OK…. so I'm now burning Uncle Jed's Cold Remedy "Southern Hardwoods" in both of my stoves… house and shop. I made a deal with my local dealer and swapped my St. Croix Greenfield corn stove for enough pellets to get me through the winter… almost. First impressions… very nice. Good heat last night… it was 15F this morning. Ran the St. Croix Pepin on #3 all night. The living room was a comfy 74F… upstairs maybe 68F. Good sleeping temp. This afternoon I loaded the Englander with pellets and turned it on 5/5… the shop temp was 28F when I started. Tonite at 10PM it was 50F… and climbing. I have it idling now at 3/5 I noticed the ash from these pellets is very light and fluffy. And not a lot of it I might say… overall they seem pretty good. My go to pellets have been Doug Firs… last year I didn't use the stove a whole lot so I bought quite a few bags of Marth softwoods at my local Farm and Barn store… these pellets are a step ahead of them and a whole world away from Marth's ashy hardwoods (which my dealer bags himself and sell as "Northern Hardwoods"… Overall I like 'em.
I believe they are from Henry County Pellets… Paris, TN. ESES sold these a few years ago… I tried a few bags and they worked good.
Still working good. I noticed there are a few more fines in theses bags than I'm used to compared to the usual private label pellets from Earth Sense Energy Systems(local dealer). I know now that these pellets are not bagged by ESES but are trucked in from the pellet mill. No problem… just a bit dustier than I am used to… I still like these so if you see 'em here in the midwest buy 'em.
I ordered some paint from ESES. . They packaged the paint in this... What a tease. Considering I can't find these near me...
I was sort of disappointed with the heat coming from my St Croix since the weather turned and the living room had a cold draft. Turns out the ceiling fan was running the wrong direction. Flipped the switch and BINGO! no mo' draft… lots of heat.
I've never in my 15+ years of installing fans understood why air direction makes a differenence in the average home, unless the roon is absolutely massive that is. up the center and down the walls / down the center and up the walls.....all the air in most rooms just gets completely circulated. I can see how it would make a difference in a wharehouse or in a 2 story stairway, cathedral ceilings etc. The average home's rooms are not big enough for stratification...
We have a 4' open staircase in our living room. The stove is in the living room. When the fan pulls the air UP it sucks the cooler air from the kitchen (open floor plan) and sends it up the stairs. When the fan pushes the air DOWN the draft from the kitchen is greatly reduced… the differences in the two settings is remarkable in our house. One keeps a small area close to the stove @ 76F. The other keeps the LR 73-74F but also warms the kitchen. I have another fan at the top of the staircase… not currently running. When I DO have it in operation the second floor rooms can be warm or cool depending on the direction I have the fan set. Before we did a major remodel/insulation refurb three years ago (including opening the floor plan and installing the open staircase) things were different… the fans didn't seem to do much.
I only have like 7 foot ceilings and there is a significant difference in temps if I don't have my ceiling fan on. My furnace thermostat is shoulder height and my pellet stove thermostat is about 2.5 feet from the floor. With the ceiling fan on the temps are identical, with it off there is about a three to four degree difference. The thermostats are about 15 feet away from each other. I am not sure direction makes a difference besides wind chill
Its definitely not ideal....I have a crawlspace basement so running it through the floor and up the wall is not an option.(basement has only about a foot of clearance where the stove is) . Having the wire exposed is an eyesore for the Misses so I put it in a place as far and as high as I could without a fight. A wireless stat would be sweet but they are costly
I used one of the plastic wire routers that sticks to the wall. Painted it to match Works for me and the lady didn't mind it much IHP- What type of stat do you have (Lux?)?
Nice. That's what is in my pic also. It's there touch screen model. Works well, but the swing only goes up to 3° on this model.