I’ve been reading posts on Hearth for a few years now. Bought a 1969 raised ranch 8 years ago that had *very* little insulation. 7 oil fill ups the first year (at $4 a gallon). Insulated most of the house, replaced baseboard heat with radiant, put a pellet stove in the basement. Went down to 3 oil fill ups a year, but also going through 3 tons of pellets. We considered replacing the pellet stove with a gas stove to eliminate the weekly maintenance but gas costs more than pellets. Took down some dead ash trees and are now looking at keeping the pellet stove in the basement but running it on 1 (instead of 3 on cold days — we’re in Nys, zone 6b, which can get pretty cold in the winter), and putting a wood burning insert in the fireplace.
Looking for an insert is not as easy as I’d thought! Every time I think I narrow it down, there seems to be some reason it wouldn’t be ideal. I think I DON’T want a catalytic converter, and DO want one with a quiet fan. The upstairs (raised ranch, basement and first floor) is about 1200sf and need one that can realistically burn all night, with a nice viewing glass. We often get power failures but do have a generator, although it’s really difficult to pull out and set up, especially as power outages usually occur when the weather is terrible. I’ve looked at quadrafire (burns a lot of wood/doesn’t last all night), Osborn (noisy fan), blaze king (catalytic) Jotul (stopped making inserts), and handful/dozen others but I’m not sure they’re durability. At least one seemed to lose heat once the trim was put on. Sorry I’m not specific, this is a new area for me and frankly I’m overwhelmed. If there’s one you can recommend and tell me why, I’d be grateful
Looking for an insert is not as easy as I’d thought! Every time I think I narrow it down, there seems to be some reason it wouldn’t be ideal. I think I DON’T want a catalytic converter, and DO want one with a quiet fan. The upstairs (raised ranch, basement and first floor) is about 1200sf and need one that can realistically burn all night, with a nice viewing glass. We often get power failures but do have a generator, although it’s really difficult to pull out and set up, especially as power outages usually occur when the weather is terrible. I’ve looked at quadrafire (burns a lot of wood/doesn’t last all night), Osborn (noisy fan), blaze king (catalytic) Jotul (stopped making inserts), and handful/dozen others but I’m not sure they’re durability. At least one seemed to lose heat once the trim was put on. Sorry I’m not specific, this is a new area for me and frankly I’m overwhelmed. If there’s one you can recommend and tell me why, I’d be grateful