Fireplace Insert or Freestanding Stove?

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I am looking ahead to next year already. We've got a VC Montpelier insert in the living room fireplace. So far so good. But our house is 2000 sq. ft. not including the basement. Granted the 2000 sq. ft. is basically 1,000 sq. ft. and another 1,000 stacked on top. In other words it's a 2 story house.

The Montpelier struggles in the zero and subzero temps.

I am thinking of making use of the fireplace in the basement. I could put another Montpelier in and hope the two working in tandem can overpower the winter subzero blasts.

OR, I could bust out the hearth, fill in the fireplace, and put in a free standing Quadrafire 4300 Step Top. I've owned the Quadrafire in a previous house and liked it a lot.

The insert would probably be less work to install. The Quadrafire seems like it had the muscle to heat the house without a blower.

 

[snowtime]

Everything being equal the free standing will give more heat. I think the biggest issue is how your basement is insulated and if you have a nice big central stairway for the hot air to move up. If your basement is not insulated i think you will find that it sucks the heat and not much is left for upstairs.
How are you heating the basement now? I take it that a bigger stove for the main floor is out? If its a wife factor thing there are lots of beautiful stoves on the market. Remember you will have to feed 2 stoves if you put one in the basement.

 

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Snowtime,

Thanks for the advice and thoughts.

I thought that there might be some advantages to the freestanding giving more heat. It also is liberated from the size restrictions that inserts have to conform to. So I thought that the 2.5 cu. ft. firebox of the Quad 4300 would potentially have enough muscle to heat the whole house most days. Then just burn both burners when the mercury plummets.

However the heat conduction of uninsulated cinder-block never occured to me. How bad does that get? Do you need to insulate the portion of the basement exposed to the outside air? Or the whole wall? Currently the basement is heated only when the boiler kicks in and the hot water runs through the basement baseboards. This happens during the wee morning hours when the living room fire burns down. One thermostat controls the whole house & it's in the living room - GRRRR!

The location of the basement fireplace or freestanding would be right at the bottom of a straight staircase although it isn't a large one. There is a door at the top to keep the young-uns from doing cartwheels down the steps, but I figured a louvred door or a 1/2-door would work.

A larger stove for the main floor is out. The house being two-story limits where one can run a chimney. I don't think anyone would appreciate a SS flue running right through the bedroom doorway!

 

[Fsappo]

Will the fireplace downstairs handle a quad 5100?

 

[snowtime]

An uninsulated basement will suck the heat up from a radiant stove to the point that you might not gain anything. If you insulate the whole basement the stove will have a chance. You should think about that even if you do not put a stove down there. I know you like that stove but I suggest at least a 3cf stove.
Heres what I would do if insulating the basement is not in the cards. I would get a convection stove like my T6 or a summit, there are others but the main thing is not a radiant stove.. The reason being is most of the heat comes off the top of the stove [if you do not use a fan] that way if your stove and stairs are next to each other the heat has a good chance to get upstairs not sucked into the concrete.

 

[THEMAN]

Snowtime,

Thanks for the advice and thoughts.

I thought that there might be some advantages to the freestanding giving more heat. It also is liberated from the size restrictions that inserts have to conform to. So I thought that the 2.5 cu. ft. firebox of the Quad 4300 would potentially have enough muscle to heat the whole house most days. Then just burn both burners when the mercury plummets.

However the heat conduction of uninsulated cinder-block never occured to me. How bad does that get? Do you need to insulate the portion of the basement exposed to the outside air? Or the whole wall? Currently the basement is heated only when the boiler kicks in and the hot water runs through the basement baseboards. This happens during the wee morning hours when the living room fire burns down. One thermostat controls the whole house & it's in the living room - GRRRR!

The location of the basement fireplace or freestanding would be right at the bottom of a straight staircase although it isn't a large one. There is a door at the top to keep the young-uns from doing cartwheels down the steps, but I figured a louvred door or a 1/2-door would work.

A larger stove for the main floor is out. The house being two-story limits where one can run a chimney. I don't think anyone would appreciate a SS flue running right through the bedroom doorway!

I tend to like the inserts because of the built in fan. The buck 91 that I have has a 4.4 cu in box and heats up 1800sqft to about 82f this is with a 14ft vaulted ceiling in the heater room. and after making a turn down the hallway keeps the farthest room at 72f. I think that the hot air that the fan kicks out is easy enough to circulate using a fan in the coldest area of the house pointed towards the heat source. I can't comment on the free standing stoves but I know I read that the Buck 91 really put out some heat and now that I have one they weren't kidding!