Fahrenheit Endurnace 50F Project

Right. Sorry Ivanhoe. My bad.

 

Thanks. I hope it does.

Gobble up two of the Francesca stove? Is it pretty small?

 

Nice. Is it rated for fairly high temps? I'll definitely check it out though. I can feel a lot of air blowing through the crack between the door and stove body.

Thanks to you as well. I hope everything goes well with the install I'm doing as it's not just a furnace install but also organizing of and finishing of my basement. You'll see the mess first hand Tuesday if everything goes as planned.

Yeah, I'm happy with the 45's. I think they will work out well. For all the venting used in the install I probably don't have anymore than 2.5' of horizontal venting.

 

Yup, she's a petite lady: 16" wide x 18" deep x 38" high. ( 40.6 cm x 45.7 cm x 96.5 cm. )

 

Nice. Very compact. How many BTU's?

 

"If" you believe the Manufacturer's claim, up to 28,000 BTUs, measured by some secret method & using some type of -Rocket Fuel- as the heating material.

In 'real life', for this tiny stove, pellet feed rate max. is 2.0 lb/hr - which would be the absolute max. I'd dare run through it, so..

Current settings are: (1) - 1.0 lb/hr, (2) - 1.2 lb/hr., (3) - 1.4 lb/hr., (4) - 1.6 lb/hr., (5) - 1.8 lb/hr.

Stove is ran at 1.4 lb/hr normally (setting 3) :

Pellet BTU is rated at 8,700 BTU / hr. (est.) La Crete (Spruce)

8,700 * 1.4 = 12,180 BTU / hr. * .80 (est. stove Efficiency) *rated at .85 by manufacturer

= 9,744 BTU / hr. effective output at 1.4 lb/ hr.
= 11,137 BTU / hr. effective output at 1.6 lb/ hr.
= 12.528 BTU / hr. effective output at 1.8 lb /hr.

Stove is limited by having a deep burn pot, any feed rate over 1.8 lb/hr. requires 'torching' pellets to push ash out of the burn pot, negating any BTU gains from heat loss (due to poor heat exchange) - the stove has to move too much air through the burn chamber, approaches 85% max. internal temp. / borderline over-firing the stove.

The 'lady Francesca' certainly isn't in the same league as a typical Harman stove.. Sigh. But, the stove keeps our house 5-8 degrees ( 2.8 c - 3.9 c ) warmer vs. FHA oil furnace alone on average, we are -very thankful- for having it.

She's an excellent 1st stove, is running well, and as we gain experience, upgrading to a larger primary stove / utilizing the Francesca as a 2nd auxillary stove is something we may well consider for next (2016-17) season.

Hence all the 'tuning' done here, to squeeze every possible BTU out of the stove, vs. sending heat out the venting.

 

It used for furnaces so they say, I'll bring a sample to show you. Got it on mine and will check tomorrow if it's performing like it should.

 

Cool. Thanks.

You're still good to stop in tomorrow morning? Fire me a text when you get closer to the time you'll be coming by, just incase I'm not home from my back appointment.

 

SWEET! This is so great information here. You really did your home work when it came to getting your stove tuned.

 

Just did a test on my computer UPS combined with my homemade UPS and it looks like a The door gasket is holding up well, it is a softer material so could be easy to damage. I've installed it on the door so it's away from the furnace cleaning area(the front). It's still a go for me tomorrow, leaving around 7:30 and stopping in Huntsville for a Xmas gifts drop off/pickup & coffee so eta; 11+/-

 

So I removed the deflector no problem, then removing the access panel I noticed the screws looks like the heat got to them, and on the last one.....snap. The head came off without the screw. Any advice? I see the screws used are of very low quality and seem like either sheet metal screws or self tappers. I want to replace them with something better that can take the heat up and cool down cycles.

 

I replaced all the screws that protrudes inside the firebox with stainless steel screws. When I rebuilt/cleaned from day one I noticed that certain screws starting to deteriorate so a bright light came on

 

When I tore my stove down and cleaned it nearly every screw exposed the burn chamber atmosphere was corroded. I'd say I broke 6 or 12 off. Get yourself a good sharp center punch, a drill and a good set of drill bits.

Use the center punch to put a dimple in the center of the broke off screw. Proceed to drill it out using a drill bit that is a fair bit smaller than the screw. If you wander and make the hole too large you can move up to a #10 screw.

Ensure all screws replaced that are exposed to the burn chamber are coated with a liberal amount of anti seize when reinstalling.

 

That's a good plan! Next time I do a service I'll install stainless screws. When I cleaned mine after I got it I just applied anti seize.

Thanks for stopping in today. It was good visiting with you and thanks for the help getting me turn in the right direction with the fuel type setting.

What time did you get home tonight?

 

I just got home about 11:45 pm so 17 hrs on the road. The 401 was the worst I ever seen. Too many trucks for my liking.

 

Ah man. Sorry to hear that. You get your barrels?

 

Too bad we didn't have more time to boot, maybe another time. Having a much needed Keith as I drove all the way, son kept me entertained which was a eye opener.

 

Yep, got them. With 3-36pk of Keith & 6 bottles of wine.

 

OH yeah, it was nice meeting you too.