The next step ?

[Jaymaine34]

Ok so I have a cb 1200 and even in the cold weather we have been having I can keep the Maine floor at 72 ( stove room 78 ) but the secound floor struggles to get between 65 on one end 60-62 on the other .
I have tried fans to some success I'm burning mcfeeters .
I want an even heat 72 plus would be ideal and I'm pretty convinced I can't get there with what I have . So I'm wondering do I add a secound stove in the basement ( 52 there now with 2 outside ) or do I look into a pellet boiler)
I have a forced hot water system boiler ( only a 10 years old so I hate to scrap it ) use it only to heat DHW .
My plan is to add insulation to me bonus room above garage ( 62 there now ) the rest of the house is pretty tight !
I just want to warm the basement ( 2nd family room ) and the bonus room above garage .
Less those 2 spaces I'm heating 1800 square feet add them and now were talking about 2800-3000 .
What's my biggest bang for my buck ? I hate to use oil but for the cost does it make sense ? ( 3.59 a gallon here )
Can a pellet boiler run along with my current boiler or does it need to come out ? Cost ?
I love my stove and until we get into the teens it does a pretty good job less the basement !
Open to any ideas or input ! Anythingni can try now to see if I can make a little bit of gain ?
Thanks in advance for any help !

 

[jtakeman]

Never hurts to add pink pellets. If you haven't a second layer in the attic? Add some there too!

Pellet boiler will heat the whole house(except basement unless you add a zone) and is sistered to the existing unit. So no scrapping what you have. It will be the backup unit. You can still use it in the summer months instead of the pellet boiler. If oil ever crashes, You can still go back if needed.

Second stove will heat basement nicely, But you will still struggle with getting heat up to the 3rd floor area. Second stove will still require boiler to heat the 3rd floor area in the extreme cold season.

A pellet boiler will get you totally oil free if that's your goal?

 

[Jaymaine34]

My goal is not To be 100 oil free as much as it is to be warm ! I know I could always use more pink pellets and some outlet thermal covers won't hurt ! I just want to do what makes sense and what is the biggest bang for my buck ! It's funny that 72 doesn't feel as warm as it used to !! The thing I'm most miffed about is how the stove room is 78 and the next room with a 3 foot plus opening to it is only 70-72 . I'm gonna try one of those doorway fans and see if it helps ( this is at the base of the stairs going upstairs ) top of the stairs is just as warm as the stove room just need to get the traped heat moving !
Stove is in the center of the house

 

[jtakeman]

I have had better luck moving the cooler air down low from the room you want heat in, Than trying to force the warm air into it. Try a small floor fan pointing to the stove from the cooler area. I bet it gets warmer pretty quickly.

 

[Jaymaine34]

Not to sound stupid but would a box fan work for this ? Would you put it in the doorway or back further into the colder room ?

 

[jtakeman]

Not to sound stupid but would a box fan work for this ? Would you put it in the doorway or back further into the colder room ?

Any fan you have will work for testing. Higher cfm will move more air. Location might be a trial and error deal. But start at the door opening for giggles. You can do the same to move the cold air down stairs too. I wouldn't set it on the steps, But you could hang it from the ceiling or something like that.

 

[DBCOOPER]

What setting are you running your 1200? I have found with my 1200i that running on low with the feed gate about half way open the stove will run much longer and there is a much more even heat thru out the house. It takes a while for the natural circulation pattern to get going, but once it does it does a good job. If I set to medium it gets to temperature faster,but the heat doesn't migrate as well. Tried fans,doesn't work for me. YMMV.

 

[jtakeman]

What setting are you running your 1200? I have found with my 1200i that running on low with the feed gate about half way open the stove will run much longer and there is a much more even heat thru out the house. It takes a while for the natural circulation pattern to get going, but once it does it does a good job. If I set to medium it gets to temperature faster,but the heat doesn't migrate as well. Tried fans,doesn't work for me. YMMV.

Fans have worked for some members. I think it depends on the layout. Helped in my case, But still wasn't what we were looking for. Hard to get equal temps with natural convection. Forced air ducting was the ticket for me. Like you say YMMV depending on house layout. Only way to find out is experiment with different things. Maybe slow and steady could help them too?

 

[Jaymaine34]

Guys thanks for the input ! So you got me thinking here !
1. Gonna play with the fans see what I can do
2. Set to med and burn slow and long ( did make that change but this cold snap I went back to high )
3. I did put a lux in last week and seemed at first to make a big difference ! But now I'm thinking the way I set it maybe causing my issue . I have it setup with a swing set of 3 temp setting of 78 all day except at night 10 pm - 6am down to 75
So with the swing set it lets the temp drop to 72.5
So my thinking is it gets down to far at night and with the daytime temps not getting more then into the teens the stove can't catchup ( it heats the room to temp but doesn't get the whole house )
So I think I'll goto 78 across the board run on med with more of an open gate . I just cleaned it all up ANSI we shall see !

 

[DexterDay]

I would go back to Med and open the gate.. 100% if needed. Your not gonna overfire on Med (with.clean stove, vent, yadda yadda).

A fan blowing cold air does work better than blowing warm air.

I heated exclusively with my CB 1200 for 3 seasons. I heated a ranch though and my stove is centrally located.

As DB said above. A Low and slow approach is best. I to ran on Low 90% of the time. My stove ran 24-7 but the house was 74° (+/- 2°).

Lower the Heat setting and open the gate. Let the stove run. If the room temp rises 1° an hr, thats an increase. I dont want immediate results. That means your only heating the air. I wanna heat my home. Not the air in just the stove room.

 

[Jaymaine34]

Dex,
Thanks for the advise ! Is set on med gate wide open . Stat is set to 78 with a 3 swing set . Temp is going up about 1 an hour 77 stove room 74 in living room ( 30 feet away ) flame looks ok rises and falls a lot ! Abot 60% of the time stays below pot .
We will see