Dear papa de trois,
I am new to the forum,but I do have 2 years experience heating my home with a
in basement wood stove. It has a big firebox & since it was a homemade copy of a 1960
style stove , I dont have tech specs on it, but I can say this:
It brings my 30 x 30x8 basement up to 102deg.f. in about 75 min. if I put a 3/4 load of 1/4ed or smaller, 1/8th, split wood (about 1 small wheelbarrow full) so I have learned to control the heat by loading the stove less , say 1/3 ,1/2 or 2/3 load of wood and burning with my primary air 1/3 to 1/2 open to keep a hot fire, 500-600 deg stack temp, so as to burn the smoke and
not smoke up the neighborhood.
anyways, point is, basement temp with smaller load,90-95 deg. first floor, 71 to 76 deg and second floor, 63 to 66 deg and I can do this even when outside temp is 10 below although in ct usually 18 Deg dead of winter.
Now ,this is just an old fashioned smoker stove, not high efficiency.
I see at home depot, regular every day price, $999.99,I think , sorry I didnt write it down, englander, 63% efficency, hot air wood fired add on basement
furnace, 85,000 btu, with 850 cu /ft min fan and thermo switch included. Has 10 x 10 inch glass
in door too, to watch pretty flames thru. Price direct from factory,1239.oo include ship 2 your door.
www.summerheat.com or
www.englander.com or (broken link removed) make all 3 brand stoves at same factory in pa.
Option #1. (not necessarly the best choice) you know your lay out, I dont.
It has two 8 inch
hot air ducts and you could get flexable 8 in round duct to run to your hard to heat rooms.
Unit uses 6 in single or double wall stove pipe depending on your clearances to flamable surfaces. Single wall about $6.00 to $8.oo for 3 ft section. Double wall, $45.00-65.oo for
3 ft section. Use single wall if you have the required clearances.
Option #2.
Dont use any ducting for the hot air, just dump it into the basement and it will spread all over and warm the basement and go up the basement stairwell into the Kitchen ??? or whatever
room your basement stair well leads to.
Hidden advantage to option #2---- just cut 4 inch x 12 inch holes in the floors of the rooms,
one for fan forced for hot air from the basement ceiling and the other ,in the same upstairs room , to return the cold air off the floor by gravity into the basement 2 be reheated.
Just by cutting hot air register slots in your floors with a sawzall or scroll saw , you can have
fan forced hot air into every room that shares a floor with the basement cieling.
Register covers cost $12, painted sheet metal, to$ 45 cast metal depending on how fancy looking , or more, say 4 brass cover. Hot air register fans cost 20.oo to 120.oo, depending on who you order it from and cu. ft. min air delevery. i suggest getting one of the cheapest ones
, install it and see how well it does. If it do ok, buy more for the rest of the registers, if it do bad, put it in the smallest room or room you dont need a lot of heat in and buy more expensive
more cu ft /min fans.
So , no duct work, although you keep the option open if needed. easy & inexpensive 20.00 & 60.oo for registers per room, furnace cost under 900.oo not 2400.oo or 2800.oo & ship like some of the free standing stoves I know you been looking at.
I know because I been looking & pricing too
I find free standing stove , 90,000 btu model 2000,Drolet $ 999.00
www.northerntool.com
This non-cat high efficencyuse preheated primary and preheated secondary air with secondary combustion chamber to burn up smoke before it can get out chimney. I see this stove elseware for 1800.oo & ship
Opinion #3
Who wants to spend all day cutting wood and splitting wood and drying wood---- get a pellet stove or pellet fired hot air or hot water basement furnace.
Now I sooo sure theirs about 391 wood stovers out there ready to jump down my throat for
saying that but remember, I solved my problem by buying both a pellet stove and a wood stove. Wood stove cheapest to run, can't beat free wood, but I buy 1 ton 50 - 40 lb bags $202.oo pre-season special in july for pellet stove for all those nites I just too tired to spend 1 hour babbysitting a wood stove fire and going outside 6 times to check chimeny smoke, so neighbors never know I burn wood stove.
Its so nice to push on button and then take nap in from of pellet stove. Self igniting, self feeding, thermostatic off/on, just like oil burner only 20% of opperation cost of oil burner.
So, this are suggestions, you like to cut & split, get wood stove. You like to push button & take nap, get pellet stove. You like 2 do both, buy both.
I really dont know your preferences,but I though I give you benifit of my ideas.
I'm no expert, but I tell you what works 4 me.
I realize my system needs up grades too, but when I buy big firebox smoker stove , I have no one to tell me anything and actually when I run small hot fire, it no smoke. Also, I did not
have the money I saved from stop buying oil, like I do now, to enable me to buy new wood stove or furnace. I am still researching equipment & I wait for end of season clearance, they
sometimes, knock 300.oo off stove price.
