Does Anyone Run TWO Stoves?!

[thephotohound]

As most of you hvae probably read, I'm surrently wrestling with my floor plan and insulation... my new Woodstock Soapstone stove has been rather inefficient because of these two issues as well as wet wood. It has been proposed that I look at either upgrading to a much larger stove or possibly run 2 stoves.

I need to know... does anyone have experience running 2 wood stoves at once? Is it twice the work? Is it twice the wood? Would you recommend it?

I'm also running a poll as to whether or not you think basement heating is efficient to warm the floor above. (taking into consideration you have a large enough stove)

 

[begreen]

The poll would be more accurate if it distinguished between single and multiple story homes. Another factor is how well insulated the basement and house is. I have run two stoves, though not in the basement and yes, it's twice the work. In your case, where the use is occasional, it may not be as much work. And in the shoulder seasons, you most likely would get away with running only one stove.

 

[senorFrog]

I've thought about another stove because my current stove (jotul oslo) is located in an addition which has only a doorway connecting it to the rest of the house. With ceiling fan in the addition and a nice fan to blow cold air from adjacent room (the elk method) I can keep the adjacent room warm and the rest house not freezing. Like maybe 58 - 60?

I could put another stove or fireplace insert in the main house, but the additional workload would def be a concern. Maybe if you want two diff stoves, pellet would be less work for the secondary.

Link for a good fan: Vornado: http://www.vornado.com/products/circulators/700.htm

 

[daleeper]

I am hoping some people can answer your poll as "Can be, with proper air flow and the right size stove" so that they can give me hope. I hope the pole does not end up as never, but I can't prove it otherwise with my experience:

I have a stove in a basement, and not been satisfied with the amount of heat moved to the upstairs. Now, it does keep the gas furnace from kicking on, but it is too hot in the room the stove is in, and not quite warm enough upstairs, and can not be run when the temp. is at 30 deg. or above outside. The floor plan of the basement is not the best for circulating warm air upstairs, too many doors and walls between stove and stairway. One thing I notice is that the concrete in the basement takes a while to warm up, and stays warm a few days after the stove has been shut off. The basement floor is not insulated, so I am assuming that some heat is lost downward, but the mass of the concrete does retain some heat.

I am looking for solutions. I have tried fans in the basement to move air around with little success. I have run the furnace fan all the time to circulate air in the house, but don't like having it on all the time, as it seems to cool the upstairs. I have a thermostat wired into the furnace that will circulate air 5 minutes every 40 minutes, and I think this helps, but don't have enough control over it. If I don't get a different stove, my next step is to get a Thermguard or make something similar, to cycle the furnace system a little more often, and hopefully learn how to get it set up to run the fan at a slower speed. My air handler is variable speed, faster with air conditioning than heat. The fan speed for air circulation is at air conditioner speed, and simply moves too much air for winter use.

I would really like to get an epa listed stove, in particular a cat stove with thermostatic air control, and see if that helps with the lower heat long burns to extend the time I can run the stove in the milder parts of the winter, and not cook me out of the room the stove is in. I am currently running a pre-epa earth stove, and I think it is big enough to heat the whole house, circulation I believe is the problem, along with the fact that a low burn has created a little more creosote than I want to produce with this stove. I have also been studying the masonry heaters some and like the theory, but not the expense, and have doubts about it heating the upstairs any differently. We don't have a good spot to install a stove in the upstairs living space, so the stove will stay in the basement, hoping to hear some solutions to this problem other than moving it upstairs, which I'm positive would be the best solution. I do not have the budget for a new, top of the line stove or masonry heater, but I love to scrounge and hunt, and so I am limited to what can be found used or highly discounted in my area.

I think that 2 stoves would be more efficient, but is not an option in my case. Hope you get the information that you need to help with your decision. This group is great on sharing information.

 

[thephotohound]

It sounds like we have slightly different situations. My basement is completely finished; no exposed concrete. I'm wrestling with whether or not to add insulation into the ceiling joists, as we will not always heat this area, as well. From what I am reading, I will most likely leave the primary stove upstairs, and install either a small cast-iron stove or a pellet stove downstairs. I will run it when we are down there only. I'll keep the baseboard around 55-60 otherwise. That's the way I am leaning, anyway.

 

[senorFrog]

I thought the concenus was that a wood stove is a space heater, except in cases where you have an open floor plan. The is some info on http://www.woodheat.org/planning/heatdist.htm that suggests same.

 

[thephotohound]

Senor Frog -

Great article. Thank you. It looks like I have a pretty efficient setup, minus the leaky windows and poor insulation!! Guess I'll do the best I can with these two issues!

 

[senorFrog]

I just read your other thread. My stove, a jotul oslo which is rated for 70,000 BTU/hr or 2000 sq feet. It replaced an old franklin that came with the house. If you search on my name you'll find pictures of my previous and current setup. It's located in a addition that has 7 four foot casement windows, 4 skylights, one glass door with cathedral ceiling that's built on a slab. We also get wicked wind that rips through whenever it blows North or North East. My stove can keep this space warm and adjacent space too. In fact it does a much better job than the radiators. However, I was thinking of going with a castine which is the next size down. Glad I didn't. It would have been too small.

If your set on making a 100% wood solution work, why not get a new stove larger stove for upstairs and move current smaller stove downstairs? Just make sure flue size for the new stove is the same as the current.

 

[elkimmeg]

photo I run two stoves and have a very similar layout as you do My main level is walkin ground level I have two sets of open staires with 3 bedrooms above the main level Insulation is not an issue here with R 28 walls Pasive solar radiadion throw 4 sliders used correctly takes care of day time heating The main lever has a VC Encore off my kitchen up a set of stairs is my familly
room I added on in 1985 20 / 26 cathe redal ceilings 4 syylight and lots of windows.

Here is how it all works. Heat from the main stove rises into my familly room and will keep it 58 or above Not real comfortable to reside in Lets say for an example my main lever with the Encore is 69 degrees confortable enough In the familly room is a smaller VC Intrepid II stove. If I fire it up I can easilly reach into the 70's in this area. this shuts down my heating zone.

Since hot air rises and the air in the familly room is hotter than the main level I have turned off the convection from the main level stove. This inturns now channels warm air into my bedroom area an as it no lionger needs to support the familly room requirements and helps hold heat in the main area. The solution becomes each stove asisting the other.

The only problem with the Intrepid is its fire box size. Realistically I get productive for 6 hours. but it does such a good job of heating the room it can bake you out when temps are above 25.

Putting a larger stove in serves no purpose I don't need the additional heat just longer burning. What helped (and I'm convinced of this having 3 other stoves before this one) is the cat combustor it really helps extend the productive burn times. Without it, the other smaller stoves only produces 3 or 4 hours of productive heat per load I fugure I burn 1.5 cords in this stove a year and 4.5 in my main stove 6 cords total. I filled the oil tank last July and need to fill it again I have tankless hotwater of of it and it was used when we were away for weekends.

Another point you need to consider, if you cycle your hotwater system less and less, when your stoves pick up the heating, demand you stand a chance of freezing pipes My system needs to be recharged with antifreeeze again this fall it lasted about 5 years. with anti freeze hot water heating pipes do not freeze This is the first year I have heated my entire home not using oil but for the weekends away I disconnected the zone valve wires so that it was used only for hot water.
Now processing 6 cords of wood is a workout so far in the 30+ years I have live here I have yet to pay for any wood I think I can safely say wood has saved me 25,000 gallons of oil,I did not burn. Considering the price of oil this is a bit more than pocket change

 

[alfio]

As most of you hvae probably read, I'm surrently wrestling with my floor plan and insulation... my new Woodstock Soapstone stove has been rather inefficient because of these two issues as well as wet wood. It has been proposed that I look at either upgrading to a much larger stove or possibly run 2 stoves.

I need to know... does anyone have experience running 2 wood stoves at once? Is it twice the work? Is it twice the wood? Would you recommend it?

I'm also running a poll as to whether or not you think basement heating is efficient to warm the floor above. (taking into consideration you have a large enough stove)

I think that using two stove is more efficient , because you can shut one off in milder weather , and in the colder day's you run the two stove . that way you're not smoldering an over sized stove which lead's to better efficiency. pardon my spelling . :red:

 

[MrGriz]

I just finished my first year of heating with my insert, which is installed in our basement fireplace. In short, I think it did a great job of heating the basement and main level of the house.

I have a tri-level, approximately 1800 square feet. The insert is close to a corner of the basement on an outside wall. The basement is partially exposed. There is an open staircase leading from the basement through the entry to the main level of the house (the entry is at street level, with 7 steps up to the main level and 7 steps down to the basement). Above the basement area with the stove is the main level of the house, which consists of the kitchen / dining area and living room. From there, there are seven steps up to the three bedrooms, which are above the garage on the far end of the house from the stove. All the stairways are open, with no doors at the top or bottom. I hope this description makes sense; I thought it would be helpful to clarify the layout.

I am easily able to keep the basement (where my office is located) in the mid 70s. There is a drop of 2-3 degrees to the main level of the house and another drop of 2-3 degrees to the hall between the bedrooms. For some reason, the warm air does not flow well into the bedrooms themselves, which is fine with me since I like it cooler for sleeping. I'm sure that a small fan on the floor of the bedroom to direct cold air from the floor out the door would help to draw warm air back in. Originally I was afraid that I would cook myself out of the office without gaining much heat upstairs. Thankfully, that did not turn out to be the case.

This heat distribution is achieved with only the blower from the insert running. There are no ceiling fans or other fans used to move the air. Next season, I may try a couple of fans to move some air a bit better. I was thinking of replacing the light in the entryway with a ceiling fan, we'll see.

I guess this was a long way of saying that my answer to the poll question was can be with proper air flow and the right sized stove. I hope this is somewhat helpful.

 

[keyman512us]

As most of you hvae probably read, I'm surrently wrestling with my floor plan and insulation... my new Woodstock Soapstone stove has been rather inefficient because of these two issues as well as wet wood. It has been proposed that I look at either upgrading to a much larger stove or possibly run 2 stoves.

I need to know... does anyone have experience running 2 wood stoves at once? Is it twice the work? Is it twice the wood? Would you recommend it?

I'm also running a poll as to whether or not you think basement heating is efficient to warm the floor above. (taking into consideration you have a large enough stove)

You're on the right track...but asking the question the wrong way...to find the answer you want.
I don't have much time right now (gotta run)...but I'll put it to you this way...An 'elder' I once talked to at length about it put it best "..Kid if your basement is warm....your house is warm"

 

[Corie]

No offense keyman, but I'm going to whole heartedly disagree with that. If the basement is HOT, the whole house is warm, but the temperature differential is hardly ever less than 10 degrees at my parents house (1800 sqft raised ranch) and almost every other basement stove installation I've ever personally ever seen.

Some houses, like Roospikes are better suited to heat on the bottom floor, but I don't think any house is optimized for a basement installation of a space heater.


Another wise elder once told me "If you want heat in a given area, put the heater there."

 

[precaud]

Another wise elder once told me "If you want heat in a given area, put the heater there."

Ugh! That's completely counterintuitive!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I considered adding another stove (pellet or wood) for the main part of the house, but I don't think it would be worth the cost... yet. When you look at your numbers you may find the same thing.

My house is an 85yo sidehall colonial with decent attic insulation and about 1/2" of styrofoam under the siding. It's not the picture of energy efficiency. In it's favor, it was designed for a gravity fed hot air coal furnace to heat it, so air seems to move around easily. Last year I used 700ccf of NG to heat it. This summer I installed a 25K BTU woodstove in a small 200ft addition on the back and was able to cut my NG usage down to 400 CCF with this year being a much colder winter. Since this was my first year with the stove I did end up rationing wood at the end and becoming friends with a guy with lots of pallets. I burnt more NG than I would have if I had taken more time to scrounge and put aside more wood.

So building a new hearth and lining the old central chimney, buying a stove, stocking more wood and everything else will take a good amount of time, money and planning. I think I'd be looking at 3-4 thousand just for the house mods and stove... doing all the work myself. I don't buy into the arguement that my time is worth XXX/hr (based on salary) and it would only cost XX/hr to hire somebody therefore I should pay somebody else to do it. Last time I checked my employer wasn't paying me to sit at home and watch tv.

If gas goes up to $2 a CCF delivered I'd be saving $800 a year with another wood burning stove.

But that is assuming I would be able to scrounge enough to run 2 stoves full time. Will I be that lucky or have enough time? Would I have to buy some wood? That would cut down into my savings dramatically.

So what about a pellet stove? It should be easier to set up because it won't need a 6" liner up the chimney. I would need to build a hearth, no problem, they're cheap and easy to make. I'm guessing the stove would probably be around 2k. I may be able to get everything up and running for less than 3K. Pellet stoves seem to require more maintenance than a woodstove. Somebody posted to set aside $100/yr for maintenance. I guess this covers blown boards and such... I've never owned a pellet stove so I really can't go from experience, only assumptions. 4 tons a winter seems a common volume of pellets to go through a year. Pellet sales seem to be $200/ton. There's $900/yr right there. Maybe you can scrounge corn? That may cut down the yearly cost some.

Pellets are a commodity that is subject to the same supply and demand problems that oil and NG are. Maybe burning pellets saves some money, but I don't think it would work well for my particular situation. Now the $900 in yearly costs starts looking real attractive when you are spending $1400 on NG to heat the place. It all depends on your situation. Maybe everything would look different if I was planning on staying in this house for 30-40 years.

If power goes out, a wood stove will still heat. Since I don't have a battery backup or a generator a pellet stove would be just as dead as my furnace. I'm better off taking that 3-4K and replacing the 85yo windows, and adding insulation/weatherstripping. For a few hundred I can blow a lot of cellulose into the attic...

HTH,

Matt

 

[wg_bent]

The other thing you may not be accounting for is the actual amount of BTU requirements over your current stove. If you don't run your heat (on top of the wood stove running) how cold does it get in the house? You might only need a very small stove like a VC Aspen, Morso 1410 or similar. The advantage of a pellet stove is their more adjustable on heat output. With a small stove, their cheap, and you might easily make up the BTU needs.

I've been toying with this also, so I'll be watching your experience with interest. My problem is that there's no good place for a second stove. Kitchen? Well, we all know the kitchen is not a good place for a stove, but our kitchen gets cold over night (maybe replacing the 20 year old french door would be more effective use of money!)

 

[Martin Strand III]

Having more than one stove in a home without an open floor plan makes sense if you want heat in areas other than what can be served by a single stove. Why?

"Wood stoves are local area heaters" comes to mind.

Hence, I have two stoves: main floor masonry heater and basement Harman wood/coal stove. The basement stove will heat the whole house when it's fired up after a spell but not so for the main floor heater - it won't the basement (anyone guess why?).

Am I please with my set up - yes.

Do I have holes drilled or sawed into my main floor to get heat to the main floor level from the basement - definitely no - just an open stairwell closeby which allows the warm air to rise up the staircase. If I want to heat the basement only (like to dry out soggy dogs) I close the door at the head of the stairs.

Is it overkill? Maybe, but it's nice.

Aye,
Marty

 

[begreen]

T

I've been toying with this also, so I'll be watching your experience with interest. My problem is that there's no good place for a second stove. Kitchen? Well, we all know the kitchen is not a good place for a stove, but our kitchen gets cold over night (maybe replacing the 20 year old french door would be more effective use of money!)

It depends on the house layout, but I'm not sure why one would think this unless the kitchen is tiny. The kitchen in many houses is the center of family activity. In days of yore, there always was a wood cookstove in the kitchen. The wood cookstove often doubled as an area heater.

In our house we had a smaller stove (602, then 3CB) in the entry to the kitchen and it worked out great. During the shoulder seasons, sometimes that would be the sole heater running. If one has space, or a large house, this seems like a nice place to have an extra stove.

 

[titan]

Photohound,I have two stoves-one per level.It can be both a blessing and a curse.It's a fair amount of workto run two stoves if you're the only person tending to them.IMHO-it's a PITA and now I only run them both if its really frigid and windy out.I like the idea of a pellet stove as the secondary heater though;the extra expense might be justified by its' ease of use.Just my two cents worth.

 

[begreen]

Yes, I would look into adding a separate zone to the hot water heat for the basement as an option. That way it can have it's own thermostat that keeps it at a moderate temp even though the upstairs zone is not calling for heat.

 

[restorer]

Well, I'm of the different opinion. I think that zone heating is the answer, but I use pellet stoves for the zones. This past Winter I tried to heat the house with pellets and supplement the shop heat. Did not work when we were in single digit temps for 21 days. So I have revised the heating scheme and added a stove just for the shop and a smaller stove for the house. House stove is on a thermostat (Avalon) the shop stove is the Kozi. I have a third, Jamestown, which I will move this Summer to a small design studio. This will allow me to heat the areas I need to heat without wasting warm air in those spaces I am not using. It may not seem efficient, but the space easily divides into three areas, and I can control the basic level of heat in all, so there is no freezing issues. The shop stove will only be used during the day, the mass of machines and fixtures maintain a minimum of 45 degrees with a daily or every two day warm up. Concrete and cast iron will hold a good bit of heat. The home stove will run at a setback rate to minimize wasted heat during the day or over night. I have tried to heat it all with one stove and it was not efficient. Because they are all pellet stoves, I have one fuel and can reload once a day. Two have 50 lb hoppers, soon to be 100 lb. One is a petite 40lbs and will stay that way. Because they will not run 24/7 I should be able to share a bag or two each day. I calculated the usage and still see a use about 3 tons, but will stock 4 for this coming year.

So the answer is, more than one stove may in reality be a much better option than trying to distribute heat in a non-workable room configuration. Because I did not buy new stoves and I had to do some repairs, I have some time invested and a few parts, but I still have three stoves for much less than the cost of the state of the art fancy box newer than new. The home and shop are on the same level, the studio is above, over the insulation of the shop (soon to be R38 or more) and would be a tough heat. The wall between the shop and the house is 26 feet of double studded wall, insulation and sound barrier. The double 36 doors are coming out and a 42 inch pass door is going in. That removes the convection exchange from shop to house. So, it seems that zone heating can be done with stoves.

 

[schmev123]

This will be our first year running 2 stoves. We have a split level house that came with a very old Fisher stove downstairs in between the basement and the kitchen. There are grates to go into the child's room and the master bedroom. We just installed an Avalon Rainier in the fireplace in the family room. The Fisher stove eats logs.

I am curious to see how 2 stoves will heat the upstairs.

Evan Osterweil
New Paltz, NY