Home design for wood heat.

Open floor plans and a centrally located stove. Keep things compact, not sprawling.

If there is a second story, a high ceiling in the stove room with a loft type landing upstairs with the bedrooms near the stove room.

Ceiling fans can help destratify the air to keep temps even.

-SF

Wood furnance that is ducted through house same as a forced air system. My folks heated their home like that over 20 years and just this year the wood stove was replaced with a self feeding coal unit.

A big open living/dining/kitchen combined with an open staircase leading to the upper rooms with open doorways to those rooms off of a central space from the stair way. Choose a stove with a good convection fan or put in a fan somewhere in the staircase to encourage the air movement up stairs. The cold air will then fall down the stair way.

This is what I looked for when I purchased my house in Maine.

I agree with the floorplan, but I would spend $$ on superinsulation rather than a masonry heater...with good distribution and insulation, you could run a modest stove like a masonry heater...a big burn every now and then without big temp swings, and a lot less overall wood consumption.

If I had it to do all over again, it would be an A frame with a loft. The stove in the center of the ground floor open area.

You are thinking correctly - the house does need to be designed with the heat source as an integral feature.

Caution: the following contains blatant biases and strong opinions developed by many years to struggling with energy hungry construction.

Assuming you are going to use traditional right-angles... the more nearly square the structure the easier it is to evenly distribute heat, and the smaller the wall and ceiling areas are for a given amount of floor area - which reduces heat losses. Keep projections, ells, niches, and bump-outs to a minimum, some houses have so many wings it is hard to say just where a central stove location might be. Use air-lock entries. Make all doorway openings as high and wide as possible. Design without hallways. Build with super-insulation techniques - this gives the highest return on investment for any energy saving construction, device, or appliance. Avoid the temptation to use large expanses of glass - the r value of the best is still a small fraction of a r-35 wall. Plan for thermal insulation through drapes or shades or both on what glass you do have. Stairways need to be as open and wide as practical - most house designs can accommodate 4' wide stairways.

Two story construction is problematic. Heat will rise, no surprise there. If the upper level is too open, it will be difficult to keep it from overheating in summer and a/c will over cool the lower level. If it is not open enough, then heat from the stove down below will not be able to find its way to the upper level. Hence the suggestion above concerning a wood burning forced air furnace. My own house has a 4' wide open stairway not far from the stove, and we very well in winter, although obviously the upstairs bedrooms get cold if the doors are kept shut. In summer, well mostly we cool the house on the upstairs a/c unit alone.

I am of two minds about cathedral ceilings: on the one hand I think they are a maintenance nightmare, but on the other hand I think they make climate control difficult to impossible. I suppose a cathedral ceiling and mezzanine or loft design can be engineered so that hot and cold spots do not occur, but the few dozen I have seen certainly weren't. Keep in mind that a wood burning appliance MUST operate on a relatively low btu/hr, but continuous, basis or it will run you out, so the process of warming up the house will be two or three times longer than with a furnace. The knowledge that just an hour or so after you start the stove back up it is toasty warm 12 feet above the floor is not really all that comforting in practice.

jotul8e2 said:

Keep in mind that a wood burning appliance MUST operate on a relatively low btu/hr, but continuous, basis or it will run you out, so the process of warming up the house will be two or three times longer than with a furnace. The knowledge that just an hour or so after you start the stove back up it is toasty warm 12 feet above the floor is not really all that comforting in practice.

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Could no agree more on this.

A few things I would do with wood burning in mind if I could build my own house:

-2,500 sf single story with an open plan
-Centrally located living room with a masonry fireplace, a raised hearth and a large stove or insert. The masonry soaks up the heat and radiates for hours.
-2x6 framing with sprayed in insulation as well as r30 bat insulation, and sheathed on the interior with 1/2" plywood, then apply wall covering (sheetrock, or wood v-joint)
-South facing windows for sunny days with heavy thick insulated curtains. Soak up those solar rays with the ability to close it off when we want.
-Attached garage with extra space to store a good sized stack or wood.
-The masonry fireplace would have a cut out for wood storage, or it would be an extra large fireplace with a freestanding stove and enough space like an inglenook for wood storage on both sides of the stove.

pipe dreams.

DaFattKidd said:

A few things I would do with wood burning in mind if I could build my own house:

-2,500 sf single story with an open plan
-Centrally located living room with a masonry fireplace, a raised hearth and a large stove or insert. The masonry soaks up the heat and radiates for hours.
-2x6 framing with sprayed in insulation as well as r30 bat insulation, and sheathed on the interior with 1/2" plywood, then apply wall covering (sheetrock, or wood v-joint)
-South facing windows for sunny days with heavy thick insulated curtains. Soak up those solar rays with the ability to close it off when we want.
-Attached garage with extra space to store a good sized stack or wood.
-The masonry fireplace would have a cut out for wood storage, or it would be an extra large fireplace with a freestanding stove and enough space like an inglenook for wood storage on both sides of the stove.

pipe dreams.

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+1

Nearly describes my grandparents house, except it was a longer ranch with the bedrooms at one end down a longer hall (and no wood storage cut out), the rest was open concept and the diningroom, kitchen and living room all had a wall with the stone from the central fireplace in them. You could burn a good fire in the day, and the stone wold still be radiating heat the next am. My grandpa built it in the 60's...of course he was also a carpenter/stone mason, so it was a bit easier than for your average new home builder (and cheaper, lol). He did find the plans in a trade magazine though, so there are houses out there designed this way, somewhere.

I have a center hall colonial, and it is perfectly designed for wood burning, I have an insert in a masonry fire place that retains a lot of heat, it is located in the front of the house with a 6' opening on one side towards the back adjacent to the family room with only a knee wall separating it with my kitchen, so both those rooms are nicely heated, and in the front of my stoveroom there is a 40" opening right next to the stairs leading upstairs to a short hallway right in the center with the 4 bedrooms equally spaced, I did not build this house with wood burning in mind, but my first winter there I decided to build a fire and realized what a great job it did of sending heat upstairs and wondered how good a stove would do, and after a few oil bills my mind was made and the rest is history.

I'm with Nate on this one, EPA wood furnace with well designed ducting is the best way to get the heat through the house.
"Duct losses" is only an issue in a poorly designed house, and can be totally eliminated by running the ducting inside the insulated envelope of the house. (eg. Ducting in an insulated crawl space or between floor joists, or drop ceilings)
The only short coming of a wood furnace is when you loose power, same short coming as pellet stoves.

Carbon_Liberator said:

I'm with Nate on this one, EPA wood furnace with well designed ducting is the best way to get the heat through the house.
"Duct losses" is only an issue in a poorly designed house, and can be totally eliminated by running the ducting inside the insulated envelope of the house. (eg. Ducting in an insulated crawl space or between floor joists, or drop ceilings)
The only short coming of a wood furnace is when you loose power, same short coming as pellet stoves.

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Nothing a generator couldn't handle. im sure if your building a new house as well set the panel up to plug in a generator. i myself would rather design around a wood stove though. interesting thread for some future ideas someday down the road.

If the building is actually superinsulated and airsealed well then thermal storage is not an issue as the building materials themselves act as great storage (might take the house a few hours to drop 1°F in cold weather with no heat input) so a huge masonry mass is not needed. A stone stove would be fine.

If this superinsulated house is built with ducting in the interior space (e.g. for central A/C), then a stove is fine rather than a furnace. The central blower on 'circ' will give highly effective heat mixing and distribution, and be inexpensive if an ECM blower is used. While the heat source should be central and the plan fairly open, this provides plenty of design freedom on the number of stories and layout IMO.
While the blower is off during blackouts, the house will certainly still be warm, even of the thermal gradients go from a couple degree to 4-5.

Disclaimer - Im an old house buff and biased heavily to traditional styles.

I think we could learn a lot by looking at how homes used to be built when wood was the only option for heat. Small footprint, good southern exposure, small window to wall area, low ceilings, etc. About the only thing that dosen't make sense anymore is a lot of small rooms with doors (good for heating just the in use room with fireplaces, bad for a central stove).

joutl, I think you were right on with the idea of minimizing wall to floor area... but you contradicted yourself later with the one level recommendation. Modern single story construction - ranch homes - are actually the worst deign layout in this regard. Multiple story design is much better optimized for minimizing exterior surface area, the turn of the century "American 4 square" cube is probably the ideal in this regard.

If I look back I think one of the best designs ever from a heating perspective might be the center chimney Saltbox. With proper southern exposure you have a nice wall of windows on the south side to make the most of solar gain, and that long sloping roof on the north side to give you the best protection from the prevailing northerly winds. The big central chimney puts your heat sources inside and allows you to make the most of the heat retention in all that masonry. The only update to build one today is that you might want to open up the floor plan a bit to get the heat distributed, and of course the super insulation. I would go for two smaller stove, one each floor, rather than one big one.


If I was going for central heat with wood I think I would do a boiler with storage... maybe a Garn... and in floor radiant.

SlyFerret said:

Open floor plans and a centrally located stove.

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That describes my former home to a T although it was not designed with wood heat in mind but rather the stove was added later. The central flue with a vented chase going up through the top floor did well to heat the upstairs. The central location on the main floor however tended to get a bit too hot at times.

I designed and build my current home with wood heat in mind but went against common thinking of a central stove. I designed it with a 14'x14' El and put the fireplace at the far end of it. This hearth room does tend to get a tad too warm at times but the adjacent main living space is just right.

The vented chase goes up through our master walk-in closet that is above the El and with the door left open warms the master bedroom. The central open stairwell warms the rest of the upper floor as long as doors are left open.

I have the central heat 650 CFM blower option drawing cold air from the floor of the crawlspace, blowing it up to the stove and this evens out the heat for the main floor. It does depend on electricity but around here electricty is very reliable with outages seldom exceeding 4 hours.

Here is a pic of how I get up to clean the chimney.

SlyFerret said:

Open floor plans and a centrally located stove. Keep things compact, not sprawling.

If there is a second story, a high ceiling in the stove room with a loft type landing upstairs with the bedrooms near the stove room.

Ceiling fans can help destratify the air to keep temps even.

-SF

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Have a low ceiling in my stove room which is downstairs but I also have a ceiling fan. issue is that it takes a while to get upstairs. i have a fan in between the two floors to draw the heat up but would turning on the ceiling fan help more?

Here's a last Winter pic from another angle.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cnW5TVVTIg8/TxrWj8OtqwI/AAAAAAAAAx8/kSUouu5VgGw/s640/100_0575.JPG

Why focus on wood heat? Think solar, with wood backup. Take advantage of what the sun is giving you for free nearly every day. It is most cost effective when you can plan your house around it from the beginning.

SlyFerret said:

Open floor plans and a centrally located stove. Keep things compact, not sprawling.

If there is a second story, a high ceiling in the stove room with a loft type landing upstairs with the bedrooms near the stove room.

Ceiling fans can help destratify the air to keep temps even.

-SF

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+1 I had pretty much that set up in a contemporary and it was great, after i put a liner in the fireplace and connected an insert to the fireplace. you walked into a great room the full length of the house with a fireplace at one end. stairs to a loft were at the other with two upstairs bedrooms and a bath. a kitchen and master bedtoom and bath were off the greatroom at opposite ends. i installed a cealing fan to keep the air curculating and it worked great. loved that house, unfortunately i couldn't hang on to it and had to sell it, but i agree, a great room with an open floor plan and centerally located stove if possible is the best way to go if you can design and build.

cass

Both thoughts are good. A wood furnace with the ducts in the appropriate places; and a wood burning stove centraly located with an open plan. The bedrooms off a "loft" area and they won't get too hot. All you have to do to regulate heat to them is open or close the doors. That is basically what I have and it works well.

I can't say that my home was entirely built around the very principle you're considering, but my wife and I looked at several styles of homes and we considered ours to be the best choice of those offered for heating. We live in an 1800 sq ft ranch with our kitchen, living room, and dining room to the center of the house. Master bedroom/bathroom to one end of the house, and two bedrooms/bathroom on the other end. We do have a 14' ceiling in the family room with a fan running opposite of normal summer operation and our Kozy Heat zero clearance has no problem heating the entire house.

As another poster stated - central location of the stove is key.

I will also add, because I agree with Precaud - the sun does indeed help keep temps up in our home. I find myself opening the blinds to let the light in, and the thermostat seems to hold steady without the need to tend the fire. We're having a really mild winter here in the mid-atlantic; I really haven't stopped shoulder season burning. Yesterday I started a fire around 4:30pm after letting the previous evening's fire go out and the house was still at 66. We had daytime temps in the 30's, blowing NW 15-20, and the house only lost 6 degrees all day.

Fechmup said:

As another poster stated - central location is key.

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IMHO, central is overrated. The wife and I duked that out for a very long time when I was drawing up our house plans and my design carried. Now, if she wants more heat, she sits in the hearth room and I sit in the living room that is not too hot.

Fechmup said:

the sun does indeed help keep temps up in our home. I find myself opening the blinds to let the light in, and the thermostat seems to hold steady without the need to tend the fire.

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Fechm, it can do WAY more than that if the house is designed for it from the start. The passive solar air heaters can carry the majority of the heat load for the entire house. Easily - and cheaply. And the resale value of the house will be MUCH higher with it in place. It's a no-brainer no matter how you look at it.