Kuma oil stoves

[jeffH]

We remodeled our kitchen and it turns out to be a little cold there in the winter. The Heat runs put in aren't quite doing the job. I also think that even if more runs were put in the room would still be cold compared to the rest of the house, because we now have a 16' ceiling. Even with two ceiling fans, it doesn't stay warm for long after the heat goes off.

I have been looking at supplemental heat sources for the room and the Kuma Arctic oil stove caught my eye. Here's what I like about it: I think that if I run the Kuma all the time, on low the walls and floor would heat up, the room would feel more comfortable, and the furnace would be enough heat to make the room warm when we need it to be. The Kuma can be set to low output at 5300 btus or so, and at that rate it burns maybe 1.5 gallons of oil per day. An LP stove, as our other option (no natural gas where I live), it would be a lot more expensive to run continuously. This goes for things like gas stoves as well as wall mounted Rinnai type heaters. A wood stove is certainly cheapest to use, but it takes a lot more effort (as you all know), and the heat isn't continuous if I don't keep feeding it.

So, I think that the Kuma, running on low most of the time would take the chill off the room, and keep it more comfortable. Also, the furnace that heats the whole house would run less because the Kuma would be doing much of the work the furnace should be doing.

If anyone has a Kuma, could you tell me what the flame looks like? Does it just look like one of the burners on my stove? Is it anything resembling a wood fire?

I would like people to comment on my thoughts and tell me what you think of them. The only challenging thing is getting oil to the stove, but I think we could divert some of the oil going to our furnace, up into the kitchen, using a pump and a small tank (a few gallons in size).

Maybe running more heat into the kitchen first would make more sense, as it probably ends up being cheapest to do, and might fix the problem. The guy who did the remodel really screwed up on the heat runs. I kind of thought that at the time he was doing it, and after last winter I know it's not good. Also, I had the furnace people over to look at the kitchen and they pretty much asked me what the heck the contractor was thinking when he put in the heat runs?

Thanks for your help and wisdom.

 

[elkimmeg]

Standard builders special baseboard heat is 450 btu's per ft there are high density baseboard options up to 1200 btu's per ft. Then there is under the counter toe kick options

What about separating the kitchen into a separate zone if it at the end of a run that too contributes to the lack of heat? this with upgrading you base board to a higher output, makes the most
sense. By the time you spend for the stove and run an oil line , I think it would be a wiser move, to correct your current deficiencies

Also what about pipe insulation to reduce heat losses in transmission? More heat to the living space? I can not see the run lengths and routing from here, nor can I determine your burner capacities and the load demand.

 

[begreen]

So far, I don't like the bandaid approach. Is this forced air or hot water heat? What are the "runs" going through, heated or unheated space? How are they insulated? If forced air (FA), is there a return in the newly remodeled space?

edit: simultaneous post with Elk. He an I are thinking alike with zoning the system. Can be done with hot water or forced air.

 

[TMonter]

The Kuma manufacturing shop is near where I live Jeff (about a mile), I can swing in there and take a look if you like.

 

[jeffH]

Hi. Thanks for your replies so far. Here's more information:

The furnace is forced air oil. In the "old" kitchen there were three runs and now there are just two (don't ask my why). On top of this the kitchen was enlarged quite a bit- we opened up the ceiling and created a cathedral ceiling, and we bumped out the wall four feet, into an adjacent workshop, to make the kitchen larger (it's about 15'x17'). I was told by a furnace guy that this room needs about 20000 BTUs of heat.

Our house is an 1840 Vermont farmhouse. The main part of the house, where the furnace is, has a normal stone basement, but the kitchen sits on an unheated crawl space. The pipes are flex ducts (one 6" and 8") which are insulated.

There are two cold air returns, but I think that they're not even necessary. The kitchen is next to living room and I think that the 3.5' doorway between the two rooms allows for enough cold air return, if the floor returns do not.

The crawl space is enclosed and we just had it better insulated and sealed up- the walls and ceiling are insulated and covered with vapor barrier.

The newest part of the kitchen is over a less insulated space. The old crawl space ends where the pre-remodel kitchen ended, and beyond that is a barn-like space for storage. The ceiling of the barn (floor of the new part of the kitchen) is insulated and I've been putting up plastic sheeting elsewhere in the barn to block wind. But it was never intended to be "tight," and it will always be really cold there in the winter.

What is strangest about the heat runs that are there, is that one is just a few feet from the living room and the other one is kind of opposite it. So, there are no heat runs in the 10 feet of room from the vents near the living room to the end of the kitchen where it's coldest anyway. I hope you can picture this. I can make pictures if you want

If we ran more heat, I would be tempted to put two more runs in. Like I said there's one unused heat run inside the crawl space, and I'd be tempted to steal one of the cold air return pipes (also the insulated flex duct) for the second heat run. The pipes go from the basement where the furnace is, through a small hole into the crawlspace and I think it would be a real pain to put another pipe through the wall.

I can get the kitchen warm. A furnace guy came by and changed the fan speed from medium to high. There are no dampers in the basement ducts or in the registers (they're all cast iron grates), and so I have experimented by covering all the other registers in the house to put most of the heat into the kitchen. This makes the kitchen warm and it also gets the rest of the house warm, surprisingly. But, once the furnace shuts off, the kitchen cools down much quicker than the rest of the house does, and so it gets cold before the furnace kicks in again. I don't know if it's poorly insulated, or over a cold space or what, but my thought with the oil stove was that it would just supplement the furnace, and keep the kitchen from cooling down as much as it does. These oil stoves supposedly can run at 5000BTU on .04 gallons of oil per hour, so the fuel costs would be low, and the stove would probably cause the furnace to come on less frequently as well.

If this is confusing, let me know and I'll try to explain it better.

Thanks again.

Jeff

 

[laynes69]

Post a picture or diagram if you could. Sounds like there are alot of issues with the ducting.

 

[elkimmeg]

I have to revise my post I thought he said he had baseboard heat not forced hot air. There should be no exposed flexible duct work in an un conditioned exposed crawl space the should be boxed in a well insulated chase It is still possible to install a toe kick It sounds like the HVAC contractor never balanced your system there should be dampers on the takeoff laterals from the main trunk line You can close them to the rooms that w do not need as much heat and force more to the kitchen You may be able to swap out the passive grills and replace them with dampened ones. What about using a remote thermostat closer to the kitchen?

 

[begreen]

Photos or a diagram would help. I'm trying to understand why the heat loss in the remodel is so bad. What was the insulation used for the ceiling and wall? Was there a dramatic increase in glass area?

I have to also ask, what does this have to do with the hearth?

 

[JimWalshin845]

What happened to the original contractor? I would definitely put a call into him and have him make it right. Depending upon the state you live in you may have recourse.

How did this ever pass the building/planning inspectors office?