Home Heating Test -12C with P43 on Low

[Whitenuckler]

Today is very cold with a wind chill as well. At noon I turned all my electric heaters and both heat pumps down to about 15C.
18.8C in my kitchen at noon. I have installed a fresh air return duct from my bedroom to the stove, and have a little square fan mounted on the
grill next to the stove blowing cold air into the dist fan which is running at slow. I will update the temperature in about 4 hours.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Today is very cold with a wind chill as well. At noon I turned all my electric heaters and both heat pumps down to about 15C.
18.8C in my kitchen at noon. I have installed a fresh air return duct from my bedroom to the stove, and have a little square fan mounted on the
grill next to the stove blowing cold air into the dist fan which is running at slow. I will update the temperature in about 4 hours.

OK it's 4pm - Temp 18.1C. I have my heat pump in the living room set for 16C and it came on. The heat from the basement does not get there as there is no circulation. If I am indeed causing air to circulate from my bedroom, then it is being drawn up the stairs and into the kitchen. By the time it gets back to my bedroom it's probably cool and the bedroom is about 16C. That is all with the stove on low, stove mode and the basement is about 20C. It stayed cold all day. -9C now. I am very happy with the stove. I am burning about a bag a day, and have lots of extra capacity as far as BTU. Still can't get those BTU out of the basement though. Maybe someday I will get an insert for the upstairs fireplace. If the power goes out even for days I will be warm. I also hope to bring my power bill back down to summer levels. We have had a very cold winter, and the heat pumps draw extra kwh when it's cold outside. My old heat pump I had in the basement hardly worked, and even if I set it to 22C, the basement was 15. I have moved that head upstairs to my bedroom to use it for AC. Last summer was very hot, and it's hard to move air around hallways ect with fans. I will add another large convection heater in the basement so I have heat when I'm away.

 

[bogieb]

I'm not surprised if your basement is only 68*m that your main floor is not warm. Your basement needs to get much warmer for the air traveling up the stairs to be warm enough to positively affect the air temp upstairs. Also, unsure what a partial OAK is (as stated in your signature), but if you aren't drawing all the air for the exhaust from outside, you are pulling in cold air from somewhere in the house - perhaps from upstairs.

Additionally, not all house configurations are conducive to good air circulation. There is a reason I have 2 stoves - the P61a, on paper, is easily strong enough to heat the 1,600 sq/ft of my basement and main floor. But the dynamics of my house, along with the location of the stairway opening on the main floor, make it very difficult for the air exchange well - even with lots of fans and holes cut in the floor. My bedrooms would get into the mid 50's while my basement was in the upper 80s. My kitchen and lvingroom would be okay, since they were closer to the warm air coming up.

When it is cold out like that (or colder/windier), I can go thru two bags per day - 1 per stove. When I had just the P61a, it would go thru 2 bags a day too.

 

[zrock]

If your OAK is not pulling from outside and just using inside air then your stove is generating negative pressure in the house and pulling air from every leak in you home and will have a much harder time warming up the air. When i first got my stove i ran without for the first month and it made a noticeable difference. Not sure if you have a ceiling fan in your kitchen but that will make the biggest difference in moving air around your home. If i shut my ceiling fan off i notice it take much longer for the rest of the house to warm up

 

[Whitenuckler]

I'm not surprised if your basement is only 68*m that your main floor is not warm. Your basement needs to get much warmer for the air traveling up the stairs to be warm enough to positively affect the air temp upstairs. Also, unsure what a partial OAK is (as stated in your signature), but if you aren't drawing all the air for the exhaust from outside, you are pulling in cold air from somewhere in the house - perhaps from upstairs.

Additionally, not all house configurations are conducive to good air circulation. There is a reason I have 2 stoves - the P61a, on paper, is easily strong enough to heat the 1,600 sq/ft of my basement and main floor. But the dynamics of my house, along with the location of the stairway opening on the main floor, make it very difficult for the air exchange well - even with lots of fans and holes cut in the floor. My bedrooms would get into the mid 50's while my basement was in the upper 80s. My kitchen and lvingroom would be okay, since they were closer to the warm air coming up.

When it is cold out like that (or colder/windier), I can go thru two bags per day - 1 per stove. When I had just the P61a, it would go thru 2 bags a day too.

Yes I agree with your thoughts. It was really cold last night and -12C this morning. I have these electric convection heaters throughout the house and in each bedroom. In my master bedroom I had the door closed and the heater set. The stove in the basement was on low. The kitchen was down to 16.5C as I had the heaters and LR Heat pump down low. I went down and cranked the stove up to mid heat.
Partial OAK - I have 3" aluminum duct attached and it runs into the room behind my stove. That was the original oil furnace room. This house had an oil boiler that supplied all the water baseboard heaters and also domestic. At some point here on PEI, they decided everyone should switch to heat pumps. Oil was very expensive at one time, maybe double. That room already had an outside air vent. Right now I get my air from that room. The outside vent is hooked up to 3" flex vent that I have in a loop and the end is hanging a few feet from the stove OAK pipe. I did try to directly connect them, but at -12C outside the stove really fired up and at the time I was testing it in minimum BTU mode. That furnace room door I keep closed and that is where I have my new house duct and power electronics.

 

[zrock]

you need to have it hooked to your stove.. The colder it is the better heat i get out of my stove. If you look at your hydro usage with those convection heaters running you would probably use less pellets than the cost of hydro by bumping up your heat setting on the stove. Put some small fans around just running on low if you have no ceiling fan to move the air around. In negative temps i can heat my whole place with the stove. Sometimes i turn the furnace on if the stove has been shut down for a while to circulate the heat and level out the temps and then everything stays warm as long as the stove is running..

 

[johneh]

I am having trouble trying to figure out what you are doing
You run your stove on low to use less pellets and then you
supplement your heat with very expensive Hydro.
I think I would turn the stove up and put the fan on
but that's me. Good luck with what you are doing

 

[Whitenuckler]

you need to have it hooked to your stove.. The colder it is the better heat i get out of my stove. If you look at your hydro usage with those convection heaters running you would probably use less pellets than the cost of hydro by bumping up your heat setting on the stove. Put some small fans around just running on low if you have no ceiling fan to move the air around. In negative temps i can heat my whole place with the stove. Sometimes i turn the furnace on if the stove has been shut down for a while to circulate the heat and level out the temps and then everything stays warm as long as the stove is running..

Yes I agree if I am going to run at higher BTU output might as well connect it to the outside air directly. Just did it. I really wish I had ducts in the house, but there are none but a new one I just installed. If it is zero C or above, I can heat my upstairs with the heat pumps at high efficiency (over 250%). Then I just need to heat the basement, so that is why I did my experimenting with low output BTU. However, when it goes to -12C ect the heat pumps are not efficient. That is why I am now working on trying to get air flow upstairs. I have the stove cranking now mid on the dial, and the inline duct fan on high (just got it mounted). I have a big quiet raised fan next to the stove blowing towards the stairs which are on the other side of the basement. I really wish I had a pellet insert in my upstairs fireplace, but at 10K a pop and being retired it's not happening anytime soon. I thank everyone for their comments. I just got the stove, and have been having fun testing and love my basement now. Before it was 15C half the time and I was sitting with an electric heater in front of me.

 

[Golfeur]

I don't know where your staircase is in relation to your stove but the best way to get your heat up is you don't need a fan behind the stove turn it off. Use the stove's distribution fan on the minimum so the heat will come out hotter and will naturally rise up the stairs.
Try this and I'm sure you'll see a difference because with your big fan you're preventing the air from the ground floor from going down to the basement if you do what I say you'll feel in the stairs the exchange of cold and hot air will happen naturally that's exactly what happens at my place in my stove and staircase configuration
Take the test

 

[Whitenuckler]

I don't know where your staircase is in relation to your stove but the best way to get your heat up is you don't need a fan behind the stove turn it off. Use the stove's distribution fan on the minimum so the heat will come out hotter and will naturally rise up the stairs.
Try this and I'm sure you'll see a difference because with your big fan you're preventing the air from the ground floor from going down to the basement if you do what I say you'll feel in the stairs the exchange of cold and hot air will happen naturally that's exactly what happens at my place in my stove and staircase configuration
Take the test

Ok - Yes, I know what you mean. I always wondered how the hot air and cold air were being mixed in the stairwell which is about 30ft on the other side of the basement. I will go down and shut off the big fan. The dist fan is about mid. I have other issues too as adjacent to my stairs are two other rooms which are cold. I have the doors open about 8 inches to get some heat into them. I which I had a duct system but this house never had one. I guess some of the heat must be helping the upstairs although it's hard to measure.

 

[bogieb]

It was really cold last night and -12C this morning. .

That isn't too bad here in February . Lower single to negative digits (F) is pretty much the norm for lows. Being in the negative teens (F) isn't abnormal.

 

[Ssyko]

There are alot of heat sinks in a basement, concrete floor, walls, celling most of the heat will be to heat up the area before it will head up the stairs

 

[Whitenuckler]

There are alot of heat sinks in a basement, concrete floor, walls, celling most of the heat will be to heat up the area before it will head up the stairs

Yes, I think you're right. It's a finished basement, but it's pretty big and the room the stove is in is very large. Then I have other rooms some of which are uninsulated ect. The only door I am keeping closed down there is the old furnace room because it is uninsulated and I don't use it except for some storage. I can heat the upstairs with heat pumps, however they are only at high efficiency around zero C and above.
At really low temperatures, I might as well use my electric convection heaters upstairs as they are 100% efficient. Like I said, I am very happy even if I am heating the basement as it's half of my house and being finished, I use it.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Warm and showers. About 8C. Heating the whole house with the P43 on the lowest heat I can get. Basement at 22C and Kitchen at 21C. Running my through floor vent fan on high and have every inside door open in the house. I can see I will have to switch to thermostat mode soon as I can use my heat pumps for upstairs and then can just heat the basement to 21C. This is the last day and then we start to go down again. Sump pump is pumping. Spring thaw is here and we had a lot of snow to melt. I still have a foot on my lawn for sure.

 

[johneh]

Spring thaw is here and we had a lot of snow to melt. I still have a foot on my lawn for sure.

Welcome to mud season

 

[Whitenuckler]

Spring is here. Went up to 13C with cloud/sun. Had all heat sources turned down. P43 running as low as I can (stove mode). Hitting 24C in the basement and 22C in the kitchen. Bedroom where the duct fan intake is, 20C. Might need to wear shorts in the basement soon. Looks like colder weather coming, so no need shut it down yet. The new duct fan does work, if I am cooking, I can smell it in my bedroom (starting to use the oven vent fan more). Love the P43. Been running almost 24/7. One bag a day. How are things elsewhere?