Considering a stove change-up - advice?

[joefrompa]

Hi all,

I'm weighing a stove change up - going a bit bigger. Last October I bought the Lopi 1750 - but I've got ~2200-2400 square feet (I close a day to 200 square feet of the house) and I've got a poor layout to boot.

I'm going to wait through this winter - I've done an absolute ton of weatherizing this year and the house is FAR more air-sealed. (entire house was foam boarded & tyvek'd, tons of caulking, etc.) I'll see how the house heats up this winter.

However, last winter I pushed the lopi to stay around 500-600 and I just wasn't getting the steady heat nor the total heat output I'm looking for.

That being said, my room layout is poor. I've got about a 500 square foot room the stove is in with the far end of the room having 2 24" doorways to the rest of the house. Not alot. On top of it, the cold air flow to the stove is limited by the kitchen counter/cabinets blocking 2/3rds of the air flow towards the stove up several feet.

So the room heats up nice and fans move the heat in and out, but the room still gets hot while elsewhere stays cool.

...

Ok, so that's my situation and I'm not sure if changing the stove would get the heat elsewhere. So here's the next deciding factor for me:

I bought this lopi 1750 insert last year. It's got a blower, it's in perfect shape, etc....how much do these things retain their value? The market is so limited I have a hard time assessing resale. Do stove shops often offer a good buy-back on the used models to up-sell you?

Appreciate all the insight everyone. My stove has been great - just considering my options. Regardless, it's going to crank through another 3-4 cords of wood this year and provide many more happy memories

Joe

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Hi Joe - Was just reading your post. I am wondering if your issue is more of a room layout issue vs needing a bigger stove.
The Lopi Republic is a pretty good heater....so, can you give us an idea of the temps in your rooms when you have the stove operating under normal conditions? (Maybe just an estimate)
Maybe you will have better results with all the insulation issues you remedied?
I have the small Lopi Answer insert, and it heats the house fine....have a 1800 sq/ft colonial and the insert is located on the far end of the house. My only regrets is that I swish I had a stove with a larger firebox....i.e. puts out the heat fine, just wish it would last longer.
Good luck

 

[BrowningBAR]

I bought this lopi 1750 insert last year. It's got a blower, it's in perfect shape, etc....how much do these things retain their value? The market is so limited I have a hard time assessing resale.

I disagree. The market in our area has a TON of used stoves available.

 

[North of 60]

Joe, it looks like you just went through a major insulating upgrade. Anything in the Attic? Never the less I would take it from there and see where it takes ya so to speak. You may end up just fine and able to maintain a comfortable temp without running hotter therefore increasing your burn times. One step at a time. If your attic has some room for improvement, put the money there 1st.
Cheers

 

[joefrompa]

Attic is well-sealed and is r-38. I could probably take it further for cheap but I think I've hit diminishing returns there. Been working on air-sealing and better insulating the garage and some pot-lights and a few other locations - those are next on the to-do. The garage has a ~200sf bedroom over it that's a solid 10-15 degrees below the rest of the house.

The room with the stove is probably 80-85 degrees when the rest of the house is 65. That being said, it's such a differential that you can FEEL the air flowing across you trying to get to the stove. It's kind of an irony. My couch is in-line with the stove (rather than facing it) and is in-line with that opening in the kitchen where the cold air comes through. So even though the room is 80-85 degrees sometimes, the cold air movement means you are rarely HOT when sitting on the couch.

I'm still finding the best ways to extract heat from the room and put it into the rest of the house.

....

BrowningBAR - I'm not disagreeing with you, but my (albeit limited) research hasn't yielded alot of knowledge on similar stoves (i.e. medium sized inserts from an economy line) and how they hold their value. For example, I'd want maybe $1500 for my 1-year old insert with blower and 10" surround...but I have no idea if that's reasonable, underpriced (since stove's became more expensive), or what....

...

Daves - I'm definitely excited to see if the house retains heat better this year and would like to evaluate that first. I have learned I have a bit more of a taste for a stove that's E-W loading with a larger glass front too, in terms of looks, so there's some slight selfishness here as well.

I'm really curious about the foam & tyvek on the exterior. When my asbestos siding was removed, I got to see the house sheathing and it's condition. It was 35 year old exterior-grade sheetrock that had been hung on the studs. The sheetrock was perforated everywhere and underneath that was fiberglass insulation and then interior sheetrock. There was no other air-sealing, and no vapor barrier either. So Lord only knows how much air was being sucked out of interior outlets/baseboard trim/etc.

I don't need the stove to heat the house to 75. I need the stove to be able to heat the far corners of the house to 60 degrees, the middle parts to 65, and the main room to 75. If I can do that 50% of the time, using hte oil furnace to help get it to those temps to begin with, then I'll be far ahead.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Thanks for the info.
I think that if the room with the stove is 85 and the other rooms are only 65, its more of a circulation issue...tough sometimes to move the air around with a difficult floorplan.
If I were you, I would give it a wait and see approach and see how your insulation enhancements work out.....If you get a bigger stove, you might be looking at 90 degree temps in the stove room...might be good if you make your own beef jerky lol
BTW, what kind of burn times do you get with your Lopi?

 

[Stump_Branch]

Would be trying my hardest to draw air from the furthest/coldest area possible and blow into stove room. If yoy sealed your house as well it sounds air from the rest of the house will be forced to replace. Eventaully this shoul begin to pull air out of the stove room. Ofcourse that all boils down to how much help the air will need and how poor a layout.

Do you have a ceiling fan in the stove room. Amazing how much it helps.

 

[joefrompa]

Ceiling fan about 8' in front of the stove. I've actually found it REDUCES circulation of the air moving into and out of the room. The stove is at one end of a long thin room with the doorways to the rest of the house at the other end. Air movement needs a nice smooth lateral transition - hot air flowing on top and out the doorways, cold air flowing from the bottom directly to the stove.

The ceiling fan seems to disrupt this too much and slows down overall air movement when I have floor fans/box fans aiding actual cold air flow to the stove.

The best thing I've found so far is to have a ceiling fan on upstairs in my bedroom (stimulating air movement up there and I think drawing hot air up the stairwell nearby) and then a box fan on the floor of my kitchen blowing cold air to the stove.

My kitchen is seriously closed off and restricting. I've thought about knocking down the entire first floor wall/seperation between kitchen/dining room/living room. One big open floorspace (maybe with one column for support).

However, that's where most of my kitchen storage space is AND the cabinets are custom-made solid oak cabinets with beautiful veneering and such. Made from one oak tree by previous owner's father in law. Removing them would be almost criminal at this stage