Need help, looking to get a pellet stove..

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okay here goes nothing, my house starts out with a finished concrete basement that has a rec space 12 wide by 16 long, along with a 9 by 9 bathroom, then the first floor has my living room and kitchen, 3rd floor has 2 bed rooms and a half bath, along with another story with an attic unheated, just used for storage. its a 4 story house but not including the attic because of no heat i consider it a 3 story. the whole layout of my house is roughly 30 long by 14 wide essentially 2 rooms stacked on top of eachother 3 stories high, i figured if i put it in the basement it would not heat the bedrooms 3 stories up so i plan to install it in my living room blowing out towards the kitchen and hopefully having the heat rise to the bedrooms, if i have to install heat registers to allow the hair to go through i will. god i hope this helps explain my stupid house i could afford at the time, lol..it has new insulation, windows, wiring etc. so when i say around 900 square foot, imagine 2 rooms stacked 3 high and you have my house, roughly 14 by 30...
 
yeah that's why im confused on what one to get, originally it was the p68, figuring thats to much i thought about the advanced, xxv or p43 but id hate if i go with a smaller one that cant do what im asking it to do, but 900 square foot i think the 43 should..
The 43 has a pretty pushy fan on it. It also offers radiant heat at the same time. Down scaled P61 or P68. You felt the heat from the P68, the P43 won't be as intense near the stove but it can deliver some serious heat . The XXV and Advance are convection only, you can't count radiant heat on those stoves. Doesn't mean they don't heat but it's different.
 
The 43 has a pretty pushy fan on it. It also offers radiant heat at the same time. Down scaled P61 or P68. You felt the heat from the P68, the P43 won't be as intense near the stove but it can deliver some serious heat . The XXV and Advance are convection only, you can't count radiant heat on those stoves. Doesn't mean they don't heat but it's different.
so would you recommend the p series as the stove itself gives off heat rather then relying on the blower?
 
I think a P43 on the first floor (the level above your basement:p) would be an excellent choice. I really don't think you'll need to cut registers in your floor.

Consider the radiant heat of a P series a bonus. It gets very hot. Touch it while she's cranking and you will get a burn, something to strongly consider if there's kids in the house. Side heat shields will help, but only the difference of a 3rd to 2nd degree burn.
 
hopefully this sums it all up for everyone, the stairway is coming from the kitchen to the upstairs rooms, its the same staircase in the other picture
 

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Duplex or two-family converted to condominiums = half a house. Lol
Op. Why dont you figure out how much oil you burn per day, calculate the required btu's needed and then find a stove to match.
 
Duplex or two-family converted to condominiums = half a house. Lol
Op. Why dont you figure out how much oil you burn per day, calculate the required btu's needed and then find a stove to match.
i know i bought 500 gallons this year, it heats my water tho too, but i keep my heat set at 64 degrees and its mighty cold but i cant have afford to have it any higher, i paid over 2,100 in oil im hoping to burn 3 tons of pellets for 750-1000
 
also the guy told me i would have to install a oak because im putting it between 2 windows, can anyone shed some light on the oak? i understand it pulls fresh air in but is it needed or does it help make everything run more efficiently
 
so would you recommend the p series as the stove itself gives off heat rather then relying on the blower?
I'm just thinking that the radiant heat will aid in your layout. Think of the days that houses laid out similar to yours were heated with no convection stoves but pot bellies and such. In the P you get both. The upstairs is going to be cooler than down, no question. It's hard for me to gauge how much. Many folks here including myself do what you are doing though and a lot of us are not uncomfortable upstairs. As i said, i use a fan to help hold heat down in my particular case. There is an argument that you could always pull air up if needed too.
 
I could be wrong but i think 500 gallons of oil is like 3.5 tons of pellets.
So you're pretty close.
 
I'm just thinking that the radiant heat will aid in your layout. Think of the days that houses laid out similar to yours were heated with no convection stoves but pot bellies and such. In the P you get both. The upstairs is going to be cooler than down, no question. It's hard for me to gauge how much. Many folks here including myself do what you are doing though and a lot of us are not uncomfortable upstairs. As i said, i use a fan to help hold heat down in my particular case. There is an argument that you could always pull air up if needed too.
i plan to cut 12 by 12 registers in the ceilings to both help heat the bedrooms, as for the hallway and bathroom im hoping a small corner fan at the bottom of the stairs will help the air up to heat those
 
i know i bought 500 gallons this year, it heats my water tho too, but i keep my heat set at 64 degrees and its mighty cold but i cant have afford to have it any higher, i paid over 2,100 in oil im hoping to burn 3 tons of pellets for 750-1000
Read the specs on the stoves, the Accentra and XXV might be more miserly on pellets than a P. Not sure about that, just saying. I do know that they don't put a big hopper on the P61 for nothing ! I have not cranked it up on full blast and I don't want to. The one time i did to get my feed set it used serious pellets in 4o minutes time. Now I run feed rate just off 4, plenty of heat for most occasions.
 
I could be wrong but i think 500 gallons of oil is more like 3.5 tons of pellets.
So you're pretty close.
yeah which would be less than 1,000 dollars, i just paid 3.79 a gallon with a minimum 100 gallon delivery, usually costing me around 350-390 a month in heat
 
I have a small house, around 900 square foot. will a harman p68 be too big of a stove to put in, i was looking at the 68, xxv or p43..any help will be appreciated, this is all new to me
Overkill, unless you live in the Arctic, you can get the smallest stove made and probably adequately heat 900sqft. I heat a space equivalent to 3000sqft with 10' ceilings with a 47k btu stove. Your bigger problem is getting heat up the stairs, not the output of your stove.
 
i know i bought 500 gallons this year, it heats my water tho too, but i keep my heat set at 64 degrees and its mighty cold but i cant have afford to have it any higher, i paid over 2,100 in oil im hoping to burn 3 tons of pellets for 750-1000
3 tons sounds about right, because you won't replace all of that 500 gallons, since you'll be burning oil for your DHW.
 
also the guy told me i would have to install a oak because im putting it between 2 windows, can anyone shed some light on the oak? i understand it pulls fresh air in but is it needed or does it help make everything run more efficiently
Presuming your termination is between the two windows, there needs to be something like 4 ft to a window, but if you have an OAK, the distance can be as little as 1.5 feet, or something along those lines. Your stove manual will spell it out.
 
hopefully this sums it all up for everyone, the stairway is coming from the kitchen to the upstairs rooms, its the same staircase in the other picture
You'll never get the heat to make a right turn and go up those stairs.
 
what about cutting floor registers in?
I don't have any experience with doing that, but if I were to try, I'd probably want something that had built-in fans. Do they make registers with fans?
 
Yeah, as I said, I've never done it, but I'm not convinced passive holes will allow enough heat to go upstairs, you'll need active fans sucking the heat up, but leave the bedroom doors open so the cold air has somewhere to go, back down the stairs or something.
 
You'll never get the heat to make a right turn and go up those stairs.
I disagree. Unless there's a door to that stairway, there's nothing to stop the warm air from rising and displacing the cold air from upstairs. It may not be the ideal floorplan, but it'll work. The upper rooms just might take a little longer to respond to adjustments made at the stove. Will it be as warm as the first floor? Of course not, but it will be warm.

A register in the floor directly above the stove (check with code officials) will probably help quite a bit, but likely won't be necessary.

The fact the volume of your space is small will work to your advantage, as will the new insulation.
 
I have a small house, around 900 square foot. will a harman p68 be too big of a stove to put in, i was looking at the 68, xxv or p43..any help will be appreciated, this is all new to me

A P68 would blow you out of that small of a house and probably heat your entire block!
 
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im hoping with such a small area the heat will rise naturally and heat the upstairs, if not ill cut some vents in and if that doesn't work it will still offset the cost of oil
 
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