Wanting 2nd stove for basement

[Handcuff]

Hey all,
I built a house a couple years ago, and based on the information I read here I put a FPX 36 on the main floor of my family room. It has been sufficient for the upstairs on most occasions (sometimes it's under-powered, but that's somewhat expected given the volume of space in the upstairs). I'm now finishing out the walk-out basement, and have decided that I need a second stove downstairs - this is where I need help/advice.

A few pieces of information that may be helpful in outlining my key challenges:
My house is a vaulted-ceiling ranch, 2276 sq ft. The ceilings in the great room reach to ~21 ft.
The fireplace/FPX in the great room/family room is on the far side of the house from the bedrooms. Often, that room gets warm but the rest of the house stays chilly.
The house has a huge amount of (fairly thermally efficient) windows. While these are fairly 'cold resistant', the sheer number of them cause the house to be somewhat cooler than what I'd like.
The basement has 9 ft. ceilings, and is almost the exact same floorplan (2276 sq ft) as the upstairs blueprint (with the exception that the bedrooms downstairs are a more "direct" path to the family area/fireplace.
The boys' rooms downstairs don't get enough of the heat when using the stove.
The electric furnace is located downstairs, in the basement.
The plans for the basement were drawn out to have the stove under the FPX, to allow both pipes to go up the same chase/structure, beside each other.

My house is somewhat remote in Kentucky. The weather gets cold here, but not bitter-cold for weeks/months on end. We get down to/below freezing for a month or two, and down in the single digits (below zero at night) for maybe a couple weeks a year.

Additionally, due to the remote nature of the home, our power goes out WAY too frequently. That being the case, I'd like to have a stove downstairs that I could cook on in emergencies. We've lost power twice for more than a day since I've been living here.

One thing I've thought of (although this goes against the 'cook on the wood burning stove' idea) is to move my FPX 36 downstairs and get an FPX 44 for upstairs. The 36 seems somewhat underpowered at times for the upstairs, let alone for the entire house. Additionally, the 36 seems slightly 'small' of an opening for the ambiance I was wanting to create in the upstairs great room.

What stoves/solutions would you guys recommend for this problem?
Thanks,
-Scott

 

[begreen]

This sounds like a classic case of cubic ftg heated vs sq ftg.. The volume of space being heated is large, perhaps more like a conventional 4000 sq ft home. The large amount of glass area with its low R value confounds the issue. We have too much glass in our house too and I fight it when it gets below 20F outside.

How is the heat at the cathedral ceiling peak getting circulated? Has a temperature reading up there been taken?

I like the idea of a freestanding stove downstairs. It will greatly increase your heating options. On mild days it may be sufficient to heat the house alone. How open is the basement area that would be heated? Where is the stairwell located? Is the stairwell open at top and open sided to the basement?

For a stove I would go large. You can always run it with a partial load in mild weather. There are many good options in varying price ranges. A couple nice flexible stoves for cooking are the Jotul F50 with the winter grille option and the PE Alderlea T6 with the swing away trivets for better temp control.

 

[Handcuff]

How is the heat at the cathedral ceiling peak getting circulated? Has a temperature reading up there been taken?

I like the idea of a freestanding stove downstairs. It will greatly increase your heating options. On mild days it may be sufficient to heat the house alone. How open is the basement area that would be heated? Where is the stairwell located? Is the stairwell open at top and open sided to the basement?

Begreen, thanks for the reply and consideration. The upstairs great room has a large high-volume ceiling fan to circulate the warm air from the vaulted area around.
The basement opens to the stairs from the 'greatroom' of the basement to the main hallway upstairs. Both are open (no doors), but we are thinking of installing a sliding barn door at the bottom of the stairs, mostly to keep the heat downstairs during the winter months. The basement is basically the same size as the upstairs (2276 sq ft), with the minor exception that there is one 'bedroom' that is just storage/mechanical, so unheated. It's all 9 ft. ceilings.
Thanks again,
-Scott

 

[begreen]

A blower running on low should keep the open area fairly evenly heated. The barn door might work ok as a valve to restrict air flow, but it's worth a try without it first. You can temporarily hang a plastic sheet from the ceiling to mimic the effect of the door.

 

[brad wilton]

For your window problem maybe hang thermal drapes to cut cold from windows.