Raised Ranch Home - Pellet stove advice/pros/cons wanted!

[CurryMN]

We live in metrowest Boston area and have a raised ranch (front entry splits to up/down stairs... 3 BR, LR, DR, kitchen are upstairs and the LR/K/DR are open floor plan w/13' cathedral ceiling... downstairs is open family room w/separate laundry room leading into study). We are currently heating w/fuel oil (forced hot air w/programmable thermostats for upstairs and downstairs) and are considering switching to a pellet stove. Two friends in town w/very different floor plans own the Harman Accentra Pellet Insert and love it, but that's all we've seen so far.

We don't really have any place upstairs to put a freestanding stove, and our only fireplace is downstairs in the family room (no basement in this house) on the north end of the house, w/bedrooms (and majority of living space) upstairs at opposite end of the house. So the stove would blow into the open room downstairs toward the stairwell (banister w/spindles so fairly open). Not sure it matters, but front (east side) of family room is 1/2 underground as house is built into small hill... moving around to the north it quickly moves to ground-level (where fireplace is) and chimney is built 2/3 outside the house.

So the question we're wondering about is, how much heat should we expect to get upstairs, and how much heat loss due to external exposure? Not sure how well insulated that room is but house was built in 1988, 6yrs newer than all others in our development. We've got central air/heat now but only one ceilng fan (upstairs, in center of the cathedral ceiling). Should we expect to only be able to heat the downstairs (in which case it doesn't seem worth the $3560 plus $950 installation/venting) or will it substantially heat upstairs? Trying to figure out how to cut our fuel oil costs. I'm home alone all day but by 4pm husband & kids are home, so whole house is occupied upstairs and down for 4 hours in evening and 2 hours in morning.

So, any thoughts on whether we can heat upstairs with only 1 stove downstairs (or ways to accomplish such), how much temps could differ between the two floors (I like it 70-73 daytime in winter!), and whether this is the right (best) stove to consider (and is price reasonable?) or recommend other good options... it would all be greatly appreciated. Neither of us has ever had a home w/anything other than oil heat so this is totally new ground for us. Thanks in advance for any help/input!!

 

[hossthehermit]

Have you thought about a pellet furnace, tied in to your existing ductwork?

 

[CurryMN]

Hadn't heard of such a thing but our furnace is from 1988 (new w/house) and probably quite inefficient compared to new. Not sure that we have the kind of money that would be needed to redo the whole system (or what would be involved).

SEE REVISED REPLY, now considering this!!

 

[jtakeman]

There are many members here heating from the basement. I'm included and struggled to move heat upstairs. From experience, I'd say spend the dollars now if you want true even heating. Whether you have forced air or baseboard HW. There are furnaces that will sister in to your existing furnace. Although it will cost more up front.

Another option would be 2 stoves. One up and one down. But still a chance of area's being cooler than wanted! All depends on layout/air circulation. Rooms farthest from stove would need some assistence from fans to get some heat to them.

Solid fuel appliance will be considered as a secondary heat source by most insurance companies and require oil/gas as the main source(In my case the electric baseboard is my primary). Even new construction would have a hard time getting the final CO if only having a solid burning appliance as main source!

Some units to check out are(google search).

St Croix Revolution

Harman Pf100

Fahrenheit Technologies Endurance 50F

A stove that might work is the Drolet Eco-65 that can be connected to vent. This is basically what I did to my stove to move the heat upstairs.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Interesting situation here.

If I may make a suggestion, don't think in terms of Pellet stove (singular) but instead STOVES

We have a ranch style home on a basement. The basement is not accessable from inside up stairs and has a separate living quarters (daylight basement)

A Pellet stove that can heat a lot of area need not be a Behemouth, but can fit neatly in a small area.

We have 3 stoves upstairs, 1 large stove in the family room that sits on a raised hearth in a corner, and two stoves in the living room.

One of the stove in the living room is small and we use it regularly in the spring and fall.
This stove will heat the entire upper portion of the house during the times that the weather is not really cold.

The other stove in the living room is a large unit and is an automatic (lites itself and on a T stat)
We use this one on occasion if we need to leave for more than a day and can't tend the little one.

All of our stoves are direct vent (do not have tall chimneys, but just vent out through the wall)


If you posted some pix of your upstairs rooms with outside wall locations we might make a suggestion as to where a nice little stove would fit easily.

Our small stove in the living room took longer to decide where to put it than it did to do the install.

Be sure that a possible location is where the vent can go between studs, miss any power water or other items in the wall.\


Corners are great places to put a stove.

I am a great fan of the direct vent system which requires very little pipe and no tall chimney.
Done properly they are unobtrusive and very easy to clean and cae for.

A fire place insert might be the way to go downstairs, unless you have a wall with an outside access.

Here is a Piccy of our small stove in the living room.

One thing to think about when looking at pellet stoves is to think in terms of something that adds to the ambience of the room and fits into the decor and not so much of this as an Appliance like a furnace thats some place thats not seen.

The stove in our family room is set up to fit into the decor and adds charm as well as function

The second pix is of the family room .

Just some thoughts

Snowy

 

[gitmo234]

I'm going to recommend the Harmon PF100, based only on the minimal use i've gotten out of it on the few cold nights it got into the 40's. It comes with its own separate thermostat that you'll have to use and if you're worrieda bout refilling it every other day or every day, there's an additional hopper you can buy.

Mine cost me about $4800, tax free, including the 1638CFM blower. It hooked into my existing forced air ductwork. I may want to move it later, but for now I had it hooked in on one end of the ductor work so the back half of the house (lengthwise) gets most of the air, while the half toward the front gets lower air coming out fo the ducts. Its uneven but it still works. The cost of install was $1400 by a contractor. Mid job I had another contractor come give a look because the contractor i used was a dirtbag. he quoted me lower but the other guy came back around and semi-got his act together.

I installed in where I did because I didnt want to run excessive amounts of pellet vent which is expensive. Now I run about 4-5 feet total. To move it to a centralized location would have been close to 30 feet.

so far, i have my thermostat set to 70. It self ignites, comes one heats, then stays lit and every few minutes kicks back on for a few to maintain the temp. If you didnt know and were just sitting upstairs you'd think it was a normal furnace. The exhaust is minimal. When its in the process of lighting it generates some smoke outside...well a plume of smoke that lasts four or five minutes, and once the burn gets going its completely clear. Just feels like hot air venting. Inside the house i get some minimal smoke venting at initial ligthing. Carbon monoxide detectors are installed and its fine.

 

[save$]

Raised ranch, split foyer. 28 x 40, build 1975 and heated with electric heat for one year. Now have one pellet stove located in the center of the ground level. doorway open doorway to split foyer with ceiling fan at top of foyer( 16 feet). one fan on floor at base of stairs blowing cold air toward the stove. Six ceiling fans in home, 3 up and 3 down, all running on low and in reverse winter mode. They are totally silent. Our home is about 74-78F most all the time. If the outside temp drops under 15-20 F, the hot air furnace will kick in for a short time. Our separate oil fired hot water heater and our furnace use less than one tank of oil yearly. Last time I bought oil was Aug 2010 when I got 196 gallons. My tank still shows a little under a quarter of a tank remaining. Success with heating is the insulation. Our double pane windows have storm windows as does our Atrium door. Double entry to limit cold air escape. OAK is absolutely necessary in tight homes. Also necessary is adequate humidifiers and clean air filters. This is Maine, cold cold Maine. But with 5-6 tons of pellets and less than a tank of oil, we are warm, very warm.
If you can run your home cooler, you might even save more. My wife looks at the thermometer and decides if she is comfortable. It is from that we set the temp of our home.

 

[jmcp]

I have the same layout family room on a slab 3 steps up to kitchen livingroom and dinning room from there go up another 5 steps to 3 bedrooms.I have the stove downstairs in the family room I usually get the family room up to about 75 degrees the upstairs could be 10 degrees colder I used to run the oil heat for 15 or 20 minutes to even out the temps without doing this you would definetly have cold spots especially if it is 20 degrees outside.

 

[briansol]

Turn your middle bedroom into a fireplace room :D

I think you'll be disappointed with having it in the basement alone. If you can't fit it into the living space to blow straight down into the hallway, The furnace is the better option. Or, go with a wood stove int he basement area. It will get hotter and be more of a pain, but the upstairs will get heat over the garage rooms

 

[Swaybar]

I have a raised ranch as well..Stove is in center of lower level facing doorway to upper level. It heats whole house all winter. Bedrooms in corner will stay cooler than living room and kitchen, which is great for us. No fans, blowers, or vents, other than what is on the stove. Because it was so cold and wet outside last evening, I had it on stove temp as low as it would go and still maintain a flame, the house was 75 this morning, turned stove off a 7am, and house is now at 73 with stove off all day. Still cold and wet outside

Stove will heat the house with outside temps well below zero. House built in 77, had electric heat, is super insulated.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Just like Swaybar, I also have a split and heat the whole house with a 45k BTU FreeStanding stove in the middle of the basement. I do have some fans and ducting for better heat circulation. It heats well also when below zero outside.

Since my house is not as big as yours, the I would also agree with Snowy to have a stove on each level as needed. Just like central air conditioning which some of my neighbors have and like alot, a pellet furnace would also give you that even heat that would work great but can be more costly.

In my house I built in an air conditioner in the living room wall and kitchen wall and have the same great cooling without the same cost of central air. Also have a unit in the bedroom. We can turn on only the units we need at one time.

So in my opinion a pellet stove upstairs and one down stairs like Snowy has would give you more control and more ability to save on using pellets. Pellet boilers work well and many people like then like central air. So with this analogy, maybe you can realize what your preference will be on heating with wood pellets.

Good Luck

P.S. A cold start, triple pass oil furnace with an outdoor reset will use less than half the oil of older boilers if you want to cut that bill in half!! The percent efficiency does not mean much. My Buderus was $1200 less a NH $600 rebate = $600 dollars. A no brainer!!

 

[CurryMN]

I have the same layout family room on a slab 3 steps up to kitchen livingroom and dinning room from there go up another 5 steps to 3 bedrooms.I have the stove downstairs in the family room I usually get the family room up to about 75 degrees the upstairs could be 10 degrees colder I used to run the oil heat for 15 or 20 minutes to even out the temps without doing this you would definetly have cold spots especially if it is 20 degrees outside.

Sounds like you are describing a split-level ranch (somewhat different from a raised ranch). We don't have 3 levels, only 2... you walk in and there is a 3' square space to stand and so are immediately faced with an upstairs or downstairs choice only (7 steps either way) and vast majority of living space is upstairs while fireplace is downstairs at one end (north wall) of the large open room. Because of the support pillar that's <4' from the bottom of the stairs, we couldn't locate a stove anywhere near the open stairwell, which is to the right of the center of the house (the footprint measures 46x22). And because of the quantity of furniture and layout of the upstairs, we cannot put a stove up there w/o quite literally having to sell furniture (we inherited quite a bit of family-made furniture 2 years ago).

Let me see if I can post some pictures that will help make sense of this.

 

[CurryMN]

Turn your middle bedroom into a fireplace room :D

I think you'll be disappointed with having it in the basement alone. If you can't fit it into the living space to blow straight down into the hallway, The furnace is the better option. Or, go with a wood stove int he basement area. It will get hotter and be more of a pain, but the upstairs will get heat over the garage rooms

LOL, middle bedroom is currently crammed so full of furniture, genealogy & scrapbooking materials, and my Tupperware kit (I sell), that I can't walk into it! And we either stay w/oil or get a pellet stove but I would never go the woodstove route... long list of reasons (my parents have had one for years). Pellets are the only non-oil option up for consideration, but thank you.

 

[grathan]

I have a raised ranch(no fireplace). The upstairs is about 10 degrees cooler than down, with the extremity bedrooms with the doors closed might be 10 degrees cooler yet. If it was 0 degrees and windy at night I might struggle to hit 67* downstairs. During the day the sunlight makes it easier to break 70* downstairs.

It might seem expensive, but it might be nice to have a backup heat source (not sure if you use your fireplace).
The downstairs room will be quite cozy all winter.

Though $3k could buy 4 or 5 extra tanks of oil over the next 4 years which might mean keeping the thermostat a couple degrees higher. Plus you won't have to haul a bag or 2 of 40# pellets into the house daily and clean out messy ashes weekly or monthly. And not deal with the empty plastic bags that pellets come in.

 

[save$]

[quote author="

Though $3k could buy 4 or 5 extra tanks of oil over the next 4 years which might mean keeping the thermostat a couple degrees higher. Plus you won't have to haul a bag or 2 of 40# pellets into the house daily and clean out messy ashes weekly or monthly. And not deal with the empty plastic bags that pellets come in.[/quote]

Look to this web site: http://www.amfmenergy.com/manufacturer-refurbished-stoves.html You may get into a pellet stove for under $2000, then there is the cost of pellets, so now $3000 first year, but then at the current cost and average use, $1000 per year for heat on average if you are able to heat your home on pellet heat alone. For me, less than a couple hundred dollars in supplemental oil heat per year. For many of us, the payback may come in the first year alone. Mine did, and I am looking for more savings to come. I never consider cleaning my stove as "messy ashes", to me, when I am cleaning my stove, I just keep thinking how glad I am to be able to have this and the huge savings I get, plus we are one heck of a lot warmer. Oh, that cleaning takes about 3-5 mins tops once you get the hang of it. Cleaning at the end of each ton may take an hour with the right set up.
Good luck,

 

[CurryMN]

Have you thought about a pellet furnace, tied in to your existing ductwork?

No, don't know anything about this option. What can you tell me about it? Is it a better way to go if we already have central air/heat (oil furnace) in the house?? How much more expensive than a stove? Costs involved in removing or hooking into current oil furnace? Our furnace closet is extremely crowded so would have to go w/replacement vs additional unit. Just no space for one more thing (our central vac unit is in there, along w/hot water heater). Very curious about the pellet furnace option but know NOTHING.... suggestions/input anyone??