Hi there. We have searched extensively on this site on the question of wood stoves and pellet stoves and have been amazed at the wealth of information here. However, like all the other new people wanting to know if their home heating ideas will work, I think it best if I just ask directly.
We're a young couple who've just bought our first house in Lake Elizabeth, CA out in the high desert foothills of the Santa Clarita Mountains. It's a 1600 sq ft ranch, with a fairly open floorplan as detailed in the rudimentary drawing I've attached. It was built in 1991 and seems well insulated, with all the windows replaced in the last couple of years.
The place came with an old heat pump, which upon resurrection demonstrated its complete inability to deal with the 25-45 degree temperatures we've been getting in the last few weeks - all we're going to do with that is rack up nasty electric bills and stay cold. The only other heat source in the house is a silly red LP stove that the last owners installed. We have a 250-gal propane tank out back, but propane is exorbitantly expensive here and the little LP stove can't cut it agains the cold, anyway - I think it's mostly decorative. We have no natural gas or oil out here.
We're interested in getting a pellet or wood stove to be the main heat source, supplemented by fans or space heaters where necessary. The house has three ceiling fans (see diagram) and the pickup for the central blower is above and about 8 feet away from the current stove. We're leaning toward a pellet stove for convenience, and the pellet guys out here claim there aren't shortages in this neck of the woods. Pellets are a little pricey; however, as far as I can figure they'd be a lot cheaper than propane still, especially given that we'd probably only run the stove a few hours each evening. Plus, I could have a Big E here in a matter of a week or two for $1,320 shipped and have it installed myself with minimal effort, unlike with a wood stove, which would require much more extensive (and expensive) installation. I love the idea of a woodstove, but if I'm honest with myself, my 110-mile-round-trip commute is going to leave me with little inclination to be out collecting, chopping, and stacking wood very much of the time.
I guess our question is, if we replaced that LP stove with a 2200sqft pellet stove (like the Big E, for instance) in the same location (there's already a hole in the wall there and a decent venting setup, much of which could be reused for a pellet stove), would we have a chance of getting good heat through the rest of the house? It seems like it would at least heat the main bedroom and living area quite well, with maybe the office staying somewhat chilly. Would turning on the central blower help distribute the heat from the stove's immediate area to the rest of the house, or hinder it somehow? I've read lots of conflicting opinions on this. Also, is going with a slightly oversized stove like that making sense? It makes sense to me to get a big stove and run it low, rather than maxing out a smaller one.
We know this is exactly the wrong time of year to be doing a quick plan-buy-install of a new heater, but we just got the house two months ago (it was a foreclosure), and at the time were uneducated about how worthless the current heating setup is. It's been 45 degrees in the house at night lately, high 20s outside, our pipes are frozen in the mornings (we've insulated them and left them dripping to combat this, but we need heat). It's been miserable, and we need to fix it, so we'll wind up paying the premiums associated with doing this fast and in the winter.
Thanks in advance for all your experienced answers, and thanks once again for the wealth of existing info on this site!
Chris and Brandy
We're a young couple who've just bought our first house in Lake Elizabeth, CA out in the high desert foothills of the Santa Clarita Mountains. It's a 1600 sq ft ranch, with a fairly open floorplan as detailed in the rudimentary drawing I've attached. It was built in 1991 and seems well insulated, with all the windows replaced in the last couple of years.
The place came with an old heat pump, which upon resurrection demonstrated its complete inability to deal with the 25-45 degree temperatures we've been getting in the last few weeks - all we're going to do with that is rack up nasty electric bills and stay cold. The only other heat source in the house is a silly red LP stove that the last owners installed. We have a 250-gal propane tank out back, but propane is exorbitantly expensive here and the little LP stove can't cut it agains the cold, anyway - I think it's mostly decorative. We have no natural gas or oil out here.
We're interested in getting a pellet or wood stove to be the main heat source, supplemented by fans or space heaters where necessary. The house has three ceiling fans (see diagram) and the pickup for the central blower is above and about 8 feet away from the current stove. We're leaning toward a pellet stove for convenience, and the pellet guys out here claim there aren't shortages in this neck of the woods. Pellets are a little pricey; however, as far as I can figure they'd be a lot cheaper than propane still, especially given that we'd probably only run the stove a few hours each evening. Plus, I could have a Big E here in a matter of a week or two for $1,320 shipped and have it installed myself with minimal effort, unlike with a wood stove, which would require much more extensive (and expensive) installation. I love the idea of a woodstove, but if I'm honest with myself, my 110-mile-round-trip commute is going to leave me with little inclination to be out collecting, chopping, and stacking wood very much of the time.
I guess our question is, if we replaced that LP stove with a 2200sqft pellet stove (like the Big E, for instance) in the same location (there's already a hole in the wall there and a decent venting setup, much of which could be reused for a pellet stove), would we have a chance of getting good heat through the rest of the house? It seems like it would at least heat the main bedroom and living area quite well, with maybe the office staying somewhat chilly. Would turning on the central blower help distribute the heat from the stove's immediate area to the rest of the house, or hinder it somehow? I've read lots of conflicting opinions on this. Also, is going with a slightly oversized stove like that making sense? It makes sense to me to get a big stove and run it low, rather than maxing out a smaller one.
We know this is exactly the wrong time of year to be doing a quick plan-buy-install of a new heater, but we just got the house two months ago (it was a foreclosure), and at the time were uneducated about how worthless the current heating setup is. It's been 45 degrees in the house at night lately, high 20s outside, our pipes are frozen in the mornings (we've insulated them and left them dripping to combat this, but we need heat). It's been miserable, and we need to fix it, so we'll wind up paying the premiums associated with doing this fast and in the winter.
Thanks in advance for all your experienced answers, and thanks once again for the wealth of existing info on this site!
Chris and Brandy