HLF setting on Coal-Trol and Not Maintaining Temp

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Post by Pocono Newbies » Sat. Nov. 06, 2010 9:09 am

What is the HFT (ooops, I mean HLF) setting normally on from the factory? Mine is at 0. I remember that last year in the LL forum it was suggested that we change the setting to 1 to help with temp response. What I don't know is if that is up from 0 to 1, or down from some other number to 1. Seems like it's taking too long for temp to go from 69 to 70. Day setting for 70 is at 6:15 a.m. At 6:15 this a.m., temp was 69. At 8:45, it was still 69. Finally reached 70 degrees at 9:00 a.m., so 2 hrs. 45 min. to come up one degree? We have a Hyfire II and it's certainly not cold enough to light the 2nd burner yet, it was 31 earlier and it is now 39! Upstairs house is only 1600 sf, so not overly large either. Hyfire II is overkill for our house.

Also, will changing HLF up to 1 affect the FR? We had to lower ours to 32 to prevent hot coals from dumping into ash pan. After speaking with Neil a few nights ago, we tried changing it back up to 40 last evening. This morning we have burning coals at the very edge of the grate, so I've lowered FR down to 35.

Also, we're still having the temperature drop down to 67 overnight, even though temp is set for 69. This did not happen for most of last heating season, when our temps were maintained perfectly, UNTIL the end of the heating season, when we began having 67 overnight. I'm keeping a log as Neil suggested, and so far, we've had a.m. temp of 67 with FR 36, outside temp 31, 68 with FR 0 with outside temp of 42, 68 with FR 11, outside temp 42. Yesterday we had temp of 69 at 5:10 a.m., FR 16, and outside temp 42. At 7:05 a.m., it was 69, FR 26, outside temp 42. The NIGHT setting of 69 degrees is for 8 PM, so the temp is dropping from that time on, until the a.m., when the DAY setting takes over at 6:15 a.m. Neil offered to swap our thermostat for another during our conversation; I think it may be necessary.

Just an aside -- while the Coal-trol temp is displayed, for instance this a.m., when it read 69, our Carrier thermostat, only 2 inches away on the same wall, read 67. And the house definitely felt like 67, not 69. However, both the Coal-trol and Carrier thermostats used to read EXACTLY THE SAME temps. Last year when the 67 degree readings began is when the difference in readings began as well. Now Carrier thermostat ALWAYS reads 1 or 2 degrees lower than Coal-trol thermostat.
Last edited by Pocono Newbies on Sun. Nov. 07, 2010 7:48 am, edited 3 times in total.

 
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Post by WNY » Sat. Nov. 06, 2010 2:04 pm

Not sure if you mean HLF (Heat Loss Factor, 0,1,2,3), it makes more of bump to the Feed Rate when a setpoint change is made, it makes it react quicker. I have mine on 2. I would try 1 at first and see it satisfies quicker. If not, try 2.
It doesn't take too long for it to change a degree or two.

I too am only running 1 burner, and it does take longer to get it up to temps when it's really cold.

Neil can probably tell you how to calibrate it if you have the advanced menu options.

 
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Post by Pocono Newbies » Sat. Nov. 06, 2010 2:28 pm

Yes, I meant HLF, seems I combined SFT with HLF, hence HFT. :roll: :oops:

It hasn't been really cold here, many mornings in high 30s, low 40s, today was lower, 31. There's just things going on now with this stove that I'm not happy with. Don't know what's happened, one theory we now have is that the furnace fan on high (used for heating) is cooling the air too much so it comes out of the vents too cool. We're investigating. We may end up going back to what we originally had -- using the natural convection up from the basement and ceiling fans -- that's how we were doing things when the stove was first installed, and the house was nice then. We just thought it would be better and more efficient to run the heat from the stove thru the ductwork, but now...

So if we change HLF to 1, we can end up with burning coals in the ash pan? I have FR back down to 33 and burning coals were very close to grate edge.


 
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Post by WNY » Sat. Nov. 06, 2010 2:45 pm

NO, it doesn't affect the MAX setting, if you are NOT dropping coals off now, you shouldn't if you go to HLF=1 (or 2). That just RAMPS up the feed rate faster to help it heat up faster. Our house cools pretty fast, so between temperature settings, it needs to ramp up faster to maintain, especially at night. The FR will vary all over the place depending on the temp changes, to maintain the temp. Mine varies from 0 to 35 most of the time right now. Since the sun comes out and heats up the house, it drops to 0, then it cools down, and feed rate increases to 25-35 when the temp drops a couple degrees.

Since you are only running 1 burner, you will probably get cooler air thru your ducts, since you are only putting out 1/2 the heat of the stove. I know mine takes longer to change a couple degrees, but when I run both grates, it maintains pretty good.

 
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Post by Pocono Newbies » Sat. Nov. 06, 2010 4:33 pm

Okay, first we'll check temp of air out of the vents. Will try the fan back on the low setting, although barely any air comes out on the low setting, then I'll try bumping the HLF up to 1 and see what that does.

Now if we can get the stove back to maintaining the night temperature of 69, like it used to...

 
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Post by pvolcko » Sun. Nov. 07, 2010 11:06 am

Default HLF is 0. Make adjustments to this slowly and with plenty of testing time between adjustments. And I'd recommend getting your other issues sorted out before setting this to anything except 0.


 
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Post by timandkellyplus10 » Sun. Oct. 26, 2014 9:20 am

I am trying to learn more about the HLF setting and what effect it has on the operation of the stove. It seems that there is are differing opinions as to what it does. After reading everything I can find, am I correct in saying that changing the HLF (heat loss factor) setting only affects the speed of FR changes when a positive setpoint change is made? In other words, if my setpoint temp is the same 24/7, then changing the HLF setting would not change anything in that situation?

 
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Post by pvolcko » Sun. Oct. 26, 2014 10:18 pm

Yes, you are correct. HLF only has an effect on setpoint changes (either manually entered overrides or programmed changes).

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