Nw roll call
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magentaman
Member
IronFire said:
Brian,
Yes, I agree the Bear Mtns burn very clean too. My intent for the post was mostly an casual FYI as to my findings. A lot of people tend to get comfortable with a certain brand pellet and stick with it. I'm forever curious about new brands constantly hoping to find one I really like that is also priced competitively. I won't say that the Pacific Pellet is cleaner or hotter than the Bear Mtn, but so far, it seems to be close enough in heat ouput and cleanliness to come in a close 2nd. When price is factored in, it jumps ahead since I can't seem to get Bear Mtn for much less than $300/ton around here.
Since you work for a pellet stove mfr, just how do they compute stove efficiency? I've been curious about this. Also, when they advertise efficiency, is that accurate or just "fudged" numbers. Seems like a mfr could advertise almost anything around the 75-85% range without anyone calling them on it. For instance, my stove mfr was advertising on their website that my stove was something like 75% efficient. Then one day I noticed they changed it to 83.5% efficient. I emailed them about the change, but no response. Is it possible they just changed the numbers to stay competitive during all the tax credit sales last year, or did they really test it and get higher numbers?
flynfrfun said:
Ya know I was told by a little birdy that they take electrical efficiency, combustion efficiency and heat transfer efficiency and then average three measurements.
I was told this means that a stove that has like 50% heat transfer efficiency can easily recieve an 80% efficiency rating.
I about choked.
flynfrfun said:
First off I agree with you about and exchange of information on pellets. I think it is a real good thing. As far as Bear Mountain goes, I find it interesting that our engineers like them so much they ship them halfway across the country to test with. Almost all pellet mills send out samples to manufacturers. We have our choice of anything but choose Bear Mountain. We in the PNW are lucky enough to have them in our back yards.
Before the EPA certification standard most efficiency numbers were pipe dreams. If you tested your stove on high most stoves will get a high efficiency number. The EPA had to come up with a test standard. Simplified it is BTU input compared to BTU output. However the EPA standard is to test the stove at each burn level and then average the results. At the lower burn levels efficiency pretty much goes out the window. We always knew we had a tight stove and once tested it came out with great numbers. We email the testing document to anyone who requests it and publish the results on the back of our brochure.
You would think all testing labs are equal but they are not. Certain labs cost more in insurance to use than others. Draw your own conclusions from that. Even more there are a couple of really big players who have their own labs. It is interesting to me that one of them does not publish an efficiency number anywhere. Just has a blurb that the stove meets or exceeds EPA efficiency standards. Once again draw your own conclusions.
magentaman said:
The Winslow is not one of my stoves. However it is a damn good stove. you did good.
Hmmm Ironfire that means Travis house of fire, Lennox, or Quadrafire if memory serves me right on who builds in Washington still.
Does anyone here have a clue on the effects of salt water soaked wood turned into pellets, besides a corrosive effect when burned of green compressed sawdust, heated to make a dryer pellet for moisture content?
Does anyone here have a clue on the effects of salt water soaked wood turned into pellets, besides a corrosive effect when burned of green compressed sawdust, heated to make a dryer pellet for moisture content?
MountainSean
Credo Quia Absurdum
Over in Libby/Troy Montana. Not sure if you qualify that as NW but I can drive 20 minutes from work and be in Idaho.
magentaman
Member
DirtyDave said:
Ask Manke Lumber (Makers of Clean Burn).
Back in the 90's they would use all the waste from their mill. Even the wood that was floated in the salt water. Rusted out a lot of stoves. Now they only use "clean" wood products. When I was hauling logs I asked them how they keep the saltwater chips and sawdust out of the pellet mill.
The answer was simple. When running raft wood through the mill, NONE of the byproducts were taken to the pellet mill (located across the street from the main mill). Instead they were sold as hog fuel and wood fiber to make paper. When they were running wood trucked in that had never been in the water, they would use all they could for the pellet mill. Manke also trucked in raw materials to supplement what they needed for the pellet mill.
magentaman
Member
yep thats correct. I dont see any loaded chip trucks leaving manke anymore, but they still float alot of timber before process. Makes one wonder.
I was reading on a site from PFI that there is no difference between hardwwod and softwood pellets for the BTU output, just slight difference in moisture and ash content in brandsto make a huge difference.
I enjoyed Whitefish in August
I was reading on a site from PFI that there is no difference between hardwwod and softwood pellets for the BTU output, just slight difference in moisture and ash content in brandsto make a huge difference.
I enjoyed Whitefish in August
This is a humidity question...possibly specific to the Puget Sound region so I am posting it here. For those in the Puget Sound region how many are running a humidifier when relying primarily on pellet stove heat?
We have experienced all the typical issues with low humidity in the house when the pellet stove is running...dry. cracked nuckles, dry skin/nose, etc...
I purchased a hygrometer and large humidifier today. Plugged in the hygrometer today and after an hour the reading was 50%. Plugged in the humidifier and had near exact results on humidity. From what I have read on here and elsewhere a reading of 35% is good and should be comfortable.
I have the humidifier running at 55% right now and we do notice an improvement in the air. I am curious if we will find condensation on the windows in the morning from too much humidity. Should I expect mold/mildew problems at this high of a setting? I assume that may different for each house. It did rain last night but not much at all today.
What have any of you experienced? Do you think this is an issue specific to our region...are we so water logged that any amount of heat dries us out?
43 deg outside tonight so we have the stove on LOW and we are comfortable. Looking forward (kind of) to some colder temps to test all the things I have learned here on the forums.
Thanks all...and Happy Holidays!
We have experienced all the typical issues with low humidity in the house when the pellet stove is running...dry. cracked nuckles, dry skin/nose, etc...
I purchased a hygrometer and large humidifier today. Plugged in the hygrometer today and after an hour the reading was 50%. Plugged in the humidifier and had near exact results on humidity. From what I have read on here and elsewhere a reading of 35% is good and should be comfortable.
I have the humidifier running at 55% right now and we do notice an improvement in the air. I am curious if we will find condensation on the windows in the morning from too much humidity. Should I expect mold/mildew problems at this high of a setting? I assume that may different for each house. It did rain last night but not much at all today.
What have any of you experienced? Do you think this is an issue specific to our region...are we so water logged that any amount of heat dries us out?
43 deg outside tonight so we have the stove on LOW and we are comfortable. Looking forward (kind of) to some colder temps to test all the things I have learned here on the forums.
Thanks all...and Happy Holidays!
magentaman
Member
So far my humidity has been running between 30% and 35% with out a humidifier. I live in an older manufactured home with single pane winders. (Yes I said Winders). We heat 100% with pellets. So far I have not seen a need to add any moisture to the air. When we lived in our 5th wheel (propane heat) is was a chore to keep the humidity below 60% in the winter. That was not fun!
Picked up a bag of Bear Mtn's at Central Market in Poulsbo today to test against what I am currently using, Premium Eureka's and Blazers. Hoping the Bear Mtn's prove to be as good as advertised on here. If so I will pick up some more for the colder days/nights cuz they ain't cheap.
magentaman
Member
I had a truck pick up a load of Eureka Pellets today. Delivering to the Lakewood Lowes on Monday if anyone wants any.
I grew up in AZ, so I'm familiar with dry heat. However, when we first started running our pellet stove it didn't take long for us to notice it drying the air out. My knuckles would crack and we just felt extremely dry and itchy. I also bought a hygrometer and was shocked to see the air was actually 30% humidity or so. I thought it would be down around 10-15% with how dry the air felt. Anyways, I bought a humidifier and run it so that it keeps the humidity somewhere between 35-45%. If I let it get up to 50% or more, I notice condensation on the windows, so I keep it lower than that. Even though it is humid here in the winter, I feel much better inside the house with the humidifier.
flynfrfun said:j-takeman said:
Sorry J!
If I remember correctly you burned some Westwood pellets last season. Did you get any temps on them?
flynfrfun said:
Yes, I thought you did? My mistake. Would have been another I could have compared what your getting for temps too. Must be getting senile in my old age! ;-)
DneprDave
Minister of Fire
I live in Olympia. I got two Advantage 2 pellet stoves, in pieces, through Craig's list. I got both working and put one on an enclose porch and the other in my shop.
My first ton was Olympus, I got for $200/ton at Costco. Then I got a ton of Clean Burn from Tanglewild Lumber in Lacey, for $200/ton. Both burned the same and left very little ash.
Dave
My first ton was Olympus, I got for $200/ton at Costco. Then I got a ton of Clean Burn from Tanglewild Lumber in Lacey, for $200/ton. Both burned the same and left very little ash.
Dave
magentaman
Member
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