Stove placement for 1600 sq. ft. rancher

[jdr7]

Hey everyone! I'm hoping to get some advice on where to place a wood stove, to optimally heat our 1,600 sq. ft. ranch home. Not sure if these details help, but it's 3 bed, 2 bath, and average insulation/windows (not a drafty farmhouse, not super tight new construction either). Between a PE, or Blaze King Princess (2 different stoves, I know, still can't decide between pros and cons).

Details

Our home is currently heated via oil furnace, going to radiators. The furnace was extremely old, and recently died. Since it's the only thing we're using oil for, we'd rather not replace it - and instead, try to heat the whole home with wood.

I've attached a rough drawing, but basically our kitchen, living room, and den are 1 area - all open concept. The bedroom "wing" is about 800~ sq ft., and the living area is about 800 sq ft. We'd like to put the stove on the main living floor to enjoy it more, and I've marked 2 areas we're considering putting it. Here's what we're trying to achieve in order of importance:

1. Best heat distribution for entire house
2. Not baking out the living room (where we spend most of our time)
3. Able to view the stove from the living area

My question

First - Any suggestions for which placement might be best?
Second - Given this layout, is it possible to heat our entire home - including bedrooms, at a nice temperature?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[begreen]

#1 seems the best. Does the den have a lower roofline than the rest of the house? The bedrooms in a ranch will always be cooler without some sort of convection assistance. A fan placed on the floor at the far end of the hallway, blowing cooler air into the stove room will help even out temps as long as the BR doors are left open.

 

[jdr7]

No, the den is the same ceiling height as the rest of the home. We toyed with putting it there, simply because it would free up a bit more space in our kind of small living area, but I'm concerned it might not be close enough to the bedrooms to keep them warm.

Thanks so much for your response, that was my concern about the bedrooms. In cases like this, when we close bedroom doors at night (i.e. our 2 year old son's room) do you think we'll need to run space heaters? Or does cool typically mean 68-69, while the rest of the home is 75? Thanks so much for your responses!

 

[Ashful]

No experience with a rancher, so I won't quote numbers for your scenario, but cooler bedrooms is desirable by some. I enjoy having bedrooms on my second floor in the 60's while my stove room is 10 - 15F warmer.

Yes, I did use a space heater (oil filled electric type) in one of my kids rooms when they were young, up to age 5. That room was far from either stove, and would be too cool in winter, for a kid who always kicked off their blankets. After about age 5, they were old enough to keep a blanket on themselves when it was cool, so we retired the space heater. If you do this, just please be sure it's not an exposed element type, and something safe for use in a child's room while you sleep.

While no spot is very far from another in 1200 sq.ft., the concern with locations 2 and 3 would be the partition walls you have drawn. If all open, I'd argue that putting it in locations 2 or 3 is really not going to be that big a penalty. But with walls separating the den from kitchen and living room, you're going to have a too-warm den with cold bedrooms, using locations 2 or 3.

 

[jdr7]

No experience with a rancher, so I won't quote numbers for your scenario, but cooler bedrooms is desirable by some. I enjoy having bedrooms on my second floor in the 60's while my stove room is 10 - 15F warmer.

Yes, I did use a space heater (oil filled electric type) in one of my kids rooms when they were young, up to age 5. That room was far from either stove, and would be too cool in winter, for a kid who always kicked off their blankets. After about age 5, they were old enough to keep a blanket on themselves when it was cool, so we retired the space heater. If you do this, just please be sure it's not an exposed element type, and something safe for use in a child's room while you sleep.

While no spot is very far from another in 1200 sq.ft., the concern with locations 2 and 3 would be the partition walls you have drawn. If all open, I'd argue that putting it in locations 2 or 3 is really not going to be that big a penalty. But with walls separating the den from kitchen and living room, you're going to have a too-warm den with cold bedrooms, using locations 2 or 3.

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was thinking. We have an oil-filled space heater we'd use for our son's room. We prefer our rooms 68~, so don't mind if it gets a bit colder.

My main concern was just that our rooms would get down to like 62 (which would be too cold for us). I didn't want to rely on the wood stove as the sole source of heat in an attempt to save money, if we end up running electric space heaters all winter and end up coming out breakeven with other methods.

 

[Ashful]

If you find your bedrooms are cooler than you'd like, it's always possible to use your central heating to augment the base provided by your stove. This is more of a challenge in a smaller home with a single heating zone, but if wood heat is going to be part of your life for the next several years, it might be worth zoning the bedrooms separately from the rest of the living space, or even simply valving and bypassing radiators not needed when the stoves are running.

I have two wood stoves and eight zones of heating in this house. I have all zones on programmable thermostats, set to cycle maintain the temperatures that keep the family comfortable, and then I just keep feeding the stoves to supply a base load. The central heating runs as needed, I have no goal to replace it 100%, but I'm putting one hell of a big dent in the oil bill, without having to worry about keeping the house at ideal temperature with wood alone.

 

[begreen]

If the door is closed, the room will need supplemental heat unless some sort of convection system is installed to move the heat.

 

[Dix]

Welcome to the Forums!

Where are the doorways in the beds & baths, might I ask?

I second a fan on the floor at the end of the hallway, pushing the cold floor air towards the stove. You create a convection loop (takes a bit of time to get going, but works).

 

[EbS-P]

We have a similar ranch layout. A ceiling fan in the living room set to blow up is always on low. This move the hot air down the hallway. We only need the fans to get more cold air out of the bedrooms when it is cold. That said without them the bedrooms will be 65-68 with the living room about 78-80. We added electric radiant floor heat to the master bath. Just no way for stove heat to get there.

 

[jdr7]

If you find your bedrooms are cooler than you'd like, it's always possible to use your central heating to augment the base provided by your stove. This is more of a challenge in a smaller home with a single heating zone, but if wood heat is going to be part of your life for the next several years, it might be worth zoning the bedrooms separately from the rest of the living space, or even simply valving and bypassing radiators not needed when the stoves are running.

I have two wood stoves and eight zones of heating in this house. I have all zones on programmable thermostats, set to cycle maintain the temperatures that keep the family comfortable, and then I just keep feeding the stoves to supply a base load. The central heating runs as needed, I have no goal to replace it 100%, but I'm putting one hell of a big dent in the oil bill, without having to worry about keeping the house at ideal temperature with wood alone.

That's what we're thinking. Right now, we have no heat source (boiler died, and this would be sole heat source for a while). But we'd like to eventually do ductless mini splits for AC/Shoulder season heat, and those could do the bedrooms at night. So it's really just getting through 1-2 winters with space heaters I think.

 

[jdr7]

We have a similar ranch layout. A ceiling fan in the living room set to blow up is always on low. This move the hot air down the hallway. We only need the fans to get more cold air out of the bedrooms when it is cold. That said without them the bedrooms will be 65-68 with the living room about 78-80. We added electric radiant floor heat to the master bath. Just no way for stove heat to get there.

This is SO helpful, thank you! We're thinking we'll need to run a space heater in our master bathroom based on this. We'd be happy with 68 degrees in our room, but probably run a space heater in our son's. Thanks so much!

 

[Ashful]

Got it. In that case, I'd favor loc #1 even more strongly than otherwise, and repeat any prior warnings about getting dry wood. This may be a year to buy some compressed sawdust logs, which can be used alone, or even better to manage average moisture in a mixed load with cord wood.

As EbS-P and begreen already said, one small fan on the floor at the far end of the hall can do a lot to push cold air toward the stove room, to be displaced with warm air traveling along the ceiling.

 

[EbS-P]

This is SO helpful, thank you! We're thinking we'll need to run a space heater in our master bathroom based on this. We'd be happy with 68 degrees in our room, but probably run a space heater in our son's. Thanks so much!

When it gets really cold and windy those back two bedrooms with the two exterior wall will get colder.

We got everyone synthetic comforters and they got to pick their duvet cover. Made the kids happy to get a big fluffy blanket to snuggle under. Down side is if the stove isn’t burning up to temp you can’t hardly get them out of bed.

 

[Ashful]

I will say that a cold basement combined with marginal insulation between basement and first floor, is a recipe for discomfort. This is one of our issues, as the basement under part of our house runs cool (50's), making the floors in the rooms above cold. So, whereas I'd normally be comfortable in the low-70's, I find we end up keeping that part of the house closer to 80F, to overcome the feeling created by the cold floor.

Ironically, the other half of our basement is too warm, typically running mid- to high-80's, as that's where the boiler and all other utilities reside. Oh, the fun of old houses.

 

[ratsrepus]

If you want a more consistent through out the house #1 is IMHO the right place