Need Advice in CT

[JAmuso]

Hi...like everyone cost of OIL is making me ill. I'd like your advice. Wife and I are looking at the Regency I2400 (med Insert) to replace our fire place. Our house is about 1800sf. It's a dutch colonial. Insert would be in our living room. There are two entrances into kit/dining area (dining area has ceiling fan) - open stairs to up bedrooms. Master has a ceiling fan. 2 zone heating. The sitting area in the living room would be about 6 ft from the insert.

1) Here is the estimate we got - Is it too High?

Insert 1785
faceplates 211
blower 357
door 186
Liner (35ft) 975
collar/adapt 80

2) Last year we burned a little less than 600 gallons of oil. I'm thinking if i get 3 cords of hardwood and run the stove daily - I should be able get that 600 gallon of usage down to the 200 gallon range. Make sense?

3) The set up described above - If i'm trying to move heat around - am I going to sweat us out of the living room having the insert that close?

4) information says up to 8 hr burns - is that too unreasonable to expect? My wife and I work and It's not likely we'd be home in time to keep the fire going - so regular restarts would happen. I'd think that having the fire going most of the day would be better than not at all. Make sense?

5) Is there anything I'm not thinking of? Anything else i need to consider?

6) Does a 3 year payoff of this investment sound about right?

ALso - Lots of information on this site. It's very good! Thank you all for your insite/feedback.

 

[Vic99]

Welcome!

I can specifically answer some of your questions. Others will chime in about the type of insert you want.

2) 3 cords sounds right for 2/3 oil reduction. However, it depends on your home insulation, floor plan, windows, insert location, etc. Experience will show you more than guessing. Buy/Gather your wood NOW. You it split and stacked for a minimum of 6 months unless you split it small. Don't believe all wood delaers that their product is seasoned. Sometimes that means 2 months to them, sometimes 1 year.

3) Ceiling fan in the insert room would help to distribute heat, although the insert blower may be more than enough. You'll experiement, but the fan is a nice option to have, particularly as a back up if your blower dies. Ceiling fans in rooms really far from the stove may not help much.

4) Insert/stove literature on burns is for OPTIMAL conditions. Forget that. My stove has 8 hrs listed. Best I got was 7.5 hours once from dry hickory (a very dense wood). More typically I get 6-7 hrs from dry hard wood. If you burn softwood, like well seasoned pine, expect shorter burn times. Higher BTU wood like oaks, hickory, sugar/rock maple, apple will be the best IF they are seasoned 9 months +. You want under a 20% moisture content for the wood.

Unseasoned wood of any kind will reduce efficiency, throw less heat, and force much more frequent chimney cleanings (and create a serious safety hazard).

5) Lots more to learn . . . . just read as much as you can here.

6) I've been burning for a year. Even with a few unexpected modifications to my chimney, I predicted a 4 year break even. With the price of FF, I now expect a 2.5 to 3 year break even instead.

Good luck.

 

[JAmuso]

Awesome..thank you....if others have their own opinions...please keep them coming. It's a big investment and we want to be sure we're doing the right things....

 

[wellbuilt home]

I would get a larger insert that can burn for 10 hours . In the spring and fall you could just burn at night .If its around 30 o outside you can warm the house in about a hour and it would stay warm most of the day with out a fire. In the winter a larger stove would run at about 3/4 full with out clogging the flue. I have a large house and would burn a VC dutch-west wide open all day and at about half over night . It was about 60 o in the house when we wake up but the house would get up to 72 in about a hour I would try to do with out the oil . I turned my oil burner off about 13 years ago oil was up to .89Cents pur gallon. My stove guys put a stove in for about 700 bucks I charge 300 and it takes me about 3 hours if i do it my self. But ill tell you If i was you i would buy NOW! The stove stores are jam packed and you mite not get a stove in before winter. I ordered my stove july 5th and i hope its coming in in sept, and Ive work with the the stove store for years. If you want to make the move to wood you need to do it now .

 

[elmoleaf]

This may be kind of obvious, but if you're looking into cutting back on oil, have you looked into insulation improvements for your house? Extra insulation in the attic and weatherstripping leaks around doors and windows can make a huge difference. Also, insulating hot water and baseboard heat pipes that are exposed in an unheated basement helps too.

The upstairs bedrooms are on a sep. zone than downstairs? That'll help when the insert is running, which would otherwise raise the temp at your thermostat downstairs and keep the oil heat off, leading to very cold upstairs rooms. Two zones will prevent that. However, if you can't get your insert's heat circulating through the entire house, your oil savings will be less, since the boiler will still keep running to heat your upstairs zone.

Keep in mind too, wood is somewhat messy and a fair amount of work. Do you have reliable wood sources lined up and place to store? Ready to deal with empting ashes and cleaning up bark etc?
Good luck.

 

[begreen]

Great answers folks. To answer questions number 1 that sounds like a fair bid. As far as it's heating, we need to know more about the house and the floorplan of the floor that the insert is being installed in. If the living room is closed off from the rest of the house, it will only be effective for the immediate area. But if the LR is open to the rest of that floor, then it could do a great job of heating the whole floor.

As elmoleaf noted, anything you can do to tighten up the house is the best way to keep the money in your wallet.

 

[fossil]

The living room area sounds pretty tight, albeit there are two open passages from there to the dining/kitchen area. Ceiling fans are very effective at vertically mixing/destratifying the air in the room where they're mounted, but they do little to move air horizontally out of that room. With the insert crankin' out heat and its blower running, in the hope of spreading heat throughout the house, sitting 6 feet from it just might get a bit uncomfortably warm. They are, after all, space heaters. Distributing that heat through the house is a challenge we all face in some way or another. If there's any way you can devise to move cool air from remote locations into the room where the insert is located, then you'll likely be able to establish a "loop" of air movement which will facilitate the distribution of the stove's output. Rick

 

[kniffin50]

I think it's bad that they charge you extra for a door.I'm looking at stoves now and most say this is the price for the stove and the door is this much more.It does not matter if it's a plain black door it's still extra. I have the same stove in my fireplace that your looking at and I've had no proplems with mine after 6yrs.
Rusty

 

[JAmuso]

people...thanks for the replies....the part i'm kinda hung up on now...is the distance the fireplace/stove is to the sitting area...the room is as long as the house - but it's about 14 ft wide and our furniture/tv set up is in such away that rearranging furniture is out of the question. So It's sit there and be toasty when we're in the room...would a fan at one of the entrances to the room - sucking the air out - towards the kitchen/up the stairs be enough to keep from sweating us out?

 

[begreen]

If there is good air circulation you won't get roasted out. You have control over the stove by determining the amount of wood to feed the fires and the amount of air the fire receives. Our living room is only 15 wide and it's fine.

 

[JAmuso]

true...that is a good point....i'm thinking lower fires after the house is warmed while we're in the room then get it going before bed before turning it down to get it thru the night....then a stronger fire before work....man...stressing out about this...like i said before it's a big investment...but if done right can be big savings...insulation in the house is good...replacement windows, siding...sealed / warm basement...

 

[stanleyjohn]

My dad who lives in central Ct got a regency I2400 a few months back! $3200 is about what he paid. Its a shame that the door is an option when it comes to stoves!You cant really use the stove well without a door.

 

[wellbuilt home]

Dont sweat the small stuff a room 14x the lenth of your house wont get to hot .

 

[fossil]

Dont sweat the small stuff a room 14x the lenth of your house wont get to hot .

How can you have a room that's 14 times the length of your house? Rick

 

[wellbuilt home]

sorry fossil I meen the room is 14' wide by the lenth of the house.

 

[fossil]

I know, wellbuilt...just kiddin' around. Rick

 

[begreen]

true...that is a good point....i'm thinking lower fires after the house is warmed while we're in the room then get it going before bed before turning it down to get it thru the night....then a stronger fire before work....man...stressing out about this...like i said before it's a big investment...but if done right can be big savings...insulation in the house is good...replacement windows, siding...sealed / warm basement...

Worry about the windows last. That is a big investment with slower payback. You can cover the short term with weatherstripping, storm windows or plastic windows, and/or insulated curtains.

 

[JAmuso]

StanleyJohn - Can you tell me the name of the dealer your father went thru? Do you have details on the install? Did he install himself? Did he get the chimney liner installed? Is he going doorless (HA!)? Thanks....

 

[stanleyjohn]

He bought his at the same place i bought my Harman! http://www.afterglowenergy.com/ $3200 included stove,door,surround,liner and installation.The one gripe me and my dad had with them is getting the job done when they said they would!there were a few delays on the delivery and installation.There was another place maybe closer to you that i checked out that also sells the regency line http://www.fireworksct.com/ They are closer to me but their estimates were a bit higher.!and i was on a very tight budget

 

[Bill]

If your sure your getting the insert for this winter, better start looking for dry firewood now. By closing the damper on the stove you can regulate the heat. I think your room is large enough not to worry to much about over heating yourself. You can always ad just a split or two, to have a modest gentle fire. Just before bed, load her up, and go for the long overnight burn.

 

[JAmuso]

Plan is to manage the heat in the room when we're there...and early in the day and late at night get the stove loaded for the longer burns - while at work and in bed. I'm hoping on the normal days I can be home in time to not have to start a fire from scratch.... We'll add a fan to push the air out of our room towards the upstairs and dining/kitchen area. The house is roughly 1800sf - so we should be able to significantly reduce oil usage (need it for hot water) The search for wood will begin immeadiately! Thanks for everyone's advice.