opinions on supplemental heating options

[tinindian]

Good morning,

Finally after 2 1/2 months of waiting my PE Vista insert was installed this past Friday. Did my break in fires Friday night and Saturday and got a nice hot fire going last night, it was great. The problem I have is that my home is a split level design and my fireplace is in the family room on the main level. The upper bedrooms heat up adequately but the lower level that has one bedroom and a TV room that is used all the time does not. Here are the options I'm considering.

Option 1: Install an electric baseboard heater in each of the two rooms in the lower level.

Option 2: Move forced air heater control thermostat to the lower level and close down the baffles in the ducts going to the main level. This way the natural gas furnace would heat the lower level and also give a little extra heat to the upper bedrooms. And use my PE Vista to heat the main level.

Thanks,

 

[Todd]

Have you tried moving air with fans? Maybe a fan on the floor pointed towards the stove room would help?

 

[tinindian]

The layout of the house does not make that a good option. The other thing is that the cold rooms are at a lower level than the main room so I don't think that I would be able to get the hot air to travel down towards the lower level very well.

 

[pgmr]

I use the furnace fan to distribute the warm air around the house. We have a high efficiency Bryant furnace with an ecm powered fan. The fan only uses ~90W on low speed.

It does a good job of distributing the warm air throughout the house, though the bedrooms are still cooler than the other end of the house where the stove sits. That's fine with me as I don't really want to sleep in an oven.

 

[tinindian]

I tried running the blower fan constantly on to see if that helps but I didn't find it to be sufficient. It was on normal blower speed, I don't have a low setting, and the air coming from the ducts felt cool. I realise that the moving air will feel colder than the still air in the room but the ambient temperature in the room was also on the cold side. It was borderline bearable last night but then we only went down to 0C (32F), I don't think it will be OK when winter comes and we dip deep into the sub freezing temperatures.

I also thought of placing a fan in front of the duct return in the family room where the fireplace is hopeful to help increase the flow of warm air to the duct system, but haven't tried that yet.

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

I'm of the opinion that Electric Baseboard heat is a good option, if you time/control your
use of it. Many utilities offer "Time of Use Savings", which in our case, reduces the rate down to
5 cents/kW hour, and is very competitive w/ propane. If your not in the room, then don't use it.
It offers for very selective/flexible Zone Selective heating. Otherwise, you can spend most of your
time in the areas that are affected by your woodstove (that's what our family ends up doing).

My 2 cents worth......

 

[Highbeam]

I spent most of my young years in a split level home. Very common construction here in the NW during the 70s. Doesn't your chimney go all the way to the lower floor? Really, you should probably have put your insert down there but assuming you aren't going to move it and since you have NG plumbed to your home I would very seriously consider installing a NG stove in the lower level. Since you use that lower TV room "all the time" I would have put my stove there in the first place.

If you can't or don't want another stove of any sort in the basement then I would agree with Rob and install electric heaters either as baseboard models or as in the wall blower units. These are installed permanently and run on a thermostat, even programmable ones, so that you can only heat it when you want. No cords to trip over or heater to knock over, bump into, etc.

 

[tinindian]

I spent most of my young years in a split level home. Very common construction here in the NW during the 70s. Doesn’t your chimney go all the way to the lower floor? Really, you should probably have put your insert down there but assuming you aren’t going to move it and since you have NG plumbed to your home I would very seriously consider installing a NG stove in the lower level. Since you use that lower TV room “all the time” I would have put my stove there in the first place.

The fireplace is on the main floor not the lower level. The lower level is on the apposite side of the house and is not the basement. The chimney for my fireplace end at the fireplace and that's really to only place that I could install an insert.

If you can’t or don’t want another stove of any sort in the basement then I would agree with Rob and install electric heaters either as baseboard models or as in the wall blower units. These are installed permanently and run on a thermostat, even programmable ones, so that you can only heat it when you want. No cords to trip over or heater to knock over, bump into, etc.

I don't want to install a wood burning stove in the lower level because it's not that large and even a small stove would be overkill and with the required hearth it would also take up a large part of the usable space.

I'm wondering what would make more sense economically installing 2 baseboard heaters or moving the thermostat to the lower level and having the NG furnace cycle on to keep the lower level heated.

 

[begreen]

If you want to try using the furnaces blower system, don't close off vents. That will imbalance the system. Leave them as set and just try it.

Another option is brute force. With a large stand fan blowing down towards the lower level you might get some heat down there.

I'd probably go for the electric heaters and maybe move the TV upstairs for the winter?

 

[tinindian]

I’d probably go for the electric heaters and maybe move the TV upstairs for the winter?

The lower level is kind of an in-law suit, my in-laws use it not the rest of the family. The other TV is on the level with the fireplace. I guess if I leave it cold on the lower level maybe the in-laws will go away. I think I will try moving the thermostat first since it does not involve me purchasing anything and see how that works. Next it will be baseboard heaters.

 

[Highbeam]

With NG available I would pursue one of the available stand-alone heaters that exhaust out through the wall. They will be cheaper to run but not as cheap to buy as baseboard heaters unless you have to do extensive electrical work to get the baseboards in.

 

[fossil]

...I guess if I leave it cold on the lower level maybe the in-laws will go away.

Maybe a little unobtrusive A/C unit just for insurance. Rick

 

[fredarm]

Meanwhile, let us know how you like your Vista insert. I've been using mine for a month or so and loving it! It really cranks out the heat when you get it going.

 

[tinindian]

The wife was a little skeptical about the whole thing when we first started considering fitting it into our open fireplace back in August, now after a couple of days burning, I get a call from her this afternoon, she tells me she's home early and wants to know how to light a fire. She never really admitted I was right but that's good enough for me.

I love the Vista, it really heats the place up. Although I was a little concerned today after loading a couple of logs it really started to heat up even though the air inlet was less than half open. I have one of those magnetic thermometers sitting on the top of the firebox and it was reading 650 degrees. I looked at the manual to see what temp is considered over firing but all it says that if the flue collar starts to glow it's being over fired. It usually cruises between 450 and 500 degrees.

 

[lazeedan]

I like the idea of a new A/C unit. :lol: