New to The Forum - And a Question

[Wood1Dennis]

Hi,

My wife and I are building a new house. With a good sized woodlot and basically all the firewood I can make we are planning get most of our heat from a woodburner.
I have been around wood burning all my life. My folks have heated with a wood furnace since they built in the 80s, we have heated a cottage with wood too, even my Grandpa used to make and heat with wood, to it is a no-brainer for me to do the same. Becides, I really love getting out in the woods and making firewood.
I have questions to start with to try to determine what kind of wood stove or furnace will best work for us. Not sure if that goes here or elsewhere on this forum so let me know if you have any suggestions!

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[razerface]

Tell your sq footage to start. A budget too. Maybe house layout.

Welcome to the forum. Someone will be along to help....

There are reviews on a lot of stoves here. Maybe read about the ones that are available in your area.

 

[DougA]

Hmmmm. What's the question?

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Start with this thread and links for some background info to get you started.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/read-before-posting-or-answering-which-new-stove-to-buy.115094/

 

[brad wilton]

The newer stoves like dry wood so start cutting and stacking it will make your life with the stove way easier.

 

[Wood1Dennis]

OK, it looks like this is a good place to start!

Our house is going to be 1700 square foot ranch, open concept with a forced air LP furnace. It will be tightly constructed with a very good insulation package, windows, etc. It has an open staircase from basement to main floor. I want to put the wood burner in the basement.

My question is this. I am torn between an indoor wood furnace and a wood stove. If I go furnace, it would go in the utility space next to the gas furnace, tied into the heating ductwork. I have a quote for a PSG Caddy. If I go with a wood stove, I would put it in the front living space of the basement, put a cold air return in the furnace ductwork near it and use the forced air system fan to circulate the heat throughout the house. For this option I am looking at a Blaze King Princess.

I think I will get better efficiency with the stove and have a nice fireplace in the living space to enjoy. The furnace option is something I have history with, and even controlled heating the house evenly seems to be this systems strongpoint. My impression is that I will burn more wood with the furnace and may not get the burn times that I would get with the stove. I would really like to hear from someone that has experience with both approaches, but any insight into either one would be appreciated.

Thanks, Dennis

 

[tcassavaugh]

welcome to the forum. have never used a wood furnace but have used a wood stove in the basement and tried to use the duct work to heat the house evenly. that option didn't work work for me. part of the reason was that the return duct work is up in the attic and not insulated. heating exclusively from the basement for my 2400 sq ft ranch; 12oo upstairs and 1200 in a mostly finished basement, the air would cool down by the time it got back to the registers. also i found that i just use a lot of extra wood trying to heat the whole house with the one stove. what worked for me was a two stove method. i have a large PE Summit downstairs that i use on days like today 20 degrees with a 15 mph wind with a feels like 10 degrees to supplement my Jotul F3CB upstairs. the combination works for me because we don't use the downstairs too much and the Jotul does a pretty good job most of the time upstairs.....especially if we're around to feed it.
your open staircase will certainly help with moving the air around. it takes a day or so for the heat to permeate the house from below but its nice to walk around on warm floors. good luck, i think the princess is a good choice.....why not a King?

 

[Rearscreen]

Hi Dennis, curious as to why you are going forced hot air. It would be hard to beat the comfort of hydronic radiant floor and it's efficiency. For cooling split system heat pumps are efficient as well. Looking at a fire and feeling the heat from your couch also can not be beat. What usually happens with a stove in the basement - soon after the bar gets installed down there, big screen TV, guys come over for the game...