrees cooler.  I use the gas heat in the morning, just before the stove really warms.  Once thats hot, the gas is off for the rest of the day.


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## stoveguy2esw

ran baseboard heat for 1 month in 1993 when i moved in , got bill bought stove next day , havent looked at the baseboard since (and likley never will)


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## Snowy Rivers

I hate spending my hard earned $$$$ on electricity no matter what.

Electric is nice stuff to have but I use it sparingly.

A pellet stove that ran off a solar panel in the daytime and batteries at night would be way kewl.

The equipment is spendy though.


Snowy


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## Countryboymo

I just installed a Quadrafire Castile in my 1700 or so sqft  (ranch style) basement with only the rim joists insulated with 2" xps and foamed in place and a I guess you would call it a knee wall that is about 4' tall that on one span that has r13 with 2" foam screwed to it.  I plan to eventually  glue 1" foam to the concrete walls and further down the road finish the basement but for right now my 30,000 btu stove is keeping the basement above 70 and the heat pump/ heat strips are seldom running and it is 21 degrees out.


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## coloradan

I am heating my 1000 sq ft cabin with just my 1997 Tristar 25-5670 (aka Englander 25-PDV), which puts out between 8,000 and 56,000 BTU.  My cabin is not insulated and has single pane windows.  The ceiling in the main cabin is 15 feet high, and has a ceiling fan to disperse the hot air better and keep the loft cooler. The ceiling in my addition (great room) is about 10 feet high, and also has a ceiling fan. I keep the house around 72-73 degrees when I'm home, and turn it back to around 65 when I go to bed.  Naturally, the rooms furthest away from the stove are about 5-10 degrees colder, but that's fine with me.  I have electric baseboard heating, but I don't use it  (too expensive for my wallet).  I go through about 2 bags on the coldest days.  I'm nestled in a deep forest on top of the mountain, so temperatures here are atleast 5 degrees colder than in valley a couple of miles away.  I am down to about a bag a day now with the warmer temps we currently have.  I have even been able to turn the stove off during the afternoon, if the sky is clear enough.


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## Turbo-Quad

Trickyrick said:
			
		

> Turbo-Quad said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sounds like I need to find out what is wrong with the Quad or insulate my house....lol.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Insulation is always the best payback until you get above an R-40ish range.
> 
> What is your existing heat source?  Do you know what the estimate of your monthly usage is on this heat source?  If you have some rough numbers I can give you a fairly rough estimate of what your current usage condition is.
Click to expand...



My furnace is a 100, 000 btu forced air propane burner.  It’s about 20 years old so not efficient at all.  I was spending about 350 to 400 a month to keep the house at 62 degrees.  That is why I wanted to try the pellet stove.  The Quad will burn 2 bags a day wide open.  74 in the dining room where the stove is and 60 in the living room about 12 feet away, even colder in the kitchen.  Half the house is closed down so only heating about 600 sq feet.  The bedrooms are shut up so they are about 48 (thank god for electric blankets).  I moved my recliner and TV into the dining room last night.  I thought I might as well enjoy the temp there.  I have a ceiling fan running in the dining room and one in the living room.  

I have taken some temp readings with an infra red thermometer and the pot varies between 380 and 450.  The heat exchanger outlet tubes are 270 on the left side and about 210 on the right side.  Hopefully someone can tell me if these are good readings.  I have no idea.

I probably just need insulation.  I'm looking into spray foam but I have to seal the outside some how.  The house was built in 1912 and the greystone blocks have lost their sealant.  Water wicks through pretty good so no point insulation until I get that under control.  I will probably use elastomeric coating on the outside to seal it.  I will probably have to gut it this summer after I get the outside coated. I have 2 foot eaves and I would really like to stud the outside, spray foam it,  then vinyl side over the studded foam, but I don't think I could afford all of that.


----------



## dbjordan

I use my pellet stove space heater to heat my entire 1800sqft open ranch. The 3 rooms farthest away from the stove are kept closed (gym and quest bedroom unheated, bathroom electric baseboard, programmable stat). All the "living" space stays at 72F to 65F 24/7.  I could probably use a box fan for the convection effect, but we really don't have a need to keep those "other" rooms warmer.


----------



## Trickyrick

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> Trickyrick said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Turbo-Quad said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sounds like I need to find out what is wrong with the Quad or insulate my house....lol.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Insulation is always the best payback until you get above an R-40ish range.
> 
> What is your existing heat source?  Do you know what the estimate of your monthly usage is on this heat source?  If you have some rough numbers I can give you a fairly rough estimate of what your current usage condition is.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> My furnace is a 100, 000 btu forced air propane burner.  It’s about 20 years old so not efficient at all.  I was spending about 350 to 400 a month to keep the house at 62 degrees.  That is why I wanted to try the pellet stove.  The Quad will burn 2 bags a day wide open.  74 in the dining room where the stove is and 60 in the living room about 12 feet away, even colder in the kitchen.  Half the house is closed down so only heating about 600 sq feet.  The bedrooms are shut up so they are about 48 (thank god for electric blankets).  I moved my recliner and TV into the dining room last night.  I thought I might as well enjoy the temp there.  I have a ceiling fan running in the dining room and one in the living room.
> 
> I have taken some temp readings with an infra red thermometer and the pot varies between 380 and 450.  The heat exchanger outlet tubes are 270 on the left side and about 210 on the right side.  Hopefully someone can tell me if these are good readings.  I have no idea.
> 
> I probably just need insulation.  I'm looking into spray foam but I have to seal the outside some how.  The house was built in 1912 and the greystone blocks have lost their sealant.  Water wicks through pretty good so no point insulation until I get that under control.  I will probably use elastomeric coating on the outside to seal it.  I will probably have to gut it this summer after I get the outside coated. I have 2 foot eaves and I would really like to stud the outside, spray foam it,  then vinyl side over the studded foam, but I don't think I could afford all of that.
Click to expand...


OK we will take the $400 as the top end (worst month).  Do you know what you pay per gallon of propane?  I'm seeing prices from $2.89 up to $3.65 per gallon?  We need to find out how many gallons per month you are burning.  Multiply that by 91,000 BTUs per gallon and then multiply that by an assumed .9 for the assumed efficinency of the appliance.  That is the BTU required to heat your home for the month.

On the low cost of propane you are looking at 138 gallons * 91000 *.9 = 11.3 million BTUs /30 days = 376750 BTUs per day / 24 hours = 16,000 BTUs per hour  Assume the Quad is about 50% efficient and your 60,000 BTU burning stove will put 30,000 BTUs into you home.  I can tell you my actual efficinecy of mine (BTUs in the house/ BTUs of pellets burned) is 57%.  

With proper air movement and if the monthly Gallons of propane is correct you should be able to do this with that stove.


----------



## Utilitrack

Heating the top two levels of our 1,650' cape with our pellet stove as well, oil for hot water and finished basement only. Bought three tons to start the year and in January I was afraid that I would run out during a cold stretch, but the temps have been unseasonably warm here in central Maine, 30's-40's days and 20's-30's at night, been hardly burning a 4-5 bags per week, heating us of the house a few times running on medium- 78 degrees is too hot! Stove has been on high only a few times all season, unlike last winter.


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## Xena

I use my pellet stove to heat my 1400 sq ft ranch.


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## muss

Unlike the last 2 burn seasons, i don't run my stove after going to bed no matter how cold it/was . I run my furnace, after leaving it on 62 all night, put it up to 70 when i get up, usually 'bout 6 , turn on the stove & 10-15 minutes later, shut the furnace off. Works great that way & i have 3 + tons still left . What a difference      Muss


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## Topshelf

1250 sq ft first floor Farm House.
House stays in a range of 70-78 day and night depending on the tempurature outside.


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## opus74

Heating 1940 square feet at the location & with the stove in my signature. Furnace blower only running for air circulation.
Ran the heat pump for 47 hours this year, because I didn't understand the pressure switch action on a Whitfield.
That won't happen again. We are on bag 98 of the 100 we bought for this year.
The house has never been below 75 and we've shut 'er down twice when it got to 84 at the lowest setting.

This is Illinois, not the northeast, so yes we heat the whole house. Last year I had 2 months of electric bills that
were > $400. This year I have not exceeded $200.

Ask me if I like it !!


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## Meneillys

I have a Quad Castile and heat about 1100 sqft. The only time the furnace came on was when I left the house without filling the hopper and that was only once. Looks like 4 tons of pellets but the stove has been on sense September. I do have one 10" fan installed in a wall to push air to the other end of the house. Keeps it a toasty 75 in the living room kitchen bathroom and 68 in the bed room.


----------



## Mr Whitfield

I run a Whitfield Advantage II-T Insert, I heat a 1800 sq ft single level home, I use about 3 ton from Oct to March. Mostly on heat setting 1 or 2. At 1 temp is 68 to 70, at 2 temp 70 to 72. It all matters what the outside temp is.


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## SuperStang83

I have just over 1400 sg ft split level and only use my USSC 6039 to heat the whole house.  I have no basement, just a crawl space under the living room and kitchen.  Down in the family room where the pellet sove is the thermostat usually reads around 78, and I would say that the upstairs is around 72, but don't have a thermometer up there to be sure.  The stove has 9 heat setting and during the day if it is above 30 outside I usually turn the stove down to around setting 3, or above 35 I'll put the stove down to 1 or 2 and often just turn it off for quite a few hours.  At night I usually put the stove on 8 lately because it has been getting down to around 15-25 outside and when I wake up the thermostat reads around 75.  I almost always put the stove on higher at night because I have three daughters all under 5 years old, and a new born.  I'd rather them wake up warm than cold. 

So far this year I have used just under three tons.  The pellet stove does an excellent job keeping our house warm.  The house was built in 1978, and still has the original insulation so I think it could be better insulated.  

hopefully you can figure out your problems and get that stove heating your whole house!  It should be able to do the job!


Jacob


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## Augmister

We heat an 800 sq ft small ranch solely with a Quad Castile.   House has baseboard electric but a $3000 winter had that stove paid for real fast!  Average use of 3.5 tons of pellets per season.  R-38 in the attic.  Spray foam insulation under the house in the crawl space.   Priceless!   
Runs on top speed on temps in the mid-teens or less and uses about a bag a day.  Now that we are back in the mid-20's at night and mid-30's in the day, runs on the middle speed setting using about a half bag a day.

Just love telling family and friends that we heat for the whole winter for less than $900.  Every year, we are tweaking the house to upgrade insulation and plug drafts in the sixty year old "mansion" and I think we can do next year's winter on less than three tons.....


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## tchdngrnby

Main source of heat is my St. Croix EXL... Propane stove has used 74 gallons since 7/09.  Baseboards have been locked out since 2002.  Wood stove is run only when shutting down the EXL for cleanings and when temps are in the low 20's... used 3 tons of pellets and about 1/2 cord of wood this season..... EXL is in the basement, cut in 2 natural draft registers between the joists in the main floor and hung 9" bracket fans below the registers on bungy's to force the heat up from the basement, have a 20" fan hanging in the stairwell to the basement to assist in returning the air to the basement... works well, plus it keeps the basement dry, no more dampness or musty smell down there.  60" ceiling fan hanging in the overhead to recirc the warm air in the main living area...think I have this heating thing licked.

PV


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## smg64ct

I heat my 2,200 sq ft house with my new mount vernon. The house is well insulated and a open floor plan.  This stove will maintain 72 - 74 with ease.


----------



## Havlat24

Quadra-Fire Sante Fe in my basement.  1300 square feet on both both levels.... Stove heats the whole house easy.  Its been a mild winter here in Northern Alberta, but we had a cold snap of -50 Celcius and the furnace didnt kick on once.   Stove runs on medium.


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## vt657

My Quad Santa Fe has heated my 1,100 sq.ft. ranch house in Vermont the past two winters with no problem.  The house in usually 72 to 75 degrees even in the coldest weather we have seen.  I only turn on the oil heat once a week for an hour or so to exercise the furnace.


----------



## UncleAnthony

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> I'm curious if anyone actually heats their whole house with a 60.000 btu pellet stove.  The guy I bought this Quad Mt Vernon (non AE) from told me it would be too much stove for my 1200 sq ft house.  I have half the house shut off and have to run this stove wide open to keep it at 70.  I did the cleaning...yes tore it apart and cleaned.  I admit the house it a block greystone house that is only insulated in the ceiling so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.  From they way the seller talke I thought I would be able to run this on low and burn less pellets to heat my little house.  Turns out I'm blazing on high the whole time I'm home.  So are you really heating the entire house or do you shut off parts of your house and cozy up to the pellet stove running wide open to stay comfy?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head arouns a 2500 squre foot home being heated entirely by one of these stoves.  Maybe I just have a lemon.  The stove seems to be functioning fine although a bit noisy.



I agree with the other posters that it is probably lack of insulation. I heat an enitre (not closed off) 2800 sq ft house to 70 degrees uniformly,  whiile it is 10 degrees outside with a  70,000 btu pellet stove, on the fourth setting (5 is highest). If you had wall insulation, I would think a 40,000 btu stove would have done you nicely. 
My many humble thanks to the people and information on this site which is invaluable to me accomplishing this.


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## turtle2010

I've got a Harmon Accentra in my basement and it does a really good job for my two story house.  I put small doorway fans in the corners of the doorways to move air from room to room and it works pretty well for a low tech and cheap solution.


----------



## slheinlein

My home is 3400 square feet and if the outside temp is 30 degrees or higher, then my stove can heat the entire home.  20-30 degrees and it does the downstairs fine but upstairs furnace kicks on once in a while but infrequent.  Under 20 and things get tough for the stove,.  Can't complain as I only have to fill my propane tank twice a year and most of it is used by water heater.


----------



## ex-oil slave

I have a 2600 sf split level home (1/3 over a basement, 2/3 over insulated crawl space) in Canada. Typical weather in December to February will see temps drop to -30 to -40 range for a few weeks and average 70 to 80 heating degree days for most of the 3 month period. I burn an average of 2.4 bags a day during this period. Some days I put in 3 some days only 2. I have a Harman PF100 forced air pellet furnace. This is probably on the extreme end of heating use from all the posts I have read on these forums. It's still cheaper than oil (about half what I was paying). My pellet prices average 225 to 275 a ton and I lay in 7 tons for heating from Oct 1 to May.


----------



## green77bus

We have a colonial that is about 2200 sq feet and we have an englander stove that is supposed to heat 1500 sq feet. The main room that it is in we have to keep the stove on 1and 1 and the temp in that room is usually about 74 the rest of the downstairs stays at about 68 to 70  and the upstairs can range from 65 to 70. I love our stove and think if we had a bigger one it would blow us out of the house. I love our pellet stove. For reg heat we have forced hot water and I leave that system turned off. only if it may get really cold out will I turn it on.

Erin


----------



## sparkydog00

1600 sft townhouse condo heated solely with a Harmen Accentra insert.
74 degrees in the living room...69 in the upstairs bedroom...
Only complaint is the typical dry air...but I love being warm...


----------



## peterpski666

We heat our newer 1800 sf colonial with a Harmon XXV completely. I turned the oil on once, when the floors were a little cold. 70 degrees, no fans, 2.5 tons this winter.
Cheap Heats!


----------



## cavermedic

Turbo-Quad said:
			
		

> I'm curious if anyone actually heats their whole house with a 60.000 btu pellet stove.  The guy I bought this Quad Mt Vernon (non AE) from told me it would be too much stove for my 1200 sq ft house.  I have half the house shut off and have to run this stove wide open to keep it at 70.  I did the cleaning...yes tore it apart and cleaned.  I admit the house it a block greystone house that is only insulated in the ceiling so I'm sure that has alot to do with it.  From they way the seller talke I thought I would be able to run this on low and burn less pellets to heat my little house.  Turns out I'm blazing on high the whole time I'm home.  So are you really heating the entire house or do you shut off parts of your house and cozy up to the pellet stove running wide open to stay comfy?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head arouns a 2500 squre foot home being heated entirely by one of these stoves.  Maybe I just have a lemon.  The stove seems to be functioning fine although a bit noisy.



I ran a thread last winter describing problems I was having with my Mt Vernon insert. To make a long story short, we have a 2-story 2400 sf colonial. We put up a curtain across the stairway to keep the upstairs cold (we like to snuggle), figuring that we would save on pellets that way. For half the season, we couldn't even heat the Living Room, to say anything about the whole downstairs. The repair dude suggested taking down the curtain, his theory being that the cold air leaking around the curtain and coming down the stairs was offsetting the heat from the stove. Turns out he was right! This season, with all bedrooms open upstairs, the stove has heated the whole house until the temp outside gets close to zero.


----------



## Snowy Rivers

We heat a 2400 SqFt triple wide manufactured home that sits on a daylight basement.

The basement has a 1000 ft apartment but has its own pellet stove.

We have 3 pellet stoves upstairs. One Whitfield advantage in the family room, a Whitfield Prodigy in the Living room (one corner) and a Quadrafire 1000 in an opposite corner of the living room.

This is a Ranch style house that has Zero hallways (very open)
We use a variable combination of the stoves to keep the place warm depending on the outside temp.

Some days the little (very tiny) Prodigy is all thats needed to keep the house quite cozy.
Other days the Advantage running on 1or 2 setting will be used and if its nasty, cold and windy too I will run the Prodigy and the Advantage on a low setting to keep the temp even throughout the house.

The Quad is normally set to come on at below 65F and we use it if we can't be home to tend the others or in case it really gets Blistering arse cold  (teens or below)

We burn Hazelnut shells in the two Whitfields and Pellets in the Quad.

We have never used the Electric heat in the house as it is just stupid expensive to turn that thing on.

Snowy


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## forya

I am heating a 2000 sq ft house with a 48000 BTU Harman Accentra.  I didn't run my heat pump at all.  It heats my 1st floor to 72 and the 2nd floor to 65-69.  I have to use space heaters in the basement as the heat doesn't travel down there.


----------



## Fixedblade

I've got a 200+ year old farmhouse that's almost 3000 square feet on the Quebec border in No.Vermont.  It's been insulated and new windows and doors.  Very open floorplan with central atrium to bring heat upstairs.  I heat it most days with a Harman P68 and usually burn about 7-8 tons a year. This year I burned only 6 tons due to the warmer and much shorter winter we had up here. On very cold days; ie well below zero, I sometime have to turn on the oil hot air furnace but for the most part, pellets heat my home.


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## schmeg

I do. 68-72 throughout the house all winter except for a couple of far reaching rooms that stay at 64 or so when it's cold. I have an 8 year old 1900 SqFt single story house in Maine.
My old stove (POS Glowboy) wouldn't keep up when it got cold out ( below 10F ). My Rika has no problem. I've burned 62 gallons of heating oil since last September. 4 tons of pellets.


----------



## magsf11

i heat my 1600+ house only by the stove. I use about a bag a day to keep it at 73. in jan-feb when most people are geting gas bill of $300 my bill is around $35 and some times i even recive a bill if $0.


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## pelletizer

I am pretty much in line with magssf11 1600 sf home. my home is pretty open so heat moves around very well. 
It's not just heating your whole house, it's heating your whole house nice and toasty warm Not 65 or 68 to conserve oil, To match the warmth easily put out by the pellet stove with FHW oil would cost a lot.


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## Salty

I have the same scenario and same results. This winter the insert did 99% of the heating. Still had to use the oil for the addition that has the family room but it even held that at 64 all winter.



			
				Trickyrick said:
			
		

> I have the data to proove the heating of an 1880 sq ft colonial with a 40,000 BTU pellet insert.
> 
> The room the insert is in is warm (77*) but the rest of the house stays over 70* as long as the outside is above 0 and the wind below 10MPH.  I see no problems.  As the temp goes below 0 and the wind picks up the upstairs bedrooms have dropped to 68* but the stove has held it there.  I'm sure I could normalize the temps better is I put in some vents from the upstairs to the livingroom but so far so good.
> 
> I will say this your stove feeds X pounds of pellets I have gotten some bad pellets that just do not yeild the heat for whatever reason.
> 
> I would try a differnt pellet (Okies are good, green team too) and another cleaning.
> 
> Do you know how many BTUs it takes to heat your house without the stove?  How many therms, gallons, KWh etc.  then convert this to BTUs.  If you need 70,000 then a stove that burns 60,000 and is 75% efficient isn't going to get you close enough.


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## SidecarFlip

The only thing we use the Plus 90 for is to circulate thye air in our 2 story 100 plus year old T Farmhouse.   The appliance in the living room heats the entire house to a comfortable 70 degrees with the Plus 90's blower regulated by a LUX Clean Cycle Thermostat.  The LUX is the best investment you can make for air circulation under 50 bucks.


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## deadeye316

I have a 3 year old 2000 sq ft colonial.  I heat the whole house with my Enviro Omega.  This was a great winter and only ended up going through about 3 ton that I bought at lowes for dirt cheap.  I have it on Hi/low on a thermostat most of the time.  I keep the downstairs around 73 and the heat moves through the house pretty good and keeps the upstairs about 67-69.


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## Snowy Rivers

Even with spring here, the weather has been COLD, WET, WINDY and what I thought was going to be the end of major stove season has turned out to be alltogether different.

We have had a few nights in the last week that I have run two stoves on low to keep the place comfy.

Being spread out over a wide area, our house is a little tougher to heat than a up/down type structure.

The changes we made in our stoves this winter were well worth the time and effort.

Added a little Whitfield Prodigy in the living room and then swapped out the old Earthstove for a Whitfield advantage in the family room.

Sitting the Advantage up on a 12" high raised hearth and sitting the stove on an angle in the corner changed the airflow pattern through the room and made a big difference in how things warm up.

Pretty well into the groove now and operations have settled into a well honed routine.

On cool but not cold days, we will run the Prodigy during the day to keep the house at about 65F while we are at work.

The little stove uses a very small amount of fuel.

As soon as we get home, I fire off the Advantage and within 30 minutes the house is back up to 70F and then if the outside temp is over 40 we shut the little stove off for the night.

Fine juggling act but works real well.


My opinion is pretty simple when it comes to pellet stoves.

They are a wonderful heating appliance but you have to want to participate in the home heating program.
If you do not desire to be involved somewhat, other than paying the heat bill every month then probably a pellet stove is not the answer.

Morning and night around here will have something going on involving the stoves. 
Either screening a few buckets of shells (make sure there are no sticks or other stuff that can jam the auger)  or cleaning a stove.

Shutting down one stove and starting another (depending on the weather)

I love it. Its a little bit like long ago, when our ancestors had to tend the fire to keep the cabin warm.

Personally I like winter better than summer. Summer costs me far more with running the AC than winter does running the stoves.


Gotta love them pellet stoves.

Snowy


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## rowerwet

I do! but a 175k btu pellet boiler should be able to heat 2500 sq ft easily.


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## zrtmatos

I am able to heat a 1700 sq ft colonial with a 2008 Lopi Leyden. I have yet to put it up past the 4 mark at night. Usually the temp downstairs varies from 78 from the family room where the stove resides to 74 where the living room is on the opposite side of the house. In between the two rooms is a very large kitchen and a half bath. Upstairs are three bedrooms and 1 and 1/2 baths. Keeping the bedroom doors open keeps the heat circulating in there. Temps range from 65-68 degrees. Good for sleeping.


----------



## mralias

1200 sq with a CB1200i and I am toasty warm on both floors. Stove runs on med only and cycles on and off frequently even on cold nights. Below 10 degrees stove will stay running without cycle.


----------



## AkOriginal

I heat my 1300 square foot house here in alaska with my P68. It has never run wide open even at -50. My boiler has been shut off since September and I keep my house at 72 with my stove


----------



## DneprDave

Nope, I got my stove primarily to heat a 400 square foot enclosed porch that was unusable in the winter due to the cold. It does augment the oil burner because I now leave the door to the porch open. I burned about 200 gallons less oil last year with the pellet stove, than I did the year before.

Dave


----------



## briansol

3 years old thread here guys...


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## movemaine

My house is 2400 sq ft, and I heat about 2000 sq ft of it with a 42,000 btu Harman Accentra insert.

As for your stove, there are a lot of factors that go into how much space you can heat.

In my home, we have a finished play space in the attic that isn't well insulated, so we keep that area closed off - otherwise, I would have a hard time heating my space with the stove. 

But, if you follow the link below in my signature, you'll see the temperature spread across my space. To keep the back bedrooms at 69-70 when it's 20 degrees outside - the areas near my stove are 73-76 to maintain the heat flow and regulate against the heat loss.


----------



## StormPanic

My GF55 basement install heats around 75% of my 2200 SF split entry.  I installed the stove to offset my oil costs (not eliminate them altogether).


----------



## zrtmatos

briansol said:


> 3 years old thread here guys...


 
Yeah, and your point?


----------



## The Village Idiot

Yes, the WHOLE house.  Honestly.


----------



## jtakeman

oldmountvernon said:


> just under 3000 sqft 100% Mt Vernon power  76 degrees im gonna try to lower that number. Today it was quite mild and the stove never kicked on yet the temp stayed at 72 all day. I bet if i kept the stat on 70 like most here i would use 1/2 the pellets and the stove could run on a lower speed. to maintain 76 is much harder on the stove. But im sure she wont go for it, good thought though
> 
> 
> YES THE WHOLE HOUSE lol


 
Threaten to run around naked, It worked for me!


----------



## Mr. Spock

The whole house and a some perimeter around it. I swear we live in barn. 
Getting to 80 deg is easy,  pretty sure I could hit 100 no problem.


----------



## Woody1911a1

75%  i need to keep the downstairs running on really cold days to keep the pipes in the garage from freezing .   

everyone's situation is different .  the one common factor is that we're all saving bunches of money and hopefully having fun doing it


----------



## imacman

oldmountvernon said:


> .... but the couch gets a little more action


As in, you get the privilege of sleeping on it for a few nights?


----------



## Woody1911a1

imacman said:


> As in, you get the privilege of sleeping on it for a few nights?


 
works for me . my sofa is 3 ft from the stove and 8 from the tv  and 15 from the fridge .  happy camper


----------



## sinnian

I heat my whole 2100+ sq feet with my pellet




















boiler


----------



## Northwoodneil

1900 sqf raised ranch log cabin. Attic is packed with insulation. I only bump the oil on to heat the outlaying corners (back bedroom) when it gets below zero and thats only for about 10 minutes. 82 downstairs 74 upstairs when it's cold (15 degrees or less), otherwise it's 80 downstrairs and 74 upstairs when it's above 15.


----------



## DOLLARBILL

every day all winter long


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## Hoot23

We heat a 2000 sq foot colonial with 61,000 btu's. Works quite well. Works even better when the kids shut the bathroom door at the top of the steps at night. The oil only heats hot water. A 100 gallons of oil last about 8 months for us. Family of 4. 

The downstairs stays at 75. Upstairs is 70-71.


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## jim3854

I use a Englander 25pdv to heat my WHOLE house.   Couple of fans strategically placed  top fan blowing towards bedrooms and lower fan blowing towards stove.  Comtemporary raised ranch..   We keep the heat at 58 just incase and it NEVER comes on.


----------



## Bioburner

First year of being able to heat my entire home with a pellet stove. 72-73 basement where the stove is and the crosslink is plumbed into the infloor of the basement and heats the domestic water. Todays high 9 and last night was -8. Been colder than normal and heating season started in early October and will start burning on 3rd ton this week. 68 upstairs because big dog likes it cooler.


----------



## Tim M.

I've got a 2400 sqft colonial, have a 45K BTU Flame FP-45 and when it's working properly it will heat the entire house.  Keeps it between 66 - 68 on the second floor and about 73 on the first floor.  Only room that doesnt really get up to temp is the master bath which is in the opposite corner of the house on the second floor.


----------



## Cleetussnow

2000 sf heated with my m55 clone.  My first year burning, and the furnace is off since thanksgiving.


----------



## ChrisWNY

My Fahrenheit pellet furnace heats my entire 2500 sq. ft. house. It's direct ducted into our first floor (which is an open floor plan), which it heats well into the 70s. It heats the upstairs bedrooms into the comfy upper 60s.


----------



## Countryboymo

*I ran a test tonight since it is cold but not windy.  I cleaned the stove good and went upstairs and shut off the heat pump and then went back to the basement and fired the pellet stove on high and watched the temp.  I lost 2 degrees in over 2 hours at 18 degrees outside 73 start temp and 71 finish.  The basement was nice and toasty.  If we have an outage I think I can keep it decent upstairs and toasty down without a problem.  If I ever get the rest of the basement walls insulated which is 1/4 done and sheetrocked I see no problem keeping the whole house comfortable with the pellet stove if needed.* 

*It would sure be nice to be able to cut the strips below 10 degrees and just run the stove with the air handler on circulate gently moving air around the house.  The heat pump is automatically turned off below 10 degrees.  *


----------



## MommyOf4

We have a Heatilator Cab50 that puts out 50,000 BTU's and heats our entire house.  The stove is in our basement and keeps the temp there at 75/80 degrees (without the stove it was around the 50's during the winter).  The temperature upstairs is around 73-76.  

So far it's saved us $180 on electricity compared to our bill last year.  That's with using the electric heat (heat pump ?) for a little less than 2 weeks.


----------



## rich2500

see sig. heating my entire house


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## Eatonpcat

Just read 4 pages before I realized this thread is 3 years old...


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## nikeseer

No Boiler since OCT 27, 2012.  Only pellet stove.. Heating 1500 sq ft no prob with my cab50!


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## saladdin

MommyOf4 said:


> We have a Heatilator Cab50 that puts out 50,000 BTU's and heats our entire house. The stove is in our basement and keeps the temp there at 75/80 degrees (without the stove it was around the 50's during the winter). The temperature upstairs is around 73-76.
> 
> So far it's saved us $180 on electricity compared to our bill last year. That's with using the electric heat (heat pump ?) for a little less than 2 weeks.


 
Glad to see more Cab50s being represented.


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## saladdin

nikeseer said:


> No Boiler since OCT 27, 2012. Only pellet stove.. Heating 1500 sq ft no prob with my cab50!


 
 I sense a Cab50 fan club in the future !!


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## Lousyweather

2000 square feet, 5 tons per year, Harman P61, 13 years old........oil baseboard circulators UNpowered atm.


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## CT Pellet

Two stoves and No oil..... All day- 'errday!


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## nikeseer

saladdin said:


> I sense a Cab50 fan club in the future !!


Thanks.  How much have you gone through so far?  I like to keep my stove running 24/7 for the most part.  Trying it out with running on high with temp set and cycling.  I get chilled when it's not running.  I only have 75 bags left after having 153.  Yikes.  So I'm trying the cylcing.  It has cycled 5 times already since 7am.  Good or bad?


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## Ohio P43

2450 square foot tri-level with a P43 on the main level. We have lived in the home for 4 years and have yet to turn on the electric heat. No heat flows to the lower level but when we are down there we have a wood burning fireplace with a blower that does quite well. We burn about 3 tons per season.


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## jlupi

First year w quad castile so far I have only turned on the oil a couple times (for an hour or so) because we let the house get cold and the wife wanted to be warm immediately . 1500sf ranch I think the coldest it has been so far this year is mid-low teens. keep house (LR) about 70 bedrooms run 62-65


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## whlago

...working on it. My master bedroom is the only room that the heat has a tough time travelling to in my 2100SF cape (around the corner). That room is on it's own zone and I like it cold to sleep anyway but I have been turning it on to shower in the morning. Just put in one of those doorframe fans hoping to creat some circulation in that part of the house.


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## CTguy9230

they say pellet stoves are space heaters....

well the space i,m heating with my 25-pdv is my 1300sf ranch
even on the coldest days its still in the 68-72 range


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## velvetfoot

whlago said:


> ...working on it. My master bedroom is the only room that the heat has a tough time travelling to in my 2100SF cape (around the corner). That room is on it's own zone and I like it cold to sleep anyway but I have been turning it on to shower in the morning. Just put in one of those doorframe fans hoping to creat some circulation in that part of the house.


We've been using electric space heaters for short term, spot heating upstairs.


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## Tim Linden

I'm heating my 1000sf house with just a Harman P35i in the fireplace in the living room. Not using any fans to circulate it around the house either! What I've found is if I leave it in manual over night and auto during the day, it usually doesn't have to come back much during the day!


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## JonSkow

I'm using a vista flame Vf100 FPI (40,000 btu) to heat every inch of my 900sf ranch and I run it as low as I can.  The house stays around 72 degrees all day every day even when it's 4 degrees outside.


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## L.I. Pellet Guy

i've gotten this in my email for the last 6 weeks....
Based on our calculations it is time to order heating oil. Please log on to [URL='http://www.heatingoil*****.com']www.heatingoil[/URL]*****.com and place your order today. 

So what would you think!


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## BradH70

I am heating about 2,000 sq/ft with an M55 and it keeps the downstairs at 68 and the upstairs at around 64. This winter I added a Quad Castile to a newly finished (opened) bonus room above the garage that adds another 600 sq/ft to the house (so now 2,600 sq/ft). I run it on low from about 7pm to about 6am and it keeps the bonus room around 68-70 and adds 2-3 extra degrees to the rest of the upstairs (3 bedrooms and an office). I shut off the Quad before I leave for work in the morning. Temp in that room are 60-62 by the time I get home, probably kept at that level by the M55.

Last year I used 4 tons the bonus room sealed off and no Quad. This year I'm on track to use about 5 tons using both stoves.

The only oil I use is for heating DHW but this is going to change soon with the addition of an electric water heater.


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## xraycer

I have a 9 yo 2 stories 2500 s/f colonial. I run a Summer's Heat Evolution, right now, burning Green Team. This morning the house was 75 downstairs/76 upstairs with the temp at 33 outside. Didn't even need to use the ceiling fan in the living room with the cathedral ceiling. Getting ready to bring in the Okis

Wife is constantly whining that the house is too warm......I keep telling her to just only wear a thong


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## briansol

Eatonpcat said:


> Just read 4 pages before I realized this thread is 3 years old...


you're welcome :D


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## Augmister

800 sq foot "house of the future"....lolololololol    You guys live in palaces!   Got maids and pool boys???  
Good insulation.  Electric baseboard heat which is never used.  100% heat via the Castille.  I keep it _*75-77*_  because_* I can do whatever I want *_and the bill for the house used pellets is under $650 for the winter.   No tax on the fuel to boot.... priceless!


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## SmokeEater

I'm heating over 3000 sq feet of a cape cod, 2000 ft on the main and second floors with radiant on the first only just now.  I don't have all of the conduction plates installed yet and have no reflective insulation in the floor joists under the radiant plumbing.  My Harman PB 105 has never used more than 4 bags in a 24 hour period, even though the outside temps have been to near -20* F this winter on occasion.  The house is on a hill top and surrounded by the largest wind farm in New York State.  Needless to say, the winds blow nearly constantly here and the house has some good leaks that need to be repaired.  Cellar temps with no insulation are near 80*F with main floor thermostat set at 70.  The main floor is often at temps above 70 and just now with outside air at 28 the inside temp is reading 73.  I think with the joist insulation in place and cellar thermostat set for 50, I'll cut the pellet usage to a max of 2 to 3 bags per day.


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## DirtyDave

I heat the entire house with just the pellet stove. 1k vaulted ceilings (20 ft high ) 1100 with standard 9ft ceiling. pellet stove sets on far corner of the Cathedrial side by backyard deck door.


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## becasunshine

Yup. 1420 sq ft circa 1958/1959 brick and block bungalow with authentic brick over/anchored into cinderblock walls, no insulation, mostly plaster on the inside. Augmenting the attic insulation helped immensely. The house had replacement thermal windows when we purchased it. We've had cell shades installed and we also have thermal curtain panels over the cell shades in several rooms. Just recently we discovered that putting child safety outlet covers in the unused outlets on exterior walls noticeably reduces cold drafts... why did it take us so long to figure that one out? But yes, we do heat the entire house with the pellet stove.  Outside temperature, 33'F.  Inside temperature per the HVAC thermostat in the hallway, 71'F.


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## saladdin

nikeseer said:


> Thanks. How much have you gone through so far? I like to keep my stove running 24/7 for the most part. Trying it out with running on high with temp set and cycling. I get chilled when it's not running. I only have 75 bags left after having 153. Yikes. So I'm trying the cylcing. It has cycled 5 times already since 7am. Good or bad?


 
Kinda hard to compare. I live in The Great State of Tennessee and our winters are not as bad. I've probably went through 35 bags so far, last year went through 75 total. This winter, I swear it was 70 christmas day.

I can't run mine 24/7, it'd burn me up. I run it on med with a stat set to 2 degree swing.

I'd be more concerned if time between cycling was short, not how many times. The ignitor will die sooner or later that's why I keep an eye on ebay and found a backup pretty cheap.


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## St_Earl

925 sq. ft single story. lower northern maine.
4.5 tons last year with an unwrapped shake sided slat walled house.
this year it's wrapped and fully vinyl sided. and we added more insulation in the attic.
and did a lot more work on infiltration.

o.a.k.d up midway through last winter. 
but we  did just fine. it was fairly mild for this area last year.

no problems heating the whole place after i perfected my secondary distribution technique.
getting the back bedroom properly heated without having a supernova in the stove room was kind of tricky at first.

i have the luxury of finding how low i can set the feed rate and still maintain status quo on the coldest nights.
just tonight i'm trying out my softwoods for the very first time.

even when we lived in portland oregon, i remember being cold waiting for the blasts of heat from the forced air oil furnace.
never again.


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## thro9

I just purchased a Harman Hydroflex 60 boiler and am looking for anyone who also has this boiler to share ideas on it's functionality. I'm using it as a primary heat source with an oil backup. I've been trying different pellets and different feed rates to keep it at it's highest efficiency but am still using more pellets then I originally thought I would. Thoughts please. Thanks.


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## DemonGT

Our house is 5 years old, 2800 sq. ft.

We are using our stove for 100% of our heat since mid Dec. I got a late start due to some exhaust issue's i was having that need to be taken care of. Been using the stove 24/7 with only a hour shut down once a week for cleaning. Keeps the main level between 71-74 on a Tstat, upper lever stays 66-68.


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## Nuwave

From they way the seller talke I thought I would be able to run this on low and burn less pellets to heat my little house. Turns out I'm blazing on high the whole time I'm home. 

I'm new here but I'll add my name to the list. I heat a 2600 sq. ft. home built in 1890. We've done up grades but you can only do so much with old construction. You say you run it "whole time I'm home". In the dead of winter here (Dec. - Feb.) we run our Revolution furnace on manual and never turn it down unless I clean it. I just adjust the programs and heat level depending on outside temp. The trick is to get the house the way you like it and leave it that way. Even cinder block will warm up (some) eventually. Good luck!


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## Trefix

Hello.

Same question on french fora...

And all pellet stove owners DO (66~75°F), after a few months testing... But here we've got Gulf Stream and low square-feet houses, with (at least) medium insulation...

_Au revoir._




PS : I'd post my Harman's settings >here<, for a 990 square-feet old village-stonned house (a Café-Drugstore, built in 1880s).


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## Flower

It only heats my house is if it's above 40 outside. Once it drops below that I need the furnace. Once it goes below 20 it only stays as warm as the temp on the thermostat which is usually set at 58. But obviously it's the house's fault, not the stove's. It's ancient and it needs a lot more insulation than the recommended R-13 & 19. That being said, I'm putting a coal stove in soon. I want more heat options so I can choose which to use based on the weather.


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## howardvw

ouch it was cold here northern vt, about 10 to 15 below.
pelpro home shop heater was on feed rate 3 all night, temp in house was around 57 thru 60. i woke up to 57 , and now daytime temp is 10 and its about 64 in house on feed rate 2. 1200 sf.
the only issue i can compain about is i wish the fan speed was higher, to move the warm air around better. the back rooms of my house, furthest away from the stove, through 2 walls and a hallway right now temps are 56. near the stove rooms are 65 ish.
tonight, same temps expected 15 below ill go for feed rate 4 and see if i can break the 60 barrier...woo hoo...
if i had another stove it would be a pelpro(same model) and i would run this second one through the night.


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## Trefix

15 bellow ? Brrrr... 

You need higher temp setting and feed rate !


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## howardvw

i agree, but im getting pretty good output, almost 70 degrees and the real tough degrees too, from 30 to 100 is easy compared to the lower temps.
supposedly my convection fan is 256 cfm, exhaust fan is ???. i need about a 400 or so my guess.
im using curran pellets, i swear by em too. about 80/20 ive heard, hardwood. way more heat than lowes/depot with less ash. -though, i see now my depot is carrying same pellets repackaged, the bag has the same address as curran, the pellets look the same, but the bag has a different logo and company on it, 20 cheaper than what im paying.
last year i used about 3 pallets, i might touch the 4 pallets this year. im 1/4 thru my 3rd pallet now.
im 99 percent sure, ill be using this exact model for a custom forced air furnace system, in the next couple years. ive been doing my homework and the specs are hard to touch with the price/value, user controls and parts replacement easy swap. ill be cutting the front off and making a custom trunk for the tin sold off the shelves at depot/lowes. then pipe it to the airvents in the floor and up a wall into the second floor, with dampers, and smaller pickup fans, just a typical forced air furnace but use the pellet stove as the unit. with big secondary hopper for feeding the unit. i bet they have em in your country more than ours..
the one i have now only goes off for about 30 mins on the weekend when i clean it out, otherwise its always on, no thermostat.


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## Trefix

Air cooled engine is the best, for you, too 

 :aloha:


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## howardvw

i think youve figured me out, im one of those weirdo air cooled vw guys, who for some reason are extremely loyal to them and have multiples and of course are easily fixable.
 i feel this stove i have -this pelpro might be a equivalent.... i dont find many people talking about them, a few here and there but hard to find when searching the classifieds.


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