Results from the Question "What is the best place to put a Quadrafire Mt. Vernon AE in a house?"

[teddy1971]

This is my first post to your forum (which has been very helpful in me selecting a pellet stove, thanks). My wife and I decided to get a pellet stove this year since we received an estimate from our oil company stating that is will cost us $4000 to heat our house this year. We only use 800 gallons of oil. This made our decision to by a pellet stove simple since it will pay for itself in about 2 years or less at this rate. I just wanted to get your opinion about the amount that we are paying as well as the location of the pellet stove in our home. First the cost. We are paying $4400 for a Mt Vernon AE. This includes installation, pipes, and 1 ton of Dry Creek pellets. I selected the Quadrafire because of the good ratings as well as the fact that my wife liked the look more than any other stove we saw. Does this amount sound right to you guys? My other concern is the location of the stove so that it heats the upstairs. We have 2400 sqft to heat. we have an additional 800 sqft in the basement but that is usually heated by leaving the boiler room door open. I have three zones of heat (one for each floor) but the basement zone almost never comes on. I will be placing the stove on the main floor in the formal living room (the room no one uses). I will have a fan in that room and in the family room downstairs. My concern is that I won't be able to get enough heat upstairs to the bedrooms. I will be running the system on medium most of the time (as per the recommendation of the installer). I was told that I can also run the fan of my AC unit to distrubute the heat ( I would close the vents downstatirs and just leave the vents open upstairs). My intake for the AC is upstairs away from the stairs. I have 8' ceilings and the staircase is open. I've attached a rough drawing of my environment to make things a little easier. And yes I have already purchase two additional tons of Dry Creek for a total of 3 Tons for the heating season. Thanks again for taking time to reply to my post.

 

[kpereyra]

$4400 sounds like a good price. Mine was more but I guess that's because I'm in Fairfield County CT and people just assume everyone has more money here.

 

[j00fek]

i think if you have proper circulation through out the first floor where the stove is then you should be fine for heating the whole house with that stove.

 

[MButkus]

Heat rises. My 1600 sq ft ranch NJ house (12" ceiling insulation added back in 1995)
2 tons of pellets (Whitfield 1993 stove) and 1 tank of oil (200 gallons a year) for the HW from our baseboard furnace.
The living room stays 71 - 74. Bedrooms are cooler.
Stove is usually on heat #2 unless it gets below 20 degrees.

Have the tree cutters, cut trees for shredding to chippers. The lumber mills take the wood chips and make pellets, lots of them. The truckers need to deliver pellets to every town.
The oil companies sell a lot less oil.. oh dear !
What am I missing..... ?

 

[Jabberwocky]

Your layout looks fine. Temperatures in the bedroom can be fine tuned by opening/closing doors. You may not need to mess with door jam fans, I don't.

 

[Stove Guy (Maine)]

I am a certified QuadraFire Dealer... from your floor plan... I think that you have chosen a good corner for placement... may just want to check with clearances of both the stove and its venting to make sure that there is nothing to be concerned with.... example... windows, electrical junctions, oil fill, propane tank.. etc..... Many of my customers have suggested doorway fans to help in circulation throughout those hard to reach areas... (may or may not need them for your home)...

Have you purchased your Mount Vernon Stove yet? .... If you have not... you may be too late... Any stove purchased after July 1st... is looking at a 2009 delivery date... May want to check with your local dealer..

 

[teddy1971]

Thanks for the input. I actually ordered my stove on July 5th and my dealer assures me that my stove will arrive in early to mid september. I had an opportunity to purchase from a dealer a little further out who had them in stock but he wanted to charge me @ $1200.00 more for the same setup(stove, hearth pad, installation, etc). At first I was going to pay it but I didn't want to fall into panic mode like many have. Beside its no where cold where I am and it doesn't get cold until mid to late october. I used the money I was going to spend towards a 6 zone spinkler system for my lawn (Got a great deal on installation). The lawn looks great after 2 weeks and I'm certain that the stove will come before I really need it. Thanks again

 

[Stove Guy (Maine)]

Teddy... I Don't want to put you into a panic.... But I wouldn't hold your breath ...

Right now.. Quadrafire is back ordered till 2009... Anything purchased after July 1st... is not expected to ship till SOMETIME in 2009... We are having to refund customers already, or try to switch them to another company... so they will have a pellet stove for the up coming season...

maybe your dealer knows something that we don't...

Quadra fire has not been able to give us specific dates on any stove.... for quiet some time.... and won't... till the stove is leaving the plant...

Frustrating to say the least... Just be patient.. !!


Glad to hear that your lawn is sooo green Wonder if there is a way to turn lawn clippings into pellets to be burned in a Quadrafire Mount Vernon AE ?

 

[teddy1971]

I have confidence in my dealer and will just have to be patient. And yes it would be great if I could convert grass into pellets. I definatly have plenty of goo grass to go around now.

 

[in-control]

I purchased my Mt Vernon and they were committing to Jan. 09' delivery. I am hopping that it will be sooner and they are just being safe. We shall see. I find it hard to believe that the whole country is at the same demand level as New England and that inventory can't be routed around like a car at a car dealership.

 

[teddy1971]

Got a call from my dealer today letting me know that my stove came in and I'm scheduled for installation at the begining of September. I'm glad I listened to you guys and did not spend the extra with another dealer. Don't panic like I did initially, just be patient and I'm sure you guys will get your stoves as your dealers promised. I will post pictures once the installation has been completed.

 

[teddy1971]

Well Guys/Gals I finally had be stove come on automatically when the temperture in my house dropped below 65 degrees. I was surprised to see that when the thermostat was set for 74 degrees downstairs the temp up stairs in the bedroom above the stove room was @71 degrees (based on the thermostat outside that room). The only fan that I am using is the ceiling fan in the stove room (in reverse). This is the first year that I am not going to dred the coming of winter. Especially since my wife won't have to complain about me dropping the temp to 58 degrees to save on heating cost at night. I know I may have to run some more fans once the weather gets colder but I am more confident that the heat will reach most of the house comfortably.

 

[globewyre]

My AE came on thursday. My house setup is similar to yours, and they also put mine in the same corner of the house. So I hope it is the best place to put it. Let me know how things go, this is my first year burning too.