Justify your purchase?

[Quad4012]

Hello all,

This is obviously my first post on this site however I have spent countless hours reading through the forums which lead me to the purchase of our current setup. My wife and I built our log home three years ago and opted for a Hearthstone Equinox wood stove through the reading on this site. Overall I am exceptionally happy with our purchase. We have a two story home and heat 2400 square feet. The heat is consistant and even throughout the home. We have currently gotten ahead with 15 cords cut, split and stacked. So all of this leads me to my question. Why did you convert (or add on a gasification boiler) when you had a perfectly good operating wood stove. Much searching on the forums leads me to the financial savings. For myself I can heat for free utilizing the wood stove. However I feel as though a proper boiler setup would be a great fit considering our home has full hydronic radiant heat on propane. What were your factors? Mess, safety of removing fire from house, burn times? I am looking to get incite into why this would be a potentially good option for us.

Thanks!

 

[DoubleB]

Welcome Quad!
I'm not much help, I have a furnace instead of a boiler or stove. But in my mind a power outage is a big additional benefit of your stove. Part of why I went with a furnace and not boiler, and a stove wouldn't retrofit into my house well. I look forward to other people's advice, although there is a bit less activity this time of year.

 

[kennyp2339]

I think some people that have larger homes with a closed floor plan opt for a boiler because the heat can be sent directly to each room using thermostats and zone valves, also they can use established baseboards and kick plate heaters. If my house was larger I would also consider adding a gasification boiler.

 

[Quad4012]

Thank you for the feedback. What I am currently looking at is a 2400 Sq ft main living area with a basement of 600 sq ft that is planned to be finished off this fall. Future plans include a mudroom and a two car garage which would be heated via forced air hydronic heater along with a 30 by 40 ft outbuilding. I understand my question in and of itself seems self explanatory however I was just curious how many people made the switch not for financial reasons but ease of use etc. . . and were glad they did.

 

[S.Whiplash]

Most houses can not be heated "evenly" with a wood stove so greater comfort is achieved moving to a central heating system. Plus many people have houses too big to heat well with a woodstove or have multiple buildings they want to heat. Ease of use does not equate if comparing to a fossil fuel boiler or furnace.

 

[airlina]

The above responses are the reason I added an Econoburn gasification boiler to my house. I originally supplemented my oil boiler with a radiant woodstove in the living room , but it would not heat the rooms satisfactorily that it couldn't radiate too. When oil hit 5 bucks a gallon several years ago I had enough and decided to add the gasification boiler. For the last 5 years I have burned without storage, but as we speak i am testing my newly my 500 gal storage installation that I just finished. So long story short -even heat distribution and control of it is why I went to the Econoburn. Bruce

 

[Whitepine2]

I have a P&M gasser and find I use 1/3 the wood. Also less fire hazard and no smoke in house
and as been stated even heat. Disadvantages going outside in weather to fuel up you just gotta think about the $$$ your saving and one can keep the house at 72+*.
I have built a three sided shed over mine to ease the pain,hope this helps_

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Woodstove in basement did not work for me. No other option on main floor. Found a wood furnace that would run itself, best investment ever. Uses less wood than the epa stove and is load and go.

 

[1kzwoman]

What's to justify? If you can afford it and want it. Install it.
That said reason must rule if you burn one cord I suggest a no. However if you burn 15 or 50 go for it.

 

[Highbeam]

Most houses can not be heated "evenly" with a wood stove so greater comfort is achieved moving to a central heating system.

I propose the opposite and it might be because I have no central heating system. Most houses can be heated evenly with a woodstove and any slight unevenness in heating is actually an improvement in comfort. I embrace the differential between my stove room and my bedroom even though it's only 5 degrees or so. Multiple buildings with multiple desired temperatures, a lot harder to heat satisfactorily with a stove.

My 1800 SF insulated shop is currently heated with a woodstove. When I built the shop I installed 1800 LF of pex in the insulated slab with the intention of using radiant floor heat. All those tubes are still there not being used because the 700$ woodstove does such an admirable job of heating. To add a gasser and use it to heat the floor would cost me something outrageous like 10,000$. I've even heard folks say to budget 15000$. Wow. That buys a lot of oil or firewood for the stove and/or conventional boiler. I hope to have an electric boiler on the shop system before fall just to try it.

 

[maple1]

I propose the opposite and it might be because I have no central heating system. Most houses can be heated evenly with a woodstove and any slight unevenness in heating is actually an improvement in comfort. I embrace the differential between my stove room and my bedroom even though it's only 5 degrees or so. Multiple buildings with multiple desired temperatures, a lot harder to heat satisfactorily with a stove.

That would come down to the house layout and size - maybe also the climate. I know that if I had a wood stove in my livingroom, there would be a lot bigger difference than 5° between that & upstairs bedrooms. The heat just doesn't make it from one part to another - I can start with a cold house, turn the stat up in the livingroom to something very cozy, and the upstairs bedrooms won't budge any in temp. Throw in colder outside temps, and that would make the bedrooms even harder to get warmed up by heat coming from another part of the house. Also, if unevenness in temps is what's wanted, not much easier way to get that than putting the stat where you want it in each place.

My 1800 SF insulated shop is currently heated with a woodstove. When I built the shop I installed 1800 LF of pex in the insulated slab with the intention of using radiant floor heat. All those tubes are still there not being used because the 700$ woodstove does such an admirable job of heating. To add a gasser and use it to heat the floor would cost me something outrageous like 10,000$. I've even heard folks say to budget 15000$. Wow. That buys a lot of oil or firewood for the stove and/or conventional boiler. I hope to have an electric boiler on the shop system before fall just to try it.

Wow is right. That's what I spent on my new setup 3 years ago (15) - wasn't expecting that much when I started at it. I try to throw in some perspective to try to take some of the ouch out - if we were heating with oil, it would likely take about 5 tanks (900litre) a year (rough round guess), or about $5000. Even bigger ouch year over year - and after just finishing year 3 could say I just broke even (if I don't count my time playing with wood).

Also, I know of a couple guys around here who use an ordinary hot water tank to heat their slab - likely not the proper thing to do, but they seem happy with it. I have an 18kw electric boiler for backup house heat - it's quite a bit bigger than I need, it will cycle a lot. So something like a hot water tank at about half the output should do the trick and be a lot cheaper to hook up - on the electric side at least.

 

[GS7]

Hello all,

This is obviously my first post on this site however I have spent countless hours reading through the forums which lead me to the purchase of our current setup. My wife and I built our log home three years ago and opted for a Hearthstone Equinox wood stove through the reading on this site. Overall I am exceptionally happy with our purchase. We have a two story home and heat 2400 square feet. The heat is consistant and even throughout the home. We have currently gotten ahead with 15 cords cut, split and stacked. So all of this leads me to my question. Why did you convert (or add on a gasification boiler) when you had a perfectly good operating wood stove. Much searching on the forums leads me to the financial savings. For myself I can heat for free utilizing the wood stove. However I feel as though a proper boiler setup would be a great fit considering our home has full hydronic radiant heat on propane. What were your factors? Mess, safety of removing fire from house, burn times? I am looking to get incite into why this would be a potentially good option for us.

Thanks!

Love my Harman hi300 wood stove but my ceilings are high, it won't heat my entire 2 story colonial. My gasification wood boiler heats the entire house AND hot water. My wood stove is now optional. AWESOME in the shoulder season when its not really cold enough for the wood boiler. I've even used both in the heart of the winter which was unnecessary but a fun experiment.

 

[Ashful]

Most houses can not be heated "evenly" with a wood stove so greater comfort is achieved moving to a central heating system. Plus many people have houses too big to heat well with a woodstove or have multiple buildings they want to heat. Ease of use does not equate if comparing to a fossil fuel boiler or furnace.

Large house and multiple buildings, here. I run 6 zones of baseboards on the oil boiler, three zones of heat pumps, and a few scattered resistance baseboards, on top of two 3 cu ft wood stoves.

What I can say, based on this experience, is that very few can justify the $10k - $15k numbers suggested above to upgrade from wood stove to boiler. If you keep the stove(s) going 24/7, the remaining heat load on your conventional systems is very low and infrequent, mostly just a little bit of balancing out the far reaches of the mansion.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

great thing about being a grown a$$ man is that I don't have to justify nothing to know one. Seriously though, heating my house is sooo much easier now, I wish I did it sooner.

 

[brenndatomu]

I don't have to justify nothing to know one.

What, you get a divorce?

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Hey, isn't everyone single in the internet world. Sshhh she's coming.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Somebody send the link to this thread to Stihly's wife........lol

 

[duramaxman05]

I have a hearthstone heritage im my living room. It does an excellent job. Reason we went with a outdoor boiler us more even heat through out the house, no more mess in the house and we heat out hot water aslo. Not to mention our electric bill was cheaper this past winter than the last 8 yr we been there. I will say though, the heat from the the heritage is a lot warmer. It was real nice after a long day of working out in the cold and i would sit in our love seat about 3ft from it. But i like the heat.

 

[woodsmaster]

Didn't read threw the thread so probably repeating but... I bought my boiler because the wood stove was at the end of it's life, wanted the mess out of the house, more convenient loading and longer times between loading with storage. Even temps threw out the house. It paid for itself in about three years and now it's money in my pocket. with the wood stove I had un even heat. Had to use supplemental heat in far away rooms or if we went away for a day or two. couldn't heat the DHW. Oh, and I just happen to come into enough money to make the purchase without a loan. I looked at it as an investment.

 

[jasonh]

Here's my dilemma. I have a blaze king Sirocco right now with NG baseboard. The way my house is set up the heat from the blaze king pretty much stays in the family room. Some comes up to the kitchen and some in the dining room. Hardly any goes to the bedrooms upstairs. So here I am sweating in the family room and hearing the boiler fire up. Pisses me off every year. So if I go with a gasification boiler in my shed or detached garage the room temps would be even and I'm still burning wood and no gas would be used. On the down side is the initial cost of the setup. I'm sure I could sell my blaze king and pay for the pipe from the boiler to the house but it would take 8-9 years to recoup the cost of the boiler/storage. And that's basing it on my gas bills from the last couple years. However I was burning in the stove so it could be sooner. Plus I would heat DHW as well. I know my wife would like the mess being outside. Not to mention the dust. Decisions decisions.

 

[Grisu]

Here's my dilemma. I have a blaze king Sirocco right now with NG baseboard. The way my house is set up the heat from the blaze king pretty much stays in the family room. Some comes up to the kitchen and some in the dining room. Hardly any goes to the bedrooms upstairs. So here I am sweating in the family room and hearing the boiler fire up. Pisses me off every year. So if I go with a gasification boiler in my shed or detached garage the room temps would be even and I'm still burning wood and no gas would be used. On the down side is the initial cost of the setup. I'm sure I could sell my blaze king and pay for the pipe from the boiler to the house but it would take 8-9 years to recoup the cost of the boiler/storage. And that's basing it on my gas bills from the last couple years. However I was burning in the stove so it could be sooner. Plus I would heat DHW as well. I know my wife would like the mess being outside. Not to mention the dust. Decisions decisions.

Have you tried blowing some cold air from upstairs down towards the family room? Try a small desk fan at the top of the stairs angled down towards the bottom of the stairs. That usually establishes a convective loop where warm air from the stove room is pulled upwards along the ceiling to make up for the displaced cold air.

 

[jasonh]

I have tried everything I have read on this site. The heat basically has to make a 180° turn up the stairs. I think the push for my final decision will be the mess is outside and with the setup I plan on having the wood will be within 10' from the boiler

 

[Fred61]

Those small fans are useless if you need to move air any distance other than a few feet. Quiet when they're in a hardware store but become noisy and annoying when installed in a hose. They don't exactly go with the décor either.
What does work is to purchase one of those high volume Panasonic exhaust fans and install it in the upstairs ceiling and hopefully find a way to duct it down to the room with the stove. It will take air from the upstairs ceiling and circulate it through the hot room. I have done this and it works. It also tempers the room air where the stove is. I was lucky enough to have a closet right where it needed to be to run the 6 inch duct down. Heck, I even put a thermostat on the feed to the fan.

 

[Grisu]

My experience differs. I can put a standard desk fan on the floor in our master bedroom and blow the air along the corridor towards the kitchen. Total distance about 18 ft. Although I may not feel the air moving in the kitchen I can watch the temp drop there by 2 to 3 F in less than 20 min and see it increasing in the bedroom by about the same.

 

[Ashful]

Those small fans are useless if you need to move air any distance other than a few feet. Quiet when they're in a hardware store but become noisy and annoying when installed in a hose. They don't exactly go with the décor either.
What does work is to purchase one of those high volume Panasonic exhaust fans and install it in the upstairs ceiling and hopefully find a way to duct it down to the room with the stove. It will take air from the upstairs ceiling and circulate it through the hot room. I have done this and it works. It also tempers the room air where the stove is. I was lucky enough to have a closet right where it needed to be to run the 6 inch duct down. Heck, I even put a thermostat on the feed to the fan.

My father owned an engineering firm, one of their frequent jobs being fire investigation for insurance claims. The worst cases were always those with fans or blowers on thermostats, usually large whole-house exhaust fans on an attic thermostat, as they kick on at the worst possible time during a growing fire... sort of turning your house into a giant forge.