New house, would like some input for heat.

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Dustin M

New Member
Oct 19, 2013
56
Nc
hey guys. I bought my house end of last winter.
Well this winter is coming up and I hate wasting needless energy on my old heat pump. I heated all last winter in my other home with wood. I love cutting and splitting and burning wood.
Well I have a family now and a son and I work a lot and will be starting law enforcement training this winter, so I won't be home much.
My plan has been a wood insert but I'm afraid my wife can't keep it stoked well enough while I'm away. I've thought about pellet stoves as well.
With this house lay out, single level ranch, should I get a wood insert or pellet? Input is helpful. Thank you.
 

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Do you have dry wood to burn?
 
How about a Free Standing pellet stove so you can still burn wood in the fireplace?
 
Don2222 said:
How about a Free Standing pellet stove so you can still burn wood in the fireplace?
Click to expand...
that is a good idea. Although I don't have a place to vent it, and I was wondering since my house is very open to itself, an wood insert should heat very well, correct?
 
First thing come to mind would be bk princess insert. I think it will be the easiest insert to operate and will offer the longest burns. But there is other things to consider, dry wood is a must, how big is the house, insulation windows etc. would princess fit in your fireplace, how tall is your chimney, what's your budget? There is a lot things to think before you decide what to do.
 
It would be helpful to know what the chimney is like. How long? Liner? etc..

Sq footage of the house?

Also, what your budget would be?

Just looking at that I'd be leaning toward a freestanding wood stove in there personally.

Nice tile floor BTW.
 
Don't put wood burner yet. Start cutting and splitting wood a little at a time and get your studies done. Put a wood-burner in in a year or three.
 
How about upgrading your HP to a more efficient model?
 
Coming from someone in your profession, wood burning with the shifts you will be required to work is really difficult.

I did that at my old house, 100 percent wood for a few years. Wife didn't feel comfortable running the stove so if I was held over or gone at a training, she used space heaters and froze.

Then we put a pellet stove in, and that solved that, only for one or two rooms though.

In our new to us house, with the new baby, we just payed 6k to have a new heat pump installed and haven't looked back. Each room is the same temp, and I don't have to stress about what's going on with home heat when I'm held over at work. However my winters are mild with lows generally in the high 30's to low 40's.

We'll do wood again someday, but it won't be for primary heat. Wood heat is my all time favorite, but the time it took to process when I already worked long hours took a toll.
 
It comes down to what your wife is comfortable with. My wife can load start and feed the stove, not every woman will.
Back when I burned pelleys, my boiler had an 11 bag hopper, good for 5 days usually. If wasn't sure somebody would be there to feed it, I'd get a pellet stove with a big capacity hopper.
I just was given a breckwell big E with the hopper extension. It can hold a bit over 8 bags of pellets. Enough for the last owner to let it run five days at a time.
 
We have run this old house on all scenarios. It now has a high-efficiency heat pump. When we moved in it had an old wood insert in the fireplace plus a propane furnace. I replaced the wood insert with a pellet insert. Then 5 yrs later the house got raised 3 ft and the fireplace came out. Now we heat with the heat pump during mild weather and wood when it gets in the 40s and below. My wife runs the stove when I am not home. The pellet stove was nice particularly because it was on a digital thermostat. That meant it would set back at night and come on a half hour before you woke up to warm up the house. Just like a furnace.

And there was the downside. A pellet stove is a miniature wood furnace. It has two blowers running constantly. This was too much noise for me in our living room, even though the room blower was set to low speed, the exhaust blower is going to run at a constant rate. The pellet stove is more complex than a wood stove and needs more maintenance to keep running well. My wife could not lug the 40# bags of pellets so I had to be sure the hopper was full or leave her a bag she could scoop out of. We ended up selling the pellet stove during the remodel in 2006. Now we have a silent stove that heats the house remarkably well in part due to its convective nature and in part to being centrally located in an open floorplan.

Dustin, you have received some good options. Replacing the heat pump with a modern high-efficiency unit that heats and cools well will serve you year round. An insert will heat well, but get one that sticks out a bit on the hearth if you want to have heat with the blower off. A pellet stove bring greater convenience and ease of use, but it will need blowers running all the time and will be higher maintenance.
 
Last edited:
MaintenanceMan said:
It would be helpful to know what the chimney is like. How long? Liner? etc..

Sq footage of the house?

Also, what your budget would be?

Just looking at that I'd be leaning toward a freestanding wood stove in there personally.

Nice tile floor BTW.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much.
Ok how is about 1600 sqft my chimney is approx 13 tall, it has a clay liner approx 12x12. Insulation is about 10" in attic, the crawl has insulation underneath. My windows are older but are double paned. All in all power bill avg 100 bucks. Budget total wise is less than 1000
 
mass_burner said:
How about upgrading your HP to a more efficient model?
Click to expand...
Well I work hvac actually. This old rheem is a 11 seer 03 model. I do plan on that but a wood stove would be cheaper for heat than spending 5000 on a new 14-15 seer heat pump. I want to do things a little at a time, don't have a whole lot of money after bills and a newborn and medical.
 
Dustin said:
Coming from someone in your profession, wood burning with the shifts you will be required to work is really difficult.

I did that at my old house, 100 percent wood for a few years. Wife didn't feel comfortable running the stove so if I was held over or gone at a training, she used space heaters and froze.

Then we put a pellet stove in, and that solved that, only for one or two rooms though.

In our new to us house, with the new baby, we just payed 6k to have a new heat pump installed and haven't looked back. Each room is the same temp, and I don't have to stress about what's going on with home heat when I'm held over at work. However my winters are mild with lows generally in the high 30's to low 40's.

We'll do wood again someday, but it won't be for primary heat. Wood heat is my all time favorite, but the time it took to process when I already worked long hours took a toll.
Click to expand...

This sounds exactly like my life exact. And I do understand I want my wife to do what I do but I realize she can't or won't. I like wood heat but for now in life it may be better to just use or upgrade my heat pump. I just want a backup for no electricity and for 30* below temp for days on end.
 
Dustin M said:
Budget total wise is less than 1000
Click to expand...
You would have to get a used stove and cheap liner install it all yourself to get anywhere near that target budget. And honestly at $100 a month i would just stock up on wood and do a stove in a few years
 
bholler said:
You would have to get a used stove and cheap liner install it all yourself to get anywhere near that target budget. And honestly at $100 a month i would just stock up on wood and do a stove in a few years
Click to expand...
I was planning on installing myself. I have to get a used stove I cannot afford to purchase a new stove plus a 4-500 liner too..
Sound like best bet is to save a couple years and start cutting some wood to prepare.
 
Dustin M said:
Well I work hvac actually. This old rheem is a 11 seer 03 model. I do plan on that but a wood stove would be cheaper for heat than spending 5000 on a new 14-15 seer heat pump. I want to do things a little at a time, don't have a whole lot of money after bills and a newborn and medical.
Click to expand...
But you are going to be away a good chunk of the time, the stove won't be used that much. Your wife will probably have more than enough to keep her busy without worrying about whatever stove you have, so she will understandably revert to the HP.
 
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