New house, old stove, newbie

[jmack2725]

We have a new build with a 2500 sq ft basement, 9' ceilings, 2500 sq ft 1st floor, 900 sq ft 2nd floor. I am all electric with a 6 ton geothermal hvac system. I have a heat n glo wood insert on 1st floor used more for looks than heat, no doors, no blower. I just bought a used nashua stove with 2 speed blower for the basement and have it piped in to a seperate 8" flu that fireplace guys roughed in for me in basement. My main intent for the wood stove was to help the geo system out from running constantly in winter, tstat set on 68. I thought it was possible because I have couple friends with similar configurations and their unit helps maintain 69 without the geo kicking on at all when temps are high teens or above. So far, I have run the stove off and on for a few days, loading it every 2-3 hours. I tried the eco bricks first and switched over to seasoned ash which seemed to burn quite well but I'm not getting good results at all. When the unit is running hot, it seems there is no radiant heat from the unit unless you stand almost on top of it even with the blower going. The units I've been around seem you can feel the heat from a good distance away and they didn't have blower motors. I do have a flu damper installed and have it almost closed to slow down the burn. Am I asking too much for the square footage or could it be something with the stove ? Let me know your thoughts and possible things to try, thanks !!

 

[begreen]

Start a conversation with oldspark. He had a Nashua.

 

[Motor7]

How much of you basement walls are underground and for those that are not are they insulated? The reason I am asking is that if they are bare concrete block the R-value is a 1 which is the same as a 1" plywood/OSB wall. Your stove just might not be able to keep up with the loss.