5 years with a Harmon PF-100 pellet furnace

[kedtec]

 5 years ago I replace my aging 75k btu oil furnace with a Harman PF-100 wood pellet furnace(108k btu). Looking back it is one of the best decissions that I ever made.  5 years ago my average cost for winter heating was $800-1,000.00 per year. We live in New England. 3 years ago we had the coldest winter on record. That year I spent $750.00 for the winter. This year was under $400.00 to heat for the winter. The hopper on the furnace holds 4, 40lb. bags of pellets. I elminated my oil tank too. I put what #2 home heating that was left in to a 55gallon drum that I burn with my 2 cylinder diesel tractor. The exhaust gasses are much less and much less toxic. I went from a 9" chimney to a 4" chimney. I only make CO & CO2, no sulfur dioxides, benzines, or other hydrocarbons... I feel better knowing that my hard earned cash goes to North Americans and not to Middle Eastern people that hate us too. I can do all the maintenance and cleanings too. It runs on a 3amp fuse so if you are living off the grid it is nice to know that it does not draw too much electricity.  I hope that I can convince other to use biomass and stop using non-renewable fossil fuels...Keith

[n74tg]

Have you had any problems getting homeowners insurance on your place?  Does the insurance company know you went to the wood pellet stove?

[glenn kangiser]

Welcome to the forum, Keith.  Nice to hear of your experience with pellets.

[MountainDon]

Sounds like nothing but a win-win-win situation for you. Welcome!  

Round here (NM) I know a couple folks with pellet stoves, but no furnaces, probably in some degree to the space difficuly of converting a gas furnace in a closet or small garage area into a woodburner furnace?  :-/  We have also experienced some shortages of pellets in the past year or two, last year more than this. How about up there?

[kedtec]

No problems the pellet furnace is safer than the oil or gas furnace...it is not a stove.  Pellets are less volatile than oil or gas. It has more safety devices than my oil furnace did. It has a fuse, an emergency cutoff switch and two breakers..one on the unit and one on my electric panel. It blows hot air through my vent ducts. There is also a sensor in my vent duct to make sure it only blows hot air. It has two layers of steel doors to get into the fire box. One is 1/4" plate steel and is closed by an all around dogging system...like a door on a ship. The other is about 10 gauge steel and has two latches.  Harman has been building all types of furnaces for over 150 years...they have an excellent reputation. It also has two thermostats. One I put in the living room. It also has one on the furnace..in case of failure of the one in the living room, I can swap to the one on the furnace. It is micro-computer controlled and is a very solid unit. Unlike my oil furnace that was only one layer of 10 gauge steel to the fire box. I had a chimney sweep inspect my installation prior to operation. It uses two types of heat exchangers; accordian and horse shoe..  Keith

[kedtec]

Overall pellet prices have been more stable than oil prices...They have increased but not as bad as oil has.  I just bought most of my pellets for next winter now...at the end of the winter...or during the summer. At this time of the year they want to get rid of all their stock so that they have room for summer stuff. If you buy at the end of the summer before the rush the prices are lower too. We bought 14 tons between myself and my neighbors..$225.00 per ton... I had a ton left over..so I only bought 2 tons.  A regular winter is about 3 tons or 150 bags....that real cold one was 4 tons.  We had a mild start of the winter this year..after New Years it started to get cold....That was unusual.  I went through about 2 tons this winter. I paid $215.00 last year. During the middle of last winter I needed an extra ton..I had to call around a bit but I was able to get the extra ton.  The secret is buy early.  I pile them 50 to 60 on a pallet in my garage.  5 years ago I paid $175.00 per ton. When diesel fuel and gasoline prices went up..all prices went up because transportation costs went up...Keith

[Daddymem]

I've got my eye out for a pellet stove to heat my basement next winter.  Also being in New England it is good to hear the pellet prices are stable.

[builderboy]

How long will 4x40lb bags last? You must need an alternative if you're away say a week or 2?

[kedtec]

If we go away for a week or two, I ask my brother or my neighbor to stop over and fill the hopper up. We went to Disney World one Christmas vacation. It averages out to about one bag of pellets per day; however it is temperature dependent below zero would be up to two bags per day. In the low or high 30's it would be less than a bag per day. I am burning 3-4 bags per week this time of the year.  Soon I hope to not burn any but it has to warm up a bit. It is also dependent on how clean the furnace is. I usually do 2 major cleaning per season. That takes about 30minutes. I end up with about a third of a trash can full of ash per season. The ash is all fine powder too; finer than salt and pepper. That is what it looks like too. I go out in the fields and add it to the soil. If you buy really good pellets it burns really clean and I hardly have to do a quick cleaning (about 5 minutes). But I have bought some mediocre pellets and had to do a quick cleaning once every week or two.

[kedtec]

The cheapest pellet prices in N.E. that I have heard of are in New Hampshire.  I have a friend that buys all his pellets at Wallmart and he told me that they are between $150-165.00. He works in North Conway. If they ever got too high I would consider making a road trip. It is only 3-4 hours away. I can haul up to two tons with my Hemi-Ram with my trailer and My friend has a diesel F-350 with a huge dump trailer he can haul 5 tons. My trailer is only rated at 3000 lbs. His trailer is rated at 12,000 lbs.  We currently search around for the a best prices and have driven up to 45 minutes away. Sometimes we have found deals 10 minutes away. Most full size pick ups especially 4X4s(F150s, 1500s etc...) will take a ton easily in the bed.
.....Keith

[glenn kangiser]

Nice thing about the Dodge is it has enough power to pull the Ford and a trailer load of pellets back too, if the need arises.

Sorry - couldn't resist. :-?

[kedtec]

It is too bad that the newer Ford diesels have such a poor reputation. The old 7.3L was one tough motor. So the Chevy is an Isuzu diesel.  That would only leave me with one option..I would go with the Dodge and the Cummins diesel..... but everyone has to make their own determiniations....Keith

[Pox Eclipse]

The cheapest pellet prices in N.E. that I have heard of are in New Hampshire.  I have a friend that buys all his pellets at Wallmart and he told me that they are between $150-165.00. He works in North Conway.

Wow, that a lot less than I paid in southern NH last fall.  The best I found nearby was $279/ton including delivery.  Home Depot started out last fall at $295/ton, plus delivery.  Average at Sam's Club, Wal-Mart and Lowes and others was $254/ton, plus delivery.  I bought some at Lowes, which for some reason, they would only sell me two tons, plus $60 for delivery.  And they turned out to be crappy pellets, didn't heat worth a hoot.  I'd buy elsewhere if it was cheaper, but I have no way to transport them, so I need reasonable delivery.

[glenn kangiser]

I love my Cummins - almost unlimited horsepower and if you build it up in the proper sequence the rest of the truck will hang in there with the Cummins.

I'm running around 300 HP right now but have a friend running 785HP in his daily driver - reliably.  You can haul lots of pellets on a trailer with that.

If we get a few wanting to know about the Cummins diesel upgrades we can start a thread in the off topics.  There is another forum that goes into that extensively.

[kedtec]

On my Hemi Ram(1500) 4X4. I added the throttle body spacer, full racing exhaust (cat back) and Cold Air Induction. In the winter when I tested it I was pushing 425HP and 440 ft/lbs of torque. I did not put the chip in it..I was going for low end power and better gas mileage....it breaths better now. It is louder but it really runs now. I ran up to a 2006 at a red light the other day, mine is a 2003. He wanted to play..I just walked away from him on take off, what a difference. I had to have a 2005 transmission put in because the original could not take the boost.. It only cost me $100.00. They told me if it ever goes again it would be free. I have had a lot of trucks get squirrely on me but they all ended up embarassed.  It sounds like I do this a lot but it has only happened about 6 times since I bought it. If I just lay on the gas at a red light the torque will spin it in a complete circle, side first. It will bearly go forward. Well here is my little secret. I do love the Cummins though. My next truck will be one.
.....Keith

[MountainDon]

Another hot rodder at heart! It's nice to have a little fun once and a while.  

[okie-guy]

There is a farm and ranch chain in Oklahoma  named Atwoods and last winter they where selling a 50# sack for $3.99 which would work out to $160.00 a ton. I know what you mean by timing when you buy. I bought my stove at Home Depot right after Christmas when they discounted all their fireplace products 50%. I bought the vent kit 50% off too. Mine is made by England Stove Works whose Home Depot brand is "Summers Heat "which seems like a silly name for a stove that you use during the winter, but they didn't ask for my imput so.................

[aurynandsniper]

how much did the unit cost plus installation?

[Alan Gage]

I've never used a pellet stove nor do I know anyone that has one but I do hang around at hearth.com now and then where people use a little bit of everything. I've heard some of the pellet burners complaining about pellet prices going up and that it's not really any cheaper to burn pellets than to burn NG or propane. It's the same for wood burners who buy all their wood, it just doesn't make sense from a $$$ point of view.

Of course money isn't the only decision in choosing a heat source. Some choose to burn wood/pellets so as not to feel tied to oil companies and some just like the look of the stove and the radiant heat.

Me? I'm a tight ass wood burner who scrounges and splits all his own wood by hand so heating only costs me chainsaw gas and some time. I enjoy the cutting and splitting, not so much the stacking. I'm about 3 years ahead on my wood supply (oak) so I can relax a bit now.

Alan

[MelFol]

I'm too young yet for a pellet stove.   I too enjoy the splitting and dislike the stacking. They say firewood warms you twice. The second time is when you burn it. I have about five cords scattered around the property from clearing trees last summer. 

Hey Glenn:  I might enjoy an off-topic thread on the Dodge/Cummins (so we don't hi-jack this thread too much).  I love mine too and have done a few simple mods.

[Alan Gage]

They say firewood warms you twice. The second time is when you burn it.

Thoreau was way off when he wrote that. I figure it's more like 7 or 8 times.

Once when you cut it and hauled it to your house. Another when you split it. Another when you stacked it. Another when your stack fell over and you had to stack it again (repeat this step 3 times).  Another when you haul it from the drying area to up near the house for burning in the winter. Another when you stack it by the house. And finally the last time when you haul it in the house and burn it.

Alan

[MountainDon]

Alan, when you put it that way it seems like one heck of a lot of work!   

[gdmiles]

MountainDon...yes, a lot of work...but think of the money you save on gym membership

[MountainDon]

I used to harvest, cut, split 3 to 4 cords a year back home in Winterpeg.

In the past few years I've cut much more thinning forest. That also thinned me. 

I have to admit I like it, but also will freely admit I really like the heat from the solar air collectors even more.

[Jeff S]

5 years ago I replace my aging 75k btu oil furnace with a Harman PF-100 wood pellet furnace(108k btu). Looking back it is one of the best decissions that I ever made.  5 years ago my average cost for winter heating was $800-1,000.00 per year. We live in New England. 3 years ago we had the coldest winter on record. That year I spent $750.00 for the winter. This year was under $400.00 to heat for the winter. The hopper on the furnace holds 4, 40lb. bags of pellets. I elminated my oil tank too. I put what #2 home heating that was left in to a 55gallon drum that I burn with my 2 cylinder diesel tractor. The exhaust gasses are much less and much less toxic. I went from a 9" chimney to a 4" chimney. I only make CO & CO2, no sulfur dioxides, benzines, or other hydrocarbons... I feel better knowing that my hard earned cash goes to North Americans and not to Middle Eastern people that hate us too. I can do all the maintenance and cleanings too. It runs on a 3amp fuse so if you are living off the grid it is nice to know that it does not draw too much electricity.  I hope that I can convince other to use biomass and stop using non-renewable fossil fuels...Keith

Hi Keith
Now that you have had this furnace for another 4 years since your first post..Do you still like this furnace I am in the market for a new heat source up here in Ontario Canada. I am looking very hard at purchasing the
Harmon pf 100
Thanks Jeff