New Stove is Needed

[Walleye84]

Good Day,
I have a 2200 Sq Ft. ranch home. It is an old farm house that is well enough insulated, but had 2 additions over the years prior to me. The main issue is the Master Bedroom was added on w/out increasing the size of the HVAC system, which is already old and needing replaced as its an Air to Air Heat Pump and when the emergency heat kicks on (which is basically mid December through February), my electric bill is about $600 a month. So its too small for the house, doesnt function properly, and old. The current wood stove is noted on the image, and according to a few sellers, and forums, the model of Earth Stove insert I have is the worst ever produced, "if I can get someone to take it for free" I'd be in a better place. So I want to upgrade to a pellet stove, but 1-can't afford a Harman 2-not sure if even the best stove in the current location will do anything to heat the bedrooms. None of the 3 east rooms have returns in them, so they get very cold in the winter, the North end of the master was about 63 all winter along the wall. And they never installed any HVAC in the North West corner of the house, which I don't expect any stove to get heat back there. I do have ceiling fans in the kitchen and living room. We do intend to put a small wood stove in the master bedroom, more for ambiance and a little heat, but that is very low on the priority list. My questions are-What would be the best location to install in a new stove, or use the current chimney and get another insert. Would buying even a 50k btu be able to add heat to the entire house as secondary heat, I don't plan on this being the sole source. Would adding a sort of transom like hole above the 3 doors be beneficial? And finally, is buying a box store brand pellet stove really that bad of a decision? TIA

North

 

[johneh]

Welcome to the forum!
First, a pellet stove is a space heater, not a whole-house furnace.
Some people here do very well with fans to move the heat, others, like me, not so good.
Buy the biggest output stove you can find . Harman and Envrio offer units that make 60 thousand BTU .
Maybe you can find a used one! The stove location now would work best with fans to push air toward
the stove, so the hot air moves in from the ceiling to the bedrooms. Others will chime in with their thoughts
and recommendations

 

[Whitenuckler]

Good Day,
I have a 2200 Sq Ft. ranch home. It is an old farm house that is well enough insulated, but had 2 additions over the years prior to me. The main issue is the Master Bedroom was added on w/out increasing the size of the HVAC system, which is already old and needing replaced as its an Air to Air Heat Pump and when the emergency heat kicks on (which is basically mid December through February), my electric bill is about $600 a month. So its too small for the house, doesnt function properly, and old. The current wood stove is noted on the image, and according to a few sellers, and forums, the model of Earth Stove insert I have is the worst ever produced, "if I can get someone to take it for free" I'd be in a better place. So I want to upgrade to a pellet stove, but 1-can't afford a Harman 2-not sure if even the best stove in the current location will do anything to heat the bedrooms. None of the 3 east rooms have returns in them, so they get very cold in the winter, the North end of the master was about 63 all winter along the wall. And they never installed any HVAC in the North West corner of the house, which I don't expect any stove to get heat back there. I do have ceiling fans in the kitchen and living room. We do intend to put a small wood stove in the master bedroom, more for ambiance and a little heat, but that is very low on the priority list. My questions are-What would be the best location to install in a new stove, or use the current chimney and get another insert. Would buying even a 50k btu be able to add heat to the entire house as secondary heat, I don't plan on this being the sole source. Would adding a sort of transom like hole above the 3 doors be beneficial? And finally, is buying a box store brand pellet stove really that bad of a decision? TIA

North
View attachment 341491

My first thoughts would be one or two mini split heat pumps. One mini split can have 3 heads which will give you heat and AC. They works good, but if you go below -15C it's not the best. You could have a new wood stove in the living room, or a pellet stove. The pellet stove is easier in that you don't have to worry about a wood supply. I have a pellet stove in the basement.

 

[mtnbiker727]

OK, so this is a pretty long response, but I think about this a lot and am trying to heat our house exclusively with our pellet stove, so hopefully you can stick with me here...

As Johneh pointed out, pellet stoves are space heaters and not intended to provide whole house heat. Having said that, I have been pretty successful in our former house at making it work with a basement install and a 68k BTU stove.

I'm currently sitting in the kitchen of our (new to us) 1,800 sq ft farmhouse with the pellet stove roaring in the living room next to me.
So far this stove is doing a pretty good job of heating this poorly insulated 2 story house with temps dropping into the 20s and 30s a few mornings lately. I'm using about 1 bag per day. We'll see what happens this winter when it's actually cold. Assuming the government opens back up and my paychecks start coming again, we'll work on tightening up the house next year, but it's just not in the cards for this year.

I grew up in a house that was heated exclusively with a wood stove, so that's what my intention has always been with this pellet stove.

My advice:

1. Buy the biggest pellet stove you can afford. You can't get one too big.
2. Put the stove in the center of your house, which in this case it looks like your living room.
3. Put a fan on top of the stove to direct the heat towards the bedrooms. NOT one of those "heat activiated" fans.
4. Keep all your bedroom doors open
5. buy a little electric heater for each bathroom and only use it when you're getting in the shower.

You will still struggle to provide heat to the bedrooms, the doorways and hallways are extremely limiting. Even with a 6 foot archway between my living room and kitchen, the kitchen is still noticeably cooler than the living room, so I put a small fan on top of the stove, which helps a little. You can put fans all over your house to move air around, but I don't like doing that.

Honestly, if that hallway wall is not a structural wall, I would try to chop that back and make a wide archway to open things up a bit. It's just so closed in back there...