Hi. You folks seem to know the score on all this, so I'd like to ask your collective opinions. Last year I bought a 58 year old house outside Pittsburgh, which still has it's original gas furnace, rated at 180,000 BTU input, and about 70% (!) efficient. I knew of course it would have to go, but in the meantime, I've been considering my options. Heating with wood though has caught my interest, for the same reasons people here already know. The house is a ranch style with 1900 SF on the main floor, plus a large walkout basement and garage underneath that are not officially heated. I'm attaching a floor plan to this post.
My expectation would be, given the floor plan, that a single wood stove in the LR would not be enough. The hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms is perhaps 30 feet, with the two bathrooms at the tail end. So I'm thinking that a smaller stove might need to be placed in say, the Master?
A heat calc for this house at design temp yields between 32,000 and 38,000 BTU/H, depending on whether or not I insulate over the basement areas with at least R5. The ceilings are all 8 foot, with R30, and R15 in the walls.
The current furnace and it's ducts need to go, as they take up a huge amount of space, and the ducts are in the backwards "old style" anyway. So when I'm done there will be no heating system left. I'm assuming though that even if I put in wood stoves, that a secondary heating system is needed as well, to make up for the coldest days, and for when i'm away from home?
Thanks for any advice.
My expectation would be, given the floor plan, that a single wood stove in the LR would not be enough. The hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms is perhaps 30 feet, with the two bathrooms at the tail end. So I'm thinking that a smaller stove might need to be placed in say, the Master?
A heat calc for this house at design temp yields between 32,000 and 38,000 BTU/H, depending on whether or not I insulate over the basement areas with at least R5. The ceilings are all 8 foot, with R30, and R15 in the walls.
The current furnace and it's ducts need to go, as they take up a huge amount of space, and the ducts are in the backwards "old style" anyway. So when I'm done there will be no heating system left. I'm assuming though that even if I put in wood stoves, that a secondary heating system is needed as well, to make up for the coldest days, and for when i'm away from home?
Thanks for any advice.