Small gas heaters?

[FanMan]

I'm looking for a small direct vent heater to heat two bedrooms. I just installed a 30KBTU gas stove to handle the living room, kitchen, and (with the addition of a wall fan) the adjacent bedroom, but I need to get heat in the two back bedrooms. The idea is a DV wall heater in the master bedroom, and another wall fan to steal warm air from the MBR for the other bedroom. I figure I need somewhere between 10-15KBTU. A gas baseboard heater would also be an option but all the ones I've seen are way to long for the available space.

The (broken link removed to http://www.woodstove.com/mini-franklin) stove is beautiful but pricey, once you add in the cost of the required piping. I've looked at heaters from Rinnai, Empire, and Eskabe, but that seems to be about it. It does need to be millivolt controlled so I can use it with an external programmable wall thermostat.

It's a bummer how much more expensive the DV heaters are than the vent free heaters. I realize, of course, that there's more to the DV heaters but you wouldn't think the difference would be that much. I'm also surprised by the lack of visible blue flame DV heaters... it'd be nice (but not necessary) to see the flames.

 

[DAKSY]

That Mini Franklin isn't big enough to give you what you want. Top INPUT rating is 8.2K BTU.
At 77% efficient, that will OUTPUT 6.3K BTU, or about half of what you need.
Regency makes the C34 & Jotul makes the Lillehammer & the Nordic that are more in the
OUTPUT range you want. There are others out there as well...They won't give you a blue
flame presentation unless you open the air shutter more than recommended by the mfr.
Any of them will be more expensive & SAFER than VF, as you hafta have the vent pipe,
wall thimble & cap...I would go bigger & have the capability to turn the unit down, rather
than run at max, to get you the heat you need. All of the units I cited have millivolt valves...

 

[FanMan]

Well, I don't really know just what I need.... I need to heat two bedrooms totaling a bit under 300 ft²... and being bedrooms I could accept it being slightly chilly on the coldest days. The Mini Franklin is confusing; in one place it says "8000 BTU output", and in another place it says "8200 BTU input". Both can't be correct.

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOUSEWARMER-HW075DVP-PROPANE-LP-DIRECT-VENT-WALL-HEATER-FURNACE-7500-BTU-NEW-/200735605733?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebcc643e5) I haven't heard of before. Far cheaper than anything comparable, 7500 BTU, at that price I could put one in each bedroom. Seems to be a discount brand from Empire.

 

[eclecticcottage]

Check around for marine stoves...

We have a Lopi Berkshire DV in our bedroom at the Old House...

 

[FanMan]

I looked at marine stoves, but the one I linked to above is much less expensive. I bought it... we'll see how it looks when it arrives.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

Empire makes a good heater. We sell them here. Empire has also been around for a long time in the furnace industry. I hope it works well for you.

 

[FanMan]

Empire makes a good heater. We sell them here. Empire has also been around for a long time in the furnace industry. I hope it works well for you.

The frustrating part is that I wont really know until next winter... I ended up buying two of the little 7500 BTU heaters, one for each bedroom, now I have all summer to install them and run the gas lines. Nice looking little heaters,

The only drawback is there's no external thermostat, but I was thinking of a small electric heating element (perhaps just a light bulb) mounted just under the heater's mechanical thermostat, connected to a wall thermostat in cooling mode... when it's warm enough, the bulb puts some heat under the heater's internal thermostat and the heater shuts off.

 

[firecracker_77]

I run the Woodstock Franklin at 22,000 BTUs in my basement. Wife would never part with it. Duravent was $800 on it and I picked it up as a Woodstock demo for $1250 I think. If you can run pipe, you'd be set. Price new was $2500 which is more than I would have done I think.

 

[mygasfireplacerepair]

I feel like 8,000btu's might not be enough. I know in Wisconsin 8000btus doesn't go very far when its -20 degrees out. You may want to look into the Tiara Petite?

 

[firecracker_77]

I feel like 8,000btu's might not be enough. I know in Wisconsin 8000btus doesn't go very far when its -20 degrees out. You may want to look into the Tiara Petite?

That Tiara Petite is nice looking. 17,000 BTUs is respectable and the price isn't outrageous.

 

[firecracker_77]

The Empire DV-35 really cranks the heat for the price. The only downside is that you don't get to see the fire.

 

[FanMan]

Well, I finally finished installing the two 7500 BTU heaters in the back bedrooms. The single 30,000 BTU Osburn stove in the living room has pretty much kept the whole house warm up until now even on the low setting (though it hasn't gotten that cold yet, min lower 20s so far) but the back bedrooms were a bit chilly in the morning, especially if the door was closed. Now the whole house is comfortably at the same temperature. Install was simple, aside from one glaring error in the manual (on how long to cut the vent pipe... fortunately there was extra). Clean, silent heat that works even if the power goes out. I fired up the creaky old oil furnace once for a few minutes last week just to make sure it still works, "just in case", with luck I'll be ripping it out in the spring.