2 story great room with fireplace - recommendation sought

[Drewman]

Installed Heatilator Constitution at previous residence and LOVED it (2500 sq ft built in 2005 with 8 foot ceilings).

Looking to add on a wood burning fireplace to our current residence however this time we have a 2 story great room. 3200sq ft home with 22foot great room ceilings and geothermal heating/cooling.

The goal of the fireplace would be to take the chill out of the air, have some ambiance, keep the wife happy (she likes the look), and I just love using my chainsaw and splitting wood!

The upstairs is a loft with 3 bedrooms and quite open. My goal is to not heat the entire home.
Candidate:
Heatilator Constitution
http://www.heatilator.com/Products/Constitution-Wood-Fireplace.aspx
Napolean NZ3000
http://napoleonfireplaces.com/products/nz3000-high-country-wood-burning-fireplace/
SuperiorWCT6840
http://superiorfireplaces.us.com/products/wct6840

I think I am leaning towards the Heatilator Constitution again. I want to be able to get a good hot fire going with a smaller amount of wood, put out good heat and well I'm just familiar with it and we were so pleased.

Any thoughts?

 

[begreen]

Greetings. Sounds like you know exactly what you're getting with the Heatilator. Go for it.

 

[Grisu]

Put ceiling fans in if there are not any. Other than that was there anything that makes you re-considering your choice of the Heatilator? It will probably be too small to heat the entire house but if that is not of importance to you I don't see why you should choose a different one. Of course, if you want to look at some other units we can give you some pointers.

 

[Drewman]

Greetings. Sounds like you know exactly what you're getting with the Heatilator. Go for it.

I have never discussed this topics with others, just researched on-line, and was hoping to hear some reviews/insight with two story room.

Put ceiling fans in if there are not any. There is one ceiling fan.

There is a single 52 inch fan that sits about 6 foot down from the ceiling. I imagine I will have that on updraft/experiment to see if it makes a difference. Otherwise I'll probably take it out. I would love an Aerotron: http://aeratronfans.com/shop/ae3/ Any recommendations?

...anything that makes you re-considering your choice of the Heatilator? It will probably be too small to heat the entire house but if that is not of importance to you I don't see why you should choose a different one...

I think price. The unit is roughly $4500 dollars. I guess I hate to get something too small or too big. Too small meaning that it just looks too small in a big area and too big meaning it takes too long to get hot and burns through too much wood. A smaller unit will also take smaller more maneuverable log. Just thinking long term logistics. I won't always be young.

BTW I use a Stihl MS290 with the muffler mod(couple holes drilled in it) and just picked up a full chisel (yellow link) chain last weekend! I am excited to test out the full chisel! I always wear my Labonville Chaps too!

 

[begreen]

The goal of the fireplace would be to take the chill out of the air, have some ambiance, keep the wife happy (she likes the look), and I just love using my chainsaw and splitting wood!

It sounds like the Heatilator will meet these goals. A bigger unit may heat better but will also go through more wood. For sure regardless of the unit chosen be sure the wood is fully seasoned.

 

[Drewman]

For sure regardless of the unit chosen be sure the wood is fully seasoned.

I've been seasoning wood since I was a teenager but I am actually reading the wiki as you responded! I love the refresher!

 

[quotejso]

I think you can get more bang for your buck with something else but it's your pad.

 

[begreen]

The Constitution is EPA certified with emission levels of 3.3 grams per hour. Not too bad for a big unit.

 

[quotejso]

Check out the wood stove decathlon some interesting units they might fit in with what u want.

 

[begreen]

OP wants a wife pleasing fireplace. There were no EPA ZC fireplaces in the decathlon. All were freestanding units.

 

[quotejso]

OP wants a wife pleasing fireplace. There were no EPA ZC fireplaces in the decathlon. All were freestanding units.

Well those manufacturers make some other interesting units worth looking in too. How do you know what his wife wants?

 

[begreen]

The goal of the fireplace would be to take the chill out of the air, have some ambiance, keep the wife happy (she likes the look),

Only Travis (from the decathlon entries) makes a ZC fireplace. That would their FPX line which is certainly worth considering.
http://www.fireplacex.com/ProductGuide/FuelTypeOverview.aspx?fueltype=wood&fueltab=0

There was also Tulikivi which is a personal favorite of mine, but that is a full masonry (soapstone) fireplace.

 

[quotejso]

Only Travis (from the decathlon entries) makes a ZC fireplace. That would their FPX line which is certainly worth considering.
http://www.fireplacex.com/ProductGuide/FuelTypeOverview.aspx?fueltype=wood&fueltab=0

There was also Tulikivi which is a personal favorite of mine, but that is a full masonry (soapstone) fireplace.

Yea soapstone is the way to go

 

[Drewman]

I appreciate the discussion!

In looking at Fireplacex if I consider the 36Elite (similar to Northstar) the difference seems to be efficiency of heating per cubic feet of box size.

The Northstar claims 74,900 BTU/2.7cu.ft. or 27740 BTU per cubic foot
The 36 Elite claimes 66,000BTU/3.7cu.ft. or 17837 BTU per cubic foot

Am I missing something?

I understand these are manufacturers numbers that they probably obtained with a specific humidity, wood, barometric pressure, yadda yadda yadda.

I do like the single door of the 36 Elite though!

 

[begreen]

Without knowing the testing standard one has to take the max output numbers with a grain of salt. One rarely would be pushing the fireplace to its max for very long. Both are good units, but with different tech (non-cat vs cat) and heat circulation methods. If you are looking at this whole field there are also the BIS Tradition (Lennox Montecito) and Pacific Energy FP36A, and Quadrafire 7100.

 

[Grisu]

The BTU numbers are per hour. It shows the maximum heat you can get for a short time with the draft control adjusted for a full-blast burn. The Northstar may give you a little more heat for short time but you will go through the wood like candy. If you want to know how much heat you can get overall you need to calculate the BTU contained in your fuel x firebox size x efficiency of the unit. In that regard the Elite 36 with its larger firebox will give you more heat overall. For a discussion and some examples of calculating the heat output of a stove look here: https://www.chimneysweeponline.com/hobtucmp.htm

 

[Drewman]

I'm not going for more heat necessarily. I do like the discussion and the information though!!

I would prefer to run a smaller firebox that gets hot quicker and takes smaller logs, may even stay clean a bit better. My wife will being putting wood in during the day when I am not home and like her to lift logs that are smaller.

I believe I want a non-cat (less to repair or potential to repair) and I don't require the extra heating features, or aux ducting, of the 7100.

 

[begreen]

The heat circulating feature may be worth considering. It can help distribute heat to more remote parts of the house for more even heating.

 

[Grisu]

Sounds like the Northstar would be a good fit then. However, you can also load a larger firebox with smaller splits and/or do only a half load if necessary. The reverse does not work. And be careful with a small firebox and a large home to not push the fireplace too much to get more heat out of it. A disadvantage of a ZC fireplace is that it is hard to measure its outside temperature so you may inadvertently overfire it without even knowing. Plus, if you worry about a clean burn and efficiency a cat stove will generally do better on that front than a non-cat.

 

[Drewman]

The heat circulating feature may be worth considering. It can help distribute heat to more remote parts of the house for more even heating.

Unfortunately, this unit will be further than 10 feet from any other room. At least that was as far as I could tell it should be ducted from the manual. This was the 7100 manual. The gravity duct wouldn't work either as it's open space above.

 

[Drewman]

Sounds like the Northstar would be a good fit then. However, you can also load a larger firebox with smaller splits and/or do only a half load if necessary.......Plus, if you worry about a clean burn and efficiency a cat stove will generally do better on that front than a non-cat.

If you load a larger firebox half full it to me seems like it would decrease the heat output with having a larger unit and mass of the stove.

The cat stove only improves the cleanliness of the exhaust heat going up the chimney? Or does it actually improve the efficiency of the burn within the unit.

I am planning on an outside are intake.

 

[Grisu]

If you load a larger firebox half full it to me seems like it would decrease the heat output with having a larger unit and mass of the stove.

But that larger mass will give off the heat to the house - just slower. It requires good insulation behind the unit to minimize heat loss to the outside. Nevertheless, the heat (=energy) does not disappear; it is only the question where it goes.

The cat stove only improves the cleanliness of the exhaust heat going up the chimney? Or does it actually improve the efficiency of the burn within the unit.

In general, they are also a bit more efficient but check the numbers of the individual unit. Btw. Cleaner burn means less unburnt particles going up the chimney which already equals higher efficiency.

 

[begreen]

A cat stove will burn cleaner at lower burns. The cat eats the smoldering smoke. But one can compensate with burning techniques in a non-cat stove or fireplace by burning shorter, hot fires in a pulse and glide manner.

 

[Drewman]

It requires good insulation behind the unit to minimize heat loss to the outside.

What kind and amount of insulation would be best in the new chase? R-13 in walls and R-38 fiberglass batts with fire rated foil or is there something more airtight I should go with?

 

[Isaiah53]

The catalysts on the FPX do not really work quite like a catalytic stove. You cannot really run it at low turn down like a Blaze King or Woodstock stove to get high efficiency. They probably add some small amount of efficiency, but I think they are needed to meet emissions on these large fireboxes. I have the FPX 44 and it is almost impossible to turn the air down more than about halfway without getting a heavy build-up of creosote on the doors. It is great for ambiance and puts out a large amount of heat, but it likes to run on high. I don't see any issue loading it partly with smaller fires. I do that all the time when I do not need as much heat.

You have a large volume to heat. I don't have any experience with the Northstar, but I would expect that the FPX 36 would provide more heat. The firebox is considerably larger and it has a much larger blower than most other ZC's. I also really appreciate that the blower can be remotely mounted which allows you to run it on high without the noise. If you are primarily interested in ambiance, this may all be irrelevant.

I think they are similar in weight so I would expect the heat-up time to be similar. It does take about 30 minutes of roaring fire for the blower to come on my FPX. It seems you have to get a bed of hot coals before it will come on.