Thinking about purchasing pellet stove??

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bee_2102

New Member
Jan 18, 2012
29
Western PA
I am trying to do all the research I can on which model would suit my needs the best. I have a ranch style home. 1250 sq ft on the upper floor and 1250 sq ft in a finished basement. I am tired of having my house set at 66 and getting no where with oil. I would like to put it in my living room, but am skeptical that the heat would make it back the hallway to the bedrooms. Any info or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

I also have a fireplace in my basement. Would I be better off getting a pellet insert hoping the heat would make it upstairs?
 
bee_2102 said:
I am trying to do all the research I can on which model would suit my needs the best. I have a ranch style home. 1250 sq ft on the upper floor and 1250 sq ft in a finished basement. I am tired of having my house set at 66 and getting no where with oil. I would like to put it in my living room, but am skeptical that the heat would make it back the hallway to the bedrooms. Any info or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

I also have a fireplace in my basement. Would I be better off getting a pellet insert hoping the heat would make it upstairs?

I don't know if I can help you too much, and may be the wrong guy to ask but I was like you. I was sick of having the heat set at 66 and being cold, and paying for oil. After going on these forums and talking to friends that I knew that had pellet stoves I decided that a stove would help my cause. I have a 2200 sq ft colonial and the stove insert sits in the living room (it's a front to back living room 15 x 26). Most of my friends I talked to , and people on here, were having great luck with heating there whole house with their pellet stoves. If not there whole houses at least the 1st floor. I took the plunge and thought I could do the same.

Unfortunately the stove is not heating my 1st floor at all. The heat just stays in the living room. I am still playing with the stove, and it may still heat more than the living room some day when I figure it out. As of right now it heats the living room, and it is nice because that's where we spend most of our time so the thermostat hasn't moved past 62 since we bought the stove and it is HOT in the living room. If you leave the living room you get slapped in the face with the cold air in the foyer and kitchen. It's great to be comfortable and warm in the living room! The way I see it is I paid about $4000.00 for a space heater. I plan on being in this house for 15 - 20 years if not forever so it will pay for itself eventually... and it does put out nice heat and give off a good ambiance. So I do like it but I'm in the minority here. I like my stove but don't love it.....yet.

As I said, I'm probably not the best person to ask since I've only had my stove for 2 weeks. I just had high expectations for what it would heat and so far it's not heating as much as I thought it would...but... I still like it! I'm not giving up, I will play with it till it does heat more than the living room.
 
I just put a Lopi Pioneer in my @1600sq/ft Cape and I am pleasant surprised at how well the stove heats the first floor and indirectly the second floor. I did the math and figured out what the output in btu's was from my electric heat and used that to size the stove which seems to have worked perfectly. Knowing how hard your current heating system works and its output will speak volumes about how big a stove you need. The idea is to size so that on warmer days the stove will idle yet not run you out of the house, while still allowing enough output to keep up when the real cold happens. In my case the Lopi is @28K btu IIRC, and this has proven just right. It has become the primary heat source with the electric as supplemental. If you are planning on primary heating, never running the furnace, etc. then you may need more btu's to do so. I admit electric is easier to work with as there is independent control of each room, so there are no cold rooms that are farthest from the stove. RT
 
1500 sqft ranch, full patial finished basement.. I have a Harman P43 in the basement, right at the bottome of the stairway. The stairway is open to the upstairs..open to combo living/dining/kitchen with cathedral ceiling. I keep the stove set @ 70. Basement is almost too warm......upstairs has stayed at 68-69. I keep the furnace/heat pump set at 68. When we had clod weather......mid to low teens...the furnace came on 2x an hour for about 10 min. Warmer than 20 outside...the furnace never comes on. Have burned just over 2 tons this season.
 
I heat my entire 2 story 1500sq ft 1934 sidehall colonial, moderately insulated in upstate ny, with and Englander 25pdvc. Stove is located on the first floor at the base of the stairs. Heat travels up the stairwell. It is usually 73 on the first floor and 68-70 on the second. When outside temps hit single digits it has a little trouble kepeping up, but I crank it and use a space heater in the upstairs hallway. Stove is on 24/7, usually on fuel feed 1 and blower 6, in single diigits fuel feed 6 and up and blower 9.
 
I too live in a ranch home similar in size but with a partially finished basement. We installed a Harman Accentra FS a few years ago and it was the best investment we made. We placed the stove upstairs in our living room, the heat has no problem getting into all the bedrooms if we keep the doors open. We are now totally off oil. We live in PA and use between 2.5 - 3 tons a year. Best of luck to you.
 
I would love to make use of my existing fireplace and put in an insert. Possibly the Harman Accentra Insert. I am just hesitant as I am not sure if any of the heat would make it upstairs. I'm sure it would have no problem heating up my basement at only 1250 sq ft.
 
valentine92 said:
I too live in a ranch home similar in size but with a partially finished basement. We installed a Harman Accentra FS a few years ago and it was the best investment we made. We placed the stove upstairs in our living room, the heat has no problem getting into all the bedrooms if we keep the doors open. We are now totally off oil. We live in PA and use between 2.5 - 3 tons a year. Best of luck to you.


Did you have to run any other fans or did the blower on the insert do the job?
 
Heat will find the bedrooms.... If it doesn't? ? Then make it move by using fans (through the wall fans). I have a couple different models installed. If I had the pick one, it would be the Tjernlund Aireshare AS1. By far the quietest fan I have seen. Moves 75 CFM and looks pretty nice to. Here is what it looks like from both sides.

Also have 90 CFM Broan fans. They push more air, but are louder than the Aireshare.
 

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Don't anticipate that your stove is going to heat your home like a central heating system does. It is a space heater and you can heat a lot of space with the right set up. If your want to heat back rooms without the use of duct work you are going to have to find a way to draw the cool air out of those rooms so that the lighter and easier warm air can replace it. Usually done by a small fan on the floor blowing the cool air TOWARDS the stove. Cutting holes may not be desirable and may violate codes. If it is important to have some of those back rooms as warm as the common areas, you might find a small electric heater useful to give you a little boost where and when you need it. If you goal is having every room shirtsleeve temp, then maybe a furnace is more suited towards your needs.
 
My house is about the same size as yours with the lower level finished as well. My stove is installed as an insert upstairs in the living room. I run a small box fan in the hallway to move the cold air towards the stove. Kitchen/living room usually runs around 72 degrees and the bedrooms run about 65. Of course, the stove settings need to be changed occasionally depending on how cold it is. I usually run the stove at the lowest setting with the fan on high but on real cold nights I might bump it up a notch. I burn a little over a bag of pellets a day, around 3.5 tons a year. I rely on the oil burner to take care of the lower level. It rarely ever gets below 60 degrees down there and when we are home we will kick the thermostat up for a bit. Over the last 4 years, the most oil I have used is about 300 gallons per year, which includes hot water and heating once and a while when we are away. Prior to the pellet stove, I burned 800 gallons a year. I have no regrets with my set-up at all. I think if you install the stove downstairs, you will be disappointed with the heat distribution. Just my opinion.
 
My QUAD CB1200 keeps my 2400 sq ft bi-level home at a very comfortable 70' but I burn through a bag a day easily.. Although it's much cheaper than the radiant electric i am used to paying for. This stove will pay for itself in no time.
 
Snowy were are you? Another 2 stove candidate. ;-)

Put the insert down stairs and a FS upstairs then kiss the oil man bye-bye! :cheese:
 
yooper81 said:
My QUAD CB1200 keeps my 2400 sq ft bi-level home at a very comfortable 70' but I burn through a bag a day easily.. Although it's much cheaper than the radiant electric i am used to paying for. This stove will pay for itself in no time.

Yep.... The CB 1200 is a "Classic" workhorse. Used mine solely and heated this place (2,180 sq upstairs) with Zero Propane to 72*-75* using about 4 ton a year. Im on pace to use less than 3 ton this year. Very mild season compared to last season (almost 5 ton).

Using a freestanding stove or an insert, means you may have to get creative with moving the air. But if you want to heat the whole house and keep temps even, you may want to look into a Pellet furnace and tie it into existing HVAC system (assuming you have forced hot air now) or get 2 smaller stoves (about 30,000 BTU a piece) and put one up and one down.
 

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j-takeman said:
Snowy were are you? Another 2 stove candidate. ;-)

Put the insert down stairs and a FS upstairs then kiss the oil man bye-bye! :cheese:

Does this mean some of us are stove pigs? :roll:
 
smoke show said:
j-takeman said:
Snowy were are you? Another 2 stove candidate. ;-)

Put the insert down stairs and a FS upstairs then kiss the oil man bye-bye! :cheese:

Does this mean some of us are stove pigs? :roll:

What's better than a pellet stove?

2 silly! :cheese:
 
j-takeman said:
smoke show said:
j-takeman said:
Snowy were are you? Another 2 stove candidate. ;-)

Put the insert down stairs and a FS upstairs then kiss the oil man bye-bye! :cheese:

Does this mean some of us are stove pigs? :roll:

What's better than a pellet stove?

2 silly! :cheese:

Ask me and Snowy (and a few others) whats better than 2 stoves?????

3 stoves..... ;-P
 
I haven't even had mine a month and am already making plans for a 2nd stove or a furnace downstairs.

And today, I had a crazy thought about doing a stove downstairs and another upstairs in the hallway (since it can't be in a bedroom) and foregoing the furnace idea.

It's a sickness. But, I HATE paying the insane electric bills of past years...
 
Another vote here for multiple stoves if it's in the budget (hint, it will pay for itself). That's what I would do.
 
bee_2102 said:
valentine92 said:
I too live in a ranch home similar in size but with a partially finished basement. We installed a Harman Accentra FS a few years ago and it was the best investment we made. We placed the stove upstairs in our living room, the heat has no problem getting into all the bedrooms if we keep the doors open. We are now totally off oil. We live in PA and use between 2.5 - 3 tons a year. Best of luck to you.


Did you have to run any other fans or did the blower on the insert do the job?

We have a free standing pellet stove, it is in the living room at one end of the house, which also has the dining room and leads to the kitchen, the 3 bedroom are all down the hall. When it gets extremely cold I will run the ceiling fans on reverse, haven't had to do that so far this season. So far except for a few nights we have been sleeping with the doors closed since it hasn't been too cold out and the bedrooms would drop down to 60-62. My house is soo much warmer than with oil. We normally would use around 800 gallons of oil for heat/hot water, when we got the pellet stove our consumption dropped to around 300 gallons for just hot water. A few months ago we totally got off oil and installed an electric water heater.
 
DexterDay said:
yooper81 said:
My QUAD CB1200 keeps my 2400 sq ft bi-level home at a very comfortable 70' but I burn through a bag a day easily.. Although it's much cheaper than the radiant electric i am used to paying for. This stove will pay for itself in no time.

Yep.... The CB 1200 is a "Classic" workhorse. Used mine solely and heated this place (2,180 sq upstairs) with Zero Propane to 72*-75* using about 4 ton a year. Im on pace to use less than 3 ton this year. Very mild season compared to last season (almost 5 ton).

Using a freestanding stove or an insert, means you may have to get creative with moving the air. But if you want to heat the whole house and keep temps even, you may want to look into a Pellet furnace and tie it into existing HVAC system (assuming you have forced hot air now) or get 2 smaller stoves (about 30,000 BTU a piece) and put one up and one down.
that's impressive dexter!!!!!
 
DexterDay said:
j-takeman said:
smoke show said:
j-takeman said:
Snowy were are you? Another 2 stove candidate. ;-)

Put the insert down stairs and a FS upstairs then kiss the oil man bye-bye! :cheese:

Does this mean some of us are stove pigs? :roll:

What's better than a pellet stove?

2 silly! :cheese:

Ask me and Snowy (and a few others) whats better than 2 stoves?????

3 stoves..... ;-P

Now we just need to find someone with 4 :cheese:

Do woodstoves count? :hint:
 
j-takeman said:
DexterDay said:
j-takeman said:
smoke show said:
j-takeman said:
Snowy were are you? Another 2 stove candidate. ;-)

Put the insert down stairs and a FS upstairs then kiss the oil man bye-bye! :cheese:

Does this mean some of us are stove pigs? :roll:

What's better than a pellet stove?

2 silly! :cheese:

Ask me and Snowy (and a few others) whats better than 2 stoves?????

3 stoves..... ;-P

Now we just need to find someone with 4 :cheese:

Do woodstoves count? :hint:

I was showing the wife Dons thread with his stove in the backyard shed.

She said don't get any ideas. >:-(

I do have two 8x10 sheds in the backyard. :)
 
j-takeman said:
DexterDay said:
j-takeman said:
smoke show said:
j-takeman said:
Snowy were are you? Another 2 stove candidate. ;-)

Put the insert down stairs and a FS upstairs then kiss the oil man bye-bye! :cheese:

Does this mean some of us are stove pigs? :roll:

What's better than a pellet stove?

2 silly! :cheese:

Ask me and Snowy (and a few others) whats better than 2 stoves?????

3 stoves..... ;-P

Now we just need to find someone with 4 :cheese:

Do woodstoves count? :hint:

If Woodstoves and a Pre-Fab Fireplace count, then thats 5 Solid Fuel devices.

My insurance agent says I make her nervous!!! ;-P
 
She should be, I've heard about you.

Chalk up another derailment. :lol:
 
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