Interested in DVC-500, how can I know it will put out enough

We have had two Harmon Magnafire series.

I saw the DVC at the dealer while pricing a unit for our "new" house.

Intrigued to say the least.

I want to install the DVC in my basement, and heat the upstairs.

It has a output of 72k BTU's. How can I compute if I will have enough heat with the DVC?

House is 26' x 54' one story with full basement. Basement is 90% finished with insulated walls.

Lastly, is the DVC user friendly, I've been reading posts and it seems so, but would love to hear of some first hand, new owner experiences, and some do's and dont's.

Thanks,
Blair

Blair

I bought a DVC-500 this year and am very happy with it. Its easy to light and use.

My ranch has a similar sized 30x60 basement. The half that is finished is a daylight basement with windows. The unfinished part is exposed concrete, I ripped out the insulation in ceiling. The stove is close to the foot of the basement stairs in the unfinished part. I leave the doors to the basement and finished part open for heat flow.

I get warm floors and stable 72F in the area above the unfinished part and cooler floors and roughly 64F temps above the finished part. ( works fine , those are the bedrooms) The finished part of the basement stays at 72F and the unfinished part the stove is in ranges in temp from 76F to 80F ( this is with the temp probe about 2' from the basement floor - the stove keeps that temp constant at around 75 - but there is a temp gradient towards the ceiling.)

The key to heat flow in my situation is the centrally located stove, staircase / door combo. On colder days you really feel the air flow going. We've been down to 19F here at night. No problems. When its warm out, I close the basement door.

Hope this helps

Mark

Thanks for the reply Mark.

Did you notice a large consumption of electric from the DVC?

I like the ease of running the unit. I am swayed a good bit from getting another Magna series.

This is my floorplan:



I'm thinking I may do well if the air comes up the steps and the door is open.

My whole basement has insulation in the ceiling, would it be better to pull that out? It is also finished with the dropped ceiling. Would it be pointless to pull the insulation if I have the dropped celing?

Thanks,
Blair

A couple of floor vents in the right place ought to make it efficient. The BTUs seem to be enough for your house. You just need the air to move freely.
I wouldn't fool w/ceiling or insulation.

I have a watt meter - it only draws 125W running, when the stoker motor runs it peaks at 145W

My stove dealer gave me some good advise - don't make any big modifications untill you run the stove - you may find you don't need to do them after all. ( KISS )

With that said - I did pull the insulation out of the ceiling, It made the upstairs floor much warmer. ( I put the stuff in my attic ) A drop ceiling should be much better than sheetrock at letting heat through though.

So far during cold snaps I get about 2 1/2 days out of a hopper. On low it will run as long as four or so days. Basically its set it and forget it - just remember to feed it and change its diaper once in a while.

Thanks guys.

I think I'll do as suggested. I'm going to make a decision here in a day or three, leaning on the DVC, and I'll run for a while before I mod the house any.

Thanks again,
Blair

blthomas wrote:Thanks guys.

I think I'll do as suggested. I'm going to make a decision here in a day or three, leaning on the DVC, and I'll run for a while before I mod the house any.

Thanks again,
Blair

I too was looking at the DVC. Nice looking unit, but a little $$$ for my taste. Settled on a Leisure Line Econo with the power vent kit. Same BTUs but the Leisure Line comes with the Coal Trol thermostat which is highly rated here. Plus, Leisure Line seems to frequent these boards too so it seems a more personal company (whereas Harman is reported as having questionable customer service from what I've read).

Admittedly, I haven't fired it up yet but I will be sure to report when I do!

Please do. I'm open to any option, the only stove dealer in our town sells the Harmons hard.

And I've had great success with the last two I owned.

But I'd be very interested in hearing other input.

Blair

I've heard great things about the Harman stoves too. But the idea that the Leisure Line uses a Coal Trol and the aftermarket power venter sold me. I like the idea that I can get parts from places other than the stove dealer themselves. I know it may be weird, but I figure if Coal Trols are used for many different stoves, their parts will be around a while. Same with the direct vent system.

I should have the stove installed over the weekend and hopefully the insurance guy will give the green light so I can light it for when my mom arrives around Christmas. She's not used to our 55* house

I will be sure to give a report with as much detail as I can. There is precious little info about coal stoves and this site is the best resource around.

CoalBin wrote:I have a watt meter - it only draws 125W running, when the stoker motor runs it peaks at 145W

Bin, where can I get such a meter? I'd like to see what the Harman draws... and if that hot feed motor is also drawing more than its rating...

The easiest one to use is the "Kill A Watt" P4400

You plug this into the wall and plug the device into it. Not only does it give you the usual volts, freq, amps, watts - but it will also totalize Kwh.

Using this device is a real eye opener.
Here on Long I$land, usage is a big deal - electric runs about 25c / KWH with all the surcharges

If you google "kill a watt" there are places which sell it for around $20.

Mark

There are two ways to measure the electric power consumed. One way is
with a power meter. This is not a common service technicians tool. The
second way is the measure voltage (V) and current (I) and then multiply
the two numbers to get power. P = VI where voltage is in volts and
current is in amps, power will be in watts. An inexpensive clamp on
type meter is available from Harbor Freight. See:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=42397

The advantage of the clip-on style of ampmeter is that you don't have to
cut the current handling wire to put an ampmeter in series to make the
measurement.

Yanche

Email sent to leisure line.

Asked them to recommend something comparable to the DVC.

One thing in favor of the Harmon unit, the guys are right here 6 miles from my house.

Leisure Lines closet dealer is Maryland.

We'll see what he says.

The advantage of the clip-on style of ampmeter is that you don't have to
cut the current handling wire to put an ampmeter in series to make the
measurement.

A clamp on only works if you can clamp it around only one of the conductors feeding the appliance. If you clamp around both the conductors in a power cord, it reads zero. To get around this on a sealed appliance, you can isolate (cut open the cord) the hot and netural on an extension cord and clamp around one line only. The real value behind a device such as the "kill a watt" is its totalize function. (KWH) This comes in real handy for devices that activate sporadically such as a freezer ( in the basement where the coal stove is )

The clamp on is handy at the fuse panel though, you can quickly clamp onto each individual circuit along with the phases. To get watts, you still have to do the P=IE calculation & it won't do PF automatically either.

I've been interested in one of those Kill-A-Watt meters for a long time. I've always wondered how much electricity my fridge used over the course of a day.

While the clamp on meters are nice, you do have to devise some form of short extension cord with the positive and negative isolated. Also, for an appliance that runs throughout the day, it is nice to see an average for the whole day. A fridge is a good example. The Kill-A-Watt tells you how much electricity it uses for a day, week, month, etc... This is a much more practical method for many things.

Perhaps I'll spring for one. I could then convince my wife we need to do laundry during the night (when our electric company gives us a break).