Fireplace or stove?

[Suji]

I've been lurking on the site and doing product searches trying to get a handle on the subject. I really need some help in choosing whether to go with a FP (woodburning) or a freestanding stove (like Jotuls) and figuring which size would be best.

I have a very old fixer upper house (log circa 1780's) with a kitchen wing to the north and a modern great room wing to the east. The house has had the whole gamut from woodburning to coal to oil to electric baseboard heat. There are no fireplaces--- only 2 internal "stub" chimneys in the attic that had openings for pipes. There is one external chimney that apparently served the basement coal furnace (now defunct and removed). The ductwork for the more recently (removed) oil furnace is still in the ceiling for the kitchen wing and remains on one side of the log house. The other side only has electric heat as the ductwork is now gone.

The kitchen wing gets rather cold and I have been considering a makeover for the former summer kitchen which is currently an unheated room 23x11 and opening it up to the huge farm kitchen (24x23). Originally there were at least 2 woodburning stoves in the kitchen and the cellar base support of a 1700's cabin chimney is near the gable wall of the summer kitchen anyway even though there is no longer anything above ground. So it kind of appeals to me to *maybe* put a fireplace in the general vicinity where one historically stood. But--I also like the idea of wood stoves on a raised hearth which would be in the same area, visible from the working kitchen. (I have 9 acres of woodlot-thus wood is my choice of fuel). There is already an opening in the summer kitchen ceiling that served one of those ceramic pipe chimneys (gone) so a unit wouldn't look weird in the area I'm considering either.

I plan to put a wall in to make a laundry room, so the fireplace/stove room space will be 14x11 and open to the kitchen. On the laundry side the ductwork is still there so maybe there would be a way to pipe heat through to the old house as well. Maybe. On the other hand, if I get a free standing stove what size would be appropriate? Would the 14x11 room overheat? I'd like the unit to be more than just utilitarian--kind of looking for a cozy eat in "pub" feel off the kitchen, though as the room is NW exposure in PA winter, warmth would be doggone nice.

Thanks for any input!

 

[drdoct]

If I didn't already have a fireplace I would definitely go with a standing wood stove. I love the radiant heat coming off one. Better than blown heat IMO. I'm stuck with a Fireplace though so make due with an insert. I am editing this to include... I'm not sure how the old pipes are (coal stove, gas stove, etc) but I would go ahead and remove everything not in use and completely seal. I wouldn't want to have unused chimneys sticking out my roof because I dont think you can get them totally sealed off.

 

[snowtime]

My thought is go with a big stove. If you go with a T6 like I have then you can also cook on it. Stove will give you more heat and power outages are not a factor. Also i think installation of the fireplace to make it look like it was always there will be more costly. If looks are important there are many cast stoves I personally think a good big soapstone would go right with your setup. Decisions like this should consider future use so think about fulltime 24/7 heating and possibly cooking. Maybe if you put it in the right spot it would heat the whole house. You better believe that we will go back to expensive oil in the next year or so, get ready for it.

 

[DAKSY]

I've been lurking on the site and doing product searches trying to get a handle on the subject. I really need some help in choosing whether to go with a FP (woodburning) or a freestanding stove (like Jotuls) and figuring which size would be best.<.

First of all, a traditional wood burning fire place is nothing more than a campfire inyour livingroom (or whatever room).
The EFFICIENCY of such a creature is in the area of MINUS 10% (FACT)...
A fire place will suck air out of your home. Some of that air you will have already paid to heat...
Not very cost effective in today's market, eh?

The wood-burning stoves are efficient (71%-77%) zone heaters that can warm you very well.

I would think from those two statements, you will know what I'd recommend

I have a very old fixer upper house (log circa 1780's) with a kitchen wing to the north and a modern great room wing to the east. The house has had the whole gamut from woodburning to coal to oil to electric baseboard heat. There are no fireplaces--- only 2 internal "stub" chimneys in the attic that had openings for pipes. There is one external chimney that apparently served the basement coal furnace (now defunct and removed). The ductwork for the more recently (removed) oil furnace is still in the ceiling for the kitchen wing and remains on one side of the log house. The other side only has electric heat as the ductwork is now gone.
The kitchen wing gets rather cold and I have been considering a makeover for the former summer kitchen which is currently an unheated room 23x11 and opening it up to the huge farm kitchen (24x23). Originally there were at least 2 woodburning stoves in the kitchen and the cellar base support of a 1700's cabin chimney is near the gable wall of the summer kitchen anyway even though there is no longer anything above ground. So it kind of appeals to me to *maybe* put a fireplace in the general vicinity where one historically stood. But--I also like the idea of wood stoves on a raised hearth which would be in the same area, visible from the working kitchen. (I have 9 acres of woodlot-thus wood is my choice of fuel). There is already an opening in the summer kitchen ceiling that served one of those ceramic pipe chimneys (gone) so a unit wouldn't look weird in the area I'm considering either.

For those very old fixer-uppers, the rule of thumb (in the NE) is AT LEAST 50BTU/sqft for heating. Obviously this depends upon insulation & room layout. So if you have a 23x24 (552sqft) room x 50BTU sqft = 27,600 BTU (OUTPUT) Minimum to heat THAT room.
So if you take an average efficiency of, say, 75%, then 27,600/.75 = 36,800 BTU input.
Again, that would be the minimum amount of BTUs required to heat the area...

I plan to put a wall in to make a laundry room, so the fireplace/stove room space will be 14x11 and open to the kitchen. On the laundry side the ductwork is still there so maybe there would be a way to pipe heat through to the old house as well. Maybe. On the other hand, if I get a free standing stove what size would be appropriate? Would the 14x11 room overheat? I'd like the unit to be more than just utilitarian--kind of looking for a cozy eat in "pub" feel off the kitchen, though as the room is NW exposure in PA winter, warmth would be doggone nice.

Take the formula above & work it with the numbers (in sqft) of the total area you want to heat & you can make the call from there...

 

[Suji]

Thanks for the replies. In case it makes a difference, the fireplace situation I was referring to was along the lines of the RSF family that also could duct to different zones--ex. Delta or other.
I'm kind of confused as to what these are correctly called: FP, insert, zero clearance, etc. I sort of figured they're like a stove built into a wall, no?
Thanks for the formula--I just don't want to have an uncomfortably warm small room that I can't stand to be in while trying to heat a larger space at the same time.

SJ

 

[LLigetfa]

Being an RSF owner, I am somewhat biased but I must say there is a very even heat that comes off them with the central blower option. In my former home I had the same unit but there I was using the blower as it was designed, namely drawing warm air out of the unit and sending it to another part of the house. What I didn't like was all the ashes and dust that it disbursed with no safe way to filter the hot air.

In my current home, I reversed the whole thing. I now draw up cold air from one floor below. There is a pre-filter on it to filter out small mammals and then it blows through a furnace style filter before sending the air up through the base of the unit. The cold air surrounds the firebox and exits the louvers as warm air.

One reason we chose a zero clearance fireplace over a free-standing stove is that the fireplace takes up much less space in the room. There is no need for large clearances and special heat shields, just a basic hearth in front. It protrudes just two feet into the room and the chimney breast above it, just 18 inches.