Hello Hearth Forum members,
First of all just want to thank all the members who have contributed to the forum, truly a great resource especially for all the newbies. I recently moved into a mid century modern home in Westchester County, NY the home is located near Croton on Hudson, New York. We have lived in the home for a little more than a year, and would like to reduce our reliance on oil heating.
The home already has an existing wood stove, a RAIS Bando model. Although a very nice unit, it does not have the capability to heat the home comfortably especially when the temperature drops below the 40's. The house itself was built in the 60's, it's a 2500 sq ft. 3 story home with a spiral staircase right through the middle of the home, the master bedroom is on the 3rd floor which is open to the 2nd level which is the main floor (think loft style). The home has single plane windows (in fact have a lot of floor to ceiling windows) not well insulated, heigh ceilings, open floor plan and as you can imagine extremely challenging to heat. Our home also has 3 additional fireplaces in addition to the wood stove. On the main level we have a fireplace located exactly on the opposite side of the wood stove. Our plan is to add a wood insert and use that as the primary heating source. If the weather gets really chilly we would then use the wood stove, and supplement with oil heating if needed.
Although we would love to have a sleek modern fireplace insert to complement the decor and style of the home, we do realize the main reason we are contemplating the purchase of the insert is to heat the home. At this juncture we are leaning towards the Osborn 2400 Wood insert. We are not to keen on the insert not being flush with the fireplace wall, however have read the benefits of having the unit protrude to increase it's heating capabilities.
Please recommend other units that we should look at, especially inserts that are contemporary and can achieve the same heat output and can be flush with the fireplace (I know I'm asking for a lot)
The fireplace is a masonry unit located on the exterior of the house. I have attached some pictures and dimensions for your assistance. Thanks for reading the long post and I look forward to everyones input. Many thanks!
The height of the fireplace opening is approximately 39 inches, sorry did not add that to dimensions
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but you are right it's a cool house. I'm nearing my 40's and plan to stay in the house for at least 10 years if things work out .... but living in NY ain't cheap. So far I have been blessed w/good health so I don't mind putting in the work using and maintaining a fireplace/wood stove. I just finished stacking a cord of wood in the backyard this afternoon. I have also been cutting wood from a few trees that we had cut on our property and hopefully will be ready by next year for use.
