Hey guys, need some advice here. Here's the scoop. We live in an old house, probably 120 years old. The house has been nearly completely renovated, all new windows, doors, insulation, new high efficiency gas furnace, ETC. However, it's still leaky as hell. It was -18 last night, and the furnace tstat this morning was showing somewhere under 60 degrees downstairs. Upstairs is pretty cozy, when I woke up this morning I had all the covers kicked off. Downstairs is a whole other animal.
the house is ~1600 square feet. The only thing upstairs is our bedroom and our daughters bedroom. The cold air return for the forced air system is upstairs at the top of the stairs. downstairs we have our living room, the not-so-great room, the kitchen, our single bath, and a utility room/pantry. It's COLD down there.
One more bit of info...the wife and I don't plan to be in that house much more than five years, which is making the pitch for a wood stove difficult for me. I need to keep the cost down, but at the same time last month our gas bill was 360, and I'm anticipating close to 500 this month.
Right now I'm trying to decide between a NC13 and a NC30. My primary concern is heat output and as low maintenance as possible, with cost being a close runner up. I would like to burn 24/7 to reduce my gas bill as much as possible to offset the cost of the stove, pipe, and installation of pipe. I want to have the pipe installed because I'm not 100% comfortable hacking a large hole in my 2 year old roof.
What do you say? Will a 13 be too small in my VERY loose house, or will a 30 be way too much and cook us out of there?
the house is ~1600 square feet. The only thing upstairs is our bedroom and our daughters bedroom. The cold air return for the forced air system is upstairs at the top of the stairs. downstairs we have our living room, the not-so-great room, the kitchen, our single bath, and a utility room/pantry. It's COLD down there.
One more bit of info...the wife and I don't plan to be in that house much more than five years, which is making the pitch for a wood stove difficult for me. I need to keep the cost down, but at the same time last month our gas bill was 360, and I'm anticipating close to 500 this month.
Right now I'm trying to decide between a NC13 and a NC30. My primary concern is heat output and as low maintenance as possible, with cost being a close runner up. I would like to burn 24/7 to reduce my gas bill as much as possible to offset the cost of the stove, pipe, and installation of pipe. I want to have the pipe installed because I'm not 100% comfortable hacking a large hole in my 2 year old roof.
What do you say? Will a 13 be too small in my VERY loose house, or will a 30 be way too much and cook us out of there?
