Going Whole Hog! 2nd pellet stove for basement & 7 ton hopper

[ehkewley]

On the plywood and 2 x 4 bin you need to allow for all of the loads you are going to encounter and make certain that the wood you are making the bin out of will not come in contact with water as it will wick and pellets will get ruined. Also be certain to allow for pellet dust caused issues (static charges and dust are not good playmates).

Agreed. I have a friend (carpenter) who will sanity-check my plans. I've lucked out that our basement seems to be fairly leak-resistant. The previous homeowner stated that he never had any dampness or leaks in 10 years. He could have lied, but the basement is mostly finished and I didn't find any signs of water damage. I'll include a form of vapor barrier however against the concrete just in case. I also have a dehumidifier to help with humidity in the summer.

I read that an exhaust port and grounded fill/exhaust lines are recommended for these setups. I'm not sure where else I may get static charge from. The exit pipe will be quite short and will drain into a bucket. There will be a ported "door" for cleaning as well as sealing the inside against leaks.

 

[ehkewley]

Have you looked into getting a Pellet Furnace?

What type of heating system is in place now? So you have a forced air system, boiler, electric?

Are you stuck on the P-43? How many sq ft is the basement (or how many are you wanting to heat)??

As for the hopper, Smokey hit the nail on the head. They can be made of wood and Many Corn burners have them. Just needs to be constructed right and also take all the hazards and dangers into account.

I dont think your consumption will go down any. It should rise if adding another freestanding stove. That stove in the basement will have to work harder to take any load of the stove upstairs. You may get by running them on lower settings, but they should still be thermostaticly controlled (programmed on/off times. During the day, run the basement stove, nighttime run both?)

Still looking at higher usage. I added a furnace in my basement last year (also a wood stove). I never had to run the freestander and furnace together. I bought it knowing I would never need to run them together. My consumption was cut in half this year (4.5 ton burned last year, only 2.25 ton burned this year) a lot of that was because of the woodstove and the warmer temps this Winter.

If you have ductwork, I would seriously look into a Pellet Furnace and run it in parallel, into your existing HVAC. My unit gives off a pretty good amount of heat and of you dont hook up the cold air return, you are essentially heating the basement also completes the loop in the basement).

As for the derailment.... Please understand that the pay here isn't great and we like to have fun. There are ways where both parties could have handled it differently. Whats done is done. All of us are guilty to a certain degree (at one time or another/ or daily )

I have forced hot air. I considered (last year) getting an adjoining forced air pellet burner, but I only have two small vents in the basement, and the rest are in various areas of the house. The install cost was also a lot to deal with, and I wasn't sure the house would be as warm as it was with a pellet stove. This is just my guess. I've lived with various types of heat, but with "budget" propane/oil I've never had warm floors, walls and cabinets. The system would cycle on and off, and the walls / floors would get cold. With the pellet stove, it's usually around 71 ~ 72 downstairs, and 68 upstairs. The best part is that everything is warm in the house. Perhaps you can get that with forced air too, but I don't have experience with pellet forced air.

I'm not suck on the P43, but I do like it and the idea of swapping parts. I would consider a similarly priced stove that had an OAK. I'm currently looking around craigslist for a decent priced used units. Basement is roughly 1,000 square feet and we use the entire basement in the summer. The "pellet" room is has finished walls but no carpet or flooring. It is the area where the furnace, dwh, pellets, and other utilities reside. The other two rooms are for movies and projects. We used them a lot in the spring and summer, but mostly avoided them this winter.

Agreed on the hopper comment.

Upstairs pellet stove is thermostatically controlled. Running the downstairs unit only during the day sounds interesting, but may not reach the second floor. Smokey mentioned a 78% utilization of pellets over the previous season, but he claims other factors were in play. This puts me roughly at about 1 ton over last seasons usage, or 5.4 tons. If I bumped it to 6.5 (or max of 7) I thought that might be enough to cover the basement as well.

I have no problems with jokes. I wasn't happy with how Defiant handled the upper posts, but it's not evident right now. He since modified one with an apology, which I appreciate. It's difficult for someone to raise their concern about a thread without getting anyone upset. I did try to write a thoughtful original post with information and questions.

 

[ehkewley]

I think I'd go forced air pellet before ducting a free-stander. I'm not as brave as Don. BTW what was your usage last season with that setup?

I have a gas fireplace downstairs as well. I wanted a pellet insert but couldn't afford it. I since shut the gas off and plugged the vent in the back. I was amazed at how much cold air came through those units.. too bad it's not somehow dampered.

 

[DexterDay]

I think I'd go forced air pellet before ducting a free-stander. I'm not as brave as Don. BTW what was your usage last season with that setup?

I only used 2.5 ton, compared to 4.5 last year. But I also have a Wood stove within 20 ft of the Pellet furnace.

You said you only have 2 ducts in the basement? Thats fine, but you must also include the radiant heat and little air leaks from the furnace, plus, if you dont put a cold air return on it ? Then all the Hot air you pump upstairs, is gonna find its way back sownstairs, to complete the convective loop.....

As for the Hot air Pellet Furnace? Its the same type of Hot air from a Freestanding pellet stove. They have the same parts, heat exchanger, blower, etc. It just has a larger blower to sufficiently heat the entire house from one point.

Remember. Pellet stoves are space heaters. There are only designed to heat the room/space they are in. Do lots of us get by with one stove? Yes. But do a lot of people still have to supplement with other means of heat? Absolutely! ! That is why the Pellet furnace was made. To effectively and efficiently heat an entire home from one point in the home, that is directed to a dozen different points in the house, via HVAC.

When its below 30° we use the Fahrenheit Endurance, when its above 30°, we use the Quad upstairs (soon to be swapped out with new stove!!) I normally always had a fire in the woodstove too. But about a month ago, I let it go cold. By superheating the basement air with the Woodstove, it makes the furnace more efficient. It sucks that 90° air (instead of 45°) and distributes it throughout the house, so I dont have to try and persuade the heat upstairs. The furnace does all the work...

Having 2 of the same stoves would be smart. If in fact the upstairs stove took a Chit, you could take the part off the basement stove and get by until the new part came in.

Installing a stove/or furnace, isn't as complicated as it seems. I have installed all of mine, along with about a dozen other friends and family. Here is a pic of the furnace.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Yeah I figured I didn't have enough info. I did try to include some however (insulated floors, walls, single wall uninsulated, average winter temp), but that's why I asked for a rough estimate. Perhaps I should have instead specifically asked for observations from people before/after adding a pellet stove to a basement that was mostly insulated. The walls of the basement are 2x4 construction (the rest of the house is 2x6) and seem to have the standard pink paper-backed insulation. The basement ceiling has insulation as well, but I'm not aware of the type.. it's yellow standard fiberglass. I've only been in the house for a year.

More variables affected your 78% observation? Still might make a good rough estimate. Are you more of a hard-facts person?

Fiberglass comes in many colors these days it seems. The 2x4 for the basement walls really reduces the R value. How high is the basement ceiling and did the basement stay cool in the summer.

Don't go by my consumption figures, I added a t-stat and replaced my broken igniter. Up until that point I had been manually firing the stove which can lead to overheating the space during the shoulder seasons. Then something dawned on me this spring, the builder put a sump and gravity drain in the house he then finished the side of the basement that wasn't being used as a garage. This meant the sump and gravity drain were now on the finished side of the basement. Sure enough when the snow level got down I was able to determine there was a draft through the drain. It has since been capped using a plastic bag and fairly light duty rubber band. End of that shoulder season extra air infiltration and the basement is a few degrees warmer.

ETA: This coming season I hope to get the consumption down again. I'm part way through making interior storm windows with the goal of evening out the temperatures upstairs.

 

[AbetterChimneynm]

Here is my two cents for what is worth, A p43 is designed it says on the web site to heat around 2000sq feet why not get a bigger stove such as a p68 for the main house area and then therefore cut you use of pellets down and throw the p43 in the basement and use it when someone is down there... Again just my two cents.


Also i would not want seven tons of open pellets anywhere in my house on the small what if chance i would be nervous but we dont get as cold down here as you guys do so My two cents on this subject are prolley not in the ball park


Shawn

 

[Hoot23]

Craig's list has a few p68's and a p61. Not sure on the prices.