Loving My Pellet Stove, Harman XXV

October 2013, see my most recent post about my Harman XXV pellet stove.

March 2011 : also see my continuation, 2nd post about my Harman XXV pellet stove

 

September 9, 2010 : Updated info at bottom

June 2, 2010 : Updated info at bottom

I have been bitten by the pellet stove bug for sure. As evidence for this I ordered my Harman XXV cast iron pellet stove, from Bernardston Farmers Supply, 2 months before we moved into our new house. My friend Bruno, who is all knowing when it comes to pellet stoves, showed me his stove and this had me hunting  for my own.

We settled on the Harman XXV stove since it fit all our needs. We where looking at something to heat our entire house, which is approximately 1900sq ft. The stove would be installed on an existing pad in the finished basement which once held a wood stove. Cast Iron was preferred since visually it looked like an old fashion. The hopper had to be big enough to run all day without refueling.

Eventually our choice of pellet stoves narrowed between the Quadra-Fire MT Vernon and the Harman XXV (pictured to right). After getting quotes from several places we went with the Harman XXV. With installation and a free ton of pellets from Harman the price difference between the 2 stoves was well over $1000, so the Harman was the logical choice.

I can honestly say that purchasing a pellet stove is #1 on our list of best purchases for our home.

Pros

  • Approximately 3 months in and we have used ZERO oil to heat our house.
  • Our house is toasty warm, always between 68-75 depending on the room.
  • Low maintenance, a quick vacuum of the ash and a wipe of the glass.
  • Very efficient in burning pellets
  • Using locally made pellets, New England Pellets made 15 miles from our house
  • Not using oil shipped half way around the world
  • Does not get burning hot like a wood stove, much safer for my child.
  • Not having to deal with fluctuating Oil prices

Cons

  • Fan noise can be heard when the stove is on high (we don’t even notice it anymore).
  • Keeping the hopper full with pellets
  • Emptying out ash tray
  • Uses Electricity

As for if the stove would save us money, it all depends on how you look at it?
I filled my 1/4 full  oil tank and it was the same cost as 2 tons of pellets delivered (our hot water uses oil for NOW). These two tons of pellets have kept my house nice and toasty during the worst of winter for going on 2+ months. I very much doubt I could say the same if using oil.

Did we save money?
I am sure if we kept the house at the temperature we would have if we where heating with oil we would save money. One of the main reasons we got our pellet stove is to not have a freezing house especially with a little one. Having a house in the low 70’s in the dead of winter was great.

June 2, 2010 update.

With the heating season officially over I am sure glad we had our stove. It really came in handy on some of those days in April when Vermont decided to drip back into the 30’s for the day. It was nice to just fill the hopper, and have a toasty house in a short amount of time.

One thing we did notice, when the outside temp towards the end of the season was 40 or so, the Harman XXV kept the house very warm and went through very little in the way of fuel. The maintenance during this time of slow burning through fuel was very minimal which was great given our busy schedule.

Fuel wise, we went through 3 tons of pellets plus maybe 20-30 bags which we bought a few at a time during the end of the heating season. In retrospect, we probably should have had another ton delivered, but buying it by the bag isn’t too bad. Still have plenty of oil in the tank, and hopefully it will be that way this time in 2011.

September 9, 2010 update, more area to heat this winter.

As the heating season quickly approaches we are expanding what we heat with our pellet stove this year. Plans are in the works to run some ducts out to an attached sunroom. Our hope is to install an inline duct fan and draw the heat from near the pellet stove and make the sunroom more usable during the colder months. This may have an additional benefit of circulating some heat in our house more, though our layout is very good for natural air moment.

Judging from last year, I am confident the Harman XXV is up to the task!

On the Oil front, it’s close to being official, we are approaching a year without using oil to heat our house.

On the pellet front,  had a delivery of New England Brand pellets which are made close by in NH, can’t get much more local then that.

2010 is here

Might as well start the new year off with a post. Might be months before we remember we still have a blog.

We are enjoying out new house, and renee is getting huge. Life seems to be going quickly which I guess is a good sign. Looking at what concerts we can go to in the new year. Festivals will be high on the list so we can bring renee.

Wow when do we post???

Just realized the other day with facebook, twitter and such we never seem to blog anymore the nerve of us. After all renee is not going to have much to look at in the future if we don’t at least write it down!!!

Anyhow, she is doing great and is getting huge, probably 30″ now, how did that happen??

Super cuteness

Renee had her first “belly laugh” today when her Daddy gave her a bath and tickled underneath her chin. It was unbelievably cute, but of course when I got the video camera she didn’t want to perform–oh well, thought we would at least mention the milestone here! 🙂

First Night Away

Last weekend was the first night we spent away from renee, our little pumpkin. We had planned on some sort of adventure a while ago since it was kathy’s birthday. We did know we where going to both get tattoo’ed again but besides that where not sure what we where doing. As luck would have it my parents where ever to eager to watch renee, and this time overnight.
This could be way too long a post so I will sum it up.

  • Tattos’s went great, tracey of luck soul tattoo did a great job yet again.
  • A nice ice cream stop at ikea. Some pepe’s famous pizza for dinner.
  • Me being the designated driver for kathy when we went to John Harvards for drinks and she had a few.
  • Being able to sleep in late even though we both did not sleep well without renee’s constant noises.
  • My parents telling us they sold our child on ebay and such when kathy called.
  • Having to take the cell phone away from Kathy

All in all it was a great test run for the upcoming several days away from her. Even though we missed her, my parents had a great time with renee and she seemed to have a great time too.

update on little boo

Renee had her 6-week checkup at the doctor today. She is now 9 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches long! She sure fattened up. Can’t believe how fast they grow! they said she’s perfectly healthy, which is always a relief for a mom to hear. Right now the poor thing has some bad baby acne, she has the face of a 13 year-old prepubescent boy. The dr. said just to keep it clean, there is not much you can do and it should clear up in a few weeks. Hope so…

So far I’ve been surviving solo at home with her, still trying to get out with her a little every day, and succeeding most days. I do miss the hubby though, it was a special kind of happiness to have us both enjoying the baby together and watching her cute antics. It gets a bit lonely at home, especially when the weather is crappy. But I’ve managed to visit a few folks and attend the “new moms group” at the hospital, which has been nice. Just have to take it one day at a time with my little sidekick.

she’s been starting to smile more and even coo a little…in fact the girl never shuts up,with all the cooing and grunting that goes on! it’s hilarious.

hope everyone is staying well and keepin warm and avoiding s.a.d!!

Snowy thanksgiving

We had a lovely turkey day in Killington Vt at Chris’ sister Jen’s rented ski house. It was a very nice house, complete with a roaring fireplace and hot tub. We didn’t end up using the hot tub but we sure enjoyed sitting by the fire! So did Renee.
Jen shares the ski house with 4 Irish guys who were hilarious! Wednesday night they each polished off a case of Long Trail Ale, a couple glasses of wine and a glass or two of scotch and they weren’t even buzzed. That’s the Irish for ya. Good thing Chris didn’t even try to keep up with them! They were all really nice people and pleasant to talk to, you just had to listen hard to understand the accent at times.
I really enjoyed chatting with one of the guys’ girlfriend, Tonya, who just turned vegetarian. We let her try our soy turkey (NOT a tofurkey but a “quorn” turkey–SO much better!), she loved it. She brought her bulldog, Bella, who was adorable but a big scaredy cat. She was afraid of the baby! And she snored REALLY loud (the dog, not Tonya :)).
The whole Thanksgiving dinner was a laid back affair but the meal was amazing. Jen and her friends really outdid themselves preparing. Even though we’re vegetarian, the turkey looked incredible. Chris’ parents got it from a farm down the street from them, freshly killed. Jen’s friend prepared it from a Martha Stewart recipe and it looked fresh out of a magazine, surrounded by cranberries, sage and glazed pears and stuffed with an orange rind brine–wow. Chris’ mom made some amazing pies and everyone else made some awesome sides, all outta this world.
We enjoyed relaxing and chatting. Everyone wanted to hold Renee so much that we barely got to see her at all that day! No one wanted to give her up. We’re extremely lucky that she was so good and tolerated the 2 hour drive up north so well. Maybe Jen will let us visit her ski house more often!
if you could believe it, it snowed 5 inches that morning too! good thing we came Wednesday night.

hope everyone else had a nice day too!