One big load of crapola.
Is it worth getting a Furnace or settel with a Stove?
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One big load of crapola.
Why not run the furnace on fan mode to distribute and mix air? The new ECM blowers are dirt cheap to run 24-7.
NSMaple1
Addicted to ArboristSite
I will have to agree with Spidey on the above. I find no comfort in a place where it's 80° in one area and 60° in another. It feels nice sitting beside a stove when coming in from the cold - for about 5 minutes - then it's look for a place further away. Then repeat.
Different strokes though....
(Did I just say I agree with Spidey? Oi - ha ha)
Different strokes though....
(Did I just say I agree with Spidey? Oi - ha ha)
Why?? Because my personal preferences don't agree with yours?? That's just so typical of you... if it ain't "you", it's crapola. If the opinion differs from "yours", it's crapola. I got big news for ya', Del_... the whole world ain't ever gonna' like everything you like. If you enjoy the having a stove in the living space, then that's what you should have, and you also have a right to express your opinion of it. But that in no way means I have to enjoy what you do, it in no way means I should have to have what you do, and it sure-in-hell don't make my personal preference crapola‼
And yeah... I'm gonna' start callin' out the arrogant, pretentious, pompous, "crapola" 'round here.
Well... first, his home doesn't have forced air heat, so there ain't a fan to run. The stove does have a blower kit and there's three big ceiling fans controlled by rheostats in that big space. But, because the area is so large, it ain't so much the "hot room" or hot "air" that I find uncomfortable (in his house)... it's the intense radiant heat. It's like NSMaple1 posted...
"It feels nice sitting beside a stove when coming in from the cold - for about 5 minutes - then it's look for a place further away. Then repeat."
After about 15 minutes and 3 or 4 moves, I flat can't get far enough away from it... I don't like it, it's plain uncomfortable to me. I end up sittin' at the far end of the dining table trying to shield myself from it. Some people like it... I don't. Heck, I even dug my fire pit deep and piled large stones above that to keep the intense heat off me; I'm usually sittin' further back than anyone else... and wearin' fewer cloths‼
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Maybe wood heat isn't for you?
NSMaple1
Addicted to ArboristSite
I'm all about wood heat.
I prefer mine to be of the central heating variety though, at least in my house.
I prefer mine to be of the central heating variety though, at least in my house.
Maybe wood heat isn't for you?
Sure it is... I've been heating with wood most of my life. But the free-standing stove in the living space type of heat isn't.When I've used a free-standing stove it was in the (non-living space) basements of old farm houses (mostly), eventually I started building warm air/forced air furnaces from stoves, and now I'm using a full-fledged wood-fired warm air/forced air furnace. The first "furnace" I built was from two barrels, a 30 gallon (for the firebox) inside a cut-down 55 gallon (for the air jacket) with a blower... that thing could darn near heat the great outdoors (but used a small mountain of wood). I've converted several "stoves" into furnaces and a couple of 'em are still being used. Some worked better than others, but the only one I can call a failure was the "stovace" I built from the PE stove... and I really had high hopes for that one.
I installed a stove (an Ashley Circulator) just one time in a living space (dinning room)... I swore I'd never do it again. I could barely stand to walk through that room, let alone spend any time in it. The dinning room was in the center of the house, between the kitchen and living room... the brick 'n' mortar chimney ran up between the kitchen and dinning room (the old wood cook stove connected to it back-in-the-day). It actually kept the living room fairly comfortable as long as you sat around the corner from the opening... the dinning room was an unusable sauna, and the kitchen was way too warm (especially if the oven was on). It was only installed one year... and I didn't run it over the holidays when we needed the dinning room space. A friend of mine actually liked it, and traded me a solid, well built, cast-iron air-tight for it even-up... I put the air-tight in the basement "as-is" the first year (tee'd it into the oil furnace connection at the chimney), and converted it into an add-on furnace the second year. Last I knew it was still being used (as a furnace) in that old two-story farm house. That thing would heat‼ And 8-10 hours of heat when temps were above 10° or so.
*
I'll wholeheartedly second that... twice
The way I see it, such a set-up is the best balance between constant, consistent, even heat and whole-home recovery time when required.
It would be really silly to spend all the time and energy on makin' firewood if ya' ain't gonna' be comfortable and happy with the ultimate result... whatever that may be.
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If the OP what's to see what heating with a free-standing unit us like all he needs to do is barrow four or five Kero-Sun kerosene heaters and set them close together in the room where the stove would be. It will become real evident real fast that contrary to what Del says it will be a hot S.O.B right up close and at the other end of your house you'll be freezing.
My dad had paddle fans, box fans , squirrel cage fans and strategically place through-wall vents trying to move the heat around ...it still sucked.
If ya want to heat your house buy a furnace , if your looking to sit around a artsy space-heater and wax poetic about the days events pick yourself up a free-standing unit and plop it in the middle of the living room and enjoy.
My dad had paddle fans, box fans , squirrel cage fans and strategically place through-wall vents trying to move the heat around ...it still sucked.
If ya want to heat your house buy a furnace , if your looking to sit around a artsy space-heater and wax poetic about the days events pick yourself up a free-standing unit and plop it in the middle of the living room and enjoy.
I like a stand alone wood burner for relaxing . I love the generous radiant heat for kicking back and taking a nap ...* But I don't like the wild temperature swings from room to room
It's annoying to sweat your butt off then go to bed in a chilly bedroom . I prefer everything everywhere to be 72 degrees .. Not a hundred in one room and 60 in another . Plus a lot of stoves dobt offer the burn times a wood furnace offers
It's annoying to sweat your butt off then go to bed in a chilly bedroom . I prefer everything everywhere to be 72 degrees .. Not a hundred in one room and 60 in another . Plus a lot of stoves dobt offer the burn times a wood furnace offers
newyorker
ArboristSite Operative
wood furnace arnt magical but the caddy is my first one and my long 2200 sq ft house is warm i used to heat it will a wood stove from the basement which did ok but you had to have a roaring fire at all times i am burning significantly less its 16 here tonight and i just put three medium size chunks in and it will be 68 or 70 when i get home from work at 2am, i just load and go to bed no knobs to twist or fiddling around i have been preaching to all my friends i love this thing. with about 2500 in it for furnace blower and tin its a home run sure i would love a gasser and storage but this was the best bang for the buck and just the feeling that i dont have to css so much wood anymore is awesome to
Yeah... that's a huge plus, plus, plus.
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litefoot
Addicted to ArboristSite
I would look at insulating your attic and sealing around and/or replacing windows and doors first. Notice the difference. Then decide.
Why a stove, she's not going to see it if it's in the cellar?
Get a furnace, you will be better off in the long run. And if she wants, every once in a while she can go stand in front of the furnace, umm I mean stove, and watch it burn with the door open.
Get a furnace, you will be better off in the long run. And if she wants, every once in a while she can go stand in front of the furnace, umm I mean stove, and watch it burn with the door open.
I heated a 1200 sf house for 11 years with an Avalon stove. We moved to a 2000 sf house and I installed another Avalon (945) in it. That is our primary heat source. Of course it gets much colder in WI where you are than in Felton, CA where I am
I found my stove used on craigslist. It was in like-new condition and came complete with triple-wall pipe, stainless cap and the telescoping flue for inside the house. All I had to do was make a box for the ceiling. I installed it myself. I paid a lot less than new prices that way.
You have the opposite problem I do. I like it cold (62°) in the house. My wife who lived in Southern California from when she was 13 to 20 likes it hot. We burn a lot of wood for where we live.
I found my stove used on craigslist. It was in like-new condition and came complete with triple-wall pipe, stainless cap and the telescoping flue for inside the house. All I had to do was make a box for the ceiling. I installed it myself. I paid a lot less than new prices that way.
You have the opposite problem I do. I like it cold (62°) in the house. My wife who lived in Southern California from when she was 13 to 20 likes it hot. We burn a lot of wood for where we live.
Chris-PA
Where the Wild Things Are
Might want to give a bit of consideration about complexity and the risks associated with reliance on functioning power grids, etc. Where I live the infrastructure is old, the utility was gutted and consolidated with others, maintenance is deferred and the system unreliable - in other words we're just a little ahead of the curve and preview of the future most places. But our place is warm regardless of if the power is on or I'm running the generator or not.
I use the air handler from the old furnace to distribute the heat normally, but I don't need to.
As for comfort, I prefer a central radiant source. Other than our bedroom (which is far away from the stove and cold, just as we like it), there isn't much time that I must spend in any particular room (I do not watch TV), so I'm free to locate wherever the temperature suits me. Having a second small stove up in the main room allows better control - if it's warmer out we run just that one, if it's cold (or if we just feel like cooking the place out) we run them both. And of course it provides redundancy if I need to do maintenance on the big stove.
I chuckle when I read about the need for temperatures that remain constant over time and location - this is not a need, it's a want and it's really all what you get used to. Sure, that is how I grew up in a house with oil fired heat, but now it is irrelevant to me. It is commonly in the mid to low 50's in our bedroom in the morning after the stove has cooled (I do not bother reloading it during the night), and this is not a big deal - no one runs around shivering. After a shower and getting dressed I'll go downstairs, where it's warmer from the heat stored in the stone and re-radiating out, reload the stove and the place will warm up nicely again. By the time I'm done eating breakfast I can stop down the air inlet, and the blower usually has kicked on before I leave for work. It's not a lot of work.
Different people have different expectations and preferences. If what you want is constant temps throughout the structure and over time, an actively controlled wood furnace system will probably suit you better, but there are other ways to live comfortably.
I use the air handler from the old furnace to distribute the heat normally, but I don't need to.
As for comfort, I prefer a central radiant source. Other than our bedroom (which is far away from the stove and cold, just as we like it), there isn't much time that I must spend in any particular room (I do not watch TV), so I'm free to locate wherever the temperature suits me. Having a second small stove up in the main room allows better control - if it's warmer out we run just that one, if it's cold (or if we just feel like cooking the place out) we run them both. And of course it provides redundancy if I need to do maintenance on the big stove.
I chuckle when I read about the need for temperatures that remain constant over time and location - this is not a need, it's a want and it's really all what you get used to. Sure, that is how I grew up in a house with oil fired heat, but now it is irrelevant to me. It is commonly in the mid to low 50's in our bedroom in the morning after the stove has cooled (I do not bother reloading it during the night), and this is not a big deal - no one runs around shivering. After a shower and getting dressed I'll go downstairs, where it's warmer from the heat stored in the stone and re-radiating out, reload the stove and the place will warm up nicely again. By the time I'm done eating breakfast I can stop down the air inlet, and the blower usually has kicked on before I leave for work. It's not a lot of work.
Different people have different expectations and preferences. If what you want is constant temps throughout the structure and over time, an actively controlled wood furnace system will probably suit you better, but there are other ways to live comfortably.
fearofpavement
Trying them all
The setup we have is just that, wood furnace in basement (but not hooked into ducting) and wood stove on main floor that gets rare usage.
NSMaple1
Addicted to ArboristSite
Would you keep your house at all the same temps you do now, if you were heating with the oil furnace & someone was giving you all the oil you wanted for free?
Our house doesn't stay absolutely constant all over all the time. Our bedrooms are couple degrees cooler for sleeping - but there is no way in heck they would get down to the mid-50's, that is far from comfortable getting out of bed into.
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