Gas logs direct vent have to go! We need heat!!

[MD_Printer]

Hello everyone...questions from a new guy.

My wife and I are looking at alternative ways to heat our home. We heat/cool our home currently with geothermal. While the geothermal works great, on very cold days it can run forever and there can still be cool air coming from some of the registers. I said to my wife that I would look into alternative heat sources and see if there was something that would provide more heat.

We have those cozy little gas logs in our living room (which provide heat if you are very close to the front of them) since the home was built. They're attractive to look at but are NOT a source of heat whatsoever. They may heat a bit of the large living room that we have but that's about it. We were thinking about replacing the gas logs with something more efficient and a much higher BTU output.

I cannot go to wood stove because of her allergies and the smell from wood stoves. I wouldn't care, but she does. I've been researching various sources of heating options and without getting into crazy expense (outdoor wood furnace with baseboard hot water) it appears to me we may be looking at a pellet stove or larger natural gas insert of some type. However now I'm more confused about all of our options after crawling around and reading this forum for so long.

If you remove "cost of installation and operation" from the equation for just a moment, which way would you go to heat "MOST" of this house? Pellet stove? NG insert? Other option? Which option is the warmest heat?

Our home is a four bedroom, high cathedral ceiling living room open to the second floor. Yes, a McMansion. Approximately 3,300 sqft.

Thank you for your responses.

Thom

 

[DAKSY]

One appliance, no matter what size (other than a central heating unit), will NOT heat that much area.
Gas inserts & pellet stoves are zone heaters. In order to heat most or all of your home with them, you're
gonna need more than one.
Gas is easy. Thermostatically controlled, they are as safe as a hot air furnace.
The limitations are generally the size of your fireplace opening, as the larger units tend to throw more heat.
A BIG plus is the ability to heat when there is a power outage.
Pellet burners are nice, but dry storage for your stash can be an issue.
I would look at the gas insert option first, & take it from there. You already have gas in the fireplace, so there's a savings - IF the gas line is large enough to fuel your insert. Once you have THAT in place & you figure out how to move the heat as far as you can, you can then decide how much MORE heat you need.
Then again, if you install a couple of appliances, whatever fuel they use, from the same Hearth Shop, you will see a savings there, as well, since the multiple install won't require multiple trips...
Just my humble opinion...

 

[Fechmup]

I'm not sure I understand the "allergies" part of wood burning you mentioned...

 

[HotCoals]

I'm not sure I understand the "allergies" part of wood burning you mentioned...

Wood smoke can be bad for your lungs..for sure for people with asthma,emphysema and/or chronic bronchitis.
Though with a good woodstove and proper usage it can be minimized .
Also the ash flying around from cleaning the stove out can be very harmful.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like this would be better in the gas forum. If you have NG and wife is concerned about wood, then put is a good quality NG insert that really heats well.