My house was built in 1955, it is 1200 sqft 3 bedroom 1 bath with a HUGE fireplace and a long hallway. Fireplace is located end of the house. I have already insulated the walls, changed all windows and doors. It is hard as heck to heat this place even with all those improvements. I want the PE summit but my dad seems to think it would be too big, I think anything worth doing is worth doing to excess, what do you guys think?
PE Summit
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Well the it's always best to be oversized vs undersized. Like everyone says you can just build a small fire when its not cold out. I would have to say that you do not have any serious cold in your area and your sqft are on the small side for a Summit. That being said I have a T6 which is a Summit with a cast outer skin instead of steel. It works in deep cold and I drive it over 800 all the time and the good thing though is when its shoulder season it reacts well to small fires. I just build a small fire in the morning on 20f days. It heats the house nicely and thats all I need until the next day. I think it comes down to whether you will be using this for your sole source of heat. If so then it would be best to be a little oversized. Good luck and also check the next size down Pacific Energy stove.
What do you mean by "it's hard as heck to heat this place"? Are you using the fireplace to heat the house? I thiink I would look at the next stove size down for 1200 sq ft unless I had an old leaky house with little insulation. A 2cuft firebox stove should work fine for that size house and also give you an over night burn.
Which side of the Cascades are you on, Justin? For western OR, I would guess that the Summit would be overkill, the Pacific would probably be a better fit. But if you are in eastern OR and at a high altitude, then maybe the bigger stove would work out.
It sounds like the house may have some critical heating flaw still. How is it currently being heated and what are the bills like? Does the house have a basement or crawlspace? Also, does the house have a lot of glass area relative to the wall area? That's our problem and for us the big 3 cu ft stove is just right for our 2000 sq ft house. Insulating shades or curtains would help a lot, but my wife doesn't want to consider that (yet).
It sounds like the house may have some critical heating flaw still. How is it currently being heated and what are the bills like? Does the house have a basement or crawlspace? Also, does the house have a lot of glass area relative to the wall area? That's our problem and for us the big 3 cu ft stove is just right for our 2000 sq ft house. Insulating shades or curtains would help a lot, but my wife doesn't want to consider that (yet).
Currently i'm using a 91 Breckwell P24i insert. It works fine as long as the outside temp is above freezing. Today it is about 55f outside and my freedom 80 furnace is running about 70% of the time just to keep it 65f in here. Last winter it got down to about 15f and to keep warm we had to move our beds into the living room and block off the hallway with sheet. The living room still was only about 65f with the stove on medium setting and the hall blocked.
You got to have huge air leakes somewhere, whith my 1600 sqft house it ifs 55 out, the sun keeps it at 65 and the furnace never comes on and my house was built in 1927!
It looks like you do have a problem. It's possible that one of the things you think is good is not as an example if you had 4" instead of 6" studs. You need to open your mind to all possible sources of cold. It might be worth it in your case to get one of those guys who measure heat loss. If you can not find the leak or lack of insulation issue then you better get the Summit.
I guess my fireplace isn't as big as I thought it is... It is a massive stack of bricks but the opening isn't that big. Even the PE Pacific won't fit according to the specs online, I would need to remove about 1 1/2" X 3" X 24" section of brick across the top, nothing my roto hammer couldn't take care of. But the Summit is way too big to fit.
For what it's worth I do energy evaluations for a living in Canada. A minimum of R40-50 in the attic, R10 (ideally R20) in the basement, R20 (2*6) walls is a starting point. Don't underestimate the basement! For example, in my current house I modeled my heating capacity and my uninsulated, largely above grade basement walls were contributing 28% of my radiant BTU loss.
Meeting with VERY happy homeowners at their post evaluation (when they've done the insulating/upgrade work) has proven to me how important insulating is. It's incredible to see how much effect insulating has. As for air leak tests -- it would be best to have the test done but for now you can do this to look fr air leaks (cheap, somewhat useful test)
- Shut all the doors, batten down the hatches, burn the fire out and seal up the air intake as reasonable as you can
- Turn on all exhaust devices full blast (bathroom fans, kitchen, dryer, etc.
- Wet your finger and run around feeling for air leaks by putting your sensitive wet finger near a leak area, Since the pressure is lower inside the air will be whistling in. Since you don't have a big fan (like I do!) you can cheat on some large rooms by cracking the door to the basement for example. if you crack the door you will get a composite of all the air leaks in the basement. You can do this for all rooms you are interested in. You'll be best off receiving a proper energy evaluation and an Air Changer Per Hour test. My house is 2.5 Ach/hour at 50 Pascals. A leaky, poor farm house can be as high as 20.
Good luck -- not sure if this helps but I'll put it out there anyway.
Meeting with VERY happy homeowners at their post evaluation (when they've done the insulating/upgrade work) has proven to me how important insulating is. It's incredible to see how much effect insulating has. As for air leak tests -- it would be best to have the test done but for now you can do this to look fr air leaks (cheap, somewhat useful test)
- Shut all the doors, batten down the hatches, burn the fire out and seal up the air intake as reasonable as you can
- Turn on all exhaust devices full blast (bathroom fans, kitchen, dryer, etc.
- Wet your finger and run around feeling for air leaks by putting your sensitive wet finger near a leak area, Since the pressure is lower inside the air will be whistling in. Since you don't have a big fan (like I do!) you can cheat on some large rooms by cracking the door to the basement for example. if you crack the door you will get a composite of all the air leaks in the basement. You can do this for all rooms you are interested in. You'll be best off receiving a proper energy evaluation and an Air Changer Per Hour test. My house is 2.5 Ach/hour at 50 Pascals. A leaky, poor farm house can be as high as 20.
Good luck -- not sure if this helps but I'll put it out there anyway.
Justin said:
That didn't answer the questions.
It would also help to know how the house is laid out. Is this a ranch? 1 or 2 story?
BeGreen said:
That was actually a response to Todd as I never saw your reply till just now. Sorry. Anyway, I live on the west side of the cascades near Salem. Heating with furnace and Breckwell. 1 bag per day if using the pellet stove, not running it at night. Gas bill is about 70 per month. Has a crawlspace, about 50% insulated. Not really lots of glass. Even when it says it's warm in here it still feels very cold, I think the place is haunted.
One bag a day is what we averaged with a pellet stove before we did the remodel, so that's not hugely out of line. The house is leaking heat. They all do, the trick is to reduce this. Starting with the ceiling/attic insulation is a good plan. In our house a lot of cold air infiltration was coming up from the floors through the crawlspace. Now that our crawlspace is a sealed and insulated space, it's been a lot better. In our mild climate careful attention towards sealing up cracks and proper insulation can make a big difference.
70/month gas bill, mine is almost that high with hot water and cooking! Be happy with those kinds of heating costs.
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