newbie - building new house with hearth room - need advice

[rembuf]

we are building a new home with a hearth room on the main floor. the room with be next to the kithchen and great room - no walls really (just behind where we are putting the stove) just columns and open space. the great room will have 18 ft ceilings. the dealer estimates that there is about 1500-2000 square feet that can be heated on the first floor. he also estimates about 40ft of pipe (at $200 per 4ft section!) must be installed.

he thinks we are between a vc resolute or an vc encore, we were leaning toward the resolute for 2 reasons: cost, and we are afraid that the bigger encore might make the hearth room too hot. he also is a dealer for dutch west, which he recommends the medium size.

after reading about the vc bankruptcy, the comments on here, and the cost for the pipes, flashing and stove ($4500 without install) we are rethinking our choice. although we have cut and split over 100 trees on the site so a woodburner is really a must.

i guess we are looking for advice on the size selection, the manufacturer, the cost estimates i was given and any other thoughts or ideas. big questions, but any help is appreciated! thanks,

 

[begreen]

Welcome rembuf. If the stove is somewhat centrally located with an open floorplan, you are already way ahead of the game. Congratulations. It would help to know the total square footage and expectations. Will you be heating 24/7 with the stove or do you want it to be supplemental? There are several options. What is most important, aesthetics, heat, ease of use?

I do concur with your concerns about VC right now. With a 40ft stack (is that really right, is there a floor above the great room?) I would also be concerned about strong draft on a downdraft stove. From what you have indicated and your climate zone, I suspect that a bigger stove may work out fine, but need to know the total size of the house and how well insulated it will be.

 

[rembuf]

Thanks for the reply BeGreen. The total is about 5000 sf. In addition to the rooms mentioned, there is a first floor master along with an office, but our expectations is that they won't be getting much benefit since they further away. We would use this as supplemental heat mostly. We are are making the hearth room more of a 'signature' room with wainscoating and nice touches since it's wide open and right off the kitchen...so looks are important. Ease of use next, then heat, I guess...don't forget cost! We are already in over our head with the large house! Don't get me wrong, with all the wood we have I would like to make it the primary heat source, but realistically I think it might be more work than I can handle, so it probably will end up supplemental. We also will have a Rumford fireplace in the greatroom right around the corner...not a real heat source though.

The stack goes up through a second floor bedroom closet, through the rafters and to the back of the roof...not quite 40ft, but in the low 30's, so they estimate. The house will be insulated with R38 and has 6in outside walls with Tyvek wrap. The builder does a good job tightening it up, so I have been told. We are on about 15 acres tucked off the road a bit.

I have also been looking at the Jotul 500 Oslo as well, but I think it's even more $$. Either way I have to make a decision because the builder is at the point of piping. I should have done more research earlier, after reading a lot of posts, it's not as easy a decision as I thought. Thanks for the input...

 

[Jags]

With that long of a pipe run I would just like to throw out 2 caution areas. 1st is excessive draft, that is gonna be a real sucker when you get your stove fired up. And 2nd, the cooling effect of a stove pipe that long. You will want to keep a close eye on that pipe (at least during the learning curve) to make sure you don't get excessive buildup (creosote) inside of that pipe.

It shouldn't be a show stopper, just something to keep in mind.

 

[fossil]

With 18' ceilings, make sure you've got ceiling fan(s) in your budget...or else hang some hammocks and rope ladders so you can lounge around up there where all your heat's collecting. :gulp: Rick

 

[Corie]

There's a pretty good chance you may need to use a barometric damper or manual pipe damper with all of the vertical pipe. Maybe you should turn horizontal and run that the length of the house to slow the gases down (kidding).

 

[begreen]

A 5000 sq ft house in WNY is likely to have a very large heating bill. Perhaps consider setting it up so a portion can be blocked off for winter to reduce the heating load or install 2 large stoves? Or maybe a central wood/gas boiler?