Reverting an Old Farmhouse to Wood Heat

[MedicineHorse]

I'm not sure from your reply if you understood, that I meant an add-on wood furnace (hot air) and not a boiler (hot water).

You have to remember that based on posts so far, we know next to nothing about all your current system, or situation re. what you might be able to put where.

As already hinted at - if you don't have a whole winters worth of wood already seasoned and ready to go, you are really behind a rather huge 8-ball for this coming winter.

To be clear, maple1, our current furnace is a 21 years old forced air oil guzzler that has already required 2 service calls this fall. I want therefore to switch it out after the winter (that seems to have started today) but also our insurance has called for its replacement as well and are very assertive that the tank must go next spring. I could probably fight them for another year for the furnace but not the tank (and they were the only insurer who would grant me the tank for this year) but why bother for something so old and unreliable. Meanwhile there are also issues with the duct work and so it begs the question of what next. So many possibilities. I've just been reading about biomass gasification which I hadn't even heard of and there is probably plenty of relatively free biomass to be had from this property and the local environs. As to moving the heat in the house, despite the duct issues its probably still cheaper to stay with forced air, and as you say, in that case easier to incorporate a wood-burning indoor furnace with the propane. Moving to radiant fluid heat would have some real benefits in terms of comfort and experimenting with in-floor heat, and as I mentioned above compost heating. I understand there is at least one dual propane/gas and wood boiler out there but I'm still doing that research, and its not for this year anyway.

All this is to say, in the short term I think I'm still looking for freestanding wood heat. I won't be committing to anything though until I can nail down enough wood to get me through the winter. I'll have to buy it this year for sure and possibly next. I'm more than a year too late to generate my own. It'll be a crunch to process the wood I've already cut for next autumn/winter.

But taking into account all that I've gathered so far, and given the questionability of my wood for the next couple of years, I probably need to be staying away from stoves with cats.

 

[jetsam]

If you put in a centrally-located wood stove now, you won't regret it later when the house is insulated and has its central heating sorted- you'll just stop running the wood stove like a rented mule.

Don't count out cat stoves because you don't have dry wood in yet. I am burning stuff that came out of the woods yesterday in a cat stove today. (Saving my good stuff for winter!) I don't burn wet wood the same way I burn dry wood, but it still burns. There are several threads on the front page right now from new tube stove owners with wet wood woes, so that's not a cat/noncat thing.

If it was me shopping for a stove that had tremendous output (for this winter) and excellent low burn capabilities (for winters to come), I'd do an 8" flue and put in a BK King.

 

[begreen]

begreen, how long have you had your Alderlea? Would you go that route again knowing what you know now and what competition is out there, and if so, against the current field of competitors, would you upgrade to the LE version presuming it proves out

The T6 is going on it's 10th season. The first one was on the showroom floor. The stove has done us well so far. It's simple, easy to run and low maintenance. It was on of the original cast iron jacketed stoves, now there are several more choices. Still, I doubt we'll upgrade to the LE. Our stove is working fine... and it's paid for.

 

[maple1]

Also keep in mind a stove is a space heater. You will likely be disappointed with the results based on house description no matter what stove you get. Very much especially with questionable wood.

I think I would get the non-wood side of the equation figured out first. You will need that no matter what.

 

[MedicineHorse]

If you put in a centrally-located wood stove now, you won't regret it later when the house is insulated and has its central heating sorted- you'll just stop running the wood stove like a rented mule.

"Don't count out cat stoves because you don't have dry wood in yet. I am burning stuff that came out of the woods yesterday in a cat stove today. (Saving my good stuff for winter!) I don't burn wet wood the same way I burn dry wood, but it still burns. There are several threads on the front page right now from new tube stove owners with wet wood woes, so that's not a cat/noncat thing.

If it was me shopping for a stove that had tremendous output (for this winter) and excellent low burn capabilities (for winters to come), I'd do an 8" flue and put in a BK King.

Thank you begreen, jetsam and maple1.

Clearly given the current fractured and sprawling layout of the house, we're going to need to depend on some form of centrally distributed heat going forward. For instance this morning it is -1 outside, and after the furnace cut out from its morning wake-up cycle, the upstairs hall was 23, livingroom 21, dining room (where the thermostat is) was the target room temperature 20, and the kitchen (one room further back) was 16. So it's going to be quite a challenge. One thing I am doing is augmenting kitchen heat with a small electric oil radiant space heater. That works as long as I remember to turn the darn thing off when I leave the room.

If I came into some big money, I'd completely re-organize those interior spaces, replace the middle addition with something modern, put some sort of autonomous heat in the rear-most extension, just for that office space when it is in use, and then convert from central oil forced air to to centraly distributed fluid heat (which can more easily be zone targeted) driven by a central gas/wood or gas+wood boiler or maybe biomass gasified boiler. Although frankly I still know almost nothing about the latter or its associated costs, it sounds pretty cool, or perhaps I should say hot. I did find a neat thread on them on this forum and they sound like they beg for a custom home whose designed is wrapped around it which is probably never going to be possible here. So away from such pipe-dreams, back in the real world meanwhile, there is no stove placement that can compensate for our current layout, but only bolster the total amount of heat inside the house with which I may find better or worse ways to move it around usefully. But some wood stove would at least give us one or two comfortable spaces to weather the coming one or two winters as we sort this all out. It is rather late in the season to be sorting it out for this year considering that after three months of trying, I haven't even been able to get reliable contractors on site to consult or quote. In southern Ontario they're all just too busy on massive subdivisions of new builds to both with our pokey old farmhouse.

Would anyone care to comment on jetsam's most recent message: "Don't count out cat stoves because you don't have dry wood in yet. I am burning stuff that came out of the woods yesterday in a cat stove today." For from my other reading, particularly in this forum, my impression was that there was no better way to kill the cat than to do this, that doing so drastically shortens a cat's life." As I have no personal knowledge or experience of things cat, I am really depending on people like this group to clarify such matters.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Thank you begreen, jetsam and maple1.

Clearly given the current fractured and sprawling layout of the house, we're going to need to depend on some form of centrally distributed heat going forward. For instance this morning it is -1 outside, and after the furnace cut out from its morning wake-up cycle, the upstairs hall was 23, livingroom 21, dining room (where the thermostat is) was the target room temperature 20, and the kitchen (one room further back) was 16. So it's going to be quite a challenge. One thing I am doing is augmenting kitchen heat with a small electric oil radiant space heater. That works as long as I remember to turn the darn thing off when I leave the room.

If I came into some big money, I'd completely re-organize those interior spaces, replace the middle addition with something modern, put some sort of autonomous heat in the rear-most extension, just for that office space when it is in use, and then convert from central oil forced air to to centraly distributed fluid heat (which can more easily be zone targeted) driven by a central gas/wood or gas+wood boiler or maybe biomass gasified boiler. Although frankly I still know almost nothing about the latter or its associated costs, it sounds pretty cool, or perhaps I should say hot. I did find a neat thread on them on this forum and they sound like they beg for a custom home whose designed is wrapped around it which is probably never going to be possible here. So away from such pipe-dreams, back in the real world meanwhile, there is no stove placement that can compensate for our current layout, but only bolster the total amount of heat inside the house with which I may find better or worse ways to move it around usefully. But some wood stove would at least give us one or two comfortable spaces to weather the coming one or two winters as we sort this all out. It is rather late in the season to be sorting it out for this year considering that after three months of trying, I haven't even been able to get reliable contractors on site to consult or quote. In southern Ontario they're all just too busy on massive subdivisions of new builds to both with our pokey old farmhouse.

Would anyone care to comment on jetsam's most recent message: "Don't count out cat stoves because you don't have dry wood in yet. I am burning stuff that came out of the woods yesterday in a cat stove today." For from my other reading, particularly in this forum, my impression was that there was no better way to kill the cat than to do this, that doing so drastically shortens a cat's life." As I have no personal knowledge or experience of things cat, I am really depending on people like this group to clarify such matters.

Don't close the bypass that sends the exhaust through the cat when burning wet wood?

 

[kennyp2339]

I think @jetsam was referring to the operation nature of some cat stoves, mainly the fact that if your using one with the goal of just making two comfortable spaces (most popular rooms) you can have the ability to turn the cat stove down some so you don't bake your self out, not saying that you cant find a air tube stove like that @begreen has his convective t6 that seems to keep him very happy.
The one thing that you can do while deciding on what type of wood burning you want to do is to start collecting and drying out wood.
For your application I would also lean more towards a wood furnace, especially if your replacing the existing propane furnace, you might as well have both installed at the same time to save $$$, permit fee's / wett inspections, have the duct work cut to fit in one shot (return boot & plenum) and the insurance adjuster to re-write the policy for an above ground tank, new furnace and wood burning.
As far as wood furnace recommendations, I never used one, but I do have to say that Kuma (Minnesota USA) seems to have taken the lead in making them, they currently have the only furnace in the US that meets the new epa clean burn standards 2020, a fantastic warranty and a power outage guarantee.

 

[jetsam]

For instance this morning it is -1 outside, and after the furnace cut out from its morning wake-up cycle, the upstairs hall was 23, livingroom 21, dining room (where the thermostat is) was the target room temperature 20, and the kitchen (one room further back) was 16.

I was about to tell him to check the house for missing exterior walls, but those numbers are in Celsius. Translation: Outside 31°F, inside 61°F - 73°F on a target of 68°F.

I was saying "you can burn wet wood in any stove, it's not a cat/noncat thing, and you're likely to have trouble with either one".

Someone told him that cat stoves require dry wood (which is honestly good advice for a new stove operator)- but look at all the people who have recent threads because their new tube stove doesn't work right. Most of those wound up with a diagnosis of wet wood.

Everyone will be much happier with dry wood, but to say that you can burn wet wood in a tube stove and not a cat is factually incorrect. Neither one will perform as advertised with wet wood.

 

[begreen]

Everyone will be much happier with dry wood, but to say that you can burn wet wood in a tube stove and not a cat is factually incorrect. Neither one will perform as advertised with wet wood.

True for all stoves, even for a non-tube older stove. It takes a lot of wasted btus to boil out the moisture from wood.

 

[jetsam]

True for all stoves, even for a non-tube older stove. It takes a lot of wasted btus to boil out the moisture from wood.

We never used to let the old smoke dragons get too low because we needed a hot stove to cook the water out of the reload! We did CSS stuff over the summer for the coming winter, but we would sometimes be dropping trees to split and burn the same day, too.

I guess that experience is what turned me into the wet-wood rebel you see before you.

Don't get me wrong: There was nothing magical about the old stoves that "allowed" us to do this; we just didn't know any better. Burning wet wood in a smoke dragon is a great way to get a flue full of highly flammable wet glue. Those stoves would have run better with dry wood and educated operators too.

 

[SuperJ]

Even if it doesn't heat your house perfectly evenly I don't think you'd regret getting a jacketed (cast over welded steel) stove with a quiet, well designed fan. A wood stove provides some pleasure and ambiance that a wood boiler or furnace never can. The jacketed stoves have their convective versus radiant ratio biased a bit more towards convective than plain steel stoves. This means it warms the more air (which is easier to move between rooms) than just the solid objects within line of site. You can run it harder without completely frying everything with 15' since the hot air will disperse the heat to adjacent rooms.

My parents heat their 90's 2 story 2500ft2 room primarily with a PE Alderlea T5, their only regret was not going with the bigger T6 for longer burntimes a bit more output.

As far as wet wood, if you can get the cat active but kick starting it with a bit of finely split softwood or something, you definitely through some wetter than ideal splits in, but you'll have to keep it turned up. The steel cat in newer stoves isn't as affected by moisture as the ceramic cats. I suspect the cat probably does a have decent job of cleaning up the mess of wet wood as long as you can keep it firmly active.

Interesting read: http://blog.woodstove.com/2012/01/catalytic-combustors-wet-wood.html

 

[brenndatomu]

Sounds like you need a two pronged approach. I'd look at SBI (Canadian made) they have the PSG Max Caddy wood furnace (or its sister furnace the Drolet HeatPro) for your central heat...then maybe a freestanding stove like the workhorse Drolet HT2000 for a little "boost" as needed in the back of the house.

 

[jetsam]

Or you could do a program of sweaters and exercise. Any time someone gets cold, they have to go outside and split some wood for next year.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Sounds like you need a two pronged approach. I'd look at SBI (Canadian made) they have the PSG Max Caddy wood furnace (or its sister furnace the Drolet HeatPro) for your central heat...then maybe a freestanding stove like the workhorse Drolet HT2000 for a little "boost" as needed in the back of the house.

This sounds like a great strategy. I'm adding my vote.

 

[billb3]

I'd be upgrading the oil furnace to the latest in a new high efficiency oil burner ASAP and spend the Winter getting a wood supply at least lined up and looking into a wood furnace to run parallel with the new oil burner using its existing distribution system or separate satellite wood stove(s ).
1. because most insurance co. won't allow for primary wood heat
2. if you're going to have wood heaters installed you need local installers to look at your needs and bid on systems that might suit your needs.

 

[Ashful]

As someone who has lived in a very long line of old houses, while simultaneously renovating them, I understand the OP’s view on this. Get that tiny 2x 400 sq.ft. heart of the house warm in the quickest and cheapest way possible, then deal with the rest as the project schedule allows. Nothing wrong with that approach, in my book. So many here are focused on the long-term, and consideration of that is not a bad thing, but there’s also nothing wrong with the OP’s plan.

On wet wood, yes... it’s going to be a frustration. I agree with jetsam, that doesn’t rule out a cat stove, in fact some here argue it favors a cat stove. In a catalytic stove, you run with the secondary burn system bypassed for a period at the beginning of each burn cycle, baking the moisture out of the wood while bringing the combustor up to temperature, before eventually closing the bypass damper and letting the cat do its thing. By extending the time in bypass, you can drive a lot of moisture out of the wood, something that’s not possible with a tube stove. I have done this, burning wet wood in my first two years, with my own cat stoves.

Now, as to what you read about killing cats, this applies to ceramic combustors. They are sensitive to being thermally shocked, which can introduce mechanical stresses (due to CTE), and cause the ceramic to fracture. This is caused when you put a load of cold and wet wood into a stove with a hot combustor, and the steam hits and rapidly cools the combustor. There are ways of dealing with this, but the best among them is to switch to a SteelCat, they simply don’t suffer from CTE fracturing.

Of course, no one has ever said anything bad about the PE Alderlea, either. If going that route, I’d grab the current model, now. No way in heck, could you convince me to buy the first year’s “LE” model. New stoves, and esp. new stove tech, tends to have bugs that need to be worked out in the first year(s) of a new model series. I’d want the one that’s been completely proven in and customer-debugged over the past decade, not their latest prototype.

Yes, everyone wants their house all the same temperature, throughout. But I have living memory of many relatives in old farm houses, who basically kept just one or two rooms warm thru the winter. You live in those rooms during the cold, and put a bunch of blankets or big down comforter on the beds upstairs. Not exactly the lap of luxury, but better than most have lived, for tens of thousands of years until about 80 years ago.

Besides, with such a small space (2200 sq.ft. Total?), it’s going to stay reasonably warm, even from just a single stove. You won’t be running around in your skivvies, but your glass of water won’t be freezing on the night stand, either.

 

[begreen]

By extending the time in bypass, you can drive a lot of moisture out of the wood, something that’s not possible with a tube stove.

Not so, running a tube stove is pretty much like running a cat stove with the bypass open. There's nothing in the way of the smoke path but the baffle. I know, several years back we has to burn in Castine for half the winter with damp wood. Both designs need extra air and some dry kindling to dry the wood. And there are even some tube stoves that have a bypass for direct firebox to flue smoke flow for easy starting. Damp wood is going to be balky for starting until the moisture is boiled off in a cat or non-cat stove.

One may be able to burn wood fresh cut if the tree was standing dead, but not always. Some snapped off species of standing dead soak up a lot of moisture during rainy weather. Some wood will dry faster and some species have high oil content which helps them burn better in spite of not being fully seasoned. Regardless of burn technology dry wood makes a world of difference in satisfactory stove operation.

FWIW, word is that the LE models do not have major changes, it's more of a design evolution. We should start hearing about them soon if some folks from Montreal buy them. But if cost is important then the Drolet HT2000 or the Enerzone 3.4 should also make a nice improvement.

 

[ChuckTSI]

So here are a couple things I have learnt from my one winter in a house build in 1850 (renovated badly in 1980 to 2100sqft).
18" thick fieldstone walls with 2x4 balloon frame floating inside those stone walls. (the mice have totally destroyed insulation)
Most seals in the windows have failed. 7 x (36x60 windows) on the main floor alone.



The previous owner heated with electricity ($4000 / month + $1200/ heating season propane)
I immediately put in an Osburn 2300 (red square above). And with my first winter, I couldn't even get the house to higher than 16degrees at full tilt (on those -30 to -40 days). Cold drafts coming in from everywhere. I was cleaning out the baseboard heaters and froze my cheek on the air coming from the cellar through into the living room through the old pine flooring gaps.

I read that a 2000sqft home can have all it's air exchanged in 15 mins with a wood stove using conditioned air.
So I did the following:

Sealed every window with clear caulk. New door seals.
I bit the bullet and bought a fresh air intake.

Last Saturday in -4 with just 3 short (6") splits (baby fire). It was 25 degrees in the house.
a lot less drafts and I am not shooting my conditioned air out the chimney.

Though.. my two far rooms are still colder
kitchen on main floor ( 3-4 degrees colder, but still have draft proofing to do)
master on second story it generally 4-5 degrees colder.
(I now find it cheaper to use electric heat with the door closed for the master room (turns on at 9pm, off at 1am, then back on at 5am and off at 9am).
Electric mattress pad on the bed also to warm up the sheets

I need to get the floor between cellar and main floor insulated but may just do carpets for now.
Another big on the list is thermal window covers.
And try and figure out how to move air from cold areas. The old house still has ceiling /floor pass throughs

Good luck on heating the place.

 

[Woody Stover]

Well, I didn't read it all but I got the part about "cold old man." If you spend most of your time in one room, get a cheap SBI tube stove in there and figure out the rest next summer. Surely you can find some dry Pine up there, if nothing else. Then you'll need some down comforters for the bedrooms.

 

[Woody Stover]

If you have a woodlot to work, you may be able to find small, dry trees (<8") with all the bark fallen off. You need a lot of them, but they will burn great.

 

[MedicineHorse]

I think @jetsam was referring to the operation nature of some cat stoves, mainly the fact that if your using one with the goal of just making two comfortable spaces (most popular rooms) you can have the ability to turn the cat stove down some so you don't bake your self out, not saying that you cant find a air tube stove like that @begreen has his convective t6 that seems to keep him very happy.
The one thing that you can do while deciding on what type of wood burning you want to do is to start collecting and drying out wood.
For your application I would also lean more towards a wood furnace, especially if your replacing the existing propane furnace, you might as well have both installed at the same time to save $$$, permit fee's / wett inspections, have the duct work cut to fit in one shot (return boot & plenum) and the insurance adjuster to re-write the policy for an above ground tank, new furnace and wood burning.
As far as wood furnace recommendations, I never used one, but I do have to say that Kuma (Minnesota USA) seems to have taken the lead in making them, they currently have the only furnace in the US that meets the new epa clean burn standards 2020, a fantastic warranty and a power outage guarantee.

I had to drop my thread here for a couple of days and meanwhile y'all have been busy adding neat stuff. Thanks kennyp2339. Love the Life in Farmland video series you attached. This kid's making much better than average YouTubes. One of the things I did over the past couple of days was lock down a wood supply. We'll have to see how dry it is for real. Its a neighbour whose been supplying the former owner of this house for years, cuts his hard maple a year or more in advance and stores it under cover. We had such a hot droughty summer that I'm guess this maple should be relatively dry. So I'm likely good for this winter and possibly the next until I get my own wood supply cycle up and running.

And the Kuma looks really interesting. Going forward I'm increasingly liking the idea of what I'll call a tandem (rather than dual referring to two systems in one machine) central system with wood and propane/gas or wood and oil where separate optimized wood and optimize fossil fuel burners share a common heat distribution system and are set up to have the latter kick in if the wood burns down. But one step at a time. That won't be happening this autumn, that's for sure.

 

[MedicineHorse]

I'd be upgrading the oil furnace to the latest in a new high efficiency oil burner ASAP and spend the Winter getting a wood supply at least lined up and looking into a wood furnace to run parallel with the new oil burner using its existing distribution system or separate satellite wood stove(s ).
1. because most insurance co. won't allow for primary wood heat
2. if you're going to have wood heaters installed you need local installers to look at your needs and bid on systems that might suit your needs.

Well I've lined up wood from a neighbour who supplies other neighbours for the foreseeable future (year dried hard maple) until I can get my own farm wood cycled up. A lot of good messages came in on this thread while I was away from it. Billb3, this is where I read of what I've been calling a tandem furnace set-up. I'd probably substitute propane for oil but otherwise the same idea (then I can easily convert the central system to natural gas when it come through here in a few years and meanwhile have a propane cookstove, dryer ans possibly water heater.. all appliances that need replacing in this old place that we bought. Hopefully wood would carry the weight of most of the heating...
If I could only get local installers to return calls and quote...

 

[maple1]

Going forward I'm increasingly liking the idea of what I'll call a tandem (rather than dual referring to two systems in one machine) central system with wood and propane/gas or wood and oil where separate optimized wood and optimize fossil fuel burners share a common heat distribution system and are set up to have the latter kick in if the wood burns down.

Just keep in mind that wood burners have stricter ducting requirements than fossil - so one distribution system for both should be designed based on the stricter specs. Whenever that time comes....

 

[MedicineHorse]

As someone who has lived in a very long line of old houses, while simultaneously renovating them, I understand the OP’s view on this. Get that tiny 2x 400 sq.ft. heart of the house warm in the quickest and cheapest way possible, then deal with the rest as the project schedule allows. Nothing wrong with that approach, in my book. So many here are focused on the long-term, and consideration of that is not a bad thing, but there’s also nothing wrong with the OP’s plan.

On wet wood, yes... it’s going to be a frustration. I agree with jetsam, that doesn’t rule out a cat stove, in fact some here argue it favors a cat stove. In a catalytic stove, you run with the secondary burn system bypassed for a period at the beginning of each burn cycle, baking the moisture out of the wood while bringing the combustor up to temperature, before eventually closing the bypass damper and letting the cat do its thing. By extending the time in bypass, you can drive a lot of moisture out of the wood, something that’s not possible with a tube stove. I have done this, burning wet wood in my first two years, with my own cat stoves.

Now, as to what you read about killing cats, this applies to ceramic combustors. They are sensitive to being thermally shocked, which can introduce mechanical stresses (due to CTE), and cause the ceramic to fracture. This is caused when you put a load of cold and wet wood into a stove with a hot combustor, and the steam hits and rapidly cools the combustor. There are ways of dealing with this, but the best among them is to switch to a SteelCat, they simply don’t suffer from CTE fracturing.

Of course, no one has ever said anything bad about the PE Alderlea, either. If going that route, I’d grab the current model, now. No way in heck, could you convince me to buy the first year’s “LE” model. New stoves, and esp. new stove tech, tends to have bugs that need to be worked out in the first year(s) of a new model series. I’d want the one that’s been completely proven in and customer-debugged over the past decade, not their latest prototype.

Yes, everyone wants their house all the same temperature, throughout. But I have living memory of many relatives in old farm houses, who basically kept just one or two rooms warm thru the winter. You live in those rooms during the cold, and put a bunch of blankets or big down comforter on the beds upstairs. Not exactly the lap of luxury, but better than most have lived, for tens of thousands of years until about 80 years ago.

Besides, with such a small space (2200 sq.ft. Total?), it’s going to stay reasonably warm, even from just a single stove. You won’t be running around in your skivvies, but your glass of water won’t be freezing on the night stand, either.

Thank you Ashful.

Interesting detail on the ceramic vs steel cats. That explains a lot about the apparent discrepancies I've been reading about running cats with wet wood. So am I right to assume from that then that if one has a more recent design with a steel cat, that one can burn the those stoves indefinitely in bypass mode (forfeiting the potential efficiency of the cat, but meanwhile protecting it from moisture and/or contaminants, or simply accommodating one's schedule since one couldn't afford to wait around until the temp was high enough on a given occasion to engage the cat), essentially running a the cat stove as secondary stage burner tube stove until that point? Or is that NOT the case in conventional cats, but IS the case in hybrids like the Woodstock Progress and Lopi Rockport? I'm still a bit confused?

Yes, you get where I'm at. I've lived in another 130 year old farm house off and on for most of the last 60+ years. They're never particularly comfortable as heat varies quite a bit from one room or area to another, and one tends to concentrate ones indoor winter life in a few warmer spaces. But that's a more comfortable existence than most of my ancestors ever knew whether they were the rich branch in their 4-storey 18 room Scottish estate or the peasant farmer branch. People say to me about our newly acquired farm, why not knock that old place down and build something new and modern. Then it wouldn't have the charm of an old farm house. I've lived in some of those sorts of places too, but unless they were really well designed mechanically and aesthetically, and really luxurious in a tasteful sort of way, I found myself restless and uncomfortable.

On the other hand, we have a neighbour here who has a farmhouse somewhat like mine, but a better version originally (and certainly much finer now), a bit more stately, more decorative trim outdoors and better finishings with more hardwood and 10 foot ceilings indoors prettier banisters, a little bigger and spacious feeling indoors. His middle addition is likewise built, in brick but as always, in this form, those additions grow further and further back behind the original brick front section, making a long sprawling thermally unwieldy but really quite beautiful place—elegant, refined, charming. He has two basements with two full oil furnaces, one each under the front and middle sections of the old brick house, and then a framed more modern open concept family room/kitchen way at the back with an airtight... where they live in the winter. The lower stories of the brick in winter become passages to the upstairs bedrooms and yet, lots of blankets and down comforters. Its not for everyone, but it works for them. They probably total closer to 3200 sq ft, and don't burn a ton of oil, but lot of wood. They're even a little bit older than us. Their lives are mostly spent outside and in the barn with the animals.

The key thing I notice for myself is that as I age, I feel the cold more... and that can get depressing... but if I can get warm then get outdoors and moving and tackling the endless work that such old places guarantee, I can be quite fine.

 

[begreen]

Running the stove constantly in bypass mode would be seriously inefficient and may warp bypass parts. I wouldn't plan on operating the stove that way. You would be better off with a simpler stove if that is the plan.