FLOOR PLANS ATTACHED - NEED STOVE ADVICE - OSLO?

[CJRages]

First of all I must say that I have been looking forward to posting this topic for several weeks now. Hearth.com has been a huge help to us over the last few months as me and my wife have been planning our wood-burning future! :cheese:

As you can see the current fireplace & hearth is located in the basement of our split level house from 1979. It is a Majestic zero clearance fireplace (built 30 years ago) and is located on the eastern wall of our home. We considered going with an insert and running a ss liner down the air-cooled, prefab metal chimney. However, there were very few inserts that both qualified for a ZC install and that would fit in the somewhat small fireplace (only 21" tall). BTW the insert in the picture below has been removed - it did not meet codes and was improperly installed in our system.

The current plan:
Jotul OSLO or comparable freestanding stove product.
Place stove in front of fireplace opening - this requires knocking out the three layers of brick hearth and putting ceramic tile down in this area
A rear venting stove could be up to 30" tall and still fit
Run a s.s. liner in the chimney meeting UL1777 standards
Connect to a T inside the metal housed fireplace

My concerns at this point:
Will this setup provide sufficient heat to the entire living space of nearly 2,000 sq. ft.?
Will the basement become unbearably hot?
Would running the aux. fan on our furnace/ ceiling fans provide enough air movement through the home to help the spots farthest away from the stove stay warm?
Are there other stoves that would be better?

A few additional notes:
The basement is finished with insulated walls except for the garage and the door is always closed between the basement and garage.
Attic is well insulated for Missouri at R35+
See diagrams for additional information.

Please help us out with any comments/experience/questions.
Thanks in advance.

 

[grommal]

Welcome to hearth.com!

I can give you my completely unbiased ;-) endorsement of the Oslo as a great stove.

How open is the basement to the living spaces above? Is the stairway large and open? Moving the heat upstairs will be the biggest challenge. We heat our 2000sf house pretty well with the Oslo, but our 2-story open floorplan is just about ideal for heat distribution. I find that if we run the air handler that's part of our heat pump system that it does even things out a bit more, but it makes less difference that you might expect.

 

[CJRages]

How open is the basement to the living spaces above? Is the stairway large and open? Moving the heat upstairs will be the biggest challenge.

This is could be an issue. When you look at the diagram you'll see each square on the grid is 2 ft by 2ft. The air passage would be a 4 ft. wide short hallway in the middle of the image (with 8 ft basement ceiling). Next the air would need to take a right up the 3 ft wide stairway opening. Once into the stairwell the heat has open sailing upwards toward the ceilings of the first floor.

The staircase is the closed in type - meaning no spindles. Instead there is a short wall that acts as a handrail from the foyer up - spitting the upper and lower stairs. In addition, there is a closet underneath the upper stairs which has full walls all around restricting air flow.

 

[summit]

In MO, the Oslo will rock your world.. might I suggest the somewhat cheesy, yet totally appropriate for your situation, blower attachment.

 

[RonB]

Hi CJ,
Your home layout is just about identical to mine with close sq footage. I run a large Quadrafire 5700 from the basement. Yes, I can heat the whole home comfortably from the basement install. Yes, I do run the blower on the furnace periodically to circulate (even out somewhat) the temp in the far bedrooms. The downside is the family room in the basement where the stove is located is too hot to enjoy. Temps in the basement are generally 80°F so that the main floor of my ranch is 72-77 °F. I have an open stairway on the main floor with only spindles/banister for a wall. I notice that cooler air cascades over this area (like a water fall) even with the furnace fan off and reaches the basement helping to set up the movement for the hot air to rise to the main level. The main difference between your install and mine is the more temperate weather in Missouri. However, you will need to choose which level of your house you want to be comfortable in. If it is the lower level, then the main/upper is going to be real cool.

 

[Clodhopper]

We installed an Oslo on the first floor of our farm house in December. My experience has been that it is about as warm (maybe warmer) in the upstairs now than even in the room with the stove. The stairwell which is attached to the room with the stove acts like a chimney taking the hot air upstairs. The cold air also spills down the stairs. A few years ago when my kids were real young we had a plywood gate in front of the door way to the stairs, and in the winter the cold air would build up behind that gate like a lake.

Maybe your setup would work like that as well. Probably some registers in the floor to the basement would help quite a bit.

 

[CJRages]

How much benefit would the optional blower on an Oslo be? I have a ceiling fan that is nearly above where the stove will be. Would that be helpful?

Thanks.

 

[ansehnlich1]

With the Oslo and your home setup I predict 3 cool bedrooms and a hot basement.

You might have a good reason to look at a hearthstone here.

I think if you are planning 24/7 burning your home will be heated nicely with a wood stove, as the entire place will get warm for sure. I'm just not sure you'll be able to stand the heat in that downstairs when you crank up the Jotul

Cooler bedrooms ain't really a bad thing, my stove doesn't heat our bedroom that well, it often 80 degrees in the area of the stove and only 65 degrees in the furtherest bedroom from the stove.

I like it that way myself!