Ranch Home Heating Question

[cueball44]

The existing propane system would be used as back-up and I have no plans of getting rid of that system. It's a single zone for the house with a nice high efficiency boiler that was installed in 2023.

 

[EbS-P]

Once you go BK king I don’t think one would ever go back! If the extra cost of the Bk40 and 8 in liner VS say the biggest Dolet doesn’t bother you then I can’t find any reason not to go down the BK40 route. It’s simple, efficient, and robust. Wood boilers are considerably more complex systems.

 

[Highbeam]

I'm hearing a lot of support for the Blaze King and I can understand why after doing some more thorough research. I really do like the hands-off approach that the BK would allow (especially) with two littles I'm constantly chasing after.

One of my main concerns that hopefully members of the forum can shed some light on is the new liner. Am I setting my self up for obsolescence putting an 8" liner down to feed the BK? As I will need to put a new liner down regardless of the stove I'm putting in. As begreen mentioned, why is a 6" liner recommended for a new liner installation?

Side note, but I've also extensively looked into getting a wood boiler to tie into the existing system hot water heat system, but most the systems I looked into were upwards of 10 to 20 grand depending upon manufacturer and size of the system. The indoor wood stove would act as a nice bridge to get me to a fancy wood boiler system in the future. Or if anyone has any indoor wood boiler recommendations that would be awesome.

I'm not sure why @begreen said any new liner "should be" a 6" liner. They sell 8" insulated liners too. Especially with a liner, it could always be removed and replaced with a 6" liner if in the future you felt it was needed for a different appliance.

On the wood boiler, the wood boilers themselves are extremely expensive but then you need to also add insulated storage tanks. Takes up a lot of space and with considerable complexity. Heat dumps, circulation pumps, computers. They're really cool when finished but take a lot of knowledge and up front investment. I have radiant tubing in my well insulated shop slab. 1800 feet of pipe for hot water but the boiler system is prohibitively expensive so I heat the shop with a woodstove.

The BK is great in the basement because the thermostat lets you set it and forget it for up to 40 hours. That thermostat is unique to only the BK. There is also the princess model on a 6" flue. It's only 2.9 cubic feet so will have a correspondingly shorter burntime of up to 30 hours and lower max output level.

 

[begreen]

I'm not sure why @begreen said any new liner "should be" a 6" liner. They sell 8" insulated liners too. Especially with a liner, it could always be removed and replaced with a 6" liner if in the future you felt it was needed for a different appliance.

I would not put in an 8" liner these days unless it was the only option or required to connect a specific unit. In this situation, it's an unwarranted expense. Instead, I'd put any savings into insulating the basement walls and sealing the sill plate first. Then, a good ~ 3 cu ft stove will suffice to heat, especially considering it is just for backup. There are lots of options to choose from in that range depending on the budget.

If the current stove is strictly for emergency, power outage backup, I'd have the current system inspected to determine whether it was properly installed and safe to operate. The old stove may not be very efficient, but if it's only going to get used for a few days at the most, then it may suffice. Visually, it doesn't look too bad but it needs to be examined thoroughly, inside and out. If the prior owners also used it only for emergency heat, it may have low hours on it. This is TBD.

 

[cueball44]

Sorry for any confusion, but I plan on using the wood stove as the main source of heat for the house during the cold months of the year up here. There is a propane boiler that can be used if needed, but I would rather not pay the full propane bill.

I did just find a small hiccup that might throw a wrench into my plans. For some background, the previous owner and builder of the house was a very handy machinist. I was doing some more snooping around and found that the chimney pipe inside of the chimney is a SOLID piece of heavy gauge steel that runs the entirety of the chimney. The existing pipe is uninsulated and is a 6" diameter pipe.

I remember the daughter of the owner telling me they lowered this piece in with a crane. So, that being said it seems my options are pretty slim with this new found information.