school house need help heating!

[edthedawg]

If you have the $$ for an EQ, then by all means put it dead center in the lower level family room. it's BEGGING for an EQ. And that's probably all you need. maybe add some floor registers to move air around more.

You can't put a stove in the upper level master BR, and the gas furnace, i'm guessing, occupies the right flue. If you wanted, you could probably snake a pipe up from a smaller stove - like a shallow Jotul or Homestead - in the upper level dining room to the left flue, using a 45 and then a 90 to turn into a side-mounted crock. You really shouldn't need a ton of heat on the 2nd floor, given the kitchen - if you're up there cooking - has its own heat-generating equipment. we don't heat our kitchen - the stove 2 rooms away heats it fine. before we got the woodstove, i hadn't had the steam radiator even hooked up for 6 or 7 years - kitchen was never uncomfortable.

But I honestly don't know how much you'll really need that. A smaller stove in the dining room next door isn't really going to give your master BR that much more heat than the EQ ripping directly below it, I think...

 

[school_house_heater]

i went to the closest place to me that sold hearthstone stoves and the lady who helped me wasn't really that helpful.(the owner was much more helpful but wasn't able to say much as he had to go right away) she was seemingly very pushy about the jotul f600 which i'm sure is a wonderful stove but.... i opened it up and the handle came right off. she said it so the handle doesn't get hot.... ok.... my potbelly stove has many affixed handles and i can grab and open them at anytime. so that turned me away from that stove as stupid as that sounds if i'm paying that kinda money personally i don't want anything coming off of it but heat.

when i finally got to the hearthstones she said that the equinox was too big for my application (she may be right) and said the Mansfield would be more appropriate.

i have a couple of issues about that and let me know if my thinking is wrong...

1) i work in road construction and when i'm preping anything be it a road or a driveway. i always say the same thing to me you can never have too much base. if 6" of stone will work i want 8" thats just the way i am. just because it will work doesn't mean that it will hold up as long or be able to handle future expansion of more traffic or heavier loads.
2) she said that i wouldn't be able to use the equinox like i should be able to. and thus making it not very efficient. well i don't know one way or another at this point i haven't been in the home though a Wisconsin winter yet. (the school is in the country on a hill also)
3) i like it toasty in the winter... if i have to crack a window every now and then so be it
4)i like the lines of the equinox better than the Mansfield to me its just nicer to look at.

so am i looking at a stove( the equnox) that is just plain too big for my size home? should i be looking at something just a little smaller like the Mansfield? i am trying to make the wood stove my primary heat source and use the lp furnace as a backup....

 

[begreen]

A wood stove is an area heater, not a whole house heater. That is the issue with the Equinox. How will the heat get upstairs?

 

[myzamboni]

A wood stove is an area heater, not a whole house heater. That is the issue with the Equinox. How will the heat get upstairs?

the spiral staircase opening

 

[begreen]

That appears to go to the loft on the 2nd fl.

 

[SolarAndWood]

What direction does all the glass face? I went with a big catalytic stove because I have a wall of glass facing SSW. Great solar gain until the sun drops below the ridge on the other side of the valley. The catalytic burns low enough when the sun is out and then that big steel box kicks in and puts out when the heat is going the other direction through all that glass.

To me, the downside of the big non-cat stoves is that you can't just load the firebox and then dial in the amount of heat you want at any point of the burn cycle. They don't burn low enough. This would have me planning burn cycles and sizes, watching the forecast, planning for solar gain etc. I always load the firebox all the way up and go. On the other hand, if you are willing to use your furnace this time of year until it really gets cold out, it probably doesn't make a difference as the non-cat will burn low enough then anyway.

The way around all of this is to put a wood boiler with thermal storage tied to your furnace in the basement and use your thermostat all the time. This could take care of your hot water needs as well. Then you put whatever stove or fireplace your wife likes in the living space for ambiance and to warm up near when you come in out of the cold.

 

[edthedawg]

You really can't make the pick until you fully evaluate the chimney. Unless you're planning to bypass it altogether and just build yourself a chase w/ class-A pipe running right out the roof at a different spot. (which is something to think about...)

But if you do decide to stick w/ your existing chimney, i think that's a great idea. Lotsa masonry / thermal mass there. And the Mansfield is a fine stove - you'd be fine with it on the lower floor, but then you would want a stove on the upper floor even more... Mansfield uses a 6" dia pipe. If you upsize to the EQ, then you need room for an 8" pipe.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Usually I wouldn't recommend a wood stove to anyone that doesn't have their own source of wood.

That's an odd statement.

 

[edthedawg]

BBAR - i went back to look at SA7's old line you quoted - he mentioned the deck for wood storage.

then i went and looked at the deck - there ain't none! just supports and railings! but that's a heckuva good place to store in the future. i'd just build in some corrugated plastic sheets to gutter the water away from there, instead of just letting it rain down on the wood...

 

[school_house_heater]

yes the decking for the deck is currently missing that is a spring project for me to get done. plus it actaully would work our realy really nicely to store wood under there. so it has to get done come spring.

the LP forced air furnace is direct vented out of the front of the school much to my annoyance....

the chimney actaully has 2 flues one which looks like it hasn't been used in ages and another that has definately been used recently
the flue that was used recently is larger... i can't say by how much becuase like a moron i forgot to bring up a tape measure.... but it more square than the unused flue.

even if the cimney didn't NEED a liner. i'm thinking that i will have to get one anyway cause even though i'm looking at an equnox i'm sure that is just way to much chimney for a wood stove.... but then again it does look like it was used recently.....

any ideas, i'm thinking a need to get a chimney inspector and see what he says.... i'm sure though cause it doesn't look clay lined to meet code it will have to either get clay lined or get a smaller flue installed, which when i got estimates for that was just crazy expensive.

what do you guys think? just want some opinions.... if chimney is ok will it be too much draft? too much down draft? i'm looking up a chimney inspector tomarrow.... should i look under chimney sweeps? anything else you can think of that i missed?

 

[begreen]

The flue(s) will require a liner, but the good news is that they appear to be in decent shape. The left one looks unused.

The usage of these chimneys will be different from yesteryear. Back then there were fire drills and no one was living in the school 24/7. The occupation of the building might be the complete opposite with it being empty from 8-5, with a woodstove heating, instead of a busy school during these hours.

 

[GatorDL55]

So - What decision did you end up making? Great place by the way!

Also, our software company is in an older house and it is two floors. The main floor has a wood burning insert with a blower. The guys at the office get a kick out of heating with wood so we keep that thing running through the winter. There is a spiral staircase going to the upstairs where out programmer's offices are. Was at the office last week and the sales department down stairs was relatively warm ~ 70 and I went upstairs and it was kicking up there. Our senior programmer actually had his window air conditioner on in his office!

The big hole in the floor for the staircase should let the heat dissipate and rise to the second level fairly nicely.

 

[theora55]

Gorgeous house. I hope the windows are replacement double-paned The window covers should help. I've heard of the bubble wrap, which lets in light, and still insulates, just haven't tried it. I supplement oil heat with wood, and love it. A new qualifying woodstove will earn you a tax credit, and be more efficient and maybe safer than the potbelly.