Question on which type of wood burner to buy

[RK05]

We live in a 1500sqf ranch house with a standard fireplace on the first floor and a free standing fireplace in the basement. There are currently two different typs of wood burners I found on CraigsList, a CEMI Concept II for $250 and a brand new Pleasant hearth wood stove for $450. We would use these as supplement heat/ambiance only as we have natural gas. I was leaning towards the Pleasant Hearth for the basement since the lower family room sits under all three bedrooms and there is no insulation down there. The Cemi would be nice though since we spend the majority of our time on the main floor. The bedrooms are on the backside of the fireplace wall though.

If we were looking to use one of these more for supplental heat which would be better?

There is no insulation in the basement ceiling as well. The house has a walkout basement with only half the foundation under soil.

 

[snowleopard]

Do these share a chimney?

And do you have any plans for beefing up the insulation in the basement?

In general, I'm a fan of getting the stove up where it can be easily tended and appreciated. It becomes a gathering point for family and friends, and you don't have to deal with ashes out/wood in issues. In your case, with the walk-out, that might not be an issue. We have one member who was trying to make a similar decision, and ended up with stoves on both levels, and very happy with it.

One more thing: it's surprising how frequently new burners here start out intending to just supplement, and find themselves using the stove as a primary heater for any number of reasons. I recommend that you do your purchase and installation with that `what-if' scenario in mind. I don't know a thing about the price of natural gas, but I believe that most energy purchases are headed through the roof this year, and I am planning on spending a summer hustling around providentially and putting up as much firewood as I can.

If you know you're going to be putting in a wood burner, it's time to start gathering firewood and getting it seasoned now.

 

[RK05]

They are each on their own flue/chimney. The first floor fireplace uses the original flue built with the house and the basement one uses a tripple wall (or atleast double) chimney that goes straight up through the house out the roof.

It's easy to bring in the wood from the basement, just need to go out through the garage and twenty feet back to my rack. I have a decent size front poarch that I could put 1/3 of a cord on without taking up space. I would just need to either unload it at the top of my driveway or bring it up from the back.

I plan on remodeling the basement (and insulating it) but just don't have the money right now to do it.

I wasn't sure if the heat from the basement stove would be noticable on the first floor or if we would be better off just putting in an insert in the first floor fireplace?

Thanks

 

[Fsappo]

A basement stove in a finished basement (insulated walls, etc.) where you have easy access to bring the wood in, can be a nice feature. Warm floors, mess downstairs, etc. You'll need a pretty large stove early on if you want to feel heat getting upstairs. Your basement walls will suck a lot of heat up. For a basement, you'd want a convection stove as opposed to a radiant stove. Basement walls suck up radiant heat. Convection heat rises so you'll end up with more in the house. Thats my experience. If you were going to start off cheap to see if burning wood is for you, I'd go with the Pleasant Hearth Large model.

 

[RK05]

I was leaning towards the basement stove, 1) because it would be the easiest one for me to install myself 2) It would allow us to use the basement family room more in the winter time. This is a new house to us and I haven’t even been able to enjoy our bar we have down there!

Does that price sound ok for an unused Pleasant Hearth stove? I know they were sold at Lowes near the $900 and up range. I was going to go to some of the local shops and see what a new stove would run us for the basement. Not sure when specials are run on this stuff to buy new?

The Cemi were about one of the only inserts that allow you to use your existing damper without changing it correct?

 

[Remmy122]

I agree with snowleopard, I started out thinking it was just supplemental, and this winter it heated the whole house.

I would suggest you take a look at your buget and buy the biggest stove you can. I really love my 30-NC. Huge firebox, lots of heat and provides a decent learning curve for the cost. Right now you seem to be able to get a great deal on them.

I started out looking at the cheapest I could find, but was talked into spending a little extra and it really paid off. My BIL bought a smaller insert and is now kicking himself wishing he would have saved his $700 and put it towards a bigger stove.

 

[begreen]

A basement stove in a finished basement (insulated walls, etc.) where you have easy access to bring the wood in, can be a nice feature. Warm floors, mess downstairs, etc. You'll need a pretty large stove early on if you want to feel heat getting upstairs. Your basement walls will suck a lot of heat up. For a basement, you'd want a convection stove as opposed to a radiant stove. Basement walls suck up radiant heat. Convection heat rises so you'll end up with more in the house. Thats my experience. If you were going to start off cheap to see if burning wood is for you, I'd go with the Pleasant Hearth Large model.

+1 - If you go for the basement, go for the Pleasant Hearth Large. And plan on insulating as much of the basement walls and sill area as possible this summer. That will be money in the bank for fuel save, be it gas or wood.

A couple things to consider if installing in the basement - how will well will heat convect upstairs? Is there a stairwell nearby the stove (no partitions blocking), by which heat can easily convect upstairs? And, what size (ID) is the flue pipe downstairs?

If you can post a couple pictures of the two options, we may be able to spot some other caveats or options. And last, do you have a good supply of wood already cut, split and stacked to dry? If not, get it right now. Even if the seller says it's "seasoned" it probably won't be. Poorly seasoned wood is the number one problem people have with new stoves.

 

[RK05]

As far as our budget goes we really don't have much right now for a new stove thats why I was checking out Craigslist. It looks like your Englander 30-NC
goes for a little over $1K new? I think any kind of stove would be better than what is currently in the basement. The best way I can describe it is an upside down funnel with a wire mesh front. Seem to remember them from late seventy/early eightys shows.

If I understand them correctly the newer inserts would need our existing flue opened up (damper removed) to allow for the inserts chimney to go through? Also, inserts installed run over $2k right?

 

[snowleopard]

If you will occupy the basement more with additional heat, and all you have to do is swap out the existing fireplace, and it's easy to get wood in, and this stove is new for half-price, I think you've kind of talked yourself into this whether you know it now or not.

Suggest that before you pull the fireplace you take pix of the upside down funnel stove, and then put it on Craigslist. I saw one of those that someone was trying to Craigslist for $900. Granted, it sat there for a long time. But even if you could get a couple of hundred for it, it would take some of the sting out of buying the stove. And it will sell better if you can take some nice pictures of it installed first.

There's a saying up here: "A barn will build a house, but a house will never build a barn." In this case, it sounds like the PH stove is the barn--it will save $$ for you with no major fatutzing with the chimney, and that saved money can then be put towards other expenditures, like chimney alterations for an insert.

And do think about insulation. Depending upon what you need to do, it can be a cheap upgrade, and makes a huge difference.

 

[RK05]

I may wait until next week and see if the PH is still for sale. If it is maybe I can get it for a little less and if not then I will do what you said about trying to sell mine first.

I have seen others for sale for around that price and condition so I'm not gonna jump the gun before I can make sure we got the right setup going.

 

[BrotherBart]

Get ready for some questions about that basement chimney. There is a very good chance that it won't be adequate for a wood stove.

 

[woodchip]

If you know you're going to be putting in a wood burner, it's time to start gathering firewood and getting it seasoned.

Too right, with epa stoves, properly seasoned wood is probably more important than the make of stove. Not something some stove makers really want to advertise ;-)

 

[RK05]

Get ready for some questions about that basement chimney. There is a very good chance that it won't be adequate for a wood stove.

What would be some of the reasons the chimney wouldn't be adequate?

I can post pics of both the fireplace and the chimney later tonight maybe.

 

[begreen]

The chimney is probably 8 or 10". 8" may draft ok, 10" would be too large for a stove requiring a 6" flue. If the pipe is not rated HT (High Temp) 2100F, then it probably will not be adequate protection. See if you can find a specification and rating label somewhere on a section of the flue pipe.

 

[RK05]

Here are a couple of pics of our basement fireplace.

Any ideas of what brand it is and what it may be worth to put it on Craigslist for?

Thanks

 

[fredarm]

Darth Vader stove. No idea what it's worth.