Supplemental Heat from a Pellet Stove

[Steven F]

Hey ya'll! My name is Steven and my wife and I recently purchased a home in the Knob Noster, MO area. The home is heated by an air source heat pump with an electric backup, and with the temps in the low teens (single digits with the wind chill), the heat pump doesn't seem to be doing it's job. I would like to install a pellet stove to keep the home warm between dusk and dawn, but I have several concerns.

Best case, I'd like to tie something in to the existing duct work and sit downstairs, but that seems prohibitively expensive. The home is about 3150 sq ft with a full basement, and the basement is roughly 80% finished. The furnace/air handler are centrally located in the middle of the floor plan downstairs. I have two sump rooms, one located across a 3' wide hallway from the air handler.

Alternatively, the stove could be installed upstairs, but there is no good place to put it. All of the exterior walls in the main rooms have very wide windows (72" or exterior doors), and only about 3-4' of wall space before joining an interior wall. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are all one relatively large, open floor plan, but the master bedroom and bath are separated by an interior wall.

My wife and I spend most of our time upstairs, and the basement does a pretty good job of regulating itself. We are looking for a stove for around $2000 that will keep the upstairs area around 70* overnight. Any suggestions you guys have will be greatly appreciated!

 

[tjnamtiw]

Welcome to the forum!! First recognize that pellet stoves are SPACE HEATERS. Many people lose site of that fact and assume that they will uniformly heat the entire house. If you can live with non-uniform heating throughout the house then free standing or fireplace inserts could fill your need. Your comment about tying into your existing duct work is a good one since you CAN buy pellet furnaces, which some of the people on here have. I'm sure they will be chiming in shortly. I also have heat pumps and find that, even though they are 15 SEER, the efficiency really goes to heck below about 40 degrees. I've set that as my 'switch over' point for going to my pellet stoves.

I am assuming that you don't have natural gas or coal available where you are since you have heat pumps in a huge house with a lot of windows (not ideal). Also recognize that NO pellet stoves are 'set and forget'. They WILL require daily attention and maintenance from time to time. Make sure you are either mechanically/electrically inclined or you have someone (dealer or friend) who is available when needed. Putting a pellet stove in a basement unless it is well insulated, is not an ideal situation although there are those here who do it that way with some success.

One good thing about pellet stoves is that they require very little clearance to combustibles so you may think there is no place for them, but there really might be. If you really can't put the exhaust out a wall because of distance to opening windows, you can always go up. You cannot put them in bedrooms, however.

Good luck!

 

[stoaf88]

Put the stove in the living room.

Go straight out the wall with the vent and then up above or away from the window.

 

[will711]

Lot's of good info in tjnamtiw's post only thing I would add is shop several dealers in your area see the stoves working and hear them working. Ask ?? do the stock all parts for repairs? what are their fees?.... IMO the dealer / service person is just as important as the brand of stove you buy.
Good luck with your search.

 

[hoverfly]

With over three thousand square feet you may need more than one pellet stove or pay the same or less for a pellet furnace.

 

[boosted3g]

You can use the ductwork to move air around. Just turn your fan setting on the thermostat to on rather than auto and it will constantly run rather than only when the outside unit is running. If you can get a lot of air moving around it will work well especially if you can draw a lot of air near the stove. You will also find that the cold air from upstairs will work its way downstairs through the ductwork if the fan is not on. I have return grills in the stove room that blow cold air from the natural flow of the house. Hot air goes up the steps and cold air comes down through the ductwork. I still see a few degree swing from one side of the house to the other but its not bad at all. I just make the side with the stove a little warmer than it needs to be. Either way it will cost less to operate than a heat pump at those temperatures. I use my heat pump if its over 40 degrees and anything under than the stove comes on. I still keep it set at 70 degrees incase the stove would go out overnight as a backup but its never had to come on.

 

[AlaskaAviator]

Look at this.... (broken link removed to http://www.americanenergysystems.com/flex-fuel-furnaces.cfm)

 

[Dollabill]

Do your homework before you buy ,my choice is harman they run and run and run ! On a thread here someone stated they are the caddys of stoves he was corrected by another who made the comparison of them to Toyotas ! I agree ! Good luck !FYI I HEAT my Log House comfortably with a Harman XXV WE HAVE ABOUT 2200 sf

 

[AlaskaAviator]

I think Harmans are like cadilacs. And get the same mileage too. Seems like they are not as efficient as some.

 

[boosted3g]

Harmans are noted as being one of the more effecient stoves on the market. When shopping for a stove there is Harman and everyone else.

 

[moey]

Have you looked at some of the mini-splits air source heat pumps fujistsu makes? They are supposed to work to much lower temps -5 is what the literature states at 20 degrees they are supposed to still operate at their stated capacity still.

I think I would opt for a pellet stove with some selective electric heating in a house that size.

 

[St_Earl]

with that big a house (depending on your budget) you could also look at two good stoves that might run you the same (or even less) than one more expensive unit.
and you don't have to worry about making one stove heat an area beyond it's effective capacity.
there are some nice affordable units available.
wow. your house is three times as big as mine.
i'll keep this one thanks : P
welcome to the forum.

 

[DexterDay]

Look at this.... (broken link removed to http://www.americanenergysystems.com/flex-fuel-furnaces.cfm)

That isnt a Bad unit,but I wouldlook at the Harman PF-100, St. Croix Revolution, St. Croix 050, or Fahrenheit Endurance before looking at the AES (Magnum) model.

A furnace will provide a more even heat, but a freestanding stove in a Central location will also yield good results.

Heating that large of an area willtake a LARGE UNIT. The P-68, P-61, Mt. Vernon, Enviro Maxx, Drolet 65/Euromax, M-55 Steel, or Omega (if you can find one)

Place it where you need the heat the most and/or close to the sleeping and living quarters.

Welcome to the Forum

 

[rwthomas1]

I have a 1600sq/ft dormer'd cape here in New England. I use a Lopi Pioneer, which is a small stove, only 30Kbtu or so, and it heats the entire house pretty easily. Granted, its running wide open if the temps are below 20*F but the house is over 70*F, nice and cozy. The living/dining/kitchen are an open plan and 72-73*F is the norm. The back bedroom and office on the first floor are 69*F, while the upstairs is 68-71*F. Not perfect but certainly comfortable. Read the stove specs. Lopi allows within 18" of a window if there is an OAK for my stove. That allows a lot of flexibility in installation. This winter I'll burn 2 tons at $250/each and possibly an additional ton of shoulder pellets at $209/ton. So heating at a nice comfortable 70*+F for the whole winter at right around $725. Nothing to complain about there. Go pellet, you'll never look back.

 

[frogman]

I live just outside of Lawrence KS and I have the US Stove 6041 it is a lower end stove but i do like it alot it is in my basement and does keep my 2800 sf house around 74 we do have aLED heater in the living room but other than that we use the pellet stove for our primary heat with that said you will have to do a little extra cleaning IMO I clean the stove every week and clean the vent every 2 weeks blowing it out with a shop vac. since you are close to the OHP Ozark Hardwood Products mill you should see about buying pellets from them direct if you can. I fill my propane tank every 2 years it runs my hot water and stove. but do your homework and get the stove that will suite your needs..

 

[movemaine]

I have a Harman Accentra - 42k btus, heating about 2000 sq ft - of course you can't sit in the room it's in for more than 5 minutes when it's really cranking (but it doesn't struggle to heat my space - see my sig below for the layout).

However, based on what you're saying. I would run a Harman P68 in the basement with some ducting.

Or, there are several European/Italian stoves that have ducting you can run directly from the stove. I think there are also other more "local" pellet stoves that have the same feature.

 

[Pellet-King]

Missouri is Warm country!, just get a better furnace/heating system, think about this, the money wasted on a pellet stove and pellet's you could upgrade your existing setup to something for powerfull, air powered heatpump, never heard of that!!

 

[Pelleting In NJ]

Ecoteck (Ravelli) makes some 44000BTU pellet stoves with a second output, that is designed to duct heated air to another room. This output has its own fan and its own thermostat, so it is like a 2 zone system.

With an extra 2 fans to move the air around my 3500 sf house, I have cut my propane heating bill by about a third, saving about $900 a year using an Ecoteck Elena 48000 BTU stove.

If your electric rates are low enough, one or two Mitsubishi Hyper Heat Pump (the "Hyper" are the particular models which have useful heat output down to 5 deg F ) might be a better answer for you. What is your electric rate (cents/kWH)?

 

[Earlybird455]

I live here in Missouri, It is not warm weather country( in my opinion). It gets fairly cold and most of all wet (last night it was 18 degrees and 76 percent humidity)After having one I don't consider that heat pump weather. My house is 2850 square feet and I installed an older 2001 model used Englander 25 pdv pellet stove (advertized at 48k BTU) Like Steven F my house is all electic with an air source heat pump and electric back up heat strips The heat from this sucks and always feels drafty when it is below 40 or so. With this pellet stove installed in my finished basement and only gravity (up my stairwell) it heats my house pretty well and feels a lot more comfy. 2 winters ago in our WARM climate it was 10 below for days and it kept my house at 69 degrees. I consider this good for such a large home. Granted I was burning 3 bags of pellets a day. This is a picture of my installation I exited a concrete wall so I didn't have to go through the ceiling. It just seemed bad to enter the floor joist cavity with the flue. Go pellet stove in the Midwest if you don't have a fuel type heat you will not regret it.

 

[St_Earl]

Go pellet stove in the Midwest if you don't have a fuel type heat you will not regret it.

if you have menards in your area, you really won't regeret it.
i don't live in the midwest. but i've seen GREAT prices quoted here on pellets from menards.