Wanted a wood stove but installer suggested gas...need advice

[leakypuppy]

I have a 250 square foot room that was originally a single car attached garage. It gets quite cold in the winter -- the room has three windows -- and is currently heated only by my forced hot air furnace. I was considering the Jotul F 602 CB, the Morso 1410 or the larger Jotul F118 and Morso 2B classic. Originally I liked the smaller of the aforementioned stoves but after reading the cons of the smaller fireboxes I thought I might be better suited with the larger F118 or the 2B classic.

The installer came and while running the pipe for the stove isn't cheap it seems pretty straight forward -- directly up through the ceiling. After discussing the $$$ required for the SS pipe he suggested a gas stove such as the Jotul 100 Nordic for the following reasons.

1) $$$, the cost of running the stove pipe up through the ceiling plus the required 9-10' to pass the peak may run about $2000
2) Both the black bear and the 2B classic are way to big for the space and would heat me right out of the room.
3) Considering the smaller F118 or Morso 1410 he said that in order to run them efficiently you need to burn at 350-400 degrees and that maintaining that temp in that room with the smaller firebox would be difficult. The downside would be running cooler and the resulting creosote buildup, etc.

I'm not against gas and quite honestly the notion of starting a fire with the remote is appealing but our home is a 1930's tudor, slate roof, etc and the mental picture of the any of the wood fire stoves seem to be such a perfect fit. I know the Jotul 100 Nordic has the same look but I have about 4 cord outside and like the idea of FREE heat.

I guess the question comes down to "is my room to small to efficiently heat with wood and would gas be the smarter alternative"


Thanks in advance for any advice!

LP

 

[cannonballcobb]

Go with a wood stove.

If it gets too hot, just open up one of those windows a little bit. :coolsmile:

 

[Brian VT]

Tough call. I say burn wood and open a window if needed.

 

[leakypuppy]

I guess I need to figure out how the smaller stoves burn.

 

[fossil]

A room that small you should be able to heat just fine with an electric space heater...Cadet makes some great ones, either 120 or 240, can be wall-mounted and even controlled by a remote thermostat if you want. I have a small wood stove in my ~320 sq. ft. workshop, and I think if my space were much smaller than that, then the cost of installation and the dedicated footprint of the stove would really make me think long and hard about it. Depends on a lot of things, starting with how much time you plan to spend in the space, and what you use the space for, and what your budget is, and on and on... Rick

 

[leakypuppy]

Thanks fossil. The room is used as a den, we have four boys and someone is always in there.

 

[Jags]

Is there any chance that if the room that the stove is in gets too hot, you can move the excess heat to another part of the house? If so, you may have additional bonuses if you were to choose wood.

 

[begreen]

That was my thought too. How is this room connected to the house? What are the next rooms over from it?

 

[InTheRockies]

How open is the floor plan of your house? Is the kitchen adjacent to this converted room? Like others have suggested, you might be able to direct cold air toward the stove, causing warm air to move to other parts of the house. I have a fairly small house with an open floor plan and have no problems heating my whole house with the wood stove (not suggesting that you'd want to do that, but you may be able to heat more than that one room). The secret is to set a fan at floor level and point it to move cold air into the room with the stove. Warm air will then move around the house. You don't need a huge fan to do this either. I keep my fan on low speed, except during extremely cold spells.

 

[leakypuppy]

The room was originally a garage so there is only one doorway into the room and not much chance for the heat to leave and warm other areas of the house. I've been reading old posts on the and some seem to indicate that the 602 is the perfect size stove for a 250-300 sq ft room.

 

[Elfin]

Gosh... since you have firewood ready to go, I can understand why you are pretty well set on getting a wood stove.

The cost of the pipe you were quoted ($2K) seems awfully high to me. How much total stovepipe were you quoted? Even with install (labor) that price seems really high.

 

[Jags]

A hole the size of a walking door can move alot of air. ;-)

 

[leakypuppy]

Gosh... since you have firewood ready to go, I can understand why you are pretty well set on getting a wood stove.

The cost of the pipe you were quoted ($2K) seems awfully high to me. How much total stovepipe were you quoted? Even with install (labor) that price seems really high.

I'll have the estimate in a day or two but the $2000 was ballpark.

 

[leakypuppy]

A hole the size of a walking door can move alot of air. ;-)

Not sure what you mean Jags, any door should be able to let air in and out?

 

[Jags]

A hole the size of a walking door can move alot of air. ;-)

Not sure what you mean Jags, any door should be able to let air in and out?

Ding, Ding, Ding. See, you DO know what I mean.

The doorway that YOU walk through can also be used to move heat/cold from the room. Just trying to point out that you may be able to move some excess heat to other parts of the house.

 

[leakypuppy]

Well the second floor of the garage is a bedroom so perhaps I could install some floor registers to get some heat up there. The second floor of the house is on a separate zone -- primarily heated by my furnace -- but hey, heat is heat right?.

 

[Jags]

Well the second floor of the garage is a bedroom so perhaps I could install some floor registers to get some heat up there. The second floor of the house is on a separate zone -- primarily heated by my furnace -- but hey, heat is heat right?.

See - now your thinking. But.....be aware, it is not really a good idea to start poking holes in what would be considered a fire barrier (ceiling). There are fuseable link registers that could be used, but proceed with caution on that front.

On the other hand, you are starting to think out of the box (or room as it were). Keep on thinking. We will have you talked into a wood stove in no time. :red:

 

[begreen]

What is on the other side of the door that is connecting the house to the garage?

 

[buzcranne]

If you are interested in trying to move heat to the rest of the house, the method mentioned several times on the forum -- positioning a fan on the floor in the area to receive heat and pointing it toward the heat source -- is working very well for me right now. See a recent discussion "I found a great fan for hallway" for specific fan suggestions.

 

[Sealcove]

I guess I need to figure out how the smaller stoves burn.

I heated with a 602 or what ever the equivalent model number was then in a house I rented nearly a decade ago, and I thought it was a hell of a stove. You are not going to get long burns out of it, but you get a whole lot of heat with very little wood. This seems like a prefect application size wise.

 

[savageactor7]

I dunno if the resident expert recommended gas...that might be the right move. If you're not already heating with wood why bother?

That was about the SF of my room at Ft Drum ...cause the donkey micro managers in the federal gov decide to remodel they saved money by omitting simple louvered shut offs in the forced air systems in each room. The end result being that the rooms in the center of the barracks were baking and could do nothing about it. Me being at the end froze cause the troops in the center where the thermostat was kept turning it down...and who could blame them?

The fix was simple went to the PX and for $8 got an electric heater and that was enough to warm the room enough to sleep...maybe you have a more simpler fix in store for the den to.

 

[leakypuppy]

I created a floor plan drawing that shows the placement of my existing insert (c550) -- square on the LEFT. The stove I've been disussing in this thread and the room in question is in the room on the right. Any suggestions about how to get some of the heat from the converted garage, through the hallway and into the other areas would be great. Above the converted garage is a bedroom if floor louvers are a possibility.

Thanks.

 

[buzcranne]

The fan I mentioned above draws air in from the sides rather than the back. If you placed one of those just outside of the top-center room in your drawing, pointing toward the converted garage, it would draw cool air out of the non-heated room, direct it into the warm room, and possibly start some convection. The air pulled from the cool room has to be replaced by something, and the only thing available will be warm air near the ceiling. Worth a shot.

 

[InTheRockies]

Since you already have an insert, you can see how well a fan will work if you fire up your insert and then set a fan a floor level, pointing toward the room with the insert. (I'd have it right at the doorway to the room with the insert.) This arrangement works well to move warm air from the great room in my house to the bedrooms. I also have a ceiling fan in the great room as well.

 

[leakypuppy]

Since you already have an insert, you can see how well a fan will work if you fire up your insert and then set a fan a floor level, pointing toward the room with the insert. (I'd have it right at the doorway to the room with the insert.) This arrangement works well to move warm air from the great room in my house to the bedrooms. I also have a ceiling fan in the great room as well.

Thanks. I've never done much experimenting with air movement having resigned myself to limitations of a broken up floor plan. I'll put a fan on the floor in the living room blowing towards the insert and see if I can get any circulation.