Need more heat

[maple1]

Likely a bit much to hope a stove would heat a 2800 sq.ft. 2 story anything close to evenly. As already mentioned, thay are space heaters.

You might need 2 of them to meet expectations, depending on expectations. Or use more baseboard.

But first things first - make very sure your wood is good. (Dry).

 

[Ashful]

Likely a bit much to hope a stove would heat a 2800 sq.ft. 2 story anything close to evenly. As already mentioned, thay are space heaters.

I guess expectations are everything, when making qualitative conclusions, like your interpretation of the word “evenly”. I was surprised how evenly a single stove can heat a space of several rooms, having expected much more gradient than I actually experience. Hopefully the thermal resistance between your interior space and the outside world is many times higher than the thermal resistance between the stove room and any other interior space in your house. Thusly, you might experience only a few degrees variation throughout your living space, while the delta between indoor and out is many tens of degrees.

 

[Burning]

I know it would not ever be heated evenly that’s impossible

 

[jetsam]

I guess expectations are everything, when making qualitative conclusions, like your interpretation of the word “evenly”. I was surprised how evenly a single stove can heat a space of several rooms, having expected much more gradient than I actually experience. Hopefully the thermal resistance between your interior space and the outside world is many times higher than the thermal resistance between the stove room and any other interior space in your house. Thusly, you might experience only a few degrees variation throughout your living space, while the delta between indoor and out is many tens of degrees.

My house is an example. The main areas have at least 6' wide openings between the rooms, and the temperature delta between the stove room and the furthest room from the stove is only about 10°.

Then you go downstairs (strike 1) through a narrow doorway (strike 2) into a more conventional looking section with doors on every narrow 30" opening (strike 3), and the delta can be 30° or more in the winter. Probably much more if you closed the doors.

 

[Ashful]

My house is an example. The main areas have at least 6' wide openings between the rooms, and the temperature delta between the stove room and the furthest room from the stove is only about 10°.

Then you go downstairs (strike 1) through a narrow doorway (strike 2) into a more conventional looking section with doors on every narrow 30" opening (strike 3), and the delta can be 30° or more in the winter. Probably much more if you closed the doors.

Yeah, hot air don’t like going down stairs.

 

[Burning]

And being the lopi pretty much single handedly did 2,800 sq and having my farthest bedrooms around 60 when in the teens
Turned out she’s a darn good stove

 

[maple1]

I guess expectations are everything, when making qualitative conclusions, like your interpretation of the word “evenly”. I was surprised how evenly a single stove can heat a space of several rooms, having expected much more gradient than I actually experience. Hopefully the thermal resistance between your interior space and the outside world is many times higher than the thermal resistance between the stove room and any other interior space in your house. Thusly, you might experience only a few degrees variation throughout your living space, while the delta between indoor and out is many tens of degrees.

Yes, it could come down to expectations. And comfort level & desires.

Heat does not move around our house very good, at all. Fairly sectioned up. I could have one of our heating zones cranked, and the next zone over won't budge if I don't turn that stat up. Even with the new mini-splits running & moving quite a bit of air, the heat doesn't reach very far into the other ends of the house. We find a few degrees variation rather uncomfortable, so an 80-85° stove room with a 60-65° other end of the house would not fly here. That's not to say that's what everyone running a stove sees, but lots do.

 

[aatal]

My home is on a concrete slab. It's exactly what it sounds like - essentially a house built directly on a concrete block. No basement. I live in MA too. Concrete slab construction is more common down south.

Most of the slab is just not insulated. Part of my house, a later addition, was built with a slab but has water lines running through it for radiant heating.

Having never lived in any house without a basement, I always wonder what "no basement" means. Is this framed on top of blocks, like a house on short pilings? How is the floor insulated, without a basement? I know houses without basements are common in some parts of the country, we just don't see many of them here... excepting mobile homes.

 

[SpaceBus]

Having never lived in any house without a basement, I always wonder what "no basement" means. Is this framed on top of blocks, like a house on short pilings? How is the floor insulated, without a basement? I know houses without basements are common in some parts of the country, we just don't see many of them here... excepting mobile homes.

I'm in a slab covered in Terra cotta tile. It was insulated with rigid foam all the way around. There is also rigid foam under it to prevent frost heave. The rigid foam around the edges has been removed due to pests with probably gravel going back in the place of the foam. Our slab might be a bit colder this next winter, but the rest of our house will be ridiculously well insulated. The slab also acts as a thermal mass. Mid summer the slab starts to heat up and it stays warm until January. Then it gets cooler for the rest of the year. I've read stone and other mansory houses are the same way, but even more so. I suspect you have some experience with this. Our wood stove has a heat shield on the bottom and really doesn't heat the floor, but most stoves are probably the same for applying heat to the floor.

We have two female dogs, 50 lb pit bull and 20 year old 6 lb chihuahua that won't sit or lay on the tile floor. We jokingly say the floor is lava, but my wife won't walk on it barefoot either, unless we come in from 80+ f. Myself and my German Shepherd are the only occupants that walk on it barefoot. My wife also says my feet are like suede boots.

 

[Ashful]

The slab also acts as a thermal mass. Mid summer the slab starts to heat up and it stays warm until January. Then it gets cooler for the rest of the year. I've read stone and other mansory houses are the same way, but even more so. I suspect you have some experience with this.

Two thirds of my house is stone, 20” thick granite and red shale mud-stacked walls, and weighs in just around 1 million pounds. By comparison, my 1000 sq.ft. basement slab is a negligible 50,000 lb., slabs just don’t weigh much.

This house holds noticeable heat for a few days, like 3 days after a heat wave, or after a stove goes out. In the fall, I suspect it buys me several days of not having to run heat when we have a below-average day or night. But the time scale is nowhere near months, as you seem to experience. It is really just a few days, in my case.

What it does nicely is ride us thru cold evenings, where the daily average is much warmer. This is the case whether we are talking about a 50F low during a 70F average week, or a 0F low on a 20F average week, it really saves me from having to work hard to make heat during a single cold day, or two.

If your slab is holding summer heat into January, you must have some pretty fantastic insulation between it and the outside. Even with just air, not dirt against the outside of the million pounds of stone that make up stone walls, mine is nowhere near that good.

 

[SpaceBus]

Two thirds of my house is stone, 20” thick granite and red shale mud-stacked walls, and weighs in just around 1 million pounds. By comparison, my 1000 sq.ft. basement slab is a negligible 50,000 lb., slabs just don’t weigh much.

This house holds noticeable heat for a few days, like 3 days after a heat wave, or after a stove goes out. In the fall, I suspect it buys me several days of not having to run heat when we have a below-average day or night. But the time scale is nowhere near months, as you seem to experience. It is really just a few days, in my case.

What it does nicely is ride us thru cold evenings, where the daily average is much warmer. This is the case whether we are talking about a 50F low during a 70F average week, or a 0F low on a 20F average week, it really saves me from having to work hard to make heat during a single cold day, or two.

If your slab is holding summer heat into January, you must have some pretty fantastic insulation between it and the outside. Even with just air, not dirt against the outside of the million pounds of stone that make up stone walls, mine is nowhere near that good.

Perhaps it was the insulation, or maybe I'm just remembering it favorably. The insulation in question was 2" thick closed cell foam, not polystyrene (SP?). Some days I wish I had a basement, but others I'm glad for less areas of maintenance. From a functional perspective, it would be nice to hide all of our utilities under the house rather than sacrifice usable above grade square footage.

 

[aatal]

I have not spent a winter in my home yet, but im not expecting warmth until January. I have noticed that it is very comfortable in this long stretch of 80-90 heat until you go upstairs, so the slab definitely helps.

 

[SpaceBus]

I have not spent a winter in my home yet, but im not expecting warmth until January. I have noticed that it is very comfortable in this long stretch of 80-90 heat until you go upstairs, so the slab definitely helps.

I like the slab for summer for sure.

 

[jetsam]

Okay, everyone who has sat down and figured out how much their house weighs, raise your hands.

 

[begreen]

Looks like this thread has wandered off into the weeds, or slabs and stoners as it would be. Conclusion, the Lopi is ok after all.
Say Good night Gracie.