Small Pellet Stove - Overkill for family room in basement?

[daveswoodhauler]

Ok, been a woodburner for a while, so now my second post in the Pellet forum.
Basically, I am finishing up on a family room in our basement, and am wondering if a pellet stove might be a good choice for our situation. The room will be 460 sq feet, and fairly open. Basement walls have rigid foam insulation 1" (R5), then studs, then R13 batt in between the studs. Ceiling will be a drop ceiling, and in between the ceiling and first floor R19 in installed. Heat loss calculation came up appx 21000btuh, so I was thinking that perhaps a small pellet stove might work well in our situation. (My other heating choice would be a third zone on our oil boiler, but a third zone for only 450 feet seems a bit overkill)

I really don't need a large pellet stove, as right now the temps in the basement are running 56-59 degrees, and this is without the R13 in the studs as I am just finishing up the framing. Would a small pellet stove be overkill for this situation?

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

A small pellet stove would be fine.

ETA: How are the penguins doing?

 

[smoke show]

A small pellet stove would be fine.

x2

 

[fmsm]

I have an old Whitfield Cascade in a 23x21 downstairs family room, it does the job great on low, high will fry me out after an hour or so.....

 

[jtakeman]

There are a number of good little units that fit nicely. The Enviro mini is a sweet little unit. I also liked the Empress. St Croix has the LANCASTER and HASTINGS but a bit big at 40K BTU's. Harman has Accentra again a bit big at 40K BTU's. Quad has the Santa Fe at 34,400 BTUs

The plus with a bigger unit is they run fine at low settings. But will warm the room pretty quick. If you don't plan on being down there that much, But want quick heat when you do head down. If you can get some of the heat to easily move upstairs a bigger unit is also a plus.

A plus here is you have a good Heat loss calculation which you stated came up appx 21000btuh. I'd use this as the mid point of the stove. It will give you plenty of room even in the extreme cold weather. Try not to just barely size the unit. A little buffer goes a long way! Don't forget that they can except a stat and will only run to desired temp then idle down or shut themselves off.

Keep us posted on what you decide.

 

[DexterDay]

A small pellet stove would be fine.

x2

3rd that. And as Jay said, the thermostat is a beautiful thing. Can be a simple set temp, or a 7 day programmable unit.

 

[imacman]

....The Enviro mini is a sweet little unit......

I agree. Friend of mine had one put in last year....loved it.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Thanks for the info folks.
Did some research, and out of the 500 gallons we use/year is oil, only 300 or so is for actual heat...rest is hot water.
Looking at the use of the basement room, it will be only be used mainly at nights and the weekends as the kids are in school, and with only 450 in area to heat I think the Pellet stove might be just too much as we would probably only use an additional 75-90 gallons/year to heat the space.
I'll still keep in my mind the Pellet route...again, thanks for the info