where should I put my pellet stove

[nh-jjyy]

Mini split in NH - They work fine as long as you get the right units. I had a mini split system installed late spring of 2021 and started useing it for heat last December when the temps were 10-15* or higher (depending on wind). A Fujitsu Hyperion set up (24k outside with a 15k & a 12k wall unit) is what I got. Some units can be used way down to -15* but I wasn't outlaying the cash for that. Actually, I never even thought about being able to heat with it, I just wanted to get rid of the the window AC's.

It would heat below what I used it for, but of course using the pellet stove feels warmer - especially on dark and/or windy days.

I'm using pellet stoves exclusively this winter because I got super cheap pellets last spring and the stoves use less electricity than the mini split. My solar array didn't get totally set up until mid-November, so it won't really start producing until mid spring. I figure next winter I will have enough credits built up to use the mini split for a lot of my heating needs (and avoid having to buy pellets that will probably be extremely expensive)

So my main floor has lots of heating options; pellet stove, mini split or 30 year old propane boiler. Options are good in a world of dynamic price fluctuations.

hi can you share your solar company info? I am thinking getting one installed asap..... I have central AC at home and always struggled with mini splits, but people said they are very quiet.

good choice to switch to solar, the pellets this winter are already expensive, I just got for $400 per ton......

omg, I got my first pellet stove, Harman p68 and the first time I used it yesterday turned out a nightmare.... after spending over 5k on the stove itself, over 1k about the accessories and 1 k installation....... it made scary noise in 30 mins after running.......

I went to the dealer today and the owner told me to find whoever installed the stove........ I would give that dealer negative 5 star if I could, another store associate told me it might be the fan issue and get me an service next week and the way she said likes doing me a huge favor because it is the emergency service..... I literally bought this stove last Wednesday/..... Now I have to face the crazy propane bill again, I used 200 gallons within 3 weeks and you know it is not even cold in nh....

 

[Mt Bob]

Why didn't you have the dealer do the install?

 

[tbear853]

My thinking
...... an insert is great for ambiance, for a fire to look at, loose yourself in, is even romantic maybe, but only the one side facing the room is really heating you or the interior of the house
...... a free standing stove is heating useful room space from all four sides, the top, and maybe some off the bottum, depending on leg length.

Fans can be used to move or circulate warmed air down hall ways or through door ways, or downward away from ceilings above.

Just to add ... a free standing also heats some off the flue pipe that may be in the room. I forgot to include it as mine is just a foot or so before it passes through a wall, but some have them inside running up to ceiling height before going out.

 

[nh-jjyy]

Why didn't you have the dealer do the install?

the dealer asked me to wait until Feb....... said they are fully booked........

 

[nh-jjyy]

Just to add ... a free standing also heats some off the flue pipe that may be in the room. I forgot to include it as mine is just a foot or so before it passes through a wall, but some have them inside running up to ceiling height before going out.

thank you, I got Harman p68 and put in front of my fireplace through the chimney......

it looks silly but just for the short term, I will figure out the heating system when it is warmer next year.....

 

[bogieb]

hi can you share your solar company info? I am thinking getting one installed asap..... I have central AC at home and always struggled with mini splits, but people said they are very quiet.

good choice to switch to solar, the pellets this winter are already expensive, I just got for $400 per ton......

omg, I got my first pellet stove, Harman p68 and the first time I used it yesterday turned out a nightmare.... after spending over 5k on the stove itself, over 1k about the accessories and 1 k installation....... it made scary noise in 30 mins after running.......

I went to the dealer today and the owner told me to find whoever installed the stove........ I would give that dealer negative 5 star if I could, another store associate told me it might be the fan issue and get me an service next week and the way she said likes doing me a huge favor because it is the emergency service..... I literally bought this stove last Wednesday/..... Now I have to face the crazy propane bill again, I used 200 gallons within 3 weeks and you know it is not even cold in nh....

Granite State Solar did my install - please give them my name when you contact them as I get a referal bonus if you chose them as your solar installers (I'll send you a PM with my details). Just be aware, the process is not quick. It took nearly 6 months between when I signed the papers, to install, to town inspection/approval, to the utility to changing out the meter (which is required before activating the array and can take up to 20 business days). Since I did not get to activate the array until 11/16/22 (I signed the contract in early May), I do not have a good feel for the generation when the sun angle is higher in the sky. Fortunately, I was very good about managing my expectations for winter generation.

So, if you want to go solar, this is probably the time of year to get estimates from companies and signing the contract so it will be producing at sometime in the summer. Times may even be drawn out more as it seems everyone has decided to check out solar since the last rate increase.

 

[Shoe1757]

😭😭😭totally agreed, not sure why the original owner had one hooked up in the basement though.

I am thinking to open the huge wall between the kitchen/living room and the dining room, so it would be a huge open space......... Would it help ?

A lot of people on here have more expertise than I, but I can share my personal experience. My home is a little over 3000 sq. Ft. heated, not including the 3 car garage below the master BR. I have two furnaces (120k btu basement/1st floor and 45k btu for second floor) that are both forced air propane. On average winter days they used around 9-14 gallons of propane a day with t stay set at 68 upstairs and 67 main floor from 8am to 10pm. 62 upstairs and 58 downstairs from 10pm to 8am. This has cut my propane usage down from about 15-24 gallons a day. So that is my first recommendation.

In 2018 I bought a used 2001 Quadrafire Contour and installed in the unheated garage below the master BR and left the door to the main floor and basement open. It did okay and knocked some propane useage off, but the stove had a lot of issues not disclosed from the seller.

This November I purchased a new PelPro PP130 and installed in the same location. Since Nov. 26th I have a total of about 4 hours run time on my furnaces, compared to 89 hours in the same time frame last year, which was actually warmer outside last year. My house stays 68-73F 24/7 now and I burn between 2-3 bags every 24 hours. So in my experience, with two well placed cheap box fans the pellet stove is heating my entire house.

My current propane price is 3.39gal and pellets are 4.79 a bag. House on propane with dropping temp to 62/58 at night is roughly going to be $3200 in propane (2021 useage). Propane keeping house at 68/70 24hrs/day would be about $5400. Pellets, even if 3 bags per 24hrs, would be roughly $1200 keeping the temp 68-73F 24hrs/day.
I am in the process of rebuilding the old Quadrafire to install in my basement to assist the Pelpro.

Sorry for the long winded post, just wanted to give as much info on my personal experience as possible. Of course, always do the typical heat retention steps, insulate what you can, fill gaps and cracks, seal single pane windows yadda yadda.

 

[nh-jjyy]

A lot of people on here have more expertise than I, but I can share my personal experience. My home is a little over 3000 sq. Ft. heated, not including the 3 car garage below the master BR. I have two furnaces (120k btu basement/1st floor and 45k btu for second floor) that are both forced air propane. On average winter days they used around 9-14 gallons of propane a day with t stay set at 68 upstairs and 67 main floor from 8am to 10pm. 62 upstairs and 58 downstairs from 10pm to 8am. This has cut my propane usage down from about 15-24 gallons a day. So that is my first recommendation.

In 2018 I bought a used 2001 Quadrafire Contour and installed in the unheated garage below the master BR and left the door to the main floor and basement open. It did okay and knocked some propane useage off, but the stove had a lot of issues not disclosed from the seller.

This November I purchased a new PelPro PP130 and installed in the same location. Since Nov. 26th I have a total of about 4 hours run time on my furnaces, compared to 89 hours in the same time frame last year, which was actually warmer outside last year. My house stays 68-73F 24/7 now and I burn between 2-3 bags every 24 hours. So in my experience, with two well placed cheap box fans the pellet stove is heating my entire house.

My current propane price is 3.39gal and pellets are 4.79 a bag. House on propane with dropping temp to 62/58 at night is roughly going to be $3200 in propane (2021 useage). Propane keeping house at 68/70 24hrs/day would be about $5400. Pellets, even if 3 bags per 24hrs, would be roughly $1200 keeping the temp 68-73F 24hrs/day.
I am in the process of rebuilding the old Quadrafire to install in my basement to assist the Pelpro.

Sorry for the long winded post, just wanted to give as much info on my personal experience as possible. Of course, always do the typical heat retention steps, insulate what you can, fill gaps and cracks, seal single pane windows yadda yadda.

hi thank you for sharing your personal experience.

I got my first propane bill a week ago, and it is $972 for 297 gallons of propane, so it is 3.49 per gallon, very similar to your price. But where did you get your pellets ? It sounds a great deal. I got from woodspellets.com, it is $409 per ton, which is $8.1 per bag, I guess my heating cost would be double yours on pellets at least.

I checked my furnace, there are 2 gas furnace was installed in 2018 and said 95% efficient and both are 110k btu, one for the main floor 2700sqt and the other is for the basement same size. But I don't know how to check how much gallons I used a day on propane, I just heard last owner used 3500 gallons of propane last year.

I got a brand new Harman P68 and put in front of the fireplace of the living room and the pipes through the chimney now. It is 30-40s at the daytime and 20-30s at night outside. It burned 2 bags a day to keep my living room/kitchen like 74-76 degrees, then the big dining room is 69-71 degrees, which is okay for me. And it would help once the big wall is down. However, the 4 bedrooms on the other side of the house is like 58-60 degrees and I don't know how to address that issue, What I want is to increase the temperature of the bedrooms to 65-68 degrees. Here is the problem, the nest thermostat is on the big wall in the dining room and the furnace won't kick in until I set it over 71 degrees, but we all feel so hot when it's really on since the pellet stove is also running hot. I was wondering where your nest thermostat located .

Thank you again for sharing your personal experience, it really helps and hope you have a wonderful holiday

 

[Shoe1757]

So my furnaces are separate systems, two thermostats so they can run individually. So prior to the pellet stove I would let my 1st floor drop to 56 degrees at night while the bedrooms upstairs were still 68. This could easily be done with your house as well, and I think I would recommend it! But on average I believe one gallon of propane equals around 93,000 BTU. So each one of your 110k BTU furnaces would roughly use 1.2 gallons of propane every hour it runs. 1 bag of pellets contains roughly 320,000 BTU. So if both of your furnaces are running say 5hrs in a 24 hour period that's about 12 gal of propane ($42 a day). From the total run hours on each furnace we can also figure out the BTU required to keep the house heated on that certain day. So with 5 hours on both furnaces that's xxx million BTU in 24 hrs minus the 5% for efficient loss equals 1.045 million BTU. So assuming 85% efficiency on the p68 you would need 1.201 million BTU of pellets burned or 3.75 bags per 24 hours use ($30.68 at your price of 8.18 per bag).

Of course the pellet stove does not move air like a duct work furnace does and I'm sure you would have to add at least 15% more pellets to manage that temp if it even could.

So if it were me, I would definitely run the stove full blast and try to use enough fans to spread the heat as evenly as possible to save propane. I would also look to use 2 separate thermostats as I'm sure either the 1st floor or 2nd floor is vacant parts of the day and you could also drop the temp at night and have it warm by the time you wake up.

I get my pellets from tractor supply, they do price match, at least in my area. So I am getting "cheat river hardwood pellets" for 4.79 a bag. They are regularly 4.99 but if you buy a pallet (50 bags) you get .20 off per bag.

 

[nh-jjyy]

So my furnaces are separate systems, two thermostats so they can run individually. So prior to the pellet stove I would let my 1st floor drop to 56 degrees at night while the bedrooms upstairs were still 68. This could easily be done with your house as well, and I think I would recommend it! But on average I believe one gallon of propane equals around 93,000 BTU. So each one of your 110k BTU furnaces would roughly use 1.2 gallons of propane every hour it runs. 1 bag of pellets contains roughly 320,000 BTU. So if both of your furnaces are running say 5hrs in a 24 hour period that's about 12 gal of propane ($42 a day). From the total run hours on each furnace we can also figure out the BTU required to keep the house heated on that certain day. So with 5 hours on both furnaces that's xxx million BTU in 24 hrs minus the 5% for efficient loss equals 1.045 million BTU. So assuming 85% efficiency on the p68 you would need 1.201 million BTU of pellets burned or 3.75 bags per 24 hours use ($30.68 at your price of 8.18 per bag).

Of course the pellet stove does not move air like a duct work furnace does and I'm sure you would have to add at least 15% more pellets to manage that temp if it even could.

So if it were me, I would definitely run the stove full blast and try to use enough fans to spread the heat as evenly as possible to save propane. I would also look to use 2 separate thermostats as I'm sure either the 1st floor or 2nd floor is vacant parts of the day and you could also drop the temp at night and have it warm by the time you wake up.

I get my pellets from tractor supply, they do price match, at least in my area. So I am getting "cheat river hardwood pellets" for 4.79 a bag. They are regularly 4.99 but if you buy a pallet (50 bags) you get .20 off per bag.

hi thank you for your math, I never knew how to calculate the propane usage. I do have 2 separate thermostats for 2 furnaces, one controls the main floor and the other is for the basement and since nobody uses the basement right now I set the heating to 50f now and it seems the basement keeps 55 degrees somehow without using any propane these days.

I just checked the tractor supply and the lowest is 6.29 and it would drop to 6.09 for bulk buy. But I already got 4 tons from pelletswoods.com this week already. Based on the theory, it doesn't seem to save a lot money on pellets stove. I was hoping it would cut the heating cost to half or 1/3 at least originally.

 

[Shoe1757]

Yea I wish pellets were cheaper in your area! There's still a lot of savings to be had. I do find it hard to believe the previous owner spent 10,000 on propane last winter unless the windows were always open. Does your nest give you a way to see how many hours each stove runs a day?

 

[nh-jjyy]

Yea I wish pellets were cheaper in your area! There's still a lot of savings to be had. I do find it hard to believe the previous owner spent 10,000 on propane last winter unless the windows were always open. Does your nest give you a way to see how many hours each stove runs a day?

no no no that is not only for winter, 3500 gallons for last year usage, including the dryer, cooking stove, oven, and hot water. I checked my nest, both used 5.5 hours on average at the beginning of Dec, when it was like 50 degrees outside that time, then I have the stove, the usage dropped to 1-1.5 hours a day now, but I guess when it gets colder, the basement furnace probably needs to run more to avoid the pipe freezing

 

[Shoe1757]

no no no that is not only for winter, 3500 gallons for last year usage, including the dryer, cooking stove, oven, and hot water. I checked my nest, both used 5.5 hours on average at the beginning of Dec, when it was like 50 degrees outside that time, then I have the stove, the usage dropped to 1-1.5 hours a day now, but I guess when it gets colder, the basement furnace probably needs to run more to avoid the pipe freezing

Oh okay, that makes more sense lol. I would highly recommend calling everywhere you can that will supply you propane. 3.49 seems about right, but it never hurts to check! I was getting bent over the barrel by Suburban for 3 years before I decided to call around and found it for almost $2 less a gallon. Maybe next spring or fall you will be able to find a pellet supplier having a sale or discount for post/pre season.

If I had a similar set up to your house, I would probably leave the basement set to 50-60F and then try to use the pellet stove to heat the rest of the house. The more heat you supplement with pellets the more you save!

 

[nh-jjyy]

Oh okay, that makes more sense lol. I would highly recommend calling everywhere you can that will supply you propane. 3.49 seems about right, but it never hurts to check! I was getting bent over the barrel by Suburban for 3 years before I decided to call around and found it for almost $2 less a gallon. Maybe next spring or fall you will be able to find a pellet supplier having a sale or discount for post/pre season.

If I had a similar set up to your house, I would probably leave the basement set to 50-60F and then try to use the pellet stove to heat the rest of the house. The more heat you supplement with pellets the more you save!

thank you, I missed the wholesale propane this season. My friends have like wholesale propane for 2 per gallon but you need to switch to ivring but that was in summer time and I haven't moved in this place. Next year I definitely would participate that wholesale program, and that would cut my propane cost to half easily and will store some pellets when they are on sale for sure.

hope you have a wonderful holiday.

 

[Shoe1757]

Same to you!