Greetings!
I have been reading many threads on this site and have been learning a lot. My wife and I are going have our basement finished and we would like a wood stove installed, and we have a lot of questions. I'd like to let you experienced folks know our ideas of how we would like to use our wood stove, and our current basic setup, and get some comments and suggestions.
I live in a split entry home in WI, built in 1976. I grew up in this house and purchased it from my mother about 10 years ago. When I was a kid, we used to heat the house mainly with a wood furnace and fuel oil for backup. I remember as a teen feeding the big beast in the basement, but I really do not have much experience with wood heat. My mother had natural gas installed in 1994 and had the wood furnace removed. The house is not well insulated, it is not terrible by any means, but it just feels cool and drafty in the winter. I plan to blow in some attic insulation this fall, which I expect to make a big difference over just the original 1976 batts.
The house is just under 1200 sq ft upstairs where all of the living area currently is. 8ft ceiling. The basement is half garage (under the bedrooms), and the other half is unfinished basement (under the living/dining/kitchen area). We are planning to finish the basement part to add almost 500sq ft of livable space, a family room. For a total of about 1700sq ft of space. The reasons for getting a wood burning stove are, to supplement our gas heat to save money, be able to heat our house to warmer temps without the gas furnace running steady, to be able to heat our house sufficiently if we lose power, and simply for the coziness of the visible flames in the new room.
I plan on installing a new stainless chimney straight up, as our old brick chimney is not anywhere close to where we would like our stove.
I have been reading reviews and looking at prices. I like the Englander 30 for good reviews it gets, and the price, $899 shipped from Home Depot. I also like the looks of it with the legs. I am open to spending a more on a different stove if it will make us happier with our wood heating experience, but we probably would start getting uncomfortable if it gets too much over $1500-1600 or so (for the stove). I plan on purchasing split/seasoned hardwood, at least the first year or two.
I am worried the 30 is going to turn the basement into a kiln and not let us enjoy the new space, but I would hope enough heat would go up the stairs to avoid that. I would also like to cut a couple vents in upstairs floor for more heat flow. I called Englander and asked them their recommendation for my situation and the gentleman suggested the 30. (over the 13)
How "involved" is it going to be to maintain a fire? I mean, I don't have a problem being patient building a good fire, but after reading many posts I'm nervous I'm going to load an overnight fire only to wake up in the middle of the night to either a glowing red inferno box of hell, or the opposite, a cold box of unburned wood. I realize it will take some getting used to my own stove and how it runs, but I think it will be a long time coming before I can load the stove and go to bed confident it will do what I want. I think the point I'm trying to make is I would like a fairly user friendly stove. Not one that I'm going to have to babysit every half hour.
Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I have been reading many threads on this site and have been learning a lot. My wife and I are going have our basement finished and we would like a wood stove installed, and we have a lot of questions. I'd like to let you experienced folks know our ideas of how we would like to use our wood stove, and our current basic setup, and get some comments and suggestions.
I live in a split entry home in WI, built in 1976. I grew up in this house and purchased it from my mother about 10 years ago. When I was a kid, we used to heat the house mainly with a wood furnace and fuel oil for backup. I remember as a teen feeding the big beast in the basement, but I really do not have much experience with wood heat. My mother had natural gas installed in 1994 and had the wood furnace removed. The house is not well insulated, it is not terrible by any means, but it just feels cool and drafty in the winter. I plan to blow in some attic insulation this fall, which I expect to make a big difference over just the original 1976 batts.
The house is just under 1200 sq ft upstairs where all of the living area currently is. 8ft ceiling. The basement is half garage (under the bedrooms), and the other half is unfinished basement (under the living/dining/kitchen area). We are planning to finish the basement part to add almost 500sq ft of livable space, a family room. For a total of about 1700sq ft of space. The reasons for getting a wood burning stove are, to supplement our gas heat to save money, be able to heat our house to warmer temps without the gas furnace running steady, to be able to heat our house sufficiently if we lose power, and simply for the coziness of the visible flames in the new room.
I plan on installing a new stainless chimney straight up, as our old brick chimney is not anywhere close to where we would like our stove.
I have been reading reviews and looking at prices. I like the Englander 30 for good reviews it gets, and the price, $899 shipped from Home Depot. I also like the looks of it with the legs. I am open to spending a more on a different stove if it will make us happier with our wood heating experience, but we probably would start getting uncomfortable if it gets too much over $1500-1600 or so (for the stove). I plan on purchasing split/seasoned hardwood, at least the first year or two.
I am worried the 30 is going to turn the basement into a kiln and not let us enjoy the new space, but I would hope enough heat would go up the stairs to avoid that. I would also like to cut a couple vents in upstairs floor for more heat flow. I called Englander and asked them their recommendation for my situation and the gentleman suggested the 30. (over the 13)
How "involved" is it going to be to maintain a fire? I mean, I don't have a problem being patient building a good fire, but after reading many posts I'm nervous I'm going to load an overnight fire only to wake up in the middle of the night to either a glowing red inferno box of hell, or the opposite, a cold box of unburned wood. I realize it will take some getting used to my own stove and how it runs, but I think it will be a long time coming before I can load the stove and go to bed confident it will do what I want. I think the point I'm trying to make is I would like a fairly user friendly stove. Not one that I'm going to have to babysit every half hour.
Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!