Hi All,
We have a large but well built 13 year old house in central MN with a large masonry fireplace to which we'd like to add a wood burning insert. The house is about 5800 sq ft, with 3800 finished sq ft (about 2000 on main floor, plus 1800 upstairs linked by a 2 story foyer which runs almost the whole length of one half the upstairs, with the bedrooms being on the opposite side). We have 2000 sq ft of unfinished basement, which we don't really need heated to comfortable temps.
We have 2 furnaces burning propane but we'd like to make it a lot more economical to heat such a beast of a house. We keep it chilly in the winter just to be affordable, but we'd like to be a lot warmer!
The fireplace is on one end of the house, in a 20'x24' great room with a 15' peaked ceiling. This room opens via a 6 foot wide open archway into a 9 foot deep open space (also with 15' ceilings) and off of that comes our kitchen, dining room, and a very long hallway (all with 9' ceilings) from which the rest of the house is accessed. The great room and kitchen are our primary living spaces during the day and therefore of greatest concern to bring to comfortable temps. It would be a real plus if the heat reached some or all of the rest of the house but we're really not sure how the air flow would work. We don't want to get roasted out of the great room in order for the rest of the house to get any heat. We would definitely run our furnace fan full time to circulate air and plan to add a cold air return vent near the fireplace to facilitate this (currently the great room has no cold air returns, we have no idea why).
The great room has 2 ceiling fans and the open space adjacent to it also has one.
So, I guess if anyone has thoughts on how the heat might disperse in our house or things we could do to facilitate it, they would be appreciated.
Also, we would like some feedback or suggestions on what type of insert to get. Having learned about cat via this site, I'm thinking we'd want to go that route to avoid roasting in the great room and also to extend the burn time (although I am home all day so I can add wood at least every several hours if need be but would rather have to do that less). I think we'd also want a large firebox (looking at ~3 cu ft).
Our fireplace opening is quite large at 47"W x 24"D x 24"H (on sides, with an arch that tops out at 35"H in the middle). Since our fireplace is the aesthetic focal point of our house we'd like to maximize the viewing window space. We really like the looks of the Vermont Castings Merrimack, but I am concerned about the older reviews. Anyone have more info on a recent model Merrimack or the state of the company/quality? Or could recommend another insert given our situation?
Thanks so much!
We have a large but well built 13 year old house in central MN with a large masonry fireplace to which we'd like to add a wood burning insert. The house is about 5800 sq ft, with 3800 finished sq ft (about 2000 on main floor, plus 1800 upstairs linked by a 2 story foyer which runs almost the whole length of one half the upstairs, with the bedrooms being on the opposite side). We have 2000 sq ft of unfinished basement, which we don't really need heated to comfortable temps.
We have 2 furnaces burning propane but we'd like to make it a lot more economical to heat such a beast of a house. We keep it chilly in the winter just to be affordable, but we'd like to be a lot warmer!
The fireplace is on one end of the house, in a 20'x24' great room with a 15' peaked ceiling. This room opens via a 6 foot wide open archway into a 9 foot deep open space (also with 15' ceilings) and off of that comes our kitchen, dining room, and a very long hallway (all with 9' ceilings) from which the rest of the house is accessed. The great room and kitchen are our primary living spaces during the day and therefore of greatest concern to bring to comfortable temps. It would be a real plus if the heat reached some or all of the rest of the house but we're really not sure how the air flow would work. We don't want to get roasted out of the great room in order for the rest of the house to get any heat. We would definitely run our furnace fan full time to circulate air and plan to add a cold air return vent near the fireplace to facilitate this (currently the great room has no cold air returns, we have no idea why).
The great room has 2 ceiling fans and the open space adjacent to it also has one.
So, I guess if anyone has thoughts on how the heat might disperse in our house or things we could do to facilitate it, they would be appreciated.
Also, we would like some feedback or suggestions on what type of insert to get. Having learned about cat via this site, I'm thinking we'd want to go that route to avoid roasting in the great room and also to extend the burn time (although I am home all day so I can add wood at least every several hours if need be but would rather have to do that less). I think we'd also want a large firebox (looking at ~3 cu ft).
Our fireplace opening is quite large at 47"W x 24"D x 24"H (on sides, with an arch that tops out at 35"H in the middle). Since our fireplace is the aesthetic focal point of our house we'd like to maximize the viewing window space. We really like the looks of the Vermont Castings Merrimack, but I am concerned about the older reviews. Anyone have more info on a recent model Merrimack or the state of the company/quality? Or could recommend another insert given our situation?
Thanks so much!