I purchased a new stove this year. I have a 2200 square-foot house it won't heat my house above 65. It's a US 2000 stove model it should be heating 2000 square feet. We are burning seasoned oak maple and Elm. It's in a finished basement with an open stairwell beside it. It was suggested to get a magic heat reclaimer. I'm torn about the heat reclaimer should I get one or replace the stove? If new stove do you have any recommendations? I live in Minnesota.
Magic Heat & Stove heating issuses
- Thread starter Matt KH
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jatoxico
Minister of Fire
Hey Matt welcome aboard. Magic heat reclaimers have a bad rep around here since they remove heat from your stack that is needed to keep exhaust going up and out w/o causing creosote to deposit.
Is the basement getting warm and you can't get the heat where you want or no heat at all. No heat can be the fact that basements can suck heat endlessly but can also be due to lousy wood.
Basic first question; How long has your wood (what kind) been cut split and stacked (CSS)?
Is the basement getting warm and you can't get the heat where you want or no heat at all. No heat can be the fact that basements can suck heat endlessly but can also be due to lousy wood.
Basic first question; How long has your wood (what kind) been cut split and stacked (CSS)?
Some of the wood is a year some of it is only 10 months all split and stack nicely. My basement can get up to 69 and the upstairs would be at 65. I didn't know if it's because I got the stove from tractor supply and it says it can heat 2000 square-foot so I thought it be fine for the size of my house.
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
OK so depending on the type of wood that could mean it's still quite wet. Modern stoves require wood <20% moisture and that can take 2 yr or more. Is the stove getting hot and giving good secondary burn? That is, the burn tubes on top should be firing. To run the stove you allow max air in until the temps come up then slowly reduce the amount of air and the secondary air takes over. The stove may actually get hotter as air is reduced if, big if, the wood is decent. If the wood is too wet reducing the air will cause the fire to smolder or go out. In that case leave the air open so you don't smolder but that means you are boiling water (from the wood) which robs heat so you don't get as much from the stove.
So does the wood sizzle from the ends on startup and reload?
Matt, welcome. The Magic Heat is not a solution for a modern stove. If your US 2000 is not heating the house well there could be several explanations. It could be the house is poorly insulated and leaky, it could be the stove is too small, it could be that the stove location is poor, or it could be that the wood is not dry. Modern stoves want fully seasoned wood.
I suspect you are dealing with two situations. One is the basement. The stove is an area heater. Heating remotely from a basement is hard. A lot of the heat is lost right through the basement walls and heat is often only able to migrate upstairs via a narrow stairwell. The other issue is the wood. Oak takes at least a couple years to season. At one year it is still damp which cools the fire.
That stove is a not-too-big 1.9 cu ft, which CAN heat 2000 sq ft, but maybe not in MN... that's why they say "up to" 2000 sq ft.
I'm not surprised that upstairs is only 65, for the reason a stove is a space heater, but am surprised the stove is only heating a finished basement to 69. So in addition to the wood not being optimal, it may be also that your flue setup in not optimal, either. Is it a six-inch pipe top to bottom, or a clay liner?
You are not getting the most out of that stove, even though you may indeed need a larger stove (or one upstairs) to get all the output you want. I would second the opinion that you may not be getting the secondary combustion that stove is designed to get, with two-year wood and an optimal flue setup.
The question I have is who finished the basement and how did they do it? My biggest question is how did they insulate it? I would peek behind electrical covers and see what it looks like. If it is 2X4s with R19 and no vapor barrier and no gap between the foundation and studs it is going to take a lot to heat it.
As a point of reference my carriage house / shop has a radiant floor heat.24 X 32 with 6 inches of concrete sitting on top of 6 mil poly and 3 1/2 inches of high density foam along with 800 ft of pex tubing rebar etc. When it was built the heat was not done until Dec. 1 and it took 24 hours with a 70k btu net boiler to get it to temperature and it never stopped or went off on high limit. So that is around 56000 lbs. of well insulated floor for the floor to be heated before the room gets heated.
I can keep my flue temp at 500 with no problem. But I can try older wood from family. Do you know of a stove that would heat my house if that isn't the problem.
A 2 cuft stove in the basement trying to heat 2200 SQFT of home ain't gonna do it. You are underpowered by at least 30%.
And I concur with the above posts about staying away from the Magic heat. Not designed to be part of an EPA system. It will cause you trouble in one way or another.
And I concur with the above posts about staying away from the Magic heat. Not designed to be part of an EPA system. It will cause you trouble in one way or another.
In the budget line of stoves the big old heat belching NC30 (Englander) would be a goto. Not too many budget stoves go that big. If budget is not an issue, there are MANY 3+ cuft stoves on the market...and that is the size I would be looking at.
I have the stove your using. While i like the stove (i have it in a 600SF apartment) No way is it capable of heating a 2200SF home unless its super insulated. A heat reclaimer will not save you. The stove is too small to heat 2200 SF effectively.Like JAGS said you need a 3CU ft stove at least for your space especially in Minnesota. You can get a lot more wood in an Englander NC-30 and it will burn a lot longer(overnight).Heating from the basement requires a BIG stove. My harman TL-300 does it in my home ,but i would not try it with anything smaller.
I agree with NC30 as first choice. But also address:
- heating from the basement (big stove may give a hot basement but still-cool upstairs)
- drier wood
- flue setup
Keeping your flue pipe hot does not mean you are getting a good secondary burn, or not possibly losing heat up an exterior chimney. Are you feeding into a 6" liner, or into a larger clay tile within a masonry chimney? Is the chimney interior or exterior to the house?
- heating from the basement (big stove may give a hot basement but still-cool upstairs)
- drier wood
- flue setup
Keeping your flue pipe hot does not mean you are getting a good secondary burn, or not possibly losing heat up an exterior chimney. Are you feeding into a 6" liner, or into a larger clay tile within a masonry chimney? Is the chimney interior or exterior to the house?
JA600L
Minister of Fire
Are you using a blower or any fans to help distribute and circulate air? What stove top temperatures are you seeing?
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
Matt while you may need a larger stove the first thing I would do is to make sure you are burning the stove you have, well. Once you know the stove you have is running right then you can truly assess your situation. Then pick a properly sized stove if you need to make a change or if it is an airflow issue or a basement insulation issue address that.
You could throw a huge stove down there but if that isn't burning right you will still have problems. If the basement is an infinite heat sink or you can't get the air upstairs you could just end up spinning your wheels.
The other thing to consider is even if the stove can't heat the house to as warm as you'd like, it still is providing a lot of BTU's, BTU's that the furnace doesn't have to provide if you turn it on.
Even though this stove is not large enough to do what you are asking of it (cover 100% of your heating needs in cold weather), it is still saving you money by helping out with a good part of the heat load.
pen
Even though this stove is not large enough to do what you are asking of it (cover 100% of your heating needs in cold weather), it is still saving you money by helping out with a good part of the heat load.
pen
Thank you for all the advice I am now trying new wood from my family and friends that have wood-burning stoves. I am going to use this wood for 24 to 48 hours to see if it makes a difference. And yes I do leave my furnace fan run all the time and the woodstove has a fan of it I would never consider getting rid of the stove I would just put it upstairs and get something different for the basement.
That might actually hurt you in the long run. Even though it may help even temps out, you lose a lot of your heat to the duct work itself in many cases.
Try running things without that furnace fan, and use a small desk fan on / along the floor to push cold air back towards a hotter area for something to experiment with next.
Relocating the stove may ultimately be your best option. Glad to hear you are considering it.
I also have a double wall flu pipe coming off the stove would it help to put a singlewall flu pipe off the stove to put more heat in the house
If your running with the furnace fan on, and your trying to heat your entire house, have you ever considered a wood furnace? There are many clean burning models on the market now, that can do what your looking for.
The gains would be negligible in the grand scheme, and double wall pipe is some good stuff in terms of helping to keep the system safe / clean / low maintenance.
pen
I would have loved to put a wood furnace and but I can't wear my furnace room is I can't put a chimney on that side of the house
Hi Matt KH, you may want to instead try some kiln-dried wood bundles from a garden center or super market. This wood is going to be <20% moisture content. The wood your friends have may be no better than your own. If your friends do dry their wood for 2+ years, then maybe they'll be able to give you some pointers on how to operate your stove as well.
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