Looks like I picked the wrong year to buy two pellet stove oil prices keep dropping....
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That's where I'm at heating 2000 sqft with my stove doesn't sound too far off to me
Wilbur Feral
Minister of Fire
At 92 bags heating just under 3000 SF. Just made the switch to Hamers (from Presto) as the cold weather is hitting. Up into 50's tomorrow for a day, so will clean the stoves as we prep for single digits. Nothing like some of you get, but cold enough for me!
i've also used 3/4 of a 275 oil tank because my stove can't hang on its own. and my house is 1400 sq feet, 1000 of which the stove has a level on (400 is below stove grade)
My slider is leaky, but the house is pretty new (1997) and has all the thermo pane windows and such. on medium, full on, my stove won't keep my house over 65. and that's when it's not cold out. drop below 20 and the furnace runs and runs...
Bioburner
Moderator
yep.... my dealer's been here many times, had scott do my oak.. it's better now with the oak, but the stove still sucks. lol other people who have it like it. maybe i got a lemon.
if i were planning to stay here in this house, i'd get a 2nd stove.
but i'm planning to move south in a couple years so its not worth it.
I don't need an audit to tell you my slider leaks like crazy and my windows are cold. but i don't think anything else would do much better.
if i were planning to stay here in this house, i'd get a 2nd stove.
but i'm planning to move south in a couple years so its not worth it.
I don't need an audit to tell you my slider leaks like crazy and my windows are cold. but i don't think anything else would do much better.
For what it's worth, I don't burn pellets... I have 2.2 cf epa wood stove that heats a large 3,000 sq foot home at temps down to -30f with little problem. Right now it is -12 with a north wind of 10-15 and I have to let the stove idle down or it would overheat the place. I do cover the north facing slider window with plastic every winter as it does leak a lot of air and the plastic always bulges inwards showing how leaky it is.
Might be a good cheap fix and help his stove out quite a bit. Might keep temps up well above where you are too.
Even the best sliding deck or patio windows are notorious leakers. Up here where it gets very cold, if I didn't do my best to seal my north sliding deck window I figure I'd burn a good 1/3 more wood and I might not keep up with the heat on some cold and windy nights.
Agreed. Glass in general is a huge BTU killer. Pieces of glass that move are even worse. Cold air infiltration can make heating a place a exercise in futility.
The dumbass that built my house put 70% of the windows on the north side of the house. This includes 2 patio doors, 2 man doors and 1 POS French door! Live and learn. It doesn't matter how much insulation you use, the best windows are only about R 5-7! You could have the best stove in the world, but when you try to heat the planet instead of the inside of your home, you're fighting a loosing battle!
Bioburner
Moderator
When I planned for the build of our house we did not put any North facing windows. Would just get some road noise and look at wall of evergreen trees 20 feet away. Office in the one room and AV room in the other and both north walls are use for idiot boxes. Very good move when the winds are like they are tonight at about 15 from the NNW and its -10
it's not so much the R value of the glass but how well it seals out the air drafts. I think casement windows are better at that than others but I could be wrong....
Brian mine did to well still does but not as bad when I moved in here. I had to take the molding off of the inside door to plug a 3 inch non insolated gap all around it. My wife also bought some thick winter drapes for the slider door that help allot. Also no insulation around my down stair window jams either had to do the same with all of them and my outside wall electrical plates
How true
Third year here and still chase cold leaks
I'm on the south shore of a lake! Right now its -10 at my house wit 50 mph winds coming off the lake. I'm 20 feet away from the stove and can actually feel the wind! Lol, can't wait to build the next.
I'm on the south end of a lake also and it can get wicked! But 50 mph winds are seldom up here. You are doing good if your keeping warm at all in those kind of extreme winds and cold, cold temperatures!
Personally, I think you're looking at it wrong.
If you were paying $4000 for oil before and now you're paying $3000, seems to me you have an extra $1000 to put towards the
pellet stove.
If you were paying $4000 for oil before and now you're paying $3000, seems to me you have an extra $1000 to put towards the
pellet stove.
The funny thing is, when I had the wood stove, the windier it was the hotter the house would be! I went through a lot more wood, but holy crap it got hot down here! Some times I had the damper fully closed and the stove was still crazy hot! The pellet stove is a lot more in control due to the mechanical draft.
mass_burner
Minister of Fire
I don't see that, maybe cause all my windows are south facing. 40% of my south facing wall, is basically floor to ceiling glass, with one slider. That slider opens to a patio completely of glass, 5 double sliders.
Your glass is on the right side for winter and helps with solar gain. If you take into consideration the R-Value of glass and hot / cold transfer an insulated wall without glass is better in any situation. On the flip side how does all of that glass help you with cooling in the summer. It hurts you. Also that glass hurts you for heating on non sunny days in the winter because the glass cools and there is no warm sunny love. Low-E, argon, and stuff only goes so far.
My main point is there are all kinds of losses and gains with glass. No way around it. The more you have then the more you loose and gain depending.
Also with your situation the extra glass room outside of your 40% south facing glass wall adds to the solar gain which can help in winter and do the opposite in summer. One thing it does all year is help with blocking air infiltration on your interior wall of windows. In the summer it also can turn into a green house effect and radiate unwanted heat thru said wall.
mass_burner
Minister of Fire
In the patio, there are also 3 45x 40 skylights that open. In summer, we open all the sliders, the patio door into the house, and the opposite wall windows to get a good cross breeze going, we also live 1/2 mile from the ocean, so the breeze is more mild in summer.
But you're right about the sun thing in winter, speeds up the warming up time drastically.
But you're right about the sun thing in winter, speeds up the warming up time drastically.
You have it figured out. My point is what happens when that patio / sunroom isn't opened? The ocean breeze most definitely helps tremendously also. What happens when it isn't sunny in the winter? Glass works against you. Does it not? There is no perfect solution for any home. You have to make adjustments accordingly. Too many variables. I am sticking to my guns on glass having poor R-Values and tons of losses and gains. There is just no way around it.
South facing solar homes prove this point. They want all the gain they can get thru that glass in the winter and they get it. That is how they obtain heat. They also shade that same south facing wall in summer because that same gain cooks them out. The hot glass even shaded kills their cool AC air too because it is radiated and transferred.
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