Stove Placement and installation help!

[CaseyC585]

I've been reading the forum for a few months now, especially all afternoon today in hopes to find a good post that would help me answer my questions, but no luck. I bought a Harman P43 last year and I love it, however my wife and I were disappointed with the heat distribution throughout our house. We would find that our family room would get really hot, but the rest of the house would not. So I found a point where the stove and furnace would work together last winter, but gas prices are jumping up this year and I didn't just buy 4 ton of pellets for one room! I attached a paint drawing of my house in hopes I can get some good advice on it.

My house is a split entry, pretty well insulated. This is on the top floor
Room A - Family Room - Addition to the house...The furnace vents were not balance so this room is usually colder than the rest of the house and this room has Cathedral ceilings
Room B - Dining Room
Room C - Living Room
Room D - Kitchen

Purple Dot - Thermostat
Blue Dot - Cold Air Return
Red Dot - Natural Gas Meter

#1 - Initial position, #3 - Best recommended for even distribution, #2 - Realistic placement because of the gas meter

Can I place it at #3 and route the vent away from the gas meter? is that ok?
If I was to place it at #2, would the heat still reach Room A?
The exterior wall faces the wind, should I be concerned about heavy winds blowing back into my exhaust? what about an OAK?

 

[MCPO]

I`d put it in the family room since it has cathedral ceils , 3 exterior walls , and is already the coldest room.
Some warm air should enter into the kitchen and din area. If you put it in the Liv rm any warm air that possibly manages to reach into the family room is going straight up to the cath ceiling anyway so you won`t benefit much there.

 

[UncleAnthony]

we have had good success with entreeair doorway fans($25) that mount up in the doorway ,
and those cheap 20inch box fan($20), placed high in the stove room pointing toward the door,
as close to doorway as possible. both consume very little electricity and really help move air.

might want to place stove at #2 , with a box fan in that room poiinting down the hall, a doorfan from btoa, maybe dtoa,
and possibly doorway fans in those other rooms. the fact you are using cold air return helps immensely,
but we have found fans pushing the air (on low setting) seems to create the needed air flow to move heat.
have to experiment to find what the airflow is in your house.

we turn the stove on, wait till stove room gets to temp, then put the cold air return fan on, and all the other fans to move air.
we get the stove room temp hotter than what we want other rooms at ( 5-10degrees).

But also given that, actually it may not matter where you put the stove (within reason), but to find house airflow
would solve the issue.

one trick that helped is use of incense sticks. with stove on and whatever fans you are using, light sticks and put at high and low to see airflow.
then put stick at entrances of stove room and go to further rooms. see how long it takes till you can smell the incense,

the harman p43 with 43000 btu , 135 cfm blower should heat 1500 sqft per their website. Great stove, with
proper airflow in your house , should be able to heat entire house.

good luck !

 

[briansol]

what in the top right corner? (A, top right).

That to me seems like the best place. it's in the coldest room, and it will be aiming on the angle out towards the hallway.

 

[MCPO]

Yes, placed in either one of the 2 corners (top of diagram) or even in the center of that outside end wall, IMO would be suitable.

 

[CaseyC585]

The Top right corner of A is the TV... which can be moved. my concern with keeping it in room A is that the air flow between that room and the rest of the house is bad. The Cathedral ceiling in that room also makes it hard to move heat from that room. Im also thinking that by putting it in room C (living room) it will be close enough to the cold air return (blue dot) that it will cycle some of the pellet stove heat to the rest of the house (basement especially)

 

[MCPO]

If the family room gets hot what do you think the living room will be like with the stove there? Your expectations might have been too high since your layout doesn`t look to be ideal even for a large pellet stove (still only a space heater) to heat the whole house reasonably evenly.
My advice is to quit looking at the pellet stove as a whole house heater and utilize it as supplemental. Why not just turn it down and use it to heat that cold family room only (looks to be 1/3rd of the living space ) or devise a way(S) to move the extra heat that it is capable of , down off that ceiling and out of that room. The cath ceil don`t help things but you`re stuck with it and gotta deal with it one way or another. I assume that room is zoned separately .

 

[jtakeman]

I have struggled for years trying to heat the whole house with a space heater. Moving the air with fans is a must, But there are still some cool spots. My next venture is a pellet furnace as I have exhausted the stove route. My stove is in the basement and I have to over heat that area to get the rest of the house were we want it to be. Last year I added duct work to the pellet stove and found the basement temps dropped and the house temps increased. But a pellet stove heat output is to hot for floor vents. A furnace output temp is higher volume of air at a lower temp and the vents don't get hot. When I can afford it the furnace goes in!

What is the overall square footage of the house?

Tips for you to try.

Its easier to move the cool air around than it is to move the heated air. Heated air will replace the cool air. Heated air doesn't move well on its own. Try a floor fan blowing the cool air at the stove. You must assist it with circulating fans. Have a heat survey done to see what is the actual BTU value the whole house needs(or check the BTU output on the existing furnace). The stove would need to have pretty darn close to the same BTU's as the furnace to replace it. A ceiling fan in reverse may help in Cathedral ceiling area.


I am going with gio on this. I think your P43 is probably too small to do the whole house in a comfortable manor. The best way to heat the whole house is with the furnace and duct work attached. Keep the P43 in the family room to assist the furnace as that was a troubled area and invest in a add on pellet furnace to heat the rest of the house. You can also expect the pellet useage to increase. As the gas furnace was assisting the pellets and you need to replace the BTU's the gas furnace produced with BTU's from the pellet furnace.

 

[CaseyC585]

I figured it was too small. I think my house is about 200 square feet too big for it to heat it entirely. I was just look to get some extra input on how to make the best of my pellet stove of it so my furnace doesn't have to burn gas much, and so the heat is as evenly distributed as possible. Anyway, If I was to put it at #3 would I be able to route the pipe away from the gas meter or would that be a no-no? I don't care too much if that room is like an oven.

 

[imacman]

If it were me, I'd be putting the stove in the corner of Rm A that is "above" (in the diagram) your 1st choice. Putting the stove catty-corner aimed directly toward the doorway to Rm B ....this will help somewhat in sending it toward Rm C too.

It also takes any issues w/ natural gas meter completely out of play & heats the coldest room 1st.

As for the OAK, they can only help the operation of the stove, and I highly recommend using one.

Question: which wall (as per the diagram) is the one that has the (prevailing) wind hitting it the most?

 

[vvvv]

how tight is the house & where's the N side?

 

[CaseyC585]

North would be the front of the house (which is where the living room, Room C) is. the Prevailing wind hits the right side of the house if your looking at the picture. The house is fairly well insulated, and the windows are newer... however the doors are older and don't have the best seal. There is also 1 window in the family room that was a factory defect and so it does not close straight. I did notice a draft coming from these places last year when I had the stove running.

 

[CaseyC585]

Also, the top left corner of room A is a coat closet, in the middle of that wall is a window... sorry for not putting that on there.

 

[imacman]

Also, the top left corner of room A is a coat closet, in the middle of that wall is a window... sorry for not putting that on there.

Then the next best spot (IMO) is the other corner (upper right of Rm a) and face it directly toward the rm b doorway. The idea is to heat rm a first, and also be pushing the heated air toward other rooms via doorways.

 

[vvvv]

wheres the tv you watch the most? pstove noise can be a factor

 

[CaseyC585]

It sure is, we had both the TV and the Stove in room A and it volume would be cranked. I'm going to talk it over with the wife and also ask stove salesman/family friend what he thinks. I appreciate everyone's help!