overkill?

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wallpaper79

Member
Jul 23, 2008
60
NL Canada
So we are about to begin building a new home. Our house plans add up to about 2000 sf (1100 on main and 900 upstairs, along with another 1000 in the basement). My plan right now is to put a pellet insert in the fire place on the main floor, and then a large stove in the insulated basement. The main floor will be mostly open floor, opening to a cathedral ceiling in the living room. Is there anyone here that thinks this would be a bad idea? Will it be overkill (I don't think so)? If anyone here has any other ideas I would love to hear them....Thanks
 
Your not going to over kill it in Canada!
 
I did originally think about putting in a max caddy hot air furnace. I just thought that it would be nice to have a stove in the basement...and with the plan of putting in a pellet stove insert, figured that i would be able to heat the entire house on the coldest days both running at the same time.
 
If you are building the house, why would you go to the expense of a chimney when you are going to put an insert in anyway? A pellet stove installation has so much flexibility as to location. I would do both actually but save the fireplace for those times when you want the real thing. JMHO
 
I wished I would have put a pellet furnace in the basement(finished), and some duct work to the living room upstairs. that way I could heat either room with the same heater, and keep the dust,handling of pellets etc, out of my main living space. my 2c.
 
I just worry that the stove in the basement will blast you out of there while trying to get the heat upstairs. The furnace will give even heat thru the house. You can use the insert for looks or just to keep that room toasty.
 
Hello

Why spend alot of money for an inefficient fireplace for thousands of dollars and put an insert in it?? That is alot of extra cost! I nice hearth for a pellet stove would look great and provide more heat!

Below is the picture of the hearth I built for only $600 with mantle, candles and some nice rope light!!
 

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Our family owns a commercial cutting permit, thus wood is free. If I put in the pellet stove in the basement I still have to pay for the pellets. I know that the chimney is going to be rather pricy, but since the fuel will be free I get a tradeoff.
 
Hello

Ok, Well A wood stove and an all fuel double wall stainless steel chimney would still be alot cheaper than a fireplace. Something to compare?
 
As long as it is new construction, my suggestion would be to make sure you have some efficient way to recover the heat sitting in that pretty cathedral ceiling. They are nice, but become heat storage spaces. Fans are good for retrofitting, but I have seen some of the ducted returns that blend like they aren't even there.

That's regardless of your heating choices.

Another possibility if you have the wood is to build a masonry mass fireplace. Best of all worlds when new construction is considered.
 
wallpaper79 said:
Our family owns a commercial cutting permit, thus wood is free. If I put in the pellet stove in the basement I still have to pay for the pellets. I know that the chimney is going to be rather pricy, but since the fuel will be free I get a tradeoff.

If you have free wood forever then another option is a indoor or outdoor wood gasifier with water storage. That way you get DHW for free too.
I like the idea of the fireplace for looks and later on you may come across a good deal on an insert if you want it to be efficient.
 
Don, that is what we were thinking. The brick or cultured stone would just be on the inside wall more for a decoration more that anything. The problem is that the house kind of requires a chimney up the center of the front of the house more for looks than anything else. I was thinking that I would make a wooden chase and then cover it in cultured stone and then run the stainless up through the chase. Any one out there ever done this before. Here is a link to a house similar to the one we are building. http://www.drummondhouseplans.com/house-plan-images/info/illustration/1000818.html
 
That home should heat easily w/ a pellet insert. When shopping for on you need one that can be used in a zero clearance app. or has a zero clearance kit available. Harman insert has a zc box that you install in the construction stage then put insert in later. I really like the plans!
 
littlesmokey said:
As long as it is new construction, my suggestion would be to make sure you have some efficient way to recover the heat sitting in that pretty cathedral ceiling. They are nice, but become heat storage spaces. Fans are good for retrofitting, but I have seen some of the ducted returns that blend like they aren't even there.

That's regardless of your heating choices.

Another possibility if you have the wood is to build a masonry mass fireplace. Best of all worlds when new construction is considered.


*2
Masonry heaters are the best
And super eff
 
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