alternativeheat
Minister of Fire
Here is the deal, you want heat you need BTU, to make BTU you burn more fuel. It's really that simple. My p61 in that really cold weather takes care of the distribution fan itself in Room Temp Manual, even set on medium it will often cycle up on high. As the weather gets colder the stove picks up the pace. I will say though, I get more even heat through the house with a higher revving fan constantly. The owner just has to add more pellets and I'll tell you what, with oil now at $`1.82 that I saw yesterday locally, this is the time "For Me" to put it in Stove Temp Auto, Medium to High fan, a given setting that uses say a bag of pellets a day or there abouts. and let the oil pick up the difference. I say that because in 0deg weather this stove and house combo knocks on 3 bags a day if the stove heats the house alone. The first year with a certain batch of crappy pellets that we ended up returning it was pushing 4 bags on a given day. That was the all time worst it ever did though.
I might even set it up to burn 1-1/2 bags a day in the cold in Stove Temp Auto. I bet the oil doesn't run much because we have old cast iron radiators and they give off heat for a long time after the boiler shuts down. Maybe 4-5 cycles a day ( 24 hours) with a .65 nozzle, running 40 minutes each time as a max limit. So that's roughly 2 to 2-1/2 gals a day for the ultra cold weather. That sounds about right from my coal burning days as well. Yeah, the stove really cuts into the on time and enhances the off time of the boiler running.
Or we may have a mild winter, and non of this matters, burn either fuel. But in these dark months we like a fire on the hearth anyway.
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