Lopi Evergreen too big? Fireplace in a small room within a big house.

[LibertyRansom]

I am strongly considering buying a Mid-sized Lipo Evergreen Fireplace Insert this week for back-up/ancillary heat. However, the room it will go into is only approx. 14 x 19 feet. The ceilings are 7 and half feet. No second floor above the fireplace room, but the house is a split level and there is a higher level (5 stair steps) about 20 feet away (show in map attached) House built in 1959 and decent insulation.

The house as a whole is 2,100 Sq. Ft. (not including basement). However, the fireplace room is on the far side of the house, on an exterior wall. The (split level) second floor bedrooms are on the far side away. I've drawn a very rough map attached.

Will I get roasted out of the room? I saw in an sales pitch video that the Evergreen can be turned down very low, to about 10k BTUs, and up to 60k BTUs. Let me know if you think I am buying something too big.

 

[begreen]

The EPA testing results show a low fire output of close to 14,500 btus/hr. That's a tested result.

The main issue is that the rooms are closed off with many doorways. That prevents good heat circulation. Are the kitchen and hallway doors normally left wide open? If yes, then for more even heat in the house put a table or box fan in the hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove room. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running. It should also pull some return air through the kitchen and help warm it up. The dining room and playroom will not get much benefit due to the small doorways.

 

[LibertyRansom]

Thanks for the advice on the fan! All doors in the pictures remain open 99% of the time (they are pocket doors, which is not reflected in the picture). I'm OK if it doesn't manage to heat too much more than the Hallway/Kitchen. My primary concern is whether this sized Insert will simply cook us out of the FirePlace room when running, which is nice room to hang out in.

 

[begreen]

By blowing cool air in from an adjacent space by the method suggested the fireplace room temp will drop notably and the adjacent space will gain that heat. A wall fan that uses the stud cavity could also serve this function to share some heat with the play room.

 

[BillBurns]

I agree........use a fan or 2....itll help out.