I am new to this site so give me time to get used to this forum. My problem is my husband and I are in the process of building a new log home and are having a hard time deciding what to put in for the fireplace. We are using El Dorado stone instead on real stone but can't decide between putting in a real wood fireplace, have looked at the Quadrafire 7100p, kind of expensive and putting a pellet insert in because of convenience and getting up in age for hauling wood and cutting wood!! I have a hard time convincing myself to put an insert into new construction. Neither one of us like the look of a free standing stove. Any suggestions??
Need help deciding what to put in log home
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Loveshorse said:
Welcome to the Hearth. Get set for a lot of questions and and answers. It would help a lot to get a lot more details about you home, where, how big, floor plan, are you going to use stove/insert for primary heat, and all the rest of the questions. If you're like me, pellets are a good option, but if costs are important and you have wood available cheap or free, you can buy good labor saving devices.
The only dumb questions are the ones not asked, so let 'er rip.
Our home is going to be 2700 square feet, not an open floor plan so am worried about even heat thru the entire home. Probably won't be used as primary heat, we are investing alot of money into an energy efficient heat pump. We are gone during the day for 12-14 hours and would like to come home to a warm house. We do have readily available wood, about 15 acres of it. But have done the cutting, splitting, hauling thing and are getting older, but still am torn as a wood fire in a log house just seems natural. Have never had any experience with a pellet insert so not sure how realistic the fire looks, although some of them can have ceramic logs in them. Has anyone ever had experience with a Harman pellet insert? They have the bottom feed system. Ha anyone ever had problems with the feeder getting jammed with thier pellet insert?
Welcome to the forum. I was going to put in a free standing stove also. I ended up putting in a Quad Mt. VernonAE pellet insert. I too am getting older and there are some aches and pains involved with splitting my own wood. This stove has a t-stat and comes on and off as needed. As Titan said check out the castile insert also. If you put in geothermal, nothing is going to be as cheap to operate. Good luck, Quick
Bob512 said:
Bob:
Did he say, Geothermal? I didn't read that, just a high effecient heat-pump.
Well, we can eliminate the top of the Sierras, or Glacier Park, but the location of your home would help. Stoves and inserts have different characteristics in burning, and alternate fuel availability plays into your questions. In my opinion a free stander is a better direct deliverer of heat, but if you are interested in an insert, my opinion is to look at Travis Industries, Lopi, ir Avalon. A lot depends on the dealer availability to service any problems.
Share, share, share..... Enguiring minds want to know....
Hi Lovehorse and welcome. Knowing your regional location will help us determine the heating load. I had the Quadrafire 1200i insert for 5 years and really liked it. It was simple, reliable and low maintenance. But they are not for everyone. For one thing it's not as quiet as some woodstoves.
With the heatpump, why get a pellet stove? All you should need is a programmable thermostat that raises the temp before you get home. We're in a similar situation with a new heatpump and decided to go with a real wood stove for this setup. It's quiet, deep heat that will give you a lot of visual satisfaction as well. And it's really not much more work to bring in a load of wood, than a 40 lb. bag of pellets. (If burning pellets you'll need to do this at least once a day.)
You can make wood toting easier. We use a garden cart to fill a wood box on the porch. It holds about a week's worth of wood. The good thing with the wood stove is that it heats during a power outage. We tested this fully during a big storm this winter; no power for a week. We were burning 24/7 and ever so grateful to have the wood stove.
With the heatpump, why get a pellet stove? All you should need is a programmable thermostat that raises the temp before you get home. We're in a similar situation with a new heatpump and decided to go with a real wood stove for this setup. It's quiet, deep heat that will give you a lot of visual satisfaction as well. And it's really not much more work to bring in a load of wood, than a 40 lb. bag of pellets. (If burning pellets you'll need to do this at least once a day.)
You can make wood toting easier. We use a garden cart to fill a wood box on the porch. It holds about a week's worth of wood. The good thing with the wood stove is that it heats during a power outage. We tested this fully during a big storm this winter; no power for a week. We were burning 24/7 and ever so grateful to have the wood stove.
Bob512 said:
Sorry, I may have over reacted geo-systems here start at $20.000 and average about $45-50,000. The pipe alone because of the corrosive nature runs at least $10,000. Digging a short lay system could cost $20 grand to get through the crust. We have thermal springs here, but they will suck the chrome off an 56 Ford bumper in 15 minutes. Guess I see things a little, DesertDifferent.
there cloud be some cost savivg on a pellet insert for instalation as many of the units can be installed as self contained zero-cleance units if you ran two heatzone kits on the 7100 you cloud get some good even heat for cheap as pellet prices are still high in may areas and the cost of wood is still reasonable. but the finished price of a 7100 installed cloud be 5k plus and a insert all said and done would likely come in the 3k range
Bob512
The Quad Mt. Vernon is what we're looking at also. Are you happy with it? We live in the eastern part of Texas, doesn't get extremely cold here, high teens with a bad winter, thirty's normally. Do you need to install a fire box before putting the Quad in?
The Quad Mt. Vernon is what we're looking at also. Are you happy with it? We live in the eastern part of Texas, doesn't get extremely cold here, high teens with a bad winter, thirty's normally. Do you need to install a fire box before putting the Quad in?
mkake sure the stove has been updated it is a very nice stove and has some real good features but the first lot out of the factory especially had some big issues convection blowers failing bad thermocouples and some bad themostats there is no need for a firplace around it it may need something under it would need to check install instructions but it is a nice unit.
I think all the quad pellet inserts have rear shrouds you can order that allow them to be installed as a "built in" fireplace. At least the ones we have dealt with have them. A dealer should be able to look in their price book and hook you up with the correct parts. They have everything one would need to install it as a built in available right from quad, even the floor protection.
My Mt. Vernon came with a metal fire box. As Jtp and Stoveguy have said it is a nice stove. Quad has shipped a lot of them back to the factory for the issues that were stated. They put the upgrades on mine here at the house. Quad seems to be on top of any problems. It's nice the way it operates with a t-stat. The only thing I can find wrong is the hopper is not quite as big as the free standing unit. Good luck in your search, Quick
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