A couple of MT Vernon AE Questions......
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Harvey Schneider
Minister of Fire
Flame size looks similar but somehow more solid. That could be an illusion, your camera was closer to the stove than mine. Ash consistency looks similar.
It's good to do a comparison every now and then to see that the stove is performing as it should. It's easy for the slow subtle changes to go unnoticed.
Thanks.
It's good to do a comparison every now and then to see that the stove is performing as it should. It's easy for the slow subtle changes to go unnoticed.
Thanks.
Ok, I can buy into this. I am not feeding as many pellets at -4 thus it is not producing the heat. The only reason I did this what I was scared of the flame height but if that is not an issue I will give it try. Little concerned about the amount of increased pellets I would be burning. But if I only do this when it is real cold out should not be an issue. Do you run +3 to +5 all the time? Can you quantify the increase amount of pellets you burn? Why not do this on softwood and get a longer run time? My understanding is the time between auto cleans is longer in softwood than hardwood.
Thanks I will give it try. If it keeps the house hotter then that will mean a happier wife and we all know that is what is important
Also, Harvey appreciate the help, just want to be clear, I am not complaining at all just trying to learn how to get the most out of the stove and make the wife happier.....which what I devote my life too
Also, Harvey appreciate the help, just want to be clear, I am not complaining at all just trying to learn how to get the most out of the stove and make the wife happier.....which what I devote my life too
Harvey Schneider
Minister of Fire
The stove has a thermostat and it will burn pellets proportional to the demand for heat, just like your boiler or furnace. There's no magic here, wood pellets are somewhere in the 8300 BTU per pound range and the stoves are somewhere around 78% efficient if they are burning properly. If your house needs 50K BTU per hour to stay warm you can't get it from two bags a day. Those two bags can only give you about 22K BTU per hour.
Why do pellet stove owners think there is a free ride. They want massive amounts of heat out and they only want to burn one bag of pellets a day.
I'm sorry this rant is not aimed at anybody. I've just been through this discussion too many times in the past few days.
Edit: I feel much better now. Sorry and thanks.
Glad you feel better and thank Harvey. To answer your question I think its because most of us got into this because we wanted to save money over oil thus we all try to keep the pellet consumption as low as possible to save $$. At least that is my story. Although, in this case I was not doing it on purpose when I was keeping the stove a -4, was adjusting that based on the flame height not pellet consumption. Guess the light bulb should have went off for me that this meant lower heat output also but well I have never been accused of being that quick......but that's a story for another forum.
Did you guys ever try running your hardwoods on the high elevation settings? I have found that when burning dense pellets like Turman, Hamer etc. it runs much better with the high elevation setting because it introduces more combustion air to the burn pot, thus a hotter fire. Also you would probably be able to lower your flame height as well, saving pellets.
Harvey Schneider
Minister of Fire
I have no idea what that does to burn efficiency. Hotter fire, more hot air up the vent....?
I have to assume that the Engineers that designed the stove and its burn algorithms know more about stove combustion than I do.
Well, a denser pellet requires more combustion air, the AE has no way to adjust airflow other than the individual fuel settings and how they are pre- programmed. The high elevation does provide more airflow, I also found this useful when I burned corn as well.
Yes I have done this. Problem one the consumption does go up very high but it does produce high heat. The second problem is when you do this it makes the unit change the original fuel tables and loses the updates. Thus it goes back to more frequent auto cleaning. The new fuel tables have extended the run time between auto cleans. Thus, I will not be doing this again.
I was aware of the new tables being erased, which I personally think is a dumb set up, but for me it was worth it to get the extra air I needed, especially when burning corn.
A buddy turned me on to this forum, I am glad its here. You guys have alot of useful info. I live at 8000 ft. in the Colorado Rockys.Its currently been well below 0 deg. at nights, sometimes - 30. I do see the same issues with my Mt. Vernon (non insert) as most of you discribe here. I'm on my second season with it and have never felt it puts out enough heat. I will try some of these sugguestions learned here today and will re post what I've come up with. I'm begining to think that maybe my conditions are extreme enough to really test the capabilities of ANY pellet stove and I'm expecting too much from it. I will tinker with settings, etc. and see what I get. In the meantime thanks to Harvey, OMV & LMPS ( and the rest of you) for sharing this much needed info
Eatonpcat
Minister of Fire
I will gladly take some off your hands......Man i threw in a bag of somerset's and fell asleep. 29F outside and i have my front door wide open
These pellets suck their gonna kill me
I just turned my flame height up to +3. What to do you have it up now?
Harvey Schneider
Minister of Fire
You know these things have thermostats don't you?
Flame height controls rate of heating limit, thermostat controls temperature limit.
Ran the stove on stove on +3 last night was about 31 out and 72 in the house when I went to bed last night and 27 when I got up and the house was still 72. Not a big change in temp but still it held the house which is the first time this happened.
Next question, I run my stove in manual and have always assumed the heat output adjustment increased the pellet feed rate. Is this assumption correct? Or does the heat output only adjuster the blower speed? Or does it do both?
Next question, I run my stove in manual and have always assumed the heat output adjustment increased the pellet feed rate. Is this assumption correct? Or does the heat output only adjuster the blower speed? Or does it do both?
Harvey Schneider
Minister of Fire
So, now are you going to be complaining about how many bags of pellets it's consuming? Sorry, I just couldn't resist that.
Went with a +3 last night also and it was 72 in the house at 9:30pm and 19 out side. This morning house was 69 and it was 15 outside. So, it is better but still losing some.
Today, I am running +5 and on manual High and right now its 14 out and the house got up to 71.2. It's auto cleaning right now so we will see what happens.
I also switched it to softwood to get the longer run. So at this point I do not know what else I could do to get more out of the stove.
Today, I am running +5 and on manual High and right now its 14 out and the house got up to 71.2. It's auto cleaning right now so we will see what happens.
I also switched it to softwood to get the longer run. So at this point I do not know what else I could do to get more out of the stove.
Nope stat was set at 75. The stove auto cleaned at 5:30pm and it was at 71.2 before then after it got done auto cleaning and was restarting it got down to 68.7. It is now 7:15pm and it is back up to 70.7. It has fallen outside from 14 at 5:30 to now 12.2. Settings have been the same throughout, +5 and High.
So during auto clean I lost 2.5 degrees and it has been running now for 40 min after auto clean and it has raised the temp 2 degrees. The question remains if it will be able to get it back up to 71.2 before the next auto clean.
I am not going to burn on sunflower I do not want to lose my fuel table updates.
Its working better it is now 8:10 and the house is back up to 71.4 with the temp dropping to 11.4 outside. So it took an hour and half to gain back the 2.5 degrees it lost during auto cleaning. And guess what it is now auto cleaning again so we start over again. I guess at least its keeping up instead of losing.
you guys have a lot more heat loss than me. LMPS losses 2.5 degrees during an autoclean cycle? Mine will satisfy the stat and cycle off even if its in the teens outside, unless its windier than chit. you guys must smoke thru 2-3 bags a day at that rate...
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