PC45 trying to lower the burn rate to save fuel

[chadhumm]

I have a St croix Auburn Ive used for 7 years and its been good for me. I went ahead and and also got a Harman PC45 hoping with an igniter I could save on corn supply.. I burn corn only I wondered if anyone had any advice on how to lower the burn rate. I currently have it set with dip switch 3 7 and 8 on feed rate on 1 and the draft adjustment all the way counter clockwise. I have it hooked to a thermostat, it runs just at night right now. From my calculations its using 2.5 pounds for every hour of runtime. Compared to 1 lb an hour for the Auburn, after some tweaks..delay timer. Heat output seems to be about the same. Just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience and has some tips on saving fuel. I can see this coming, yes I realize there is fuel savings with the PC 45 because it can shut off since it has the igniter. whereas the auburn stays on and runs on pilot mode. Factoring that in it evens things out a bit but still uses more than the Auburn. 2.5#/hr compared to 1#/hr. And yes 1# an hour is what I can get out of the Auburn . Thanks in advance for any advice Is it more effecient as a pellet stove?

[jp99]

For corn in the PC-45, the dip switches should all be at 0 (off, down). Settings 3, 7 and 8 all increase your fuel usage and are for pellets.

Also, are you using the corn implements? The burn pot with the smaller holes, the smaller hole for the combustion fan, stir rod, etc?
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Harman PC-45

[Charlie]

Yup, All the dip switches should be down when burning corn.
The draft adjustment is only really to adjust airflow for an idle burn. Won't do a thing for most normal operation.
Running your feed rate that low can actually increase the fuel use. The feed rate should be set for the fuel, not the heat setting. I'd try a rate of around 2 or 2.5, see what that does.
Once you get the stove burning, after the start cycle is complete, try placing the ignition in manual mode. The stove will idle(this is where the draft adjustment can help) rather than shut down . Frequent starts uses more fuel, just like your car.
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Harman, AES Dealer
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

[chadhumm]

Thanks for those tips. I have tried it for a short time that way and it seemed to run fine. Ignition time seems a bit long sometimes with all the dip switches off. 1 through 3 control feed rate for ignition, with any of those on I find there is too much feed and which results in enough smoke to reduce the visibility to zero within 50 yards. Am I correct in assuming that switches 1 through 3 control the feed rate during ignition ONLY? Can anyone shed any light on dip switches 7, 8. Their purpose? I am going to switch over to pellets just to try it out. Is the best setting for that 3, 7and 8 as per the technical bulletin from Harman? ok with the corn pot with agitator rod, and the inlet ring with larger hole? I do have the other pot and heard to use that without the agitator rod, so I am not sure which is the best way to run with pellets.

[Charlie]

If you want to burn just pellets 7,8 should be up. They help the stove to make faster changes to the feed rate and respond better.
1 thru 3 are kind of like the accelerator pump in a car. They put progressively more fuel in just for startup. We usually use just 1 up for pellets. If you need more for the start, put 1 & 2 up,etc. All down for corn or you'll get too much and a lot of smoke.
If you have the large hole blower cover, it works great for pellets. Some folks like the open front, some the auger extention. I haven't seen a great deal of difference either way, exept that the open front saves the wear and tear on the auger extention.
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Harman, AES Dealer
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

[chadhumm]

Again thanks that clears things up for me. Although I am having a new problem the past 36 hours. The burn pot is filling up and spilling over the top. It ran just fine for a week and Ive made no changes. Im running with a thermostat and when its up to temp it does break the circuit and I get the 4 blink code which is correct, but it keeps on feeding corn excessively and the room temp is way overshot to where I have to manually turn the stove off. My only guess is there is something wrong with the room sensor, are these known to go bad and need replaced. Its only been in use for 2 weeks. and btw i have unplugged it multiple time to reset it and all the dip switches are off and draft is at center.

[Charlie]

I've never used a thermostat on a PC, so I don't know how they respond to one. You might try running on stove temp to see how the unit behaves. My guess is that if it works well that way, the thermostat hook up may be the culprit.
Room probes can go bad but usually the result of getting stepped on or bent somehow. They can't handle rough treatment at all. A dealer should be able to hook up test equipment and see if the probe is bad.
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Harman, AES Dealer
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

[chadhumm]

Is there a website to find the nearest Harman dealer. I'm in northern Il zip 61283.

[tfgrower]

[jp99]

It's been awhile since I looked at this, but there are two types of thermostats - a standard one and one that runs very low voltages. The low voltage one is the one you need for the stove. So make sure you have the correct type, as I'm not sure what happens if you use the wrong one.

I don't use one so I'm only going on memory from what I read a couple of years ago.
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Harman PC-45