Great forum you folks have here, read alot of the reviews and have seen alot of good information in the posts I've perused. For that - thanks! 
This might be a weird way to start, but I'll just tell ya what I've got because otherwise I'll forget and think you're all psychic:
I'm currently heating with forced hot air / oil in a 26x46 'modified ranch' built in 2003.
It has a daylight basement that isn't finished (well the daylight part that is wood framed is fiberglassed but effectively 1/2 of the basement is unfinished concrete, no drywall anywhere.
The 'modified' part is that the living room/kitchen is an open concept with 14' cathedral ceiling. The basement stairwell is dead center of the house and has a half wall going into this 'great room'. The rest of the house is a couple baths and 3 bedrooms.
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Im giving all this detail because I am hoping to toss a pellet stove in my basement about 4' in front and to the left of that stairwell opening and be able to heat the house with it. I've read other threads on here with folks that seem to have good and back luck warming their concrete basements up. It's about 65 degrees down there year round ,but heats up fast so Im hopeful.
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That crap out of the way I'll try to be more efficient with the questions......what is a good rule of thumb for calculating BTU required for the sort of weird variables above?
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When getting into this heat range, am I better off getting two 40k capable units and placing them in different locations - or going with one big unit?
It seems that they all have close efficiency ratings so I'm assuming just going with something big and ugly to get the job done.
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On to the big and ugly choice...I don't have any dealers in the area (that I have spoken with) that have any of these units in stock. I like the heat numbers of the MAXX but have read a few strange details on this forum about the unit that I don't really like. Have the issues with the Maxx stoves been worked out? are they a solid unit? If money were no object would you buy one over a Big E?
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The Omega is really in the equation because it seems that it's a maybe a slightly better put together unit, or has a few nicer features than the MAXX. Not sure, I guess I just seem to like it.
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So there are my questions, and I apologize for this ultimately being one of those "ok tell me what to buy" threads , but it's really a case of not being able to be hands on with any of these so I'm hoping that those that have, and own them, and love'hate them could chime in. I'll probably be buying in the next day or two fwiw.
.
.
Thanks very much!
This might be a weird way to start, but I'll just tell ya what I've got because otherwise I'll forget and think you're all psychic:
I'm currently heating with forced hot air / oil in a 26x46 'modified ranch' built in 2003.
It has a daylight basement that isn't finished (well the daylight part that is wood framed is fiberglassed but effectively 1/2 of the basement is unfinished concrete, no drywall anywhere.
The 'modified' part is that the living room/kitchen is an open concept with 14' cathedral ceiling. The basement stairwell is dead center of the house and has a half wall going into this 'great room'. The rest of the house is a couple baths and 3 bedrooms.
.
.
Im giving all this detail because I am hoping to toss a pellet stove in my basement about 4' in front and to the left of that stairwell opening and be able to heat the house with it. I've read other threads on here with folks that seem to have good and back luck warming their concrete basements up. It's about 65 degrees down there year round ,but heats up fast so Im hopeful.
.
.
That crap out of the way I'll try to be more efficient with the questions......what is a good rule of thumb for calculating BTU required for the sort of weird variables above?
.
When getting into this heat range, am I better off getting two 40k capable units and placing them in different locations - or going with one big unit?
It seems that they all have close efficiency ratings so I'm assuming just going with something big and ugly to get the job done.
.
.
On to the big and ugly choice...I don't have any dealers in the area (that I have spoken with) that have any of these units in stock. I like the heat numbers of the MAXX but have read a few strange details on this forum about the unit that I don't really like. Have the issues with the Maxx stoves been worked out? are they a solid unit? If money were no object would you buy one over a Big E?
.
.
The Omega is really in the equation because it seems that it's a maybe a slightly better put together unit, or has a few nicer features than the MAXX. Not sure, I guess I just seem to like it.
.
.
So there are my questions, and I apologize for this ultimately being one of those "ok tell me what to buy" threads , but it's really a case of not being able to be hands on with any of these so I'm hoping that those that have, and own them, and love'hate them could chime in. I'll probably be buying in the next day or two fwiw.
.
.
Thanks very much!
