King or Princess?

[MacinJosh]

Trying to decide which one to install in the house. Square footage is 2200 plus about 800 in the basement. I'm in Louisville, KY and so we don't normally have bitter cold winters but we can have stretches of really low temps. House is a tri-level with all 3 bedrooms upstairs. Stove will go in the den which sits at ground level on a concrete slab. Living room and kitchen are elevated from there and sit above ground. Basement is underneath living room and kitchen only.

Below is my crude sketch of the bottom two levels of the house. Primary wood to be used is Ash. There's dead Ash everywhere around here.

Also, blower or no blower? I'm having a brand new HVAC system installed Monday. Compressor bit the dust on my Trane and it's the old R22 refrigerant so the whole system has to come out. Putting in a 3.5 ton 16 seer Carrier heat pump with whole house humidifier. Plan on that being my backup heat source. I don't want to run it at all if possible. Do any of you run the fan only to filter the house and help move the heat around? Is that necessary? My goal is to be able to heat the house solely with the stove in case of lengthy blackouts.

Thanks for any help and advice!

 

[pvfjr]

I've got the exact same situation, minus the basement. 2200 sf house with three bedrooms upstairs, and I'm trying to decide between a king and a princess. I think the princess wins for me, since it allows the re-use of the 6" chimney that I already have. I will be moving my stove to a central location however, as I have trouble getting the heat to move around. So I turn on the "fan only" of our central gas furnace. It helps a little, and filters the air, but we still have cold corners of the house. I find that running that fan a lot does add to my power bill however, so I'd rather have the heat moving around by natural convection (and it'd be quieter in the house). The king would cost me about an extra $500 (not counting a whole new chimney setup), and I think it would be harder to fit where I want to install it. I don't know how dense ash is, but I'd imagine it would be decent since it's deciduous. I burn a lot of fir, and can only get about a 4 hour burn with our current stove. So as nice as the 40 hour burn of the king sounds, in all honesty, I think 30 hours with a princess will still be great. And for those cold stretches, you can always crank up the heat and end up with a 10-12 hour burn. That's still not too bad.

 

[MacinJosh]

I have an existing chimney as well as this house used to have an old Buck stove in it and the chimney is still there but it's been drywalled in at the ceiling. I'm going to climb on my roof tonight and try to take the cap off and get photos. The whole assembly is old and rusted. Probably original pipe from 41 years ago when house was built. I'm going to replace it regardless for peace of mind. Just need to find someone to do it. Pisses me off there isn't a single Blaze King dealer in the entire state of Kentucky. That seems insane to me. Closest one is Bloomington , IN. I believe Webby installs stoves for them. I may just order the stove from there, bring it down here, and then beg Eastwood Stove or someone else to install it for me.

 

[pvfjr]

Yeah, I'd go with all new pipe/chimney if it's all rusty. Especially if you haven't used it and don't know how good its condition is.

I just read another thread the has me rethinking the Princess in favor of an Ashford 30.1! It certainly looks a lot better. It only has 3" of belly below the door compared to the 6" of the Princess or the 9" of the King. The Ashford does have a nice ash drawer that comes standard, however, so maybe I wouldn't mind the reduced ash capacity of the firebox. Now I just need to figure out if the Ashford is as good with N-S loading as the King or Princess.

 

[MacinJosh]

Yeah I saw the Ashford vs Princess thread and though about hijacking it but decided to start this one instead.

 

[Heftiger]

Yeah I saw the Ashford vs Princess thread and though about hijacking it but decided to start this one instead.

King! We installed the King in our 1550 sq ft home against the recommendation of the dealer (they said it was too big and wanted us to buy the princess). We were able to turn the stove down low enough to get a nice heat output, and the big firebox gave us long burns.

The Ashford vs Pincess thread is mine. The only reason we're not going with another King is because this home has an existing 6" flue.

 

[MacinJosh]

Ah, thanks Heftiger. I have always leaned towards the King as I feel like you can't have too big of a box??? I dunno, I just figure the more wood you can shove in there, the less amount of times you have to reload. ~shrugs~ I'm sure that's not exactly how it works but oh well.

Going to climb on the roof today to try and inspect the flue. Not sure it matters much though as I intend to replace it all. What size flue does the King require?

 

[Heftiger]

Ah, thanks Heftiger. I have always leaned towards the King as I feel like you can't have too big of a box??? I dunno, I just figure the more wood you can shove in there, the less amount of times you have to reload. ~shrugs~ I'm sure that's not exactly how it works but oh well.

Going to climb on the roof today to try and inspect the flue. Not sure it matters much though as I intend to replace it all. What size flue does the King require?

I think your thinking about the firebox is generally correct. If you want less heat, build a smaller fire. But I almost always packed the firebox full and just turned it down low.

The king has an 8" flue.

 

[JSoko]

YES on a Blower
if your return grill is up high that's a plus for your idea of using the HVAC fan to move the heat
my son is an HCAV Tech and he balanced our ducts for good flow and distribution (I have round metal duct pipe with adjustable dampers where the branch duct connects to the main), some thing you may want to consider on the new install
pre-insulated flex duct is crap


we have 18 foot ceiling in the living room/kitchen, temps up top reach 88F
the AC return grill is up near the top in front of the stove, it's a big one. There are 3 others returns in the back rooms, I sealed them off and turned the AC fan on.
The t'stat in the hall will read 65 - 74 degrees depending.
all my duct work is in the attic, after balancing the system they spray foamed the supply & returns when they did the rest of the house, this house is tight and holds the inside temp winter & summer

 

[JSoko]

YES on a Stove Blower, multiple speed blower is the ticket
if your return grill is up high that's a plus for your idea of using the HVAC fan to move the heat
my son is an HCAV Tech and he balanced our ducts for good flow and distribution (I have round metal duct pipe with adjustable dampers where the branch duct connects to the main), some thing you may want to consider on the new install
pre-insulated flex duct is crap


we have 18 foot ceiling in the living room/kitchen, temps up top reach 88F
the AC return grill is up near the top in front of the stove, it's a big one. There are 3 others returns in the back rooms, I sealed them off and turned the AC fan on.
The t'stat in the hall will read 65 - 74 degrees depending.
all my duct work is in the attic, after balancing the system they spray foamed the supply & returns when they did the rest of the house, this house is tight and holds the inside temp winter & summer