Soapstone owners... fill me in

[snowleopard]

You are a wise lady sl. I would add another floor in that empty space if we had cathedral ceilings. Ever been in an old cathedral in the winter? They are really cold!

I thank you for the compliment.

If I lived someplace really warm (a relative term, I know), and the rest of the house worked, and the view justitfied it, I could see that design. Here's an example: (broken link removed to http://www.luxist.com/2007/02/10/soaring-osprey-estate-of-the-day/) Of course, there may be a good reason the place is on the market. I'd love to know what their heating bill is.

OTOH, here's a house design that was able to get a lot of the effect of the cathedral ceilings without the cavernous heat reservoir up where no one can make use of it. Actually, I find this house holds a lot more charm for me, but then, that's me: (broken link removed to http://www.sanjuanwaterhouse.com/pages/photos.htm)

But a cathedral ceiling in Fairbanks on a single-parent budget? Not.

she told me that they were spending $700 a month to heat the place.

If I was still burning oil, I'd have that number beat by about $100 a month.

Those numbers were about three years ago, so that might account for part of it. Is your house very large?

To follow up with what Snowleopard wrote... I do have a cathedral ceiling. It is a log home built with 8 in logs in 1997. The house is actually described as a story and a 1/2. When standing on the second floor you can look down into the living room which is where the stove is.

That could clear up the mystery, in part. The more-or-less R8 walls would also make it harder to heat, and the logs contribute a lot of thermal mass to boot. Wonderful when your stove is cooking and the log walls get warm, but a shivery feature until that point.

I know that you wanted it to work, and it was mystifying to me why it didn't. I'm glad you have a solution that works for you at last, and best wishes for a warm winter with it this year.

Have a good day all. It's 85 out and burning seems so far away.

Not here. The summer has turned, and there is an autumnal bite in the air, without a doubt. Burning season is soon upon us, and I have this weekend slated for bringing in a lot of that seasoned poplar laying around my property. It's now or never. I've seen winter come as early as Sept 5th (once) here, so time to make hay while the sun shines.

 

[BrowningBAR]

she told me that they were spending $700 a month to heat the place.

If I was still burning oil, I'd have that number beat by about $100 a month.

Those numbers were about three years ago, so that might account for part of it. Is your house very large?

2150 sq ft. Kind of middle of the road in terms of square footage.

 

[snowleopard]

BrowningBAR, somehow I missed that post above. Not that it wasn't right out there or anything. I went through a phase last winter where I was so besotted with my stove that I was trying to figure out if I could fit another couple of stoves in my place, so your setup sounds perfect to me.

Actually, if I had three, I'd want one of them to be a cookstove, and one of them an antique parlor stove or four-o-clock stove from Good Time Stove Company. That's where they keep the woodstove eye candy. I'm also really impressed at how high a level they took the woodstove technology at that time. Some of them I look at and realize that they came darned close to anticipating some of the `cutting edge' stuff being built now. Hey, it's fun to dream, right?
'

 

[Backwoods Savage]

To follow up with what Snowleopard wrote... I do have a cathedral ceiling. It is a log home built with 8 in logs in 1997. The house is actually described as a story and a 1/2. When standing on the second floor you can look down into the living room which is where the stove is. I have a ceiling fan on the top of the cathedral and I reverse it to move the heat around plus one in the living room entry way to move the air around the kitchen and dining room. The house set up makes it easy to heat the upstairs rooms as well as the first floor. Perhaps my house design is why the Mansfield did not work for me. Whatever the reason the Summit fixed my issues. Believe me I wanted that soapstone to be everthing I read it was, but in my case it wasn't.

Have a good day all. It's 85 out and burning seems so far away.

MF, that sounds like a beautiful home! Heating it with wood also sounds like it really fits in nicely. Congratulations on that.

On the ceiling fan, you say you reverse it but to which direction? I used to try blowing the air down, thinking that the heat is up so we'll blow it down. I was corrected and find that blowing down in summer and up in winter is the correct way to go. Sounds backwards but it works.

 

[MF1529]

To follow up with what Snowleopard wrote... I do have a cathedral ceiling. It is a log home built with 8 in logs in 1997. The house is actually described as a story and a 1/2. When standing on the second floor you can look down into the living room which is where the stove is. I have a ceiling fan on the top of the cathedral and I reverse it to move the heat around plus one in the living room entry way to move the air around the kitchen and dining room. The house set up makes it easy to heat the upstairs rooms as well as the first floor. Perhaps my house design is why the Mansfield did not work for me. Whatever the reason the Summit fixed my issues. Believe me I wanted that soapstone to be everthing I read it was, but in my case it wasn't.

Have a good day all. It's 85 out and burning seems so far away.

MF, that sounds like a beautiful home! Heating it with wood also sounds like it really fits in nicely. Congratulations on that.

On the ceiling fan, you say you reverse it but to which direction? I used to try blowing the air down, thinking that the heat is up so we'll blow it down. I was corrected and find that blowing down in summer and up in winter is the correct way to go. Sounds backwards but it works.

That's exactly what I do with the fan. It is a crucial part of keeping the up stairs from being over heated and the first floor at a warmer temperature. It's funny that blowing the hot air up helps move it down, but it does. That took me a little while to figure out when I first bought the place. Now every spring and fall I'm standing on the coffee table trying to switch the rotation switch to the right direction of the season with a raised hockey stick or broom handle. Yes a have a ladder in the garage< but why do it the easy way.

 

[mhrischuk]

I'm installing TWO soapstones as we speak. Equinox on one end and a Clydesdale insert on the other. The stoves will be about 110 feet apart on either end of a 3300 sf one story home. I'll report back for sure this winter.

 

[firefighterjake]

When I was house-hunting, I noticed that the cathedral ceilings were a big hit with the real-estate salespeople, and they certainly are striking--but taking into account my climate and my budget, I scratched them off my list. I looked at one that a co-worker later bought, and she told me that they were spending $700 a month to heat the place. I ended up buying a house that was actually larger, but had 8' ceilings throughout, and spent a lot less for fuel.
. . .

When I was looking for a house with my wife I kept thinking I wanted either a loft or cathedral ceiling . . . I ended up with neither . . . and now I'm quite happy. The old settlers might have had a very good reason for building homes with low ceilings and rooms that they could close off . . . and it may not have necessarily been just a financial issue. I know whenever I went to my Uncle's home with a loft it was always tolerable on the first floor near the stove, chilly in the back bedroom and hotter than Hades in the loft despite the use of a couple of ceiling fans.

 

[begreen]

When I was house-hunting, I noticed that the cathedral ceilings were a big hit with the real-estate salespeople, and they certainly are striking--but taking into account my climate and my budget, I scratched them off my list. I looked at one that a co-worker later bought, and she told me that they were spending $700 a month to heat the place. I ended up buying a house that was actually larger, but had 8' ceilings throughout, and spent a lot less for fuel.
. . .

The old settlers might have had a very good reason for building homes with low ceilings and rooms that they could close off . . . and it may not have necessarily been just a financial issue. I know whenever I went to my Uncle's home with a loft it was always tolerable on the first floor near the stove, chilly in the back bedroom and hotter than Hades in the loft despite the use of a couple of ceiling fans.

The smart ones also kept the floor plan somewhat open, the windows modest and the chimney in the middle of the house.