Need more information about free standing gas stoves

[argen]

I'm hoping someone here has experience with free standing gas stoves and can give me some advice........

I'm planning on taking down the existing brick fireplace in my home, which is very poorly located (and notoriously inefficient anyway), and replacing it with a free standing gas stove. I've got my eye on the Vermont Radiance. I want it to heat my living room/foyer and kitchen/family dining area; around 900 square feet. The stove will be centrally located, almost in the middle of this area, on a short 3' wall, so it will be open to full view on 3 sides.

What I'm worried about is how much heat I'm going to be dealing with from the gas stove. The Radiance is probably a little big for the area, and the turndown is not as low as an equivalent Jotul. But the smaller Vermont Stardance is not considered a good stove (according to my salesman), and the equivalent Jotuls have a major esthetic drawback for me - their backsides jut way farther out than the Vermont stoves and look really ugly when viewed from the sides, and my stove will be very viewable from three sides. Also I like the Vermont colors much better than the Jotul colors.

So assuming that I get a Radiance, it is going to be pumping out a lot of heat and I'm wondering what it will be like to sit nearby? How close can I locate people and furniture to the sides of the stove? I was told that unlike a woodburning cast iron stove, which gets very warm on all surfaces and radiates heat into the room from all surfaces, the gas stove doesn't do this. I'm told most of the heat comes out the front. Is this correct???? This is really important because our dining table will be located only about 4' from the left side of the stove, and I don't want diners on the side of the table nearest the stove feeling as though they were cooking! And I don't want my furniture to dry out from too much nearby heat. Do I have to worry about this?

Also, though I'm in a very cold microclimate of the San Francisco Bay Area, and winter nights and mornings are particularly cold (25 - 35 degrees at night on average during the winter months), the day time temps are almost always well above freezing, so I expect the stove will cycle on and off quite a bit. Are there any drawbacks to this? Is it noisy? Inefficient? Hard on the unit?

Also, since this stove will be located nearly centrally in this 900 square foot area, how well can I expect it to heat the air spaces behind it (about half the area)? Will I need a ceiling fan? If so, where would I have to locate it?

Would greatly appreciate some good advice!

Jan

 

[begreen]

I'm hoping someone here has experience with free standing gas stoves and can give me some advice........

I'm planning on taking down the existing brick fireplace in my home, which is very poorly located (and notoriously inefficient anyway), and replacing it with a free standing gas stove. I've got my eye on the Vermont Radiance. I want it to heat my living room/foyer and kitchen/family dining area; around 900 square feet. The stove will be centrally located, almost in the middle of this area, on a short 3' wall, so it will be open to full view on 3 sides.

So assuming that I get a Radiance, it is going to be pumping out a lot of heat and I'm wondering what it will be like to sit nearby? How close can I locate people and furniture to the sides of the stove? I was told that unlike a woodburning cast iron stove, which gets very warm on all surfaces and radiates heat into the room from all surfaces, the gas stove doesn't do this. I'm told most of the heat comes out the front. Is this correct???? This is really important because our dining table will be located only about 4' from the left side of the stove, and I don't want diners on the side of the table nearest the stove feeling as though they were cooking! And I don't want my furniture to dry out from too much nearby heat. Do I have to worry about this?

The dealer is correct, this stove has close clearances. Most of the heat is radiated from the front. Note that there is a variable speed fan option on the RN model that may be worth considering for heat circulation. The fan will be visible from the backside bottom of the stove, not that big a deal though and a lot less hassle in some cases than trying to wire up a ceiling fan.

Also, though I'm in a very cold microclimate of the San Francisco Bay Area, and winter nights and mornings are particularly cold (25 - 35 degrees at night on average during the winter months), the day time temps are almost always well above freezing, so I expect the stove will cycle on and off quite a bit. Are there any drawbacks to this? Is it noisy? Inefficient? Hard on the unit?

No worry, they're designed to cycle. There will be a quiet noise of the gas burning, but not much at all. If there is a fan you can turn it on low. Try it out at a dealerto get familiar with the sounds.

Also, since this stove will be located nearly centrally in this 900 square foot area, how well can I expect it to heat the air spaces behind it (about half the area)? Will I need a ceiling fan? If so, where would I have to locate it?

Your choice, if a ceiling fan then, um, the ceiling is a good location. ;-)

 

[stoveguy13]

the ceiling fan will do a better job of moving the heat to the part of the room behind the stove then the stove blower will the blower will push the air out in front of the stove and away from the back of the stove plus you get the benefit of the fan in the summer

 

[philaphire]

I had a Jotul Sebago in my old house - a 1500 sq ft cape cod on a slab in suburban Philadelphia. It was located along the right exterior wall in the middle between the kitchen and living room. It heated pretty much the entire house without a blower or ceiling fan. Most of the heat came out the front and top of the stove with very little heat coming off the sides and back. The heat was consistent and comfortable and we would often congregate in front of it and never felt overheated. In fact we had a baby born in Dec and would lay him down in front of the stove on the floor. From an aesthetic perspective, figure on a stove that you will run high more than on low. At least for the jotul, when it was turned down it didn't look realistic at all - it looked like a gas stove since the flames are so short and more blue then yellow. However, when on high the flame was realistic and guests were always surprised when I told them it was a gas unit. Be sure to get a good look of the flame on all levels, frankly that will be much more a focal point than the sides.

 

[argen]

Sounds like I don't have to worry much about locating people and furniture nearby the sides. That's a relief!

As to the ceiling fan (um, the ceiling is a good location................. Ah yes ......... ) But WHERE on the ceiling? Since the stove would be located somewhat forward of central in this 900 square foot area, more than half that 900 square feet would be behind the stove. What I didn't say was that the only possible location for a ceiling fan would be about 5' or so and 45-60 degrees to the rear, in the living room.

Perhaps a ceiling fan would just push air away, rather than push and pull (circulate), and not be any more helpful than a blower?

So do I really need a ceiling fan to heat the area to the rear of the stove? I'd rather not have one if it isn't needed.

Or perhaps there's another idea for distributing heat behind the stove?

Jan

 

[stoveguy13]

NO harm in trying it with out the fan you can always put it in later

 

[argen]

I had a Jotul Sebago in my old house - a 1500 sq ft cape cod on a slab in suburban Philadelphia. It was located along the right exterior wall in the middle between the kitchen and living room. It heated pretty much the entire house without a blower or ceiling fan. Most of the heat came out the front and top of the stove with very little heat coming off the sides and back. The heat was consistent and comfortable and we would often congregate in front of it and never felt overheated.

It would be wonderful if I don't need any fan at all.

But now you've got me hoping that I might be able to heat more of my house than the 900 square feet in the "public" areas of the house. My house is a one-story ranch, a simple rectangle, total 1720 square feet. The 3 bedrooms and 2 baths are all located off a hallway downstream from the planned location for the stove. I had assumed the hallway would be a beneficiary of warm air, but that the heat wouldn't migrate left or right into the bedrooms and bathrooms.

So how comfortable were the rooms in your house located farthest from the stove??????? Or another way of putting it: what sort of temperature differential did you experience between the areas closer to the stove and the areas more remotely located? And did the heat turn corners very well?

Jan

 

[philaphire]

The rooms furthest away were noticeably cooler but I wouldn't say "cold." Now of course, this is a small cape with an open floor plan and central staircase - the 2 upstairs bedrooms were maybe warmer than the 2 downstairs bedrooms on the other side of the house from the stove. In many respects, I had an ideal situation for the stove I had which isn't the biggest Jotul makes. So either consider getting a unit rated to heat at least 1700 sq ft or better yet soliciting info from ranch owners here how their stoves circulate heat down those long hallways if you're considering to heat more than that central area.

 

[GVA]

Have you checked out the regency p131?

http://www.regency-fire.com/Gas/Panorama/P131/
Looks good, 3 sides, If I had a place to put one i just might....
Only reason I know about it is I've been checking out the line the last couple weeks/

 

[Gooserider]

The biggest thing a ceiling fan does for you is keep the air in the room "turning over" so that you avoid the "stratification" effect where all the heat rises to the ceiling and your head sweats while your feet freeze. It MAY help push air around in the house otherwise, but this is hard to predict as there are lots of variables, including the floor plan, ceiling heights in different rooms, door way heights, etc. Some people find that strategically placed horizontal fans are useful.

Probably one of the more important factors to keep in mind is that you need to have a complete path for the heated air to circulate, so there needs to be both a way for the hot air to get to the areas you want to heat, and for the cold air to return to the area of the stove.

I can't say just how much the stove will heat, but it will probably help some, and may or may not be able to take a good bit of the load off your other heating systems.

Gooserider

 

[philaphire]

thought you might like to see my set up, this was a couple years ago, note how close we could keep things to the gas stove

 

[R&D Guy]

I'll admit that I skimmed the post, but if you're looking for a freestanding stove that is going to be seen on all 3 sides, then why not get a FS stove that has a view of the fire on all 3 sides? I saw the Avalon "Tree of Life" for the first time at HPBA in 06, and it will soon be copied. Oops I mean something similar will come out soon.


http://www.avalonstoves.com/product_guide/detail.aspx?id=213

 

[argen]

I'm getting tons of great advice! Really appreciate it.

Loved the photos. Also, they really put me at ease about how close I can put people and furniture to the sides of the stove. Actually, even the front of the stove. And good idea, I'll start a separate thread inquiring how stove warmed air circulates.

As for the suggestions about the Avalon Tree of Life and the Regency, which both give wonderful views of the fire from 3 sides, I have hesitated because they do throw out heat from the sides too. So, worrier that I am, I thought they might throw out too much heat on the sides for comfort while eating at the nearby dining table.

Wish I could bring them into my house for a trial! I can see I'll have to find a dealer who is capable of firing up these stoves so I can spend some time sitting next to them.

 

[anilawr]

Jan,

We heat our 1700 square foot rancher with a Lopi Berkshire freestanding gas stove. The Berkshire was a replacement for a coal stove…husband has back problems and it was getting harder for him to haul the coal and the ashes. I was tired of the dirt. The Berkshire is an attractive stove…I opted for the enamel finish and granite inserts, thinking that even though it was extra money, over the life of the stove, it wasn’t appreciably more. Our house is L-shaped and the stove is located in the living room at the right angle of the L. Heat is moved by convection and there is also a thermostatically controlled circulating fan which is built into the stove. The cycling of the fan isn’t noisy and after awhile, you don’t notice it at all. Of course, it is warmer where the stove is located, but with air being pushed in two directions, the whole house is pretty comfortable. More heat comes through the glass, but you can sit fairly close to it without feeling scorched. By comparison, it would be very uncomfortable sitting the same distance from a wood stove. I have wood furniture within 30 inches of the gas stove. I have not noticed any damage from drying. With a wood stove, it probably wouldn’t be within safety clearance for combustibles.

We live in southeastern Pa., probably a colder climate than where you live. The house has 6 inches of insulation in the walls and 15 in the ceiling. Without digging out the manual, I think the maximum output of the Berkshire is somewhere over 26,000 BTUs per hour. Most of the time we are comfortable with just the gas stove, but during periods of sustained cold (single digits at night, below freezing during the day), sometimes the electric baseboard heaters kick in at the far ends of the house. We also have a wood stove at the far end of the L and we fire it up for supplemental heat.

Hope you find this information useful.

PyroBlonde

 

[tottart]

Argen - Did you purchase a unit yet and are you happy with it ?