Placement of Wood Stove

[cjgoode]

If you are going to have a furnace or hvac system you should be able to have an intake into that system in the basement and use the fan in that system to distribute air without using propane. They have thermostats that can run the fan on a schedule like 15 minutes every hour or what ever you want. Then you can put the stove where you want and the intake where it can suck up that warm air and push it through out the entire house as long as there is a path for the air to flow back to the basement. Inlaws farm had a door to their basement with a wood stove that had a grate in it that even took an air filter to allow flow back into the basement. Could even have two intakes with the ability to which intake is being used. I would assume the furnace would also be in the basement. New construction gives lots of options.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

The basement and main floor will see equal amounts of use. I think my only options are basement install or installing two smaller stoves, one for each floor. True?

We used to live in a raised ranch before we relocated. It had a brick fireplace in the basement into which we installed an insert in order to provide heat down there. We had a good natural gas furnace, but if we had the heat set where we wanted upstairs, downstairs needed additional heat. Once we installed the stove, the downstairs became the warm spot, and the kids naturally gravitated there. It was set up as a big rec. room, but in the fall when we started burning, they would ask me to relocate their school desks downstairs because they wanted to be near the fire.

We didn’t plan to heat our whole house with the stove but once we had it for a couple seasons we found that we generally could, but we never minded running the natural gas furnace to warm up the back bedroom or bathroom if necessary. We did use fans to move heat and opened up some grates above the stove to let heat upstairs. (There was a huge beam across the middle of the basement ceiling that kept the peak heat from traveling to the staircase.

You have the advantage of planning your own layout, and so you can make a basement stove centrally located with good access to the upstairs. I’d also consider whether your heat should be zoned or whether mini-splits would be a good choice.

If we had had any room in our former house, we would have loved a second stove upstairs. Stoves are space heaters. You can heat a whole house with one (though ranch layouts are harder), but there will be temperature differentials. When you spoil yourself by sitting near the stove, it can feel chilly when you move away.

I think it’s reasonable to put a stove in the basement if you have a way to get wood in there directly from the outside. If you don’t have a door in your plans, I would look at what you could do to have one. (I also prefer doors as emergency exits, especially for children.) I would not want to haul wood down stairs regularly. There’s a lot of accident potential there.

You also asked about planning on two stoves. I don’t know that you need to go there at the outset, but I believe that I would want to consider it strongly before committing to only one.

It sounds delightful to be building a forever home on family land. Have fun!

 

[Kansas Farmgirl]

Its often said stoves are space heaters so having them where you need them is ideal. If you are sure wood heating is for you then 2 stoves would be assure you'll have heat where you need it and it looks like you have a good amount of space.

One the other hand you could start with your basement install and see how that works out but have a plan if you ever decide to add one on the main floor. With new construction one stove may do it.

Just in case you haven't read this, new wood stoves require wood that has been split then dried for about 2 yrs on avg. Many here have a three supply so you have to be up for that.

Valid point on starting with one and planning for two. We have done nothing but trim up hedge rows and clean out pastures since we moved back out here 3 years ago so we have a quite a bit of wood stacked up.

 

[Kansas Farmgirl]

My maternal grandparents moved back to Dickinson Co. Kansas after WW the 2. One thing I haven't seen mentioned here is wind. No matter what, you probably ought to start out with whatever special wind deflecting chimney cap your local dealer suggests and be prepared to upgrade if it doesn't work well enough to suit you.



There are a LOT of really good stoves on the market right now. Who are the three wood stove dealers closest to you that you will be forced to rely on somehwat, and what brands do they carry. I would rather have a pretty good stove with excellent support...



Mmm, maybe kinda sorta. My youngest is 23, my oldest 32. Kids don't stray far from the television until they get their own wifi devices, but they don't get very far from the refrigerator either. I think there is going to be a fair bit of pressure on your floor plan for the great room to be the place where the family hangs out together.



have you thought about an HRV system? Retrofitting an HRV is a pain in the neck, and they aren't cheap, but they can give you a lot of benefit over time.


Nobody on this website is going to disagree.



Interior. This has been about beat half to death above. Let me try to explain a different way. Historically wood stoves would put about 75% of the BTUs in the fuel load out into the house, and the other 25% would be 'wasted' up the chimney. Currently you won't have to look very hard to find stove efficiencies in the 88% range, a nice incremental change right? You have to burn less wood to keep your house the same temp. But your chimney is screaming, because half the energy it had available to pump smoke out of your house is gone.

For a modern stove, keep your chimney inside your insulation envelope as long as possible. Put your pierce through the roof as close to the peak as possible - so that the length of pipe out in the weather is as short as possible. And in Kansas, start with a wind cap.



Well you asked. I have been an RN for twenty years. I spent the last year, and 2018 coming up, in home health. I go to the houses of people who aren't sick enough to be hospital inpatients, and aren't well enough to go see their doctor. Stairs is huge.

To be independent at "home" as long as possible you really 'need' to get from your bed to the toilet, the refrigerator and a vehicle. On crutches, or in a wheelchair, or with a walker. Lose the 2-6 door to the master bedroom. I would suggest 3-6 doors throughout on the main level. 42". If you blow out your ACL tomorrow playing raquet ball and find yourself in a knee immobilizer on crutches for six weeks you won't need any further explanation.

Also, can you grade a driveway into the front lawn so 40 or 50 years from now you can hobble out the front door with your walker, no stairs, and climb into a minivan driven by one of your now 45 year old twins? I think having the garage downstairs is fine. When it is too much effort to walk up and down the stairs it might be time to stop driving.

Find a physical therapist and have them look at your master bath floor plan. Put your grab bars in now. Figure out how you can take a shower when walking out the front door is a taxing effort. Having a chair or other place to sit in front of the bathroom sink while you shave, put on makeup or brush your teeth is the difference between staying at home or moving to an ALF for a tragically high number of people. Mount your bathroom sink to the wall, with no vanity under it. That way later you will have 50 years experience taking care of business when you roll up to it in a wheelchair.

I would definitely put the stove on the upper level - no stairs - and position the annual wood pile outdoors somewhere with no stairs involved for that part either. My kids expect I am going to mount a bicycle basket on my (eventual) walker so I can load the basket with cord wood, hobble back indoors, and make a big enough pile to reload the stove before it is time to reload.

And put in an ENORMOUS hearth. Feet. The minimum US fire code is like 16 or 18 inches, its just ridiculously small. Make your hearth big enough that you can roll your wheelchair up on it with your toes maybe a foot from the door of the stove, while your whole body is basking in the heat coming up off your expanse of ceramic tile around the stove. Or cut slate, whatever.

When your kids finally move out you can pull the padding off your summertime chaise lounges, lay those side by side on your big hearth and spend quality time with your spouse side by side in the glow of the woodstove while you are laying on fire warmed rocks... just saying, my wife and I never actually do that. Nekkid, On days ending with a Y.

If you really love research, go to woodheat dot org and read all the articles in the "all about chimneys" section. I don't see prevailing winds labeled on your blue print, but I expect you have enough prevailing wind for it to matter. They have a pretty good explanation of stack effect there. I think if you understand stack effect you will do fine even with prevailing winds.

I got to add my g-g-g grandfather Bernt moved from Appleton, WI to Kansas when Henry Clay got the KS-NE act through the senate. He brought his 10 voting age sons with him to vote for KS to be admitted to the union as a free state. His one daughter, Emilia, was my g-g grandma. As much as I would like to say "Go Jayhawks" without coughing, I am an alum of UNC-CH and Roy WIlliams came home.

Best wishes and God bless.

I do think the idea of opening up the stairwell and putting the stove in the basement is brilliant. It is a coruscating concept and will give years and years of pleasure, until hobbling down the stairs to load the stove requires more strength than you have.

I appreciate your detailed reply. Luckily, I am a Kansas State University grad so your gain of Roy did not impact my life

Wood stove dealers...well there aren't any really. We have a few HVAC companies that sell stoves which they know very little about. This was one of the reasons I was intrigued with the Woodstock line. Everything I have read has highlighted the amazing customer service. There is a Blaze King dealer about an hour from here...may have to go check them out in person before I decide for sure.

An HRV system is a good point. I have added it to my list to ask my HVAC guy. I have no idea what kind of cost that will be, but definitely worth considering.

Winds aren't really an issue here. We are so far east we are more in line with Missouri weather. We used to live in Manhattan so I know what you are thinking in your head when you consider Kansas. What an great story by the way about your ancestors and their part in Kansas becoming a state!

Again, thanks for all the information to ponder. As you can tell, I have A LOT to learn about this.

 

[Kansas Farmgirl]

I want nothing in my home thats going to require electricity to run! In the event of a power outage you are screwed! We had a ice event several years back that left our area with out power for 1.5 weeks...no worries in this home...others did not fare as well. Poindexter is correct in that the wind never stops there....I am sure you are aware of this...he is also correct in that you must plan for the aging process...if you plan on just burning wood while you are physically able make it as easy on yourself as possible....do you have ground level access to the basement for bringing firewood in? If not make that happen! In the dead of winter with the winds howling across that open country I am not sure a single stove will handle your heat demand so plan for a second stove install now so if you decide to add a stove upstairs in the future it will not be a problem to do so.

Luckily we have a whole house on demand generator on the property. My parents had it installed when they lived on the farm...one too many ice storms where they were out of power for a week and they got the biggest one they could buy!

 

[Bad LP]

If you are not interested in a wood or biomass boiler for the whole house then I'm with the 2 stove crowd. Nice fire view stove in the LR and another in the basement. I had this arrangement in my own home but have replaced the basement unit with a wood boiler.

You couldn't give me an exterior chimney if it was free.

 

[Kansas Farmgirl]

I think I have convinced myself to put one wood stove downstairs knowing that I can always add a supplement upstairs down the road.

Here’s my next question. Besides astestics, is there a reason I would choose the PH over the Ideal Steel?

 

[edyit]

price?

 

[Tar12]

I think I have convinced myself to put one wood stove downstairs knowing that I can always add a supplement upstairs down the road.

Here’s my next question. Besides astestics, is there a reason I would choose the PH over the Ideal Steel?

Yes! Though they share the same 3.2 cu ft firebox the same heat adjustability...the PH wins hands down for me for the simple fact it can crank out up to 80K BTU on the high end vs the 60K on the Ideal...I would rather have the extra horsepower when needed....this decision is derived from having one to many under powered stoves in brutal weather!

 

[Kansas Farmgirl]

Yes! Though they share the same 3.2 cu ft firebox the same heat adjustability...the PH wins hands down for me for the simple fact it can crank out up to 80K BTU on the high end vs the 60K on the Ideal...I would rather have the extra horsepower when needed....this decision is derived from having one to many under powered stoves in brutal weather!

So you are saying that even though they are both rated as 2200 sf, when the weather gets cold and miserable, I am going to notice a difference in heat output by the PH?

 

[Tar12]

So you are saying that even though they are both rated as 2200 sf, when the weather gets cold and miserable, I am going to notice a difference in heat output by the PH?

Absolutley! The PH is their highest rated output stove..20k worth of difference is substantial in my book..and the difference will be felt! I would rather have the extra horsepower and not need it than need it and not have it. I think the PH is capable of heating more than 2200 according to their numbers.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I think I have convinced myself to put one wood stove downstairs knowing that I can always add a supplement upstairs down the road.

Here’s my next question. Besides astestics, is there a reason I would choose the PH over the Ideal Steel?

I don’t know enough about those stoves to have good input other than suggesting that you start a new thread. There are users of both on this site who can share their real-world experiences with you. The thing is your question is now buried in a thread that might not grab their attention because it’s title is about placement of a wood stove. I’d suggest starting a new topic “Ideal Steel vs. Progress Hybrid” and you’ll get more focused attention from those who aren’t already following this one.

 

[SuperJ]

Besides the obvious looks and cost.

• The PH is side loading, Ideal Steel is front loading. This can be factor if your doing a corner or alcove placement (side door clearance issues).
• Ideal steel requires an R-Value hearth (not sure about the PH).
• With the PH it looks like the extra money is going into beautiful castings, and stone work, whereas the IS is much more utilitarian looking (not necessarily a bad thing).

IMHO the average BTU output over many hours is more of a factor than peak output. I would wager the stoves are probably pretty close over the course of a full burn cycle since the firebox size is so similar, and the burn times are similar.

If you're okay with the looks of the cheaper stove (ideal steel), I'd save the difference and put it into some other things that will make your place more comfortable.