Harman Accentra 52i -installed

[corvetteguy78]

They just left about 30 minutes ago...been running about 35 minutes, turned downstairs termostat down to 63 from 65, temp already hit 67...turned upstairs stat to 63 from 65 just now...hopefully the heat will get up there....gonna work out then check in an hour....

Beautiful stove...really throws out some heat!

 

[neonmike]

gas or pellet?

 

[Briansol]

it's a pellet.
nice man.

it will take a few hours to get the house up to temp.

Make sure its on a surge supressor

 

[corvetteguy78]

it's on a surge but its old, i'll run out tomorrow and get a new one...yeah it's pellet...did the Outside Air Kit as you suggested B.

The Ash Vac did not work out. I returned it. All it did was blow ash into my living room from the blower hole...i had 4 different people put the filter on(which is easy as picking up a fork) and no one could understand why it did this. I can only assume a bad filter. I called customer service twice and left two messages and haven't received a call back so fuck em. i returned it.....I'll just use my Rigid for now

 

[Briansol]

that sucks. err, blows....

glad you got the outside air kit hooked up.

just in time for the arctic blast headed our way friday (-6 they are saying!)

if you can afford it, i'd recommend getting a ups. it will run the stove about an hour in case of power failure so that covers most flickers and gives you time to shut it down or get a generator running. i have the cyberpower 1500 lcd.
Amazon.com: CyberPower CP1500AVRLCD Intelligent LCD UPS 1500VA 900W AVR Mini-Tower: Electronics


did the guy show you room temp vs stove temp mode?

 

[neonmike]

nice get ready to save a butt ton on heating in the winter.

 

[Jeef]

...I'll just use my Rigid for now

If you do this make sure the stove is cold. Try to use a hepa filter and put a slightly damp rag over the exhaust hole to try to catch anything that comes out. Your filter will get dirty quick. I wonder if a prefilter would help, or now ridgid has vac bags to help keep the filter clean.
I clean out my mothers pellet stove a coupe times a season and have done repairs to it. The shop vac we use I have to shake the filter out a couple times if the stove is really dirty. I usually let it rest for 30 minutes before starting to vac, but hers is over 20 years old so things might be different on it.

That is a really nice stove.

 

[corvetteguy78]

Yeah I was talking to the Tech who installed my stove. He has had a pellet stove for 18 years and never had an ashvac. He uses the same Rigid shop vac I have to clean his stove. I'll just use the Rigid to clean the stove and invest in some filters. I'll use the money for the Powersmith Ashvac and parts I bought on amazon to do what B recommended which is getting an UPS in case of a power outage. We have underground power lines but you never know.

I'm looking forward to saving money in the long run.

 

[Bob Vila]

If you don't mind me asking, what was your total OOP expense? Who did you use?

 

[corvetteguy78]

If you don't mind me asking, what was your total OOP expense? Who did you use?

There are only 3 authorized Harman dealers in CT.

I used Afterglow Energy in Meriden. Harman has $100 off stoves and Afterglow doubled the offer so I got $300 off. There is also a $300 tax credit but i think that ends today unless it got extended to 2014

http://www.afterglowenergy.com/

http://www.harmanstoves.com/Products/Accentra-52i-Pellet-Insert.aspx




With the Outside Air kit and Log set, stove, $300 discount and installation and good ole taxes, it was around $5300. The Accentra 52i and Harman in general, is considered by most, to be the top of the line stove on the market.

You can get other brands for much less obviously.

Afterglow also sell the Quadrafire Mount Vernon which is considered to be the equivalent, but the Tech said the Harman Accentra 52i is way better, puts out more heat regardless of any advertised BTU's and easier to clean and to work on.

 

[Briansol]

harman and quad are owned by the same parent company. the MV has been around for like 15 years. The 52i is new this season. It's top of the line/cutting edge.

 

[corvetteguy78]

this thing is a beast...throws heat like Roger Clemens in his prime...Woke up to 68 upstairs and 71 downstairs..i really like how automated it is.......when the room hits the set temp on ths stove, it stops feeding pellets, flame dies down....if it drops below the set temp, it automatically ignites until it reaches the set temp again....it's worry free.

I just need to play wiht the temp settings...71 is to hot for me..and 68 upstairs to sleep is to warm as well..turned the stove down this morning to 69ish..hopeing it stays with in 1 degree of that so it's more like 68-69 downstairs and 66-67 upstairs.

One downfall is the basement gets no heat now...its pretty cold down there but i have a pretty good space heater anyway for down there.....

was actualy thinking about picking up a used pellet stove off CL and throwing it downstairs in the basement and just keeping it on low since i am down there about 60% of the time when i am home.

Not sure if running the space heater is more cost efective then using a small pellet stove

 

[Briansol]

watch your pipes.
do you have forced air or baseboard water? if you have water, you need to cycle it in the basement at least. There's some tools that hook on to thermostats to do this for you. ThermGuard
I have a level of my house below pellet level which keeps the furnace running and calling for oil and plus my regular hot water boiler usage. It's enough to keep the basement pretty warm (60s) so I don't have pipe issues.
If your basement is getting cold, you're going to want something to keep it over 55. Especially this weekend.
It might be wise to just run the furnace flat out (crank it to 80 to ensure it runs) for a few min before you go to bed.

I like it 68-ish in my living spaces and 64-65 in my sleeping area. any hotter than that and I sweat.

 

[Jeef]

I know someone who kept burning his wood stove on some cold days. He thought his furnace kicked in, but it never did. Several busted pipes in the walls in the basement.
Is your basement on a separate zone or can you make it on one?

 

[corvetteguy78]

I have forced air and water heater works on oil. Basement is not a seperate zone, works on the main floor zone where heats flows into the basment through the ceiling vents.

I'll have to look into some options

 

[neonmike]

then if you have forced air your good, only need to worry if you have baseboard heat that is when you would have a problem.

 

[Briansol]

good as far as baseboards go... but there's still regular water pipes you may need to worry about down there. some people set their sinks to drip... I don't think this is reall necessary. Since you have oil hot water, it's 2 fold easy fix is to just run the facuets on hot for a few min that you don't really use (like, the spare bathroom, etc). The kitchen sink is probably fine as is the master bath because you use them and the warm water flows through it a few times a day. The drip doesn't really warm the pipes though.. it just keeps it moving, but I don't think it's enough to stop it from freezing up. I'm planning to run my COLD water on my sinks for a little bit before I go to bed and then again when I get up tomorrow morning in the -6 they are planning for us. the hot water is probably fine-- the line from the street is going to get cold!

 

[Briansol]

how'd you fare last night in the brutal cold? mine couldn't hang. oil burner was needed to maintian 65 about once an hour.

 

[corvetteguy78]

how'd you fare last night in the brutal cold? mine couldn't hang. oil burner was needed to maintian 65 about once an hour.

i had the stove up to 72 ..maintained 71 downstairs and 66 upstairs..this thing is a beast...i honestly really couldn't be happier with the way it performs.

Furnace has not had to kick it once yet

 

[Briansol]

nice man.