Finally Switching from Wood stove to pellet - need advice

[Ravenbeak]

Hey guys,

I am finally gonna make the jump from a longtime wood burner to the pellet stove. I have been scratching my head hard about the options and trying to make a good decision, so here goes. It is a big house spread over 3 floors. This heater is intended to be the primary heat source and will be in the basement.

After a lot of back and forth, I am seriously considering getting a enviro Maxx through a local dealer. It seems like I have found a lot of good things about these, but any insights are appreciated.

Also have been looking hard at the ironstrike winslow through a different dealer. seems like a solid unit but quite pricey.

On the budget end, I have been entertaining a heatilator eco choice ps50, or a timberwolf tps 35.


When I first started my research I was looking into the comfortbilt hp22 or 61. Anyone have any experience or should I just stay away?

Also looked at the Harmans, but pricing and the lack of local dealers make it seem unlikely.

Thanks and keep up the good work, this site is great!

cheers,
Jamie

 

[alternativeheat]

You need a pellet boiler or furnace depending on your present heating system. They generally are designed to work next to/in conjunction with the existing central heating system.

I think you will be disappointed with any stove trying to heat three floors from the basement. If there was any remote chance of the idea working it would be with a P68 HARMAN running in Constant mode, not Room Temp mode, IMO.

 

[bogieb]

That is a tall order for a single pellet stove of any btu rating. As Alternative stated, a pellet boiler/furnace would be much better for primary heat in a large, multi-floor house.

Or, you can install a couple of stoves - one in basement and then again on another floor. But it is a crapshoot as to whether even that will accomplish what you want to your satisfaction. It depends a lot on layout of house (open or cut up), actual size and how cold it actually gets in winter (I believe BC may be more mild than my zone but what the heck do I know?). We have a member in Kentucky (milder zone than New England), @bags who is heating a large house but he has a couple of stoves and I don't think he has 3 levels. He does do most of his heating with a P68 on his main floor.

 

[moey]

Most pellet stoves only put out in the 25-50kbtu range not nearly as much as a wood stove. So its hard to heat from a basement and expect it to heat upstairs. Its hard with a regular stove but you have better luck because they typically can put out more btus.

 

[P51mustang]

I would echo what's already been posted.....Unless you have an extremely open floor plan and are super insulated (especially the basement where you're proposing to place this one stove) you have way too much house for one stove no matter where you put it. Nearly impossible if placed in the basement.

I'm not too familiar with pellet boilers or furnaces, but I understand they've improved their efficiency and durability tremendously in recent years. I would start your research there and then consider two stoves placed on your first and second floor.

 

[Ravenbeak]

OK thanks guys for the input so far.

Firstly, the basement is totally open, so heating that shouldn't be a problem, there are vent holes cut into the floor into the various rooms of the second floor so hoping heat will make its way up, and the upstairs is pretty small and just 2 little bedrooms, so not too concerned about that.

We live in the pacific northwest where is relatively mild, quite rare where we get down before freezing.

The thing I really like about the enviro is the heat distribution kit, so in theory I could run a bit of ducting to the kitchen and bathroom which in theory would be the hardest places to get heat to.

I appreciate the advice so far and will take it to heart, curious to hear any feedback on the units that I mentioned.

Thanks!

 

[Highbeam]

How large are we talking? And what stove was there before? Was it able to heat the whole house? How many cords per season? Lots of pellet stoves are low output but some make just as much as a cordwood stove plus they do it constantly, unlike a typical cordwood stove that cycles.

 

[Ravenbeak]

The house is about 2200 sq ft or so. In the past the wood stove was on the main floor so the basement was always unheated.

There was a pacific energy super 27 on the main floor and it did a decent job of keeping the main and upstairs warm. Being said, the fire was always out in the night and the place would cool down by morning. On average we would burn about 4-5 cords of douglas fir. We don't get too cold, but we do heat from Oct to May, so that is a lot of burning days.

Thanks

 

[gfreek]

Like other have said, heating a basement and moving the air to the first floor is sometimes difficult. However, if you can get the distribution kit you mentioned for the Enviro I would think that would be the way to go..& taking into account lengths of duct.. Main floor install would be my first option if possible..

 

[johneh]

The biggest thing to remember is that a stove is a space heater
Not a 190 thousand BTU furnace . Even in BC you should be looking at a furnace
to heat your house and a stove for ambiance I use a wood furnace and a pellet stove to heat my
my old leaky farm house

 

[alternativeheat]

My house is 18-- sq ft ( the main house minus the apartment we rent out which is on oil heat only). It's two stories and moderately insulated. The P61 does as good a job as the coal stove I had in the living room and does it 24/7, where coal would need shaking down in the morning to get it back up to peak heat for the day. Decades ago I tried heating from the basement with three vents to the main house first floor. I remember heating the basement into the 90's with this huge coal thing I built out of an oil oil tank and the best I could get the main floor was to about 62 in cold weather. It may have done fine in 40 deg weather , most anything will heat a house then. Anyway, now with the P61 on the main floor the house is nice , the basement cold. I have a kerosene heater down there for when I want to work in my shop. My point is in my house i need two stoves to get it all done comfortably.

The idea of being able to run duct work changes things up a bit. You could try that And at a later date put a second pellet stove on the main floor to replace your wood stove. My experience with running two coal stoves, which is what I did in the past , indicated to me that you don't use much more fuel doing that as you do one stove cranked to the max. Start out leaving your wood stove in place for now and add the ductable pellet stove to the basement, if you like the result and you think you like pellet heat then think about replacing your wood stove with pellets. IE go with what you know and add to it. I personally was glad to get rid of dealing with wood way back when, especially after dragging in a batch of black ants that were buried inside an infested log and having a chimney fire. i have no desire to go back to wood except for wood turning on my lathe in the basement LOL !

 

[zrock]

Ahh the truth comes out..LOL.. you said the wood stove was on the main floor. I would put the pellet stove back on the main floor. While it might heat the whole place in the basement and i do say might. It will never be that cozy and warm like it was on the main and upper floors. Personally i would keep it on main floor and put a couple duct fans into the vents coming up from basement and suck the heat down into basement. If its a basement that gets used allot maby a small second stove that you can turn on when you are down their. Does not take long to heat a space on med my stove brings my place up 5 degrees in about a hour tops

 

[Randallflagg]

Just wanted to share some input on the ComfortBilt HP-61. It does a great job heating my 2200 sqft tri-level house from the above ground slab level. The pellets stove is ok. I have had no issues with it but temperature mode is kind of poor. When it was 71 at the stove I would turn it down to 66 and it would still occasionally burn on 3 for no reason. It also never shuts down in temp mode making it not very efficient in the warmer temps. So basically I use it mostly on manual mode. The 55 lb hopper will run out with about 15 lbs left in the hopper, without doing anything to the walls of the hopper. I have also air sealed the ceiling and added a lot of attic insulation.

 

[Overfireinthehole]

Put a Harman p68 on every floor and sip some ice tea.

 

[klincker]

(broken link removed)


This one can also be used with some duct work. Anyone on here have one?

 

[articcatbill]

We did a basement install to replace our wood stove, have had it two years but we have been happy with it. It is in the unfinished part of our basement. Our house is a split level, so we have 4 levels, from the garage you go into the family room, above that are bedrooms. Down a 1/2 flight of steps to the lowest level (unfinished), above it are the kitchen, living room, dining room. We installed our pellet stove (Harman P68) in the lowest level to replace a wood stove that was already there. The unfinished basement is about 600 square feet, since it is a split level each of the 4 levels are about 600 square feet, totaling about 2400 square feet, we are heating it with the P68. So it is a smaller unfinished space than say if you had a ranch style home, that helps.

When I first started using it I was a bit disappointed in the heat circulation. The family room was great, but the kitchen, living room and dining room areas were cool. There were 2 4x12 vents in the floor in the dining room, with the wood stove under there the heat was so intense it drove the heat up those vents on it's own, not so with the pellet stove.

I bought 2 of these Tjerland RB12 fans(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FNL0SS/?tag=hearthamazon-20) register booster fans for the 4x12 registers. Wow what a difference, it certainly balanced everything out and now I am very happy with the set-up. The upstairs and family room are now consistent. The bedroom area is cool, but I like it that way.

I do realize I am burning pellets to heat an unfinished area (600 sq ft), we have the washer dryer down there, but there are some nice advantages of having it down there:

• Our floors upstairs are nice and warm, with much of the heat rising from the floors the rooms feel very cozy.
• I can store 4 tons of pellets down there. It takes my wife and I around 1/2 hour to carry a ton down there, then we are done with them other than dumping them in the stove. They are out of the way, the basement stays nice and dry.
• I don't have to fret about cleaning the stove and the dust. While I am getting better at not spreading dust, since it is an unfinished space, not really that big an issue.
• I makes a nice warm space to go read if you want to shake off the winter chill.

So as some people mentioned there are basement installs that work. I think for us the split level helps, the booster fans made a huge difference, and well the P68 can really crank out the heat when I need to warm-up the house. Our basement while unfinished and uninsulated, isn't that bad, it is a well sealed, not drafty, block wall basement. Decisions like this depend on the set-up and what you want out of the stove. We wanted nice warm floors, and to heat the entire house. So far I am now very happy with our set-up.

This winter probably went through 4+ tons pellets, use our baseboard electric to supplement sometimes, but in the worst month used about an extra 50$ of electric, roughly.

 

[maple1]

You likely have another source of heat? What would it be?

 

[articcatbill]

You likely have another source of heat? What would it be?

We have baseboard electric, we use it on occasion, but not often. It works well to quickly warm up a room if needed.

 

[maple1]

OK - and you'd likely not want to use it for anything more than (very) intermittent use.

I have a wood boiler, and an electric one only for the same kind of very infrequent use. I am always trying to come up with what I would do if I couldn't or didn't want to do wood any more. Right now, I think that would be either putting a new oil boiler in, or a couple of mini-split heat pumps. I think I have ruled pellets out since they wouldn't be any cheaper & still need some work & maintenance.

Have you considered mini-splits? While still maintaining a wood stove for supplementing when you want or feel like it? Would seem like a very good match to your warmer climate.

Do you have propane already for something else by chance?

 

[articcatbill]

OK - and you'd likely not want to use it for anything more than (very) intermittent use.

I have a wood boiler, and an electric one only for the same kind of very infrequent use. I am always trying to come up with what I would do if I couldn't or didn't want to do wood any more. Right now, I think that would be either putting a new oil boiler in, or a couple of mini-split heat pumps. I think I have ruled pellets out since they wouldn't be any cheaper & still need some work & maintenance.

Have you considered mini-splits? While still maintaining a wood stove for supplementing when you want or feel like it? Would seem like a very good match to your warmer climate.

Do you have propane already for something else by chance?

We burned wood for 20 years, we always enjoyed the hot dry heat from wood. So when our flue had cracks it was either replace it or go pellet I was thinking it wasn't going to be long and I didn't want to be doing wood we went pellet. Still get the hot dry heat. We also like heating the basement area since it keeps the floors warm and then the house feels much warmer.

The mini-splits are nice for sure, you also get the advantage of A/C. I really didn't look that direction, since I would have the issue of a cold basement, unless I put one down there. I think they are definitely a nice option, just wasn't really the direction we were looking. I can also run the pellet off of a generator easily in the event of power outage.

We have propane ventless heaters at our camp. They really throw the heat, and the moisture as well. We actually just installed a pellet stove out there as well to get away from all the moisture when running the propane heaters. We will still use the propane as necessary but again the dry heat from the pellet stove is especially nice.