PE Summit vs. Blaze King Princess

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Thanks for all of your input. I don't think there is any easy answers. In response to Hogwildz above regarding the statement "if it can't get the basement above 72 then how can it affect the rest of the house. My thought is that since it is fairly even both down and upstairs it is confirming the fact that I have decent circulation and the air is being mixed quite well over the entire 3000 sft. I think if I were heating one room only with a small opening to the rest of the house it would be different and that room would be like an inferno. From all of the info everyone has fed me, I am concluding that the lower than expected heating capacity is a combination of a partial-basement application and heating nearly 3000 sft in a cooler climate.
 
Very noble and diplomatically spoken PE owners. I will have to agree with there statement's. My neighbour has the summit & definitely he is able to crank out the larger btus efficiently. I say this because his turn down rate is less to maintain an efficient burn. HOT HOT HOT. For me to compete with these temps I would
feel that I would be taking the life out/deteriorating my cat. Also with my damper more open to produce these temps the smoke would be passing through my cat, which is unburnt fuel. Therefore making it less efficient. Meaning exceeding my peak efficiency of its design. This is where the PE is limited for the comparable burn times. This is what you could say is there distinctive power-bans. Just like cars do. Each one has a purpose/advantage to their design.
For me I have at least four months of shoulder season where the cat in the BK helps me out as I may only need a small amount of heat to keep the chill off over
a long period. ON those really cold days -30 to -40 the summit can put out more heat more efficiently. I would have my 4-barrel carb so to speak puking
fuel out my exhaust to keep up. @ this time I let my foot off the pedal and let my furnace feather in. This is where my neighbors summit ex-ells. On the other hand @ times my neighbour in milder weather+8 to -5 C its a toss up to lite the stove and add fewer splits tending to it more often or use his furnace. -10to-20
we are quite comparable. We both burn mostly pine. We both drink beer at each others houses sitting in front of the stoves taking the chill off.
The beer still tastes great in front of either stove.
;-P
BY the way thats allot of house to heat effectively with one stove.
 
My PE Pacific is in a basement with similar considerations- 25x30 room, walk out, concrete floor and unfinished (cinder block) walls. The temperature down here is always above 80ºF and if I turn the blower up I can get it to 85º in no time. My upstairs never got below 66º last night with an outdoor temp of 26º and I never heard the heat pump kick on once.

I don't know anything about anything, except my Pacific model is smaller than a Summit and is heating the house fine.
 
Cearbhaill said:
My PE Pacific is in a basement with similar considerations- 25x30 room, walk out, concrete floor and unfinished (cinder block) walls. The temperature down here is always above 80ºF and if I turn the blower up I can get it to 85º in no time. My upstairs never got below 66º last night with an outdoor temp of 26º and I never heard the heat pump kick on once.

I don't know anything about anything, except my Pacific model is smaller than a Summit and is heating the house fine.

It is information like this that has me wondering why I am not able to achieve similar results.
 
danielson said:
Cearbhaill said:
My PE Pacific is in a basement with similar considerations- 25x30 room, walk out, concrete floor and unfinished (cinder block) walls. The temperature down here is always above 80ºF and if I turn the blower up I can get it to 85º in no time. My upstairs never got below 66º last night with an outdoor temp of 26º and I never heard the heat pump kick on once.

I don't know anything about anything, except my Pacific model is smaller than a Summit and is heating the house fine.

It is information like this that has me wondering why I am not able to achieve similar results.

My stove is also located in a finished walkout basement. The exposed cinder block and windows are facing east and when I get an moderate east wind with less than 20 degree temps, it is hard to keep the house up to desired temp. It can be -20 with strong north or west winds and the house stays very toasty. This summer I plan on installing some kind of exterior insulation on the block to help. Just haven't found the right stuff yet.

Another thing that helps is carpet on bare concrete floors. Do you have carpet floors?
 
Daylight and walkout basements are colder than completely underground ones - especially with the walkout on the north side. With the exposed part of the walls and windows where the warmest air pools, it's cooled more quickly by them. I have one just like yours. I just completed insulating the walls of the eastern half of it, with R5 Dow extruded polystyrene with 1/2" gypsum board for about R6 total, R8 styrene along the rim joists, all joints sealed with expanding foam, and R6 covers for all the windows. Also added a basement-level door at the stairs to stop a cold air loop. R6 is not massive insulation by any standard... but the insulation is continuous with NO GAPS. What a huge difference, upstairs and down. Raised basement temps 5-7 degrees. The floor is warmer. House temps at night don't fall nearly as much as before. It's tedious work but will pay off forever in comfort.
 
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