Help choosing an insert

[JamesH]

Hey all,

So glad I found this site. My family and I recently moved to a 1940sq ft two story cape in the north east. There is a pre existing fireplace we are planning on putting an insert in and have narrowed it down to these options.

Husband is wary of a cat stove and ultimately gets final say because chopping and stacking wood is predominantly his task but I’m personally intrigued by a hybrid option.

Pacific energy -
Summit
Super

Lopi -
Evergreen
medium flush

IHP Montlake 230 -

Fireplace is in the living room and while parts of the house are more open floor plan there are areas I’m not expecting this to get to. We have measured and all of these options will fit.

Stoked to see what y’all think!

 

[begreen]

How open is the stove room to the rest of the house? Is this room closed off from the remaining more open floorplan? That will influence insert sizing. Also, how is the insert intended to be used? Occasionally or 24/7 throughout the winter?

 

[JamesH]

How open is the stove room to the rest of the house? Is this room closed off from the remaining more open floorplan? That will influence insert sizing. Also, how is the insert intended to be used? Occasionally or 24/7 throughout the winter?

It’s got a fairly open pathway to the dining, hallway and sitting room, kitchen is more blocked but we plan on opening that up down the line. I’ll attach a floor plan of the lower level! It also has pretty tall ceilings so I’m trying to be realistic with how far this heat will actually travel. Planning on 24/7 through the winter months with appropriately timed clean outs.

We had a very old stainless free standing beast of a unit in our older much smaller house that fit in a massive hearth. The insert world is new to us.

 

[begreen]

Some heat will migrate to the sitting room and up the stairs. The kitchen will get some too, but less unless assisted. The bedroom will definitely be cooler. A ceiling fan will help a bit. I'd opt for the PE Summit given the colder climate.

 

[JamesH]

Some heat will migrate to the sitting room and up the stairs. The kitchen will get some too, but less unless assisted. The bedroom will definitely be cooler. A ceiling fan will help a bit. I'd opt for the PE Summit given the colder climate.

Thank you! That’s what we are leaning towards. Planning on putting a ceiling fan in the dining room, could put one in the kitchen and aside from that we have to use wall mounted or floor fans.

It’s an interesting house heating wise, there’s oil fired radiant that runs up the lower level walls into the floor/ceiling of the second level that started to fail so the previous owner installed wall mounted propane units in all the bedrooms and one in the living room. The units are not great looking and the piping runs all over the exterior of the house which is apparently up to code but makes us nervous.

My husband is planning on installing baseboard as well so the goal is to supplement that with the wood stove.

 

[kborndale]

Most important is to get your wood split and stacked today and it may be ready to burn for the winter after this one. And no, you can not buy ready to burn wood even though every dealer says they have it.