Hello everyone,
I've been lurking around on this forum for quiet some time and learning quite a bit. Lots of great info here! I've decided pellet is the way to go for me but the question lingers about how large of a stove I need, so I figure I'd try to solicit some opinions from you knowledgeable folks!
I bought a house about 3 months ago. Unfortunately it has electric baseboard heat. It appears the first owner had a nice masonry chimney built on the side of the house and a VC Vigilant installed. I discovered the fireback is warped and should be replaced. Due to this the damper doesn't close completely now allowing any secondary burns, however, after getting the chimney cleaned, I did use it in "updraft" mode a few times and it does putout pretty good heat but it's a smoke dragon for sure (the neighborhood will be glad to see it go I'm sure). Anyway, I waffled back and forth about fixing the Vig, buying an EPA wood stove (NC 30 probably), or going with a pellet stove. Due to the giant masonry chimney flue (11" x 7", IIRC), both a new wood stove or pellet stove will require an appropriate sized liner to operate properly. We don't have a lot of room for seasoning wood, and while Eco Bricks or similar are an option, I think I, but more importantly my wife, will be happier with the steady and easily controllable heat output of a pellet stove. I'll go with a refurb'd Englander (from AMFM) since I'm pretty handy and my budget doesn't support something like a Harmon.
So now the question of which one... PDV or PDVC. The house is a little under 1700 sq ft split level built in the early 1980s. Insulation is probably okay - fiberglass between the studs and, to my surprise, 1 or 1.5" foam on the outside, and 6" blown insulation in the attic (which needs to be improved eventually). Windows are newer vinyl replacements. The layout is as follows. From a two car garage (not heated) there are five steps up to a roughly 600 sq ft family room/bathroom/foyer. Turn 180 degrees and go up about 8 steps to the 500 sq ft living room/dining room/kitchen area (above the garage). Turn another 180 degrees and go up about 5 steps to about 600 sq ft of bedrooms/bath/hallway. The stove will be located in the family room on the ground level in place of the Vigilant, on the far end under the bedrooms. One of the previous owners cut some not-to-code 5" x 10" or so registers in the floors of the bedrooms. As far as I can tell from my test runs with the Vig, these do nothing for heat movement. I'll probably end up rigging up some fans to help the heat get up the stairs.
The Vig in updraft mode (so not putting out as much heat as it could) will heat the ground floor family room really well (it will hit the low 80s from about 50 degrees in about five hours), but that heat doesn't really move to other areas. We don't use it much since our wood supply consists of a partially rotted, wet third of a cord the previous owner kept on the ground under the deck against the house! A 23K BTU (IIRC) unvented kerosene heater does a pretty good job of heating the living room/dining/kitchen area and the bedrooms if you give it enough time. We keep the electric thermostats set between 45 and 55 except in the bedroom at night where it's set at a princely 65... Last month we paid about $300 for electricity and $100 in kerosene to keep the house uncomfortably cold!! I'm looking forward to using $250/mo or so in pellets to keep the place at 75!
So what would you guys recommend? The PDVC or the additional output of the PDV?
I appreciate your thoughts and opinions!
Thanks!
Scott
I've been lurking around on this forum for quiet some time and learning quite a bit. Lots of great info here! I've decided pellet is the way to go for me but the question lingers about how large of a stove I need, so I figure I'd try to solicit some opinions from you knowledgeable folks!
I bought a house about 3 months ago. Unfortunately it has electric baseboard heat. It appears the first owner had a nice masonry chimney built on the side of the house and a VC Vigilant installed. I discovered the fireback is warped and should be replaced. Due to this the damper doesn't close completely now allowing any secondary burns, however, after getting the chimney cleaned, I did use it in "updraft" mode a few times and it does putout pretty good heat but it's a smoke dragon for sure (the neighborhood will be glad to see it go I'm sure). Anyway, I waffled back and forth about fixing the Vig, buying an EPA wood stove (NC 30 probably), or going with a pellet stove. Due to the giant masonry chimney flue (11" x 7", IIRC), both a new wood stove or pellet stove will require an appropriate sized liner to operate properly. We don't have a lot of room for seasoning wood, and while Eco Bricks or similar are an option, I think I, but more importantly my wife, will be happier with the steady and easily controllable heat output of a pellet stove. I'll go with a refurb'd Englander (from AMFM) since I'm pretty handy and my budget doesn't support something like a Harmon.
So now the question of which one... PDV or PDVC. The house is a little under 1700 sq ft split level built in the early 1980s. Insulation is probably okay - fiberglass between the studs and, to my surprise, 1 or 1.5" foam on the outside, and 6" blown insulation in the attic (which needs to be improved eventually). Windows are newer vinyl replacements. The layout is as follows. From a two car garage (not heated) there are five steps up to a roughly 600 sq ft family room/bathroom/foyer. Turn 180 degrees and go up about 8 steps to the 500 sq ft living room/dining room/kitchen area (above the garage). Turn another 180 degrees and go up about 5 steps to about 600 sq ft of bedrooms/bath/hallway. The stove will be located in the family room on the ground level in place of the Vigilant, on the far end under the bedrooms. One of the previous owners cut some not-to-code 5" x 10" or so registers in the floors of the bedrooms. As far as I can tell from my test runs with the Vig, these do nothing for heat movement. I'll probably end up rigging up some fans to help the heat get up the stairs.
The Vig in updraft mode (so not putting out as much heat as it could) will heat the ground floor family room really well (it will hit the low 80s from about 50 degrees in about five hours), but that heat doesn't really move to other areas. We don't use it much since our wood supply consists of a partially rotted, wet third of a cord the previous owner kept on the ground under the deck against the house! A 23K BTU (IIRC) unvented kerosene heater does a pretty good job of heating the living room/dining/kitchen area and the bedrooms if you give it enough time. We keep the electric thermostats set between 45 and 55 except in the bedroom at night where it's set at a princely 65... Last month we paid about $300 for electricity and $100 in kerosene to keep the house uncomfortably cold!! I'm looking forward to using $250/mo or so in pellets to keep the place at 75!
So what would you guys recommend? The PDVC or the additional output of the PDV?
I appreciate your thoughts and opinions!
Thanks!
Scott
