Stove upgrade questions

[bubmiller]

Hi from central PA.

I've been reading the forums here for awhile now and decided to ask some questions!

For the setting, I have a 1400 sq. ft. doublewide trailer that I built a basement under last summer. The basement is not yet insulated other than the band boards, although it is mostly underground. Right now I have an old Alaska single-door wood stove in the basement. It sets approx. in the center of one of the long walls. Also, because of the beams, the floor joists are just over 8 ft. which is higher than most basements I've been in around here.

I guess my first question is whether its even reasonable for me to heat with wood. I have a thermometer on the stove pipe about a foot above the stove. If I keep it at 600* all day long, (pipe turns orange at 700-750*) the oil furnace still runs to maintain 70* upstairs.(30 - 35* outside) Also, running the stove like that means that I go through about 2 heaping wheelbarrow loads of wood a day.(8 cu. ft. wheelbarrow) So not only am I chewing up my wood pile long before warm weather comes, I still spent over $1000 on fuel this year!?

My first thought is that a newer stove would be more efficient, and I had my heart set on someday getting a PE Summit. However the fuel truck just took the last of my savings toward that goal. As an alternative, I've been considering an NC-30. That brings up my next question. I see the NC-30 as only rated for 75,000 btu and the PE Summit for 99,000 btu, but the 30 has a bigger firebox(3.0 vs 3.5)? What gives?? Is the 30 going to be big enough for me??. . .

Or am I setting myself up for disappointment by considering either of these???

 

[mellow]

If you are going to heat from the basement you need to spend some money on insulating those walls first.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. If you are using a surface thermometer, your flue is too hot @600F. With an uninsulated basement, about a third of the heat (and wood) is going to heat mother nature and the great outdoors. Insulating the basement would be your best first investment. Then you will be able to throttle the stove back. But you will not get near the efficiency of a new stove. The 30NC is a good choice, so is the Summit. The btu ratings vary depending on whether they are cord wood or not, etc.. It's not unusual to see inconsistency. I wouldn't worry about this. Once you have the basement insulated either stove should be able to handle the load assuming there is a good way for the heat to get upstairs. That actually is the bigger challenge.

 

[bubmiller]

Thanks guys, I do have plans for insulation, I haven't even had time to build the staircase yet. Have to go out in the cold every 2-3 hours just to get in the basement to fix the fire. Once I get the stairs, breaker panel, and lights done I want to start insulating the walls. I've been considering cutting registers up through the floor to help get the heat upstairs.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum bubmiller.

Even before you do insulating or changing stoves, close that draft some otherwise most of the heat is going straight up the chimney and is doing you no good. I'm also wondering how you set up the chimney with the basement you have. In addition, it can matter a lot, I repeat, a lot, on what wood you are burning. For example, there are still a lot of folks out there who cut their wood just a bit before they burn it. Or they may even split the wood just before burning it. That is definitely not a good way to burn wood. Most wood wants to be split and stacked outdoors in the wind for a year before being burned. Some wood can take up to 3 years to dry properly.

Good luck.

 

[begreen]

Thanks guys, I do have plans for insulation, I haven't even had time to build the staircase yet. Have to go out in the cold every 2-3 hours just to get in the basement to fix the fire. Once I get the stairs, breaker panel, and lights done I want to start insulating the walls. I've been considering cutting registers up through the floor to help get the heat upstairs.

Without the door how is the stove heating upstairs now? If you can, make the stairway door large, like 36" or consider not having a door, it will have to be open all winter anyway if the stove is heating from below. Code will require metal sleeves and fusible link dampers for the floor registers. If you can post a sketch of the 1st floor plans then we can make suggestions for placement.

 

[bubmiller]

I've experienced the wood issue. The good stuff I have now is mostly red oak with some cherry, maple and ash. All windfall material that I split and stacked last winter. It was all dead when I found it and now measures between 18 - 22%. I bought a load of wood but he ran out of seasoned stuff till he got around to me. I split some to test it and It's around 30%, doesn't burn well at all The thimble goes through the wall about a foot and a half above the stove. The flue has 8 x 12 liners and reaches about 2 ft. past the peak of the house, (About shoulder high if I'm standing on roof beside it. I removed most of the insulation from the floor to let heat upstairs, but I guess It needs airflow to go along with it.

I'm just a bit confused as my Dad-in-Law has a slightly smaller house, un-insulated basement, keeps the basement door closed, and still heats his house easily with an old smoke dragon. His son has a modular on an un-insulated basement, keeps his basement door closed and still hits 80* upstairs with a fisher mama bear. I can't figure out what they're doing that I'm not. I normally help them cut wood so I know there wood isn't a whole lot better than mine. They do burn some locust that we cut down and season 1 year, the rest is mostly windfall oak.

I'm going to try to attach a rough drawing of the house layout. Hopefully it works.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Hi from central PA.

I've been reading the forums here for awhile now and decided to ask some questions!

For the setting, I have a 1400 sq. ft. doublewide trailer that I built a basement under last summer. The basement is not yet insulated other than the band boards, although it is mostly underground. Right now I have an old Alaska single-door wood stove in the basement. It sets approx. in the center of one of the long walls. Also, because of the beams, the floor joists are just over 8 ft. which is higher than most basements I've been in around here.

I guess my first question is whether its even reasonable for me to heat with wood. I have a thermometer on the stove pipe about a foot above the stove. If I keep it at 600* all day long, (pipe turns orange at 700-750*) the oil furnace still runs to maintain 70* upstairs.(30 - 35* outside) Also, running the stove like that means that I go through about 2 heaping wheelbarrow loads of wood a day.(8 cu. ft. wheelbarrow) So not only am I chewing up my wood pile long before warm weather comes, I still spent over $1000 on fuel this year!?

My first thought is that a newer stove would be more efficient, and I had my heart set on someday getting a PE Summit. However the fuel truck just took the last of my savings toward that goal. As an alternative, I've been considering an NC-30. That brings up my next question. I see the NC-30 as only rated for 75,000 btu and the PE Summit for 99,000 btu, but the 30 has a bigger firebox(3.0 vs 3.5)? What gives?? Is the 30 going to be big enough for me??. . .

Or am I setting myself up for disappointment by considering either of these???

The following are some of my thoughts in no particular order

1) As others have said, insulate. Insulation makes everything better - wood heat and oil heat. Either way, you win

2) You live in PA. Consider an anthracite coal stove. Surprisingly economical.

3) Given your current set up, a new stove won't make more heat or make your house warmer, but it should (will) cut down on your wood consumption. Unfortunately I don't see how a new stove will cut down heating oil consumption

4) How much oil do you normally go through without the wood heat? If the difference isn't great maybe wood heat is not viable. You'll have to pencil it out for yourself.

 

[bubmiller]

Actually, Last winter was our first in this house. There was no basement at the time, the skirting was shot, and I find out later that the floor insulation was pretty much removed by rodents. We still used about half the fuel that we have this year so far, Mostly because we ran the fireplace until February. Used a pile of wood, but the furnace only ran at night when the fire went out. Even being an open front (non airtight) fireplace with a fan, it kept the house above 70 on a cold day. I was told the fireplace was checked out before I bought the house, but when I got around to really looking at it I was horrified at its condition and shut it down. I bought the place planning on using an outdoor wood furnace, but after I saw how bad the foundation was and the work necessary to fix it, I decided it was only a bit more work to make the new foundation a basement and put the wood stove down there. Especially after helping the in-laws cut wood for a number of years, and seeing the results they have with a stove in the basement.