Heat Large house Englander

[04HemiRam2500]

So, my house is a two story house that each story is just over 900 square feet. Then, we added a new edition almost 1000 square feet and about a 5 foot opening at the back of the house to get to the new edition. I want to place the stove in the corner of the opening to the new edition as this would be the center of the house. The total floor plan totaling about 2900 to 3000 square feet. My house is well insulated and bricked that retains heat rather well. I am looking at putting the stove in between the new edition of my house 1000 square feet and the old part of the house two stories. I do not like my house at 72-5. Honestly, I want the house to be around 65-68 all year round is ideal for me. In the pic I was going to place the Englander 30-NC with the door facing the new edition and have its back up against the little corner of a wall that I have for the olf part of the house. My concern is that with a blower or not since the front is facing to the new edition is that where all the heat will go? Or will the heat also go backwards to the main part of the house from the back of the wood stove with or without the blower. I want to place the stove there this way it is near the center of my house.

After getting alot of advice I have decided to go with the Englander 30-NC because it has a massive 3.5 cu ft firebox that is larger than the us stove that is rated to heat 3000 square feet. Therefore, I truly feel that this stove has the potential to heat my house. Also, I have 4 cords of wood ready to go, so I want something efficient and no furnace or boiler. From the advice I have received I have learned to base the potential of a stove on it's firebox size and not the square foot rating. Since this is a large firebox I think the 2200 rating on it is well under its potential, especially since I want the house to just 68 max!!

Let me know about the stove placement and if you think this set up is doable with the back of the stove facing the main part of the house in order to heat it.

 

[dafattkidd]

Hey HemiRam,
I'm not seeing the pic with the house layout. Sounds like the Englander will heat a significant portion of your house, but don't be surprised if you end up with cold spots. Wood stoves are space heaters so they have limits. 3,000sf is a lot of space for a single stove. Do you have another source for heat in your house? We keep electric space heaters in the bedrooms. This allows us to close bedroom doors if we want to, and bring the house temps up quickly if we let the house get too cool. We also have an oil burner that we use when we want.

Good job getting the wood set up ahead of time. Try to upload the pic of the house layout so we can help you with your specific question.

 

[Prof]

I think you're heading in the right direction: well-insulated house, good dry wood (less than 20% moisture content I'm assuming), and posting on this forum. You are on target with choosing a big stove with a proven track record--you will be pushing it a bit though and it is difficult to know exactly how heat will flow in your house. Hopefully a couple people with Englanders will chime in to give you and idea of the real-life stove capabilities. You may want to consider posting a floor plan--people here may be able to give you better feedback about placement.

A quick and dirty solution to cold spots is placing a fan in them pointed toward the stove. Moving cool air near the floor is a lot easier than moving warm air.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

Attached is a pic of my floor plan. In the picture where I have the stove, I should have drawn it to the right more closer to the old part of the house because that is where I am planning to place it. Do you think that with the back of the stove to the two story part of my house I can heat that part?

 

[Ashful]

Your second floor hallway is HUGE!

 

[PapaDave]

Good on ya for getting wood early. However, if you can, get more for next year, now.
If I read your post right, the opening where you plan to put the stove is 5' wide, correct?
You'll have a very small walkway there after the stove is in. The stove requires 8" ctc in back with single wall stove pipe and all heat shields. The stove is close to 30" deep, and you need at least 16" in front of the stove.
Also be aware that this stove has a pretty steep r-value requirement for the hearth. Not trying to dissuade you from this stove at all (I'm still considering it for my house), but you should be aware of these points, if you aren't already.
ETA: Joful, I'm gonna take a stab here and say the drawing isn't quite to scale.

 

[Nick Mystic]

It seems like you have a lot of rooms to get heat to with that 2900 sq. ft. layout. I find it is hard to move air between rooms without fans. Even with fans it takes a fair amount of trial and error before you get a good system going. If you don't already have some paddle fans installed you might give some thought to installing a few in key locations. With the fan spinning in reverse in the winter they do a good job of gently distributing all the heat trapped up on the ceiling down to the lower levels of the room.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

As most of you know which is not hard to figure out a have bad handwriting and am a terrible artist. The hearth for this base requires it to be at least 39 by 53 inches. I was going to have the 53 going along the wall and the 39 will be how far it stick out from the wall into the walkway. Again, I am looking to only heat the rooms to 68 max. Thus, I think that a stove might be a better option for me than a furnace because of it efficiency and the fact that the closer you get the hotter you get. I like my bed room in the 60-62 during winter anyhow. I am just wondering if I set up the stove that way and the back of the stove will be against the wall that is the five foot wide walk way. Will there be enough heat given off the back of the stove to heat the main two story part of the house?

 

[Nick Mystic]

I think I read that your stove comes with a rear heat shield as standard. If you have the back of the stove against a wall with a heat shield in place I don't think you can figure on a lot of heat coming off the back. I don't think you can rely on radiant heat making it through out the entire house without fans to help move the air around.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

The stove does come with a rear heat shield but you can take it off thus more heat correct? Will I have a hard time heating the air even if I do not like the rooms to be hot but at 62-68.

 

[Nick Mystic]

If you remove the rear heat shield you need to check your clearance to see how far off the wall you'll have to place the stove. Might well be two feet or more with no heat shield.

 

[BrotherBart]

To take the welded on heat shield off of a 30-NC you better bring a torch or good saw to the party.

And watch the UL listing go out the window.

 

[tekguy]

To take the welded on heat shield off of a 30-NC you better bring a torch or good saw to the party.

And watch the UL listing go out the window.

and your insurance company might not be happy with ya in a worse case scenario

i look at that and see 2 stoves

 

[04HemiRam2500]

Oops I thought that the back plate was bolted not welded. Can anyone else here think of where else I can put this stove. I can't find another central location

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Im heating 3000 SQ ft as well and from the basement .Although i have 2 NC-30s im not using them for my main house which is 3 stories.I dont think they would do the job.I run 2 large fans to get the heat up into the 2 upper floors. Your house being 2 floors might be easier to heat. Keep us posted when the heating season starts as to your results.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for posting the floor plan, it helps.The high ceiling in the new addition is a heat trap. You'll need a ceiling fan running in reverse, on low speed to break up the heat that will stratify at the ceiling peak. If this were my house I would either figure out a way to heat from the basement, perhaps by changing the oil furnace to a forced draft unit and using its chimney, or I would use two stoves. The single stove in the new addition will heat the place in fall and spring, but in very cold weather I would light up the second stove. The most likely place for the second stove would be the living room. It could be smaller, a 2 cu ft stove would suffice.

PS: If you want an unshielded stove, then buy one from the get go. But I don't think that is the solution here. Question, is the addition on a slab or does the basement continue under it?

 

[04HemiRam2500]

The new edition is on the garage that was aded on. What I was thinking was maybe just doing a wood stove insert but I do not like the fact that they are useless without electricity for the blower. Maybe Ican put a wood stove just in the fireplace and run a flue liner to heta the main part of the house. I would need a flue lier because the chimney is older and a few bricks are flaking off at the top of it and thus it has not been used for years. But wityh a liner tht should solve that problem.

Can I put a wood stove in a fireplace? Wont the heat just be collected by the brick and up the chimney? If I put it in the fireplace it will be in the living room on the far right of the house. However, the new edition is not dry walled yet and we have a door to close off the five foot entrance. So I am thinking use wood to heat the main two story house, then maybe just use one of those nice electric space heaters to heat the 1000 square foot new edition. I can not think of the type of heater but it is the ones that use some special bulb inside them and you see the guy from home improvement richard karn promoting them.

Also, if I do put a second stove in like mentioned and it is epa would I still be using less wood than if I had that non epa englander furnace. I think yes but am not sure. Plus I think those electric heaters might do the job.

 

[begreen]

Yes you can put a stove in the fireplace as long as it fits. Or you can put in a stove like a Buck and don't put on the surround. A damper sealing plate will help keep the heat in the room. Note that some inserts convect pretty well without power. Generally they will be the inserts that project further out onto the mantel. You will need to add a stainless liner in the chimney.

What are the full dimensions of the fireplace including depth (front and back)? Post a picture of it so we can spot potential gotchas like mantel clearances.

 

[Prof]

It is tough to say if running 2 stoves will burn less than an Englander or other non EPA furnace. You may want to consider something like a Caddy add on. I'd be willing to bet that an EPA furnace would use less wood than 2 stoves. Plus, maintaining 2 fires can be a bit of a pain, even if only for a couple months. Just a thought.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

Awesome thanks for the help I got to go cut the grass, I will have a pic posted later there is wwood trim around it that I know will need removed, however, I can tell you that the opening is 28 inches wide and it is 27 inches tall as far as depth I will have to measure not sure off hand. Will post later thanks all.

More importantly, If I close off the access to the new edition with doors now I am looking at heating 1900-2000 square feet do you think that the englander 30-NC will be too big. Maybe, I can use the smaller englander 13-NC rated at 1800 square feet. Of course it has to fit though.

 

[begreen]

You need to take the btu ratings and sq ftg heated with a grain of salt. There are too many variables that will affect heating capacity. For instance, we are heating a 2000 sq ft house in a milder climate with a 3 cu ft stove and it is just right. In mild weather we rely on the heat pump.

That's a small fireplace opening. It's going to limit options. Is this a masonry fireplace or a prefab?

PS: If you can post a picture of the furnace, including its flue connection we may be able to see an option there not considered.

 

[04HemiRam2500]

No it is masonry and honestly I think a stove is the best route plus, I will not have to walk down all the stairs to load and check the fire so I am leaning towards stove. Even if I put two in and use the electric heater for the nee edition after all that space is add on it is not vital to be heated in case of an emergency is what I am thinking. I also agree that I need to probably go with the biggest they got and if worst comes to worst, I will put less wood in.

 

[Dix]

Big stove to the right, smaller stove to the left. Kick in the smaller stove as needed. Wash, rinse, repeat

Welcome to the forums

 

[Seasoned Oak]

It is tough to say if running 2 stoves will burn less than an Englander or other non EPA furnace. You may want to consider something like a Caddy add on. I'd be willing to bet that an EPA furnace would use less wood than 2 stoves. Plus, maintaining 2 fires can be a bit of a pain, even if only for a couple months. Just a thought.

THe Englander NC-30 IS an EPA certified stove,if thats what you wind up with.

 

[Prof]

THe Englander NC-30 IS an EPA certified stove,if thats what you wind up with.

I know the 30 is epa approved, but I don't believe that the Englander add on furnace that 04Hemi referred to previously is certified.