Alright, I said I would give this third winter in this home a shot to see how my woodstove in the basement works out, and with our first real cold snap underway this year in PA, I still have some concerns.
First, a little overview/history. We purchased this tri-level home three years ago. It's 2100 sq.ft of finished living space. The basement is unfinished. The kitchen/great room/gym is ~900+ sq.ft and all open. Directly below it is my unfinished basement (only ~600 sq. ft as the back section is framed and insulated crawl space isolated from the main basement where the stairs enter). Our family room is the lowest finished level half below grade (gas fireplace in there), and of course three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the upper level. Here's a floor plan:
Ignore the "family room" label as that is all part of the kitchen. The family room is actually and open floor plan below the bedroom level. The woodstove and register locations as identified on this diagram are accurate (the stove is in the basement in that location), but the cold air returns are no longer there (since that area is crawl space under the main level and insulated off.
Obviously I'm having issues keeping this house comfortable on all levels with the woodstove in the basement. I know the lower level family room is a wash (which is why we remodeled it two years ago and put in a new Regency gas fireplace), but the upstairs and kitchen level doesn't hold much about 68 in single digits, and the upstairs in the mid 50s (that's with me burning a good hot fire in the basement). I'm really leaning toward two options at the moment.
One, would be to purchase a wood furnace, replace the existing woodstove, and have duct work installed into the main kitchen level (no existing duct work in the house, and the layout prohibits duct work being run to the upstairs without major overhaul). This would hopefully keep the main level much warmer (say 74 or 75) and in turn, cause more warmth to funnel upstairs to the bedrooms (we like it cooler up there).
The other option (much more pricey) is to do a three zone and one zone ductless heat pump system put in (already given quotes). One 24,000 btu unit in the kitchen, then a three-zone system that hits the two main bedrooms, and the lower family room level. The advantage to this system is that it also provides cooling, and it's a true zone system hitting the hard to reach spots in the house.
Thoughts?
Any optio
First, a little overview/history. We purchased this tri-level home three years ago. It's 2100 sq.ft of finished living space. The basement is unfinished. The kitchen/great room/gym is ~900+ sq.ft and all open. Directly below it is my unfinished basement (only ~600 sq. ft as the back section is framed and insulated crawl space isolated from the main basement where the stairs enter). Our family room is the lowest finished level half below grade (gas fireplace in there), and of course three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the upper level. Here's a floor plan:
Ignore the "family room" label as that is all part of the kitchen. The family room is actually and open floor plan below the bedroom level. The woodstove and register locations as identified on this diagram are accurate (the stove is in the basement in that location), but the cold air returns are no longer there (since that area is crawl space under the main level and insulated off.
Obviously I'm having issues keeping this house comfortable on all levels with the woodstove in the basement. I know the lower level family room is a wash (which is why we remodeled it two years ago and put in a new Regency gas fireplace), but the upstairs and kitchen level doesn't hold much about 68 in single digits, and the upstairs in the mid 50s (that's with me burning a good hot fire in the basement). I'm really leaning toward two options at the moment.
One, would be to purchase a wood furnace, replace the existing woodstove, and have duct work installed into the main kitchen level (no existing duct work in the house, and the layout prohibits duct work being run to the upstairs without major overhaul). This would hopefully keep the main level much warmer (say 74 or 75) and in turn, cause more warmth to funnel upstairs to the bedrooms (we like it cooler up there).
The other option (much more pricey) is to do a three zone and one zone ductless heat pump system put in (already given quotes). One 24,000 btu unit in the kitchen, then a three-zone system that hits the two main bedrooms, and the lower family room level. The advantage to this system is that it also provides cooling, and it's a true zone system hitting the hard to reach spots in the house.
Thoughts?
Any optio