new stove what to buy?

[cdrew]

Ok, I am new here and would love some opinions. I have a ~2500 sq. ft. colonial with oil, pellet, and wood stoves. All located in the basement. Primary heat has been oil with last year pellet taking much of the load. I didn't burn wood much at all last year because my old '83 Dutchwest 264ccl stove's inside top plate broke. While searching for parts I found that this stove is only 26k btu? Is this true? I figure I should get a bigger stove, and it should be able to carry the load for the whole house as when I was burning wood the furnace would never come on. That's a good thing with oil prices.

Here are my thoughts..

1. Get a new big wood stove

2. Get a Englander 3500 furnace type stove

3. Buy a costly boiler add-on

I can run ductwork to dump the heat to 1st and 2nd floor pretty easy if I went the force air furnace route.

Any thoughts.?

 

[Ken45]

Chris, welcome to the forum

If the stove is going to be in the basement, moving the heat to where you want it is going to be the biggest challenge.

We have a US Stove Hotblaze 1400 (came with the house). This is a wood furnace set up to feed ductwork. It's done a good job for us and they are only around $1200 or so at Tractor Supply. It heats the house much better than the pellet stove or the heat pump.

We have bought (not installed yet), PE Summit, a more efficienct wood stove with a glass door for future use. It will be installed on the first floor where we can better enjoy it. But if you are limited to the basement, the Hotblaze does a good job. It's been our primary heat source for six winters.

Ken