Newbie needs help

[wilburg]

Wow, what a nice site.

I am from Greenfield Mass and I am looking to replace an old monitor direct vent heater that broke. I have a fireplace in my livingroom that we never use because of the negative pressure filling my house with smoke. My wife and I want to put a pelllet insert into the fireplace. I have a couple questions

1) Will I still have problems with the house filling wiith smoke?

2) any suggestions on a good local dealer?

3) Right now I am being offerred an Enviro EF3 for $2199 (no accents) and a Harman Accentra $3,400 , both have a $700 install package with liners etc.

4) is there anything in particular that I should be looking into or asking?

My living room is 350 sq feet with an attached kitchen/dining of 450sq ft, four bedroom, one of which is on a second floor I have electric heat.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

If you run a liner all the way up the chimney and install an OAK you shouldn't have any negative pressure issues.

Are you absolutely certain you have a negative pressure situation to start with?

Fireplace chimneys when cold frequently have very little drafting effect and will dump smoke into the room.

Make certain there are at least two dealers local to you that sell and service the stove you pick. Ask for customer contact information so you can check out the dealer.

A good service record is what you are looking for.

 

[wilburg]

actually i dont know, i was told that my house is so tight that the chimney "burps" smoke and that i should keep a window open to avoid that.

 

[wilburg]

After talking to a distributer once more, I was told that the EF3 does not have a thermostat and only 'comes on and off' and that I have to be there to shut it off.. does that mean if i dont shut it off before i go to bed the thing will just keep heating all night....

Anways now im looking at a Harman P35I, which is Harman's answer to the EF3 .. the P35I has a room sensor and sells for $2799

 

[CygnusX1]

Depending on the size of your house, the stove will heat your house efficiently, you may end up running 24/7 like most of us do. It'll really cut down on that electric bill. I have a 1500 sqft Cape and it heats my house completely. My oil furnace only heats my hot water and is a back up heat source only.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

I'd recommend that you get a list of the features that you want and go from there.

I manually operate mine, however it is capable of being run by a thermostat in two different modes, the on/off mode and the high/lo mode.

Folks sometimes start out using a thermostat and the stove in on/off mode, then as things begin to be colder they switch to high/low mode where the stove always fires and the temperature is maintained by increasing the firing rate. Once the set point is hit the stove goes into low fire mode. Some stoves even allow you to set the firing rate for both the low and the high fire.

The most important thing is to make certain that whatever stove you get is that you can get reliable service after the sale. If you are handy with motors, electronics, screwdrivers, a multimeter, etc ... then the reliable service requirement becomes one of being able to get replacement parts, provided you want to do the service work yourself.