Heat Commander Big Enough??

[chadcj7]

I stepped away from looking at wood-burning furnaces for a while now. I am back in the market. We built our house about 4 years ago, and I had a thermostat and an exhaust pipe already installed. My house has about 2500 sq ft upstairs and about 1600 sq ft downstairs where my kids are. The stairway to the basement is open to the upstairs. I live in the northern KY area where winters are not terrible, but we have an occasional day or two below zero. I am on a heat pump and want this to warm the house consistently when I get below 30.

I'm not worried about the quality of the Heat Commander, but if it will be enough to heat my space. It states that it is meant for 2500 sq ft. I like the Kumma, but where I am at the ROI is much longer. Appreciate anyones thoughts on this

 

[LogCabinFever]

So this is a question that will yield a ton of different answers. My answer is: it might do it, but more details are needed.

If I understand correctly, you’re talking 4100 sqft. That’s a lot. But it may be fine. A lot will depend on how well insulated the house is. Being a newer house, I would think your insulation would be pretty good on your walls and windows. You are also in an area that doesn’t really see cold like the north does. It also depends on the type of wood that you have down there. If it’s good quality hardwood, you’ll get better BTUs.

From reading this:

F

Thread 'New Furnace Day: Drolet Heat Commander'

Nov 4, 2020

It's new furnace day! Our Drolet Heat Commander was just dropped in the driveway by our freight service amd will be slipped into the basement to replace our Tundra I this afternoon.

I have no objective feedback, yet, other than saying that it looks very well built and many of the weak points of the Tundra are clearly addressed with more radiused corners, additional welds, additional firebrick, etc.

Also, a big kudos to Drolet for including both a thermostat and a moisture meter!

The install will happen over the weekend and I'll look forward to reporting the first proper burn.

• FixedGearFlyer
• Replies: 814
• Forum: The Boiler Room - Wood Boilers and Furnaces

• 

It seems like the general consensus is that the heat commander will heat more than it’s rated for. I’ve seen another thread about a guy that wanted to heat a 3400 square-foot space and a long time forum member (who also owned a HC) said it could work. Like I said, though, you’d have to give us more details about the finished area that it is heating as well as what fuel you are using.

If it were me, I would look into the Kuuma or the Caddy, because both of those offer 1/2hp blowers as opposed to the 1/3hp blower on the HC. This should yield you higher CFM’s, and therefore greater heating capacity. 4100 sqft may be better handled by an OWB. But there’s guys on here that know far more about this than I do.

Just curious, what is your heat pump rated to go down to? Modern heat pumps still have pretty good efficiency down to zero degrees. Maybe it would be better to update the heat pump?

 

[chadcj7]

So this is a question that will yield a ton of different answers. My answer is: it might do it, but more details are needed.

If I understand correctly, you’re talking 4100 sqft. That’s a lot. But it may be fine. A lot will depend on how well insulated the house is. Being a newer house, I would think your insulation would be pretty good on your walls and windows. You are also in an area that doesn’t really see cold like the north does. It also depends on the type of wood that you have down there. If it’s good quality hardwood, you’ll get better BTUs.

From reading this:

F

Thread 'New Furnace Day: Drolet Heat Commander'

Nov 4, 2020

It's new furnace day! Our Drolet Heat Commander was just dropped in the driveway by our freight service amd will be slipped into the basement to replace our Tundra I this afternoon.

I have no objective feedback, yet, other than saying that it looks very well built and many of the weak points of the Tundra are clearly addressed with more radiused corners, additional welds, additional firebrick, etc.

Also, a big kudos to Drolet for including both a thermostat and a moisture meter!

The install will happen over the weekend and I'll look forward to reporting the first proper burn.

• FixedGearFlyer
• Replies: 814
• Forum: The Boiler Room - Wood Boilers and Furnaces

• 

It seems like the general consensus is that the heat commander will heat more than it’s rated for. I’ve seen another thread about a guy that wanted to heat a 3400 square-foot space and a long time forum member (who also owned a HC) said it could work. Like I said, though, you’d have to give us more details about the finished area that it is heating as well as what fuel you are using.

If it were me, I would look into the Kuuma or the Caddy, because both of those offer 1/2hp blowers as opposed to the 1/3hp blower on the HC. This should yield you higher CFM’s, and therefore greater heating capacity. 4100 sqft may be better handled by an OWB. But there’s guys on here that know far more about this than I do.

Just curious, what is your heat pump rated to go down to? Modern heat pumps still have pretty good efficiency down to zero degrees. Maybe it would be better to update the heat pump?

Thanks for the response.

The basement is all concrete 10 foot foundation that is all under ground and not raised above. Insulation and windows are in very good shape so no issues there. I even have insulated siding on the house as well. The heat pump is very efficient. I have plenty of good hardwoods around here such as osage orange, black locust, walnut, oak, etc.

My heat pump will work down around 0 degrees but more efficient when it is above this though. I have electric as a backup as I did not want to go with propane and put the pipe in for a wood burner as I am on 6.5 acres and have access to wood on my property along with multiple friends that can get we good wood very easily.

What caddy would you recommend as it appears that they are only up to 2500 sq ft as well. I know that the Kumma will work as I have discussed with them, and they are very knowledgeable. I just feel for the short winters that we have, that do not get extremely low, that the Kuuma ROI is not as good.

Let me know if this answered your questions or if you need anything else. The last thing I would want to do is put something in that doesn't help with keeping the house warm when needed

 

[LogCabinFever]

I would say the basement won’t hold much heat. And these newer units don’t radiate as much heat as the older ones did.

Looks like you have some really good hardwoods down there, which is key when you’re dealing with that much ductwork.

The Caddy Advanced w/the 1/2hp ECM motor is what I am referring to. The regular motor offered is the same as the HC, which is 1/3hp. Off the top of my head I’d say that has the higher capacity to heat. I think the stated 2500 sqft is based off of the regular motor and is a ballpark figure. Maybe call SBI/PSG and explain your home and environment situation and see what they think?

Kuuma is certainly nice but I understand the ROI argument. It’s at least $3k minimum more than the other furnaces.

 

[sloeffle]

I've lived in both SE and SW Ohio for a number of years so I'm pretty familiar with the climate down there. If you've built a tight house, I wouldn't spend the money on a wood furnace. I don't think you'll ever get your money back, even with the HC. The chainsaws, gas, oil, chains, splitter etc and your time are not free. If you are looking at it from a financial perspective then those should all be calculated in your ROI.

If you are looking to be more energy independent ( that's why I burn wood myself ) a month or two a year then I think that's a little different.

 

[Micdrew]

I've lived in both SE and SW Ohio for a number of years so I'm pretty familiar with the climate down there. If you've built a tight house, I wouldn't spend the money on a wood furnace. I don't think you'll ever get your money back, even with the HC. The chainsaws, gas, oil, chains, splitter etc and your time are not free. If you are looking at it from a financial perspective then those should all be calculated in your ROI.

If you are looking to be more energy independent ( that's why I burn wood myself ) a month or two a year then I think that's a little different.

I agree 100%. if I had a spot to put a wood stove I would have gone that route instead of dropping the cash on the kuuma but the basement was the only place that made sense. I love the face that I don’t have to worry about fuel prices but the kuuma is definitely overkill for Maryland winters.

 

[EbS-P]

I would rather not push a wood burner as hard so it will have a longer life. From the feedback in the forum Kuma is top notch. But.. and hear me out. You are probably only going to need more heat 7 days a year. How will be installed? Can you run the electric back and the wood furnace? Right there you have exiting infrastructure covering any short comings of the commander.

Personally I’d rather put off the purchase for a year save up and work extra to get the Kuma.