THANK YOU for your "hopeful" response... I have been up every night for the last 2 weeks researching and researching this to no end.... I really REALLY appreciate someone being in a similar situation... thank you so much
Hello... completely new, and ready to purchase a p43 HOWEVER...
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Are you a handy person? There is a bit of maintence with owning a pellet stove. weekly cleanings and such.
I would also buy used off of craigslist or something, that's what we did. be careful though, make sure you see it burn. some people dump their stoves because they stop working not knowing you have to keep them clean.
We bought ours used. This site is a great site for advice or problems or learning all about stoves.
putting a stove by a lot of windows isn't a great idea. there is a certain clearance as to how far away the exhaust can be from an opening window. I don't remember what it is but someone will chime in.
I would also buy used off of craigslist or something, that's what we did. be careful though, make sure you see it burn. some people dump their stoves because they stop working not knowing you have to keep them clean.
We bought ours used. This site is a great site for advice or problems or learning all about stoves.
putting a stove by a lot of windows isn't a great idea. there is a certain clearance as to how far away the exhaust can be from an opening window. I don't remember what it is but someone will chime in.
I would suggest not spending that much money on a pellet stove, I would spend $1000 on an englander. The maintenance is about the same as the stove you are looking at. Salesman that tell you that this particular stove is better because it only needs to be cleaned 1/2 as much as a cheaper stove are full of it.
Then I would take the other $ and install insulation. My first year in this house I think it was $5000 in oil. The last year I heated the house with oil it was $3000. Now I am fairly insulated and heating with geothermal for about $1000 per year. You need to get some better quotes on insulation, you could insulate an entire house with sprayfoam for that much. If you can only afford to do some, do the wall that gets the most wind. It will make a huge difference.
Then I would take the other $ and install insulation. My first year in this house I think it was $5000 in oil. The last year I heated the house with oil it was $3000. Now I am fairly insulated and heating with geothermal for about $1000 per year. You need to get some better quotes on insulation, you could insulate an entire house with sprayfoam for that much. If you can only afford to do some, do the wall that gets the most wind. It will make a huge difference.
You wont go wrong w/ a P43. It is one of the easiest stoves to clean, no hidden exhaust passages and well built. This house has not had insulation since 1917 it can wait a couple of more years. If fuel oil is 4.00/ gal. and pellets are 245/ton it will cost you roughly 1/2 as much to heat. When you insulate home will probably be more comfortable and less drafty and reduce heating more but there is only so much you can do with what you have to work with.
The Harman owners manual should give you distances for venting from windows, doors, eves, etc. You may be able to download it from Harman web site or ask the dealer for a copy of the pic. As for ease of use the Harman should be OK for you. Are you thinking of venting straight out the wall??? How about the dealer and service calls??? Is there a good chimney in the house you can use and burn coal? Coal puts out an intense amount of heat.. and being in PA... .Just a thought..
ok, thank you all for your responses... to have a professional insulate our house properly, even though it is the OBVIOUS thing to do, is not in our budget, we received many quotes, my father does not have the ability to do it and we just pay material costs, is not an option at this time, he has some heart problems... we would have to remove the siding, and replace it, its a two story, etc. etc...
our theories, are now that we have half of our house insulated as of last summer, includes joining wall of duplex, and our attic and part of the new addition (part of the kitchen extension) the previous homeowners put, we have roughly 70% of our house insulated, its the outside walls that do not have insulation.... BUT regardless our oil furnace is 30 years old, the forced air duct work is shotty, and oil prices are through the rough, much of our families put our heads together, and came up with what they thought is the best solution at this time....
Buying a pellet stove and putting it in the kitchen which is the coldest room, and the upstairs staircase is also in the kitchen, the stove would be cornered pointing in that direction.... I have included a diagram
The stove is in the kitchen n the corner... i am wondering if this will HELP... I drew this up to hopefully help figure this out better, I am concerned with the circulation getting up to our childrens bedroom, so we considered cutting a floor/ceiling vent in the kitchen area where the boys room is, so the heat rises through... will this work, again given our cirucumstances.... our oil heats our home well, its just very expensive, even in the coldest days/months it is able to keep our house at 72, its running all the time, but it keeps it maintained... the inslulation cant be THAT bad... PLUS the other side of the house is not only completed insulated with blow in BUT they are also heating their side, so we are hoping that helps keep the warm in too....
Is the placement ok? Willl it be able to reach the Living room and upstairs??? I am worried about the windows and our childrens rooms, we can always use a space heater for upstairs, we can install fans, etc.??
![[Hearth.com] Hello... completely new, and ready to purchase a p43 HOWEVER...](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/81/81175-73c65b0332c3a44d7af7a096137ab371.jpg?hash=HWpVveUSvx "[Hearth.com] Hello... completely new, and ready to purchase a p43 HOWEVER...")
My father believes this will actually do a better job at heating than our old oil furnace, insulation may not even be required...
our theories, are now that we have half of our house insulated as of last summer, includes joining wall of duplex, and our attic and part of the new addition (part of the kitchen extension) the previous homeowners put, we have roughly 70% of our house insulated, its the outside walls that do not have insulation.... BUT regardless our oil furnace is 30 years old, the forced air duct work is shotty, and oil prices are through the rough, much of our families put our heads together, and came up with what they thought is the best solution at this time....
Buying a pellet stove and putting it in the kitchen which is the coldest room, and the upstairs staircase is also in the kitchen, the stove would be cornered pointing in that direction.... I have included a diagram
The stove is in the kitchen n the corner... i am wondering if this will HELP... I drew this up to hopefully help figure this out better, I am concerned with the circulation getting up to our childrens bedroom, so we considered cutting a floor/ceiling vent in the kitchen area where the boys room is, so the heat rises through... will this work, again given our cirucumstances.... our oil heats our home well, its just very expensive, even in the coldest days/months it is able to keep our house at 72, its running all the time, but it keeps it maintained... the inslulation cant be THAT bad... PLUS the other side of the house is not only completed insulated with blow in BUT they are also heating their side, so we are hoping that helps keep the warm in too....
Is the placement ok? Willl it be able to reach the Living room and upstairs??? I am worried about the windows and our childrens rooms, we can always use a space heater for upstairs, we can install fans, etc.??
My father believes this will actually do a better job at heating than our old oil furnace, insulation may not even be required...
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![[Hearth.com] Hello... completely new, and ready to purchase a p43 HOWEVER...](/talk/data/attachments/81/81174-9d2506b1e17cc7b91227c80f609e4ec6.jpg?hash=pFyUPqbpDA)
Looking at your layout, is the wall between the stair and playroom open? If so, this would appear to be a much better location for a stove.
If not, I would still think seriously about it. Centrally located to be able to get heat to all area of the downstairs. Could look at a transfer grille / fan in the wall at the stair.
Also, even though Harmans are very nice, cleaning a stove is well..cleaning a stove. Once you are doing it, does it really matter if it takes an extra couple of minutes? I do a quick once-over every couple of days and a good cleaning every Saturday. For that $3000 you could get a very adequate stove, piping and probably a good supply of pellets.
Just my opinion.
Good luck
If not, I would still think seriously about it. Centrally located to be able to get heat to all area of the downstairs. Could look at a transfer grille / fan in the wall at the stair.
Also, even though Harmans are very nice, cleaning a stove is well..cleaning a stove. Once you are doing it, does it really matter if it takes an extra couple of minutes? I do a quick once-over every couple of days and a good cleaning every Saturday. For that $3000 you could get a very adequate stove, piping and probably a good supply of pellets.
Just my opinion.
Good luck
hello, my DH and I are about to purchase a p43 harman to heat our 2 story duplex 1100sq ft, (we live in one side, the thought was to place it in the kitchen which is also where the upstairs leads, the kitchen is at one end of the house... (hopefully that makes sense)) we are hoping this cuts our oil consumption, the dealer said that the p43 would be our best bet, i informed him we have no insulation except in our attic and our joining wall of the duplex (my father insulated the other half of the house over the summer b/c we rent that side out...) ... dealer was confident this would have no trouble heating our house... I am skeptical, its not an open floor plan, but it is small the kitchen is our coldest room, my concerns, questions are:
1. will the heat circulate well enough throughout the house if we cut holes in the ceiling and insert corner fans in doorways...
2. the only spot in the kitchen we have available is a corner unit that surrounded by windows....
I am trying to firgure all this out on my own b/c my husband is disabled and is unable to help... please can someone help, thank you so much for your time and adviceSo much
where in PA are you located?
Eric
Just curious why you would need to take the siding off to finish insulating? Couldn't you do it from the inside?
-Do you have anyone from a church to help? I am sure if someone besides us knew how much help you needed something could be done.
-I would probably look for a decent used stove and then try and insulate. I also would put it in the playroom area so that the heat goes into kitchen and upstairs.
-Do you have anyone from a church to help? I am sure if someone besides us knew how much help you needed something could be done.
-I would probably look for a decent used stove and then try and insulate. I also would put it in the playroom area so that the heat goes into kitchen and upstairs.
I will comment on the heat to the children's rooms. We keep oil filled electric heaters in the bedrooms. We don't use them much, but if the house is very cold or we want to close a bedroom door its nice to have that option. Also I agree with the idea of buying a well reviewed less expensive unit. Performance is what you're looking for, and you're on a tight budget, so there's no shame in getting a work horse.
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