last question I have is, in reality how well do these things heat a 2 story home, well, contribute to heating a 2 story home? I should draw a floor plan so you can see what I am dealing with.
As I outlined earlier, they do quite well if the floor plan cooperates. There just needs to be a way for the air to move. Heres the layout of my 1600 sq foot two story cape.
My Osburn 1600 is in the 1st floor living room and as you can see the stairwell to the 2nd floor is in that room so upstairs stays nice and warm naturally. I use a single raised tower fan to push air down my hallway to the kitchen, dining room, and family room. The stove sucks the cold air back along the floor/up from the basement for combustion. You can feel it moving if you have bare feet.
On a 20 degree day a typical temperature picture of my place would be:
Living room (stove room) - 75
Upstairs bedrooms - 70
Family Room - 70
Kitchen/dining room - 65
Basement - unheated, 45 degrees ish.
I could make it warmer but we like it a little on the cooler side. Today was warm, 45 degrees or so. It's 36 degrees now, I haven't touched my stove since 7 am and it's between 68-70 in the entire house. I wouldn't say my house is super tight but we have above average insulation.
