Osburn 950 Placement in 970sqft House

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dzs6w3

New Member
May 30, 2022
4
Saint Louis, MO
Hi,

I planned to get a wood stove and ordered one last year. After the sellers/installers came to look at my place, I ended up settling on a location to install it. Before actually doing it, hopefully all the experts and experience here can tell me their thoughts. Attached is the layout of my house with a green dot where the stove will go.

The place I wanted it in the living room, in the top right corner is not possible due to my chimney which is used by my water heater and furnace.

A couple of notes...I'm interested in staying warm in the living room when not sleeping. When sleeping, we like it pretty cool and stay cozy in blankets, so heating the living room is key if that makes sense but more is also nice. Reducing use on the gas furnace overall is also key. Finally, if put in the middle hallway it would slightly extend into the doorways or would be inconvenient in the middle so I do not think it's an option. Also...sorry the image is not accurately to scale, the middle square hallway is slightly smaller in reality and rooms are more evenly sized.

So would being where the image shows be stupid or be decent?

Thanks for any help and info!

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That's a tough layout to heat evenly with wood. Bedrooms are not possible so it is only the living room or the kitchen. What are the living room dimensions? How large is the opening from the LR to the hallway? What stove is going in?
 
What about putting in a new, metal chimney system in the desired location that goes straight up?
 
That's a tough layout to heat evenly with wood. Bedrooms are not possible so it is only the living room or the kitchen. What are the living room dimensions? How large is the opening from the LR to the hallway? What stove is going in?
The living room is 12ft by 11ft. All the openings, like from the LR to the hallway, are 2.5 ft. The stove is an osburn 950.
 
Think about the chimney on the outside. It would be hard to install right at the edge of the roof and may need to project up out of the roof quite far depending on the roof slope. For this reason, the location with the red x may be preferable.
Note that putting the stove in a small room will rapidly turn it into a sauna. The living room is only 132 sq ft and not a lot of heat will go through a doorway without mechanical assistance.
chimney.png
Another option might be a basement install?
 
Think about the chimney on the outside. It would be hard to install right at the edge of the roof and may need to project up out of the roof quite far depending on the roof slope. For this reason, the location with the red x may be preferable.
Note that putting the stove in a small room will rapidly turn it into a sauna. The living room is only 132 sq ft and not a lot of heat will go through a doorway without mechanical assistance.
View attachment 295939
Another option might be a basement install?
The roof slopes from the apex in middle to left and right in this picture so it's the same as at the red x.

Do they make smaller stoves then or would I be sacrificing ability to put in normal size wood? Also I don't have to have it output at it's maximum right? Also like you said, I could put a fan to blow air into the hallway if desired.

I did not think about a basement install. That sounds interesting but a possibly big change?

So it doesn't turn into a sauna is it ridiculous with this size of stove? Would I have to burn a couple sticks? This is the stove the stove seller recommended.
 
It's not the stove per se, heating a 132 sq ft area with any woodstove is not very practical. The stove may never get up to operating temp. If the basement is clean and dry then it may be an option, especially if it has a way to get wood down to it. Better yet if it is insulated.

A fan blowing cooler air from the kitchen would help, but the doorways will be a restriction. Another option would be to put an intake duct in the kitchen that connects to the living room with an inline fan. This would pull cooler air into the stove room from the kitchen. However, if that only adds another 100 sq ft, the woodstove will still be overkill.