Harman P series Owners settings

As the title says wondering what your settings are when you in fact burn in constant burn mode, relation to feed setting to burn number setting. Just curious as when its cold I prefer to use constant burn opposed to room temp mode and have tinkered with the settings some but curious to what others have found.

Thanks
Daniel

 

I have been leaving it on room temp this year. Set on about 74 degrees but the room runs about 78-80 8ft from the stove. The adjoining sun room runs about 70 degrees. Bedroom seems to run in the upper 70's. Bathroom runs about 70, but we keep the door closed to that room to keep the dogs out of there. The reason I am running on room temp is that the stove will shut down, then come right back on and have a hot fire for awhile this helps to keep the stove clean. Low fire tend to dirty her up so hot is better. Originally, I was going to heat the whole house with this stove. That is why I got the p68, but we cut the house in half with my son and his family upstairs and us downstairs. We keep the door closed between the two units for noise and privacy issues. Had I thought I would only heat this area, I would have purchased a small unit. a p68 for 26x40 plus the sun room is not much of a challenge for this stove. Home is well insulated.

 

Thanks save !


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I run my stove in stove temp, or constant burn whenever I'm home. I never touch the feed rate, always at 4 and adjust the heat level as needed depending on the temp in the house. Most times I have the distribution blower on high unless it's a heat wave..

 

Daniel,
You're in a different scenario than others which forces you into a survival mode. Having a uninsulated mansion has a massive appetite for heat and add wind to the mix and you're falling short in no time. Savemoney's situation is ideal for the way he runs his but by splitting the house in two makes his stove a overkill, a P43 might done the trick but you can't turn back time. In my case with my Accentra it works both ways but as soon it's very cold I fall short in no time but it's a basement dweller and undersized for my needs. After I soundproofed my basement ceiling everything changed on me, no more warm floors. I had to revert to something else and the Fahrenheit came into the picture. How do you operate the P68? Having two stoves adds more flexibility at your disposal.

 

Thanks Sub I run my just about the same with the exception I will increase my feed rate to 5 when it drops below 0* F.
This leads me to the question what exactly does the feed rate control ? Is it the amount of pellets that are dropped by the slide plate or is it the revolutions of the auger pushing pellets to the burn pot ? How does the heat rate effect both of these ?
Also wondering how it affects the ash on the pot as I have heard 1” is optimal but to obtain this is the heat rate match the feed rate or higher by one ? Or is it in reverse ? Still tinkering with the stove trying to optimize these wonderful heaters.

Thanks for your response Sub

 

The P68 resides on the first floor and distributes heat to the two upper levels of my house (far from a mansion more of big leaky old farmhouse) there is one room on the first floor that does not get much heat as the heats least resistance is up the stairs not behind the stove two rooms over.

The p43 helps heat the underside of this room but it is well insulated to protect the water piping. The p43 runs in constant burn at 3 feed rate 3 heat setting while I am away but when home and over night I up by one on both of the settings if it is in the low teens to single digits and below 0*.
It’s main purpose or function is to create a positive pressure in the cellar so the p68 does not draw and draft cold air into the basement, also protects all of the plumbing in the cellar which is huge and a great relief as to not have to deal with frozen pipes.
Thanks for your response !

 

When I put the P43 in stove temp (constant burn), I leave it in auto, leave my temp at 80 (where it is normally set so it doesn't interfere with my thermostat) and turn my feed rate down to 0.5 (or up to 1) depending on how windy it is. I'm just heating 950 sq/ft, and the basement stove is keeping 2/3 of the floors warmish, so I just need a constant push of some heat but not a lot. Keeps the bedrooms (at far side) anywhere from 66-68*. Living room about 74-75 and the middle rooms (where the thermostat is located) at 70-71*. I adjust the feed rate depending on the bedroom and middle room temps. Of course it helps that the air stream from the stove goes straight down the hallway.

I have not gone constant mode on the basement stove this year, I just let the probe keep the area at 73-74. Last spring I knocked out a wall that was keeping a lot of heat bottled up (the only inside wall down there), so I no longer need a constant positive pressure down there.

 

Think of the feed rate as a limiter, the 1" is for no carryover the pot and no hot embers dumped wasted into the ash pan. Recommended feed rate of 4 is more on the safe side of things, you can correct it to 5 or more for the 1" fine tuning. Mind you, different pellets have different results so adjust accordingly
With the basement being somewhat insulated, running your P43 in stove mode you can probably cut back to a lower setting and still obtain satisfactory results(keeping pipes from freezing and keeping floors warm) and save some pellets. You just have to find the sweet spot to address your needs or try it in room mode which could work if it's a open basement by having the probe in a far end of the basement. Having some thermometers scattered around the perimeter could guide you in the right direction.

 

Forget about the 1” ash thing. It’s a silly measurement and not practical to strive for. Like Ivanhoe said, every pellet will burn differently and produce different results with respect to ash output and there is nothing you can do to change it with the feed rate or heat dials. It just doesn’t work like that. OK I suppose you could slow down the rate of ash production by lowering your feed rate but you are also reducing your heat output and that defeats the whole purpose so we’re back where we started again. There was a recent thread that explains the feed rate very well. It’s probably one of the easiest yet most frequently misunderstood things. Let me get a link, stand by.

 

OK here you go Luney, try this thread.

Pellet stove burn rates...

 

Luney, does any of this make sense to you? As mentioned above, the feed rate is a limiter. No matter how much heat is being called for, if the feed rate is 1, the stove will only feed for 10 seconds/minute. Feed rate 2, 20 seconds/minute., and so on. So setting the feed rate to 5 won't change anything if the stove isn't calling for that much heat. Setting it to 1 when it's cold out and you'll freeze to death.

 

....and possibly burn out your feeder weldment and auger

 

Ivan and TT good stuff thought I would enquire as I have messed around with both just curious what others who have been doing this a lot longer than I have.
Thanks again guys


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I agree,thinking of a certain 52i.

 

I am with Lousy on this,the basic 1" ash means all is well.Unburned,or burning pellets in ash pan,too fast.Burn it too low,and the fire will be way back in the pot,actually burning in the auger tube.But,do not be afraid to turn it down,as I do,when is a bit warm out,am using the stove in "fireplace" mode,still too hot,turn back to 3,just right.

 

All right everyone thanks for the replies have not been able to respond as I have been in you know where and just got back from a quarterly safety meeting .
Great information and thanks to all I should have probably done some searching apologize , actually not lazy just time restricted. Will keep tinkering with the stove and intuitively I believe I was somewhere in the right ballpark.
Being the stubborn self reliant being that I am I will take advice somehow my way sounds lame I know but cant help it, with that said it is a joy to have so many here that are so very helpful pitching in adding their experience and knowledge.

Thanks Again