Need advice on feasibility and placement of wood stove insert in older home

[banskt]

Good afternoon, everyone! I am a first-time poster and total beginner when it comes to wood stoves and cold winters. We live in an 1859 saltbox-style house in Connecticut (USA), with around 2,100 sq. ft. of heated space. The current setup uses baseboard steam with heating oil, split into three thermostat zones: basement, first floor, and second floor. In our first winter (2024-25), we kept the thermostat at 64°F for the day/floor 1 and night/floor 2, and 58°F otherwise (basement, night/floor 1, day/floor 2). Our 28-year-old boiler (still running at ~90% AFUE) consumed heating oil like there was no tomorrow. After a cold and expensive winter, we are hoping to make the next winter both warmer and more affordable, at the cost of some capital expense during the summer.

We had an energy audit done in April, and the main recommendations were wall and floor insulation. Both are very pricey. That led us to explore supplementary heating, which brought me here! We have two brick masonry fireplaces - one in the basement and one in the living room - both sharing a single chimney. We presume that they are from the original construction in 1859. We tried burning wood in those fireplaces during the winter, but they were terribly inefficient for heat retention. So we are now considering installing a wood stove insert in the living room fireplace to make the first floor area more comfortable, see attached floor plan.

A few questions, in no particular order:

• Based on the floor plan (attached), would an insert in the living room fireplace (see red arrow) help heat the dining area as well? What about the office? Or, should we be considering a stove in a different location?
• We were budgeting for about $4k -- is that in the correct ballpark?
• Would this setup actually improve comfort and reduce our monthly expense during winter (heating oil + wood) or should we wait another couple of years to be able to afford wall and floor insulation?
• Is there a cheaper way to make the fireplace more efficient?

Appreciate any advice or experiences you can share. Thanks in advance!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Quick answer is to use that $4k to insulate the snot out of your attic with cellulose. Air seal around windows with caulk. It’s cheap and really effective.

It’s really hard to beat insulation for bang for the buck. It works all year long and makes the house so much more comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, I love stoves, but I think you’d be better off with insulation first. It’ll even allow you to get a smaller stove since you’ll need less heat.

Depending on the stove you want, that may be able to be purchased for $4k. But you’d need an insulated liner for the chimney, maybe a hearth pad, and possible other things. AND dry wood. Purchased wood is rarely dry. It can take years of sitting out in the sun for something like oak to lose enough water. This means you need multiple years of wood drying in the yard. Connecticut is warmer, so maybe 3 cords if you’re a part time burner. You’ll want 2 years, so buy 6 cords now. Then start looking for a stove.

Stoves are area heaters. They’ll heat the room they are in best, and then heat will slowly move through radiation and convection away from the stove. With open doorways and fans you may be able to get some heat to the office.

 

[Whitenuckler]

Did you ever consider a pellet stove? I agree insulation is required. Check to see if there are any government rebates.
If you need AC (which I'm sure you do) then consider heat pumps as well.

 

[begreen]

A good insert, burning dry wood, will heat the open areas of the floor well. The Office and Kitchen area much less so due to the airflow restrictions of the doorways. This may be helped a bit by fans, but the stove and dining areas will be warmer. The liner install could be $2500 so that means a basic insert. Look at the Drolet Escape 1800 and Century CW2900. Don't be surprised if the latest tariffs cause a price spike while looking.

 

[stovelark]

Welcome to the forum. As all have said, do what you can to improve your situation, insulating will benefit for cooling and heating. 4K might be a little light for budgeting, but maybe not. A good start would be to go and look at some inserts. Having your fireplace dimensions would help sort out what will fit your fireplace. I'm curious, if the fireplaces were built originally if they would just be stone fireplaces, no clay liners? Obviously, a chimney guy can guide you through the installation process, get a couple of opinions if possible. Getting it done now in the summer will help out too, as folks (the stove people and chimney people) need business. And a second for getting firewood now if possible, you need good dry seasoned wood for success. Good luck, let us know how things progress.

 

[dmccoole]

I highly recommend to get your chimney inspected before burning anything in the fireplace due to risk of chimney/house fire.
Look for someone that is certified and will provide a full chimney inspection report including pictures of interior and exterior.
They should also be able to provide an estimate for any improvements if you want to go with a wood stove, pellet stove, etc.
Some good info: https://www.csia.org/hiringchimneysweeps.html

Start with insulation as mentioned above.

The inspection results may sway you into a different direction, i.e. heat pump/mini split.

 

[banskt]

First, thank you for all your comments!

use that $4k to insulate the snot out of your attic with cellulose. Air seal around windows with caulk....

It’s really hard to beat insulation for bang for the buck. It works all year long and makes the house so much more comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, I love stoves, but I think you’d be better off with insulation first. It’ll even allow you to get a smaller stove since you’ll need less heat.

The attic is already insulated, mostly with R-30 and partly with R-19. We will work on the windows and filling up other gaps and air leaks, which are already in pretty good shape, at least according to the energy audit.

The wall insulation is expensive. We need to save money for a couple of years before we can take that project. But, after reading all the subsequent comments, we are now taking quotes for insulating only the right wall (see floor plan), and checking if there are any government rebates, as @Whitenuckler suggested.

Thank you for the primer on the wood and stove. We already got 2 cords of dry wood before last winter. Burning them was not helpful, so they are still lying around in our yard.

Did you ever consider a pellet stove? I agree insulation is required. Check to see if there are any government rebates.
If you need AC (which I'm sure you do) then consider heat pumps as well.

Thanks for bringing up the pellet stove and government rebates, we are looking at both. We don't know if we need AC, this will be our first summer here, so we will know later.

A good insert, burning dry wood, will heat the open areas of the floor well. The Office and Kitchen area much less so due to the airflow restrictions of the doorways. This may be helped a bit by fans, but the stove and dining areas will be warmer. The liner install could be $2500 so that means a basic insert. Look at the Drolet Escape 1800 and Century CW2900. Don't be surprised if the latest tariffs cause a price spike while looking.

That's very helpful! We were wondering whether the wood stove would be able to heat the open areas because, unlike radiator units, the heat source is concentrated. This answers my question. Budget sounds tight, but we have to make do with whatever we have. Thanks for the suggestions for the insert.

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks very much! Glad to be here, its a treasure trove of information.

As all have said, do what you can to improve your situation, insulating will benefit for cooling and heating. 4K might be a little light for budgeting, but maybe not. A good start would be to go and look at some inserts. Having your fireplace dimensions would help sort out what will fit your fireplace. I'm curious, if the fireplaces were built originally if they would just be stone fireplaces, no clay liners? Obviously, a chimney guy can guide you through the installation process, get a couple of opinions if possible. Getting it done now in the summer will help out too, as folks (the stove people and chimney people) need business. And a second for getting firewood now if possible, you need good dry seasoned wood for success. Good luck, let us know how things progress.

Yes, the budget is tight. We bought the home last September, and we are spending tightly at least this year and next. The fireplace are just stone fireplaces. We just did a chimney inspection, they said that there were clay liners, but the liners are not in good shape. We are trying to get it done in summer. Will keep posted how things progress.

I highly recommend to get your chimney inspected before burning anything in the fireplace due to risk of chimney/house fire.
Look for someone that is certified and will provide a full chimney inspection report including pictures of interior and exterior.
They should also be able to provide an estimate for any improvements if you want to go with a wood stove, pellet stove, etc.
Some good info: https://www.csia.org/hiringchimneysweeps.html

Start with insulation as mentioned above.

The inspection results may sway you into a different direction, i.e. heat pump/mini split.

Thanks for the recommendation. We already had a chimney inspection scheduled last week. It was done by https://www.neighborhoodchimneys.com/ -- they are certified by CSIA. The chimney liners are not in a good shape. They mentioned that getting an insert would be the best bang for the buck. The technician was slightly inclined to keep the original character of the 160 year old chimney ; he wanted to repair the clay liners and putting dampers. I agree with him, but again, that is expensive.

Why do you think the inspection results will sway us into a different direction?

 

[begreen]

An insulated stainless steel liner will make it safe. Be sure the existing liner is cleaned completely before installing.

 

[dmccoole]

"Why do you think the inspection results will us into a different direction?"

Improving a chimney to make it safe can be expensive. The cost of an insulated stainless liner, installation and cleaning of the existing tiles could easily be 4k.