Help with choice of stove

[corey148]

Hi everyone this is my first post on the website. I will try to keep this brief but any information would be greatly appreciated!! Now, here is my issue with my house.

I have approximately 1650 sq ft rancher house in which half of the house has a 13 ft cathedral ceiling. My basement foundation is also 1650 sq ft so I am looking at heating approximately 3200 sq ft. I purchased a Wonderwood stove from Tractor Supply three years ago when I built my house but over the last few years the stove has not been able to put out the heat that I would like to have. The stove is in the one side of the my basement where my chimeny is built. The problem is my heat has to travel the entire way across the basement up the basement steps into our living area. I believe my stove is definitely underpowered for trying to heat that amount of square footage.(The basement is unfinished and I have approximately 9 ft ceilings in the basement.) I also have a gas furnace in the basement in which duct work is ran to each of the rooms in the house. The only problem is the gas has become quite costly to run, plus I like the feel of wood heat much better. I have been looking at the Drolet models because of few of my friends have these stoves and are very satisfied with the heat that they put out as well as the burn times they are getting. I am lucky to get only 4-5 hours with my stove on a full load of wood. I also have to mention my chimney is approximatey 35 ft high so I know the draft has some play in this issue. Should I be looking at something like a Drolet, or something entirely different such as a wood furnace connecting into the duct work, or an outside wood boiler??

 

[Grisu]

You don't say where you are living and how well insulated the rest of your house is but from your description you will either need a second stove upstairs or a wood furnace if you want to stay with just one appliance. If you can zone the your gas heat and you rarely use the basement you could also think about putting a stove upstairs and use the gas to keep the basement from freezing. Do you have concrete walls in the basement? Those eat a lot of the heat. Insulating them before looking at other stoves may make a big difference. For affordable stoves, look also at the Englander NC-30 (~$900 at Home Depot) or the Pacific Energy True North.

 

[corey21]

It sounds to me like you need a furnace hooked in to the duct work. But if you wanted to go the stove route check out the NC30 best bang for the buck.

 

[corey148]

Sorry, I forgot to mention I live in western md where the winters are fairly cold. Also all of my basement walls are still concrete, no insulation so I know the blocks are eating up a lot of my heat. Does anybody have any experience on how effective the Hot Blast furnaces that you see in Northern Tool and Tractor Supply are.

 

[kingquad]

No stove will be able to keep up with your basement being uninsulated. Even if insulated, your layout could make things difficult. Look for EPA rated add-on wood furnaces like the psg caddy or kuuma. I think there are a lot of threads about these in the boiler room. Might want to ask about options over there.