Top venting stove options

[Exmasonite]

Hey all-

Hope everybody is enjoying football sunday...

Had some questions about my stove set up in the house we recently purchased. House is a log cabin, 2 story with furnished basement. About 2500 sq ft above grade. There's a fuel oil boiler/radiators that i'm trying to minimize using. Here's the breakdown:

- Basement has a Europa 75 pellet stove.
- First floor has a Merlin3 (new zealand) wood burning stove.

and here's the situation:

The europa is nice... love the pellet stove. Only problem i've been wrestling with is getting heat out of basement. Have cut two 4x12 inch vents in floor and keeping door to basement stairs open but just not getting a lot of heat out of the basement. Have tried a fan at top of stairs blowing in and out of stairwell.... debating getting some register fans for the 2 vents but getting some resistance from the wife. I think it keeps the house somewhat warm but that the positioning (in basement) and size of house may be pushing the capabilities of the stove.

The wood stove on the first floor is nice and warms house better but finding that timing and maintenance of a wood stove is a bit of a pain. My wife and I have some varied schedules for work (on call) and often house is unattended at short notice and we're having to put out wood stove fires. Also, takes about an hour to start putting out some real heat.

So, am considering some options:

1) Move europa from basement to first floor (where wood stove is). Not really worried about heating basement... fuel oil boiler kicks on for hot water so puts out enough heat to keep comfortable. Problem may run into positioning on hearth/venting given the exhaust comes off back of stove.

2) Keep europa in basement and replace wood stove in first floor with a pellet stove. Am thinking a top venting model may be the way to go.

Here's a pic of the woodburning stove on first floor. There's 6" venting into the chimney:

Anybody have opinions on options for a top-venting stove? Given the location (our dining room) and the size of the hearth, i think a top venting model will be best/easiest. From searching the threads, it looks like the Harman XXV is capable of being modified to vent vertically and use 6" stove piping. Are there any other models I should consider?

Thanks in advance for anybody still reading!

 

[Exmasonite]

Anyone, bueller, anyone?

(hehe... 42 views and apparently people must be like "Gee, that guy wrote WAY too much")

 

[lordgrinz]

I bought the XXV for the top vent 6" pipe option, and the tax credit ;-) I'm just not knowledgeable enough about any others, I went off reviews. Plus a local dealer specialized in this model, so fell in love with it when i went to check it out.

 

[jtakeman]

I don't see many options besides the XXV as far as top venting. Looks like there is room for an up and out vent setup. I'd go with the Europa upstairs or another pellet stove if the XXV isn't what you want.

How much room do you have in front of the wood burner on the hearth?

 

[Exmasonite]

There's 18" from the front of the wood stove to the edge of the hearth.

The hearth is 42" wide and 48" from the front edge to where it hits the wall on each side.

I really want to use the existing pipe exit into the chimney... former owners had a brand new liner put in 2 years ago for the wood stove. I imagine it'd not be bad to get an adapter and use standard pellet pipe pipe. Given the location of the tube, i think the XXV would be the best/easiest but i could probably make something work if the outflow/exhaust was either located centrally or on the right side of the stove back. I would just need something that's not too deep to accomodate the venting while keeping adequate offset from edge of hearth. Don't really want to expand hearth... just spent big $$ on new hardwood floors.

The more i measure the europa, i'd have to angle it to accomodate the venting and it ends up jumping off the left side of the hearth. That stove is a beast.

 

[Scotte]

I just installed a harman pc45 a week ago replacing a wood stove (had 6" stove pipe up to 8" class a chimney)
New venting is 3" bio-vent to a 3" pellet to 8" class a adapter

Works great so far

You could do the same with a p68 (sounds like your house would need a little more horsepower than my 1400sqft single story)

 

[Exmasonite]

does the p68 allow vertical venting?

 

[Scotte]

Based on my reading of the manual yes (venting section of the manual seems identical)

Basicly you come off the back of the p68 with the appliance adapter then a piece of pipe then a cleaning tee then vertical pipe to a 90 degree piece to a chimney adapter. Let me know if I lost you (it's hard to describe vent routing IMHO )

 

[Exmasonite]

Scotte-

ok... i wanted to clarify. I was hoping for something that will vent vertically off the TOP of the stove. The XXV offers that option. looking at the P68 and my hearth, i'd have to position the stove too far out in order to tie into the current stove piping.

Thanks.