Castle Serenity - lots of ash

[mudeprived]

Enter my world. I have a hall way right down the middle of the house. I have a serenity at each end of the hall. Mornings and evenings I am in the south end which is living room and kitchen. Night time I'm in the bedroom at the north. Which stove I run depends upon which end of the house I'm in. I never run both at the same time as that would cook me to well done in an hour, no matter the weather outside. One stove running only burns one stove worth of pellets.
At the price of these serenitys, I can buy 4 for the price of one fancy stove. But my house is not fancy, nor am I a fancy sort. My house serves a function for me, not a fashion statement. Having had my two stove system for over a year now, I would'nt have it any other way. My mind is at ease knowing that if we do get a cold snap with wind, even if one stove broke down, I still have heat. And it is the kind of heat that I like. I can run my stoves with solar if I choose, and certainly can run them with those small ultra quiet Honda inverter generators on eco mode.

I would love to do this type of set up but all I have are bedrooms at the other end of the house and I hear you cannot run a stove in the bedroom. It's against code or something? I do plan to set up another stove in my basement after I master this one.

Wow I go out to eat for dinner and come back to find mrbeal coaching mude on his stove,that's awesome.Hang in there mude you too will soon have your stove mastered.The Serenity likes to throw heat you will just have to play around with some fans and see if you can get the heat spread through the house.

Yeah I'm going to mess with the blower and see if I can spread the warmth. Thanks.

The pipe on my serenity is much hotter than 105 inside before it goes outside through the wall. This is the one thing that I've been worried about. I emailed Arsisam and they said it will be hot to the touch and it's normal for this stove. I shot it with a temp gun and it seems to be around 200. One thing I noticed is the temp gun will read only 90* if I aim it at the metal I have to aim it at the tape on the pipe to get a good reading.

Other than that it seems to be burning really well. I've been dialing in the air a little more than 1/2 closed and that seems to be best.

Edit: to be clear though I am measuring about 6-12" from the stove. My pipe goes about 18" straight out the wall then outside goes up three feet. Outside I can lay my hand on the pipe no problem.

So I gotta find something locally that I can wrap my pipe up with. Seems like all the foil tapes they offer at HD and Lowes have max temps of 200 degrees but I'd like something a little higher than that.

 

[rich2500]

here you go mude you can check if your local ace has it in stock
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1273881

 

[rich2500]

The pipe on my serenity is much hotter than 105 inside before it goes outside through the wall. This is the one thing that I've been worried about. I emailed Arsisam and they said it will be hot to the touch and it's normal for this stove. I shot it with a temp gun and it seems to be around 200. One thing I noticed is the temp gun will read only 90* if I aim it at the metal I have to aim it at the tape on the pipe to get a good reading.

Other than that it seems to be burning really well. I've been dialing in the air a little more than 1/2 closed and that seems to be best.

Edit: to be clear though I am measuring about 6-12" from the stove. My pipe goes about 18" straight out the wall then outside goes up three feet. Outside I can lay my hand on the pipe no problem.

you are fine at that temp but keep in mind you want to keep a nice lively bright flame with the least amount of air going out the exhaust, the more air going out the exhaust is more heat going out the exhaust which will cause higher pipe temps so keep dialing on the stove and I think you will find your pipe temp will drop also as it did for mrbeal.

 

[Deezl Smoke]

The pipe on my serenity is much hotter than 105 inside before it goes outside through the wall. This is the one thing that I've been worried about. I emailed Arsisam and they said it will be hot to the touch and it's normal for this stove. I shot it with a temp gun and it seems to be around 200. One thing I noticed is the temp gun will read only 90* if I aim it at the metal I have to aim it at the tape on the pipe to get a good reading.

Other than that it seems to be burning really well. I've been dialing in the air a little more than 1/2 closed and that seems to be best.

Edit: to be clear though I am measuring about 6-12" from the stove. My pipe goes about 18" straight out the wall then outside goes up three feet. Outside I can lay my hand on the pipe no problem.

My stoves are virtually the same plumbing out the exhaust. Only mine go up 6' on the outside. I can not hold my hand on the pipe next to the stove inside for any length of time. It's about like the hot hose on an engine in a car. But outside, I can hold my hand in front of the outlet. It may sound confusing but some of the heat on the pipe next to the stove is actually heat from the fire box metal transferring on out for a ways. And yes, the exhaust fan is hot as well.

 

[alternativeheat]

Not that this relates to the thread as it developed but I picked up some TSC pellets today in a white bag, blue lettering, marked Hardwood Blends. I will burn those for a couple of days ( I just got 3 bags to try them) and see how the heat and ash is with them compared to the FSU I currently am using. I had never seen the white bag with blue letters before. But the guy at TSC said they have 4 or 5 suppliers of their brand pellets and this one wouldn't put them in the old TSC bags with the red lettering. He also said that they have had no complaints with them so far . But at $4.79 a bag I figured I'd try them out, the P61 will burn anything anyway, I'm thinking about dumping my shavings from my wood lathe and my thickness planer in the hopper LOL ( yes I'm sort of kidding) !

 

[mudeprived]

here you go mude you can check if your local ace has it in stock
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1273881

Thanks. I decided to buy the silicone tape at HD since it was 10 feet for $7. Ace was a bit of a drive. I picked up four rolls and did the entire pipe.



I still saw a little bit of smoke coming from somewhere and I'm guessing the hole for the igniter? The smoke is only visible with a flashlight. I can see the glowing rod through a little hole with the back cover off but I don't know if that hole is covered or not. It's just a tiny bit of smoke for like 10 seconds so it's no big deal.

I set the blower settings a little higher this time starting at 95 for Level 1. Let's see if it pushes more heat throughout the house.

I do plan to eliminate about 2 feet of the wall on the left in the picture below:



It's not really important and the other side of it is just a built in shelf holding my zombie stuff.



That will open up the living room and allow more air flow. I think it'll look better too.

 

[rich2500]

I bet that will make a huge difference if you take out part of that wall.

 

[mudeprived]

I bet that will make a huge difference if you take out part of that wall.

Yeah I hope so. The heat is just not exiting that room for some reason. It's already 81 in there and I been running it for 40 minutes. I walk outside the room and it's a cool 66 degrees.

I may have to shut it down soon or else I'll become Bear Grylls attempting to survive in the desert.

 

[rich2500]

Have you tried a fan on the floor in the stove room across from the door opening trying to push some of the heat out the door opening.I don't know it would help or not but worth a try. My brother tried a pellet stove in his house which has doorways into all his rooms and he could never get the heat to other rooms and ended up taking the pellet stove back out. My stove is in my dining room which is wide open to my kitchen and living room then my bedrooms and bathrooms are at either ends of my house and I only have a 2 deg.temp difference in my bedrooms and bathrooms.

 

[mudeprived]

Have you tried a fan on the floor in the stove room across from the door opening trying to push some of the heat out the door opening.I don't know it would help or not but worth a try. My brother tried a pellet stove in his house which has doorways into all his rooms and he could never get the heat to other rooms and ended up taking the pellet stove back out. My stove is in my dining room which is wide open to my kitchen and living room then my bedrooms and bathrooms are at either ends of my house and I only have a 2 deg.temp difference in my bedrooms and bathrooms.

Wanna swap houses? lol

I like the fan idea but I'm tryin to lean on the stove alone to save $$ on the electric bill. It just went from $51 in October to $131 in November with a $101 account balance. Geez!

 

[Lake Girl]

Best get that wall out to get better air flow! If you run a fan on the floor, try to pull air from the bedroom direction and push it into the stove room. It will speed up the convection loop with the warm air up higher and the cooler air getting fed back to the stove to get rewarmed.

 

[mudeprived]

Best get that wall out to get better air flow! If you run a fan on the floor, try to pull air from the bedroom direction and push it into the stove room. It will speed up the convection loop with the warm air up higher and the cooler air getting fed back to the stove to get rewarmed.

I will try this tmw when it gets colder.

 

[mrbeal]

I will try this tmw when it gets colder.

Let us know how it works... it didn't work when I tried it.

 

[Lake Girl]

It actually worked in my kitchen doorway in the hall to the bedrooms. Oversized doorway with short hallway...

 

[mrbeal]

Maybe I'll try again... what's the worst that could happen??

 

[Deezl Smoke]

Thanks. I decided to buy the silicone tape at HD since it was 10 feet for $7. Ace was a bit of a drive. I picked up four rolls and did the entire pipe.

View attachment 188469

I still saw a little bit of smoke coming from somewhere and I'm guessing the hole for the igniter? The smoke is only visible with a flashlight. I can see the glowing rod through a little hole with the back cover off but I don't know if that hole is covered or not. It's just a tiny bit of smoke for like 10 seconds so it's no big deal.

I set the blower settings a little higher this time starting at 95 for Level 1. Let's see if it pushes more heat throughout the house.

I do plan to eliminate about 2 feet of the wall on the left in the picture below:

View attachment 188470

It's not really important and the other side of it is just a built in shelf holding my zombie stuff.

View attachment 188471

That will open up the living room and allow more air flow. I think it'll look better too.

A small fan of decent brand will likely only be a dollar or two per month. However, if there are no other doors or air outlets in the room that is cool, a fan will be marginal help unless it is placed in the doorway to the cool room. A closed off room kinda creates it's own air block in a way. The warm air has to move in order to get into the cooler room. But if the cooler room is closed off other than the doorway, the warm air cant get in very well.

Warm air ascends, cold air descends. So cooler air will be at the floor. A small fan on the floor faced toward the stove, will "pull" the cooler air out and allow the warmer air to enter the room at the ceiling.

If you know any firemen, ask them how PPV works. It's Positive Pressure Ventilation. When you see them cutting a hole in the roof and setting up a fan in an open doorway, it is to push the heat and smoke up and out of the house. If the fan starts before the hole is cut, you can see smoke comes back at the fan. This is because there is no place for the smoke to go until a hole is cut or a window at the other side of the house is opened. Kinda how a room with no way for air to move thru it works. The air just stagnates and wont allow the warm air to enter until some sort of circulator is set up.

 

[Lake Girl]

If you know any firemen, ask them how PPV works. It's Positive Pressure Ventilation.

Hubby, very recently retired Fire Chief.

 

[alternativeheat]

Of all the things that use electricity, fans have to be among the cheapest to run. I would guess pennies per week per fan. In my house ceiling fans help some, enough to be noticeable. Especially the one at the top of the stair well, which I use in mid winter to push air down the stairs actually, making kind of an air dam so all the warm air doesn't end up up there and so we can get some warm air out to the extended kitchen area. The other two ceiling fans in outer rooms are drawing up, which brings warm air in and out down the walls as it cools.

No system is perfect, with central heating being as close as it gets. People locking a pellet stove in a closed off room and expecting it to heat the house is the least effective . So we Rube Goldberg to compensate ( compared with central heat that is).

 

[DrewBoogie]

I completely agree on the small fan on the floor. I put one in our TV room blowing into the kitchen where the stove is and it made a huge difference in my house. It pushed much more warm into the TV room which is where the stairs up are, which warmed the upstairs considerably better.

 

[mudeprived]

Well I got a fan running and tossing cold air into the living room. That might even manage the temp in there so it doesn't go up to 85 like before. We'll see if I can get the kitchen higher than 70, which is the warmest it has been.

 

[rich2500]

Not much activity from the Serenity owners lately I'm assuming they got their stoves pretty well figured out.

 

[alternativeheat]

Just for the record, I reported buying some of the white bag/blue lettering TSC pellets. There isn't anything wrong with these pellets, burning quite hot , not too bad on ash. Just a little dusty going into the hopper.

 

[rich2500]

now that they are getting their stoves dialed in they should be able to burn pretty much any brand pellet with minor adjustments.I have burned about every cheap pellet available in my area in the serenity with no problems and never even adjusted the stove.

 

[mudeprived]

now that they are getting their stoves dialed in they should be able to burn pretty much any brand pellet with minor adjustments.I have burned about every cheap pellet available in my area in the serenity with no problems and never even adjusted the stove.

Yeah the pellets I got from TS are burning just fine. I dunno what alot or little is pertaining to dust yet so I will learn that soon and then I can tune the stove and judge pellets better.

So far the fan trick is working. My kitchen is 73 degrees and rising (highest it's ever been in winter), however, the living room is 89 degrees on setting 1. LOL

 

[Deezl Smoke]

now that they are getting their stoves dialed in they should be able to burn pretty much any brand pellet with minor adjustments.I have burned about every cheap pellet available in my area in the serenity with no problems and never even adjusted the stove.

That's because you are an experienced operator. d
I was raised on a wood stove and still have one in the shop. So I dont even notice a few degrees here or there as it is just normal for me to not have every inch of the house or shop or wherever at the exact same temp. I get in my vehicle, start it, let the oil pressure get to normal and maybe set there 30 seconds or so changing the heater settings or radio dial, but I then back out and leave. I dont start it and go back into the house for any length of time unless it is 10 degrees out. But then I dont have any reason to drive at that temp, so..........But it does not bother me to drive in a cold vehicle for a mile or two as I know it will warm eventually. I know a few people that cant fathom such an act.