So overall I'm happy with our choice to install a pellet stove (well "choice"....a boiler breakdown sort of forced that sooner rather than later). We put in a bosca spirit 500 stove this December and considering a larger stove. Anyway, wanted advice on which stove to get as well as where to put it. Any input is helpful, criticism is ok. Maybe this is a totally stupid plan? Something I didn't consider? I don't intend to run solely off pellets indefinitely but if we can get through another winter with pellets we'll hopefully be able to hook into natural gas and get a baseboard/boiler system installed next summer. I'll keep using at least one stove.
Thinking of a drolet 65, enviro maxx or austroflamm Rika integra II all for their large hopper capacity. I love the look of the rika. I like our Bosca, wish they were more popular, easier to get parts for etc but that issue leads me away from the rika. Really would like to be able to leave the house for a few days without having to get a pellet stove babysitter so that's a key feature (120 lb plus hopper). I really dislike how the harmans look with the hopper extensions...so despite their excellent reputation they are off my list. Perhaps someday as a second stove. Are there other large stoves I'm missing from my list? It seems like there are significant negative reviews out there for nearly every stove.....as well as positives.
The setup:
The setup of our farmhouse is a bit odd. We have a main house part that is pretty standard, about 1,500 sq ft, three floors, small rooms, average ceilings, lots of doors. Then we have a 500 ft extension that was once a two car garage. It still uses the old garage entry into the house. It's on a concrete slab. The floor of the room is about 3' below the level of the rest of the house. As such it's somewhat insulated and cut off from the rest of the house. We can open the door to let heat transfer but mostly what seems to happen is that room gets up to about 58 degrees and the main house has trouble staying 65. I am sure it's a combination of the layout and a fairly small capacity stove...of course heat doesn't go down. We do have a vermont castings propane stove in the extension that can keep the room as warm as we like but as you know propane is jacked up right now. I had the tank filled three times. Finally I decided just to stop keeping the room heated all the time to the tune of $250/month. Which is significantly more than we have been spending to heat the entire rest of the house btw.
The bosca has kept us warm (70-74) in the main part of the house all winter even with the extra cold days. We keep the third floor and extension closed off most of the time as well as the bedrooms...opening everything definitely makes nothing warm on the coldest days we've had...ie 62-65 degrees. It's still liveable just not toasty enough for the SO.
So my thoughts:
Plan A move the bosca into the extension and use it on low all the time out there. Get a larger hopper, larger capacity stove for the main house and just be warm all the time, third floor included. With the larger stove and using the bosca on low it should mean only one fill per stove per day and it also means we can fill the larger stove and go away for 2-3 days.
Plan B keep the bosca in place and add a large pellet stove to the extension. Probably would need to put an active vent fan between the rooms but use that to transfer the heat. Probably less efficient to have all that heat pouring out in the farthest part of the house.
Plan C replace the bosca with the big stove, keep the propane for emergencies and put an active vent fan between to push the cold air from the extension into main house.
Plan D just stick with what I've got for another year then consider upgrading when the bosca gets longer in tooth and we have the gas boiler installed.
Thinking of a drolet 65, enviro maxx or austroflamm Rika integra II all for their large hopper capacity. I love the look of the rika. I like our Bosca, wish they were more popular, easier to get parts for etc but that issue leads me away from the rika. Really would like to be able to leave the house for a few days without having to get a pellet stove babysitter so that's a key feature (120 lb plus hopper). I really dislike how the harmans look with the hopper extensions...so despite their excellent reputation they are off my list. Perhaps someday as a second stove. Are there other large stoves I'm missing from my list? It seems like there are significant negative reviews out there for nearly every stove.....as well as positives.
The setup:
The setup of our farmhouse is a bit odd. We have a main house part that is pretty standard, about 1,500 sq ft, three floors, small rooms, average ceilings, lots of doors. Then we have a 500 ft extension that was once a two car garage. It still uses the old garage entry into the house. It's on a concrete slab. The floor of the room is about 3' below the level of the rest of the house. As such it's somewhat insulated and cut off from the rest of the house. We can open the door to let heat transfer but mostly what seems to happen is that room gets up to about 58 degrees and the main house has trouble staying 65. I am sure it's a combination of the layout and a fairly small capacity stove...of course heat doesn't go down. We do have a vermont castings propane stove in the extension that can keep the room as warm as we like but as you know propane is jacked up right now. I had the tank filled three times. Finally I decided just to stop keeping the room heated all the time to the tune of $250/month. Which is significantly more than we have been spending to heat the entire rest of the house btw.
The bosca has kept us warm (70-74) in the main part of the house all winter even with the extra cold days. We keep the third floor and extension closed off most of the time as well as the bedrooms...opening everything definitely makes nothing warm on the coldest days we've had...ie 62-65 degrees. It's still liveable just not toasty enough for the SO.
So my thoughts:
Plan A move the bosca into the extension and use it on low all the time out there. Get a larger hopper, larger capacity stove for the main house and just be warm all the time, third floor included. With the larger stove and using the bosca on low it should mean only one fill per stove per day and it also means we can fill the larger stove and go away for 2-3 days.
Plan B keep the bosca in place and add a large pellet stove to the extension. Probably would need to put an active vent fan between the rooms but use that to transfer the heat. Probably less efficient to have all that heat pouring out in the farthest part of the house.
Plan C replace the bosca with the big stove, keep the propane for emergencies and put an active vent fan between to push the cold air from the extension into main house.
Plan D just stick with what I've got for another year then consider upgrading when the bosca gets longer in tooth and we have the gas boiler installed.
We have have the enviro maxx going on 3 years and the oil has not been on in 3 years, not one problem with stove, on 24/7 from mid oct to mid april just remember a clean stove is a happy stove.
