Seeking advice for vaulted space

[ajrich]

Wondering if a different wood stove would serve us better, or if our layout is just not conducive to mainly heating through a wood stove. House total is about 2500 sqft. The great room is vaulted about 22ft at its peak. There are 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor tucked away above the garage (where the arrow is pointing, and behind the christmas tree) that barely get heat from our stove. We currently have a NECTRE N550 and though it's cool to have the oven, it's barely cutting it as a heat source when it gets really cold outside (and pretty much never heats those upstairs bedrooms). Should we search around for a different wood stove or are we SOL with our layout? TIA!

 

[begreen]

Not only is the house volume higher due to the high ceiling, but the heat loss through the wall of glass is substantial. Doubling the firebox sizeup to a 3-3.5 cu ft stove would definitely help.

Is it a lot hotter upstairs on the balcony or does the ceiling fan help there?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

What temp are you running your stove?

 

[moresnow]

1.46 cu/ft is a tiny stove for that space. Good luck with your weather this week.

 

[ajrich]

Not only is the house volume higher due to the high ceiling, but the heat loss through the wall of glass is substantial. Doubling the firebox sizeup to a 3-3.5 cu ft stove would definitely help.

Is it a lot hotter upstairs on the balcony or does the ceiling fan help there?

The ceiling fan does help. The balcony will be comfortable but nothing too hot.

 

[ajrich]

1.46 cu/ft is a tiny stove for that space. Good luck with your weather this week.

We ran out of wood already so propane it is regardless. Ugh

 

[ajrich]

What temp are you running your stove?

We try to get it as hot as we can. It being "hot" is around 500 at best. It does best around 200-400 range.

 

[moresnow]

Put up 3 cords of wood now. A stove can be purchased anytime. Seasoned wood will be required for any new stove model. A thought.

 

[LAndrim]

I have pretty much the same situation as you: a "great room" with lots of glass and vaulted high ceiling; not so "great" in really cold weather! I have a 310, the largest Lennox County stove they made (not making anymore). With the ceiling fan on and running temps about 6-700 when it's really cold (in the teens) it does the job! We only use 2 to 3 year seasoned hard woods. I think your stove would be adequate in a smaller space. Maybe in the Spring when prices come down a bit, you could investigate a larger model? Good luck!

 

[CatfishHunter]

I don't know how handy you are electrically, but you could add some baseboard heaters in the bedrooms.

My cabin is an A-frame, so vaulted as well but smaller. My wood stove heats the upstairs but not the back areas very well. I combined two circuits to get 240v and put in a couple of baseboard heaters. They work great in the shoulder seasons so that I don't have to start a fire which might get the cabin too hot. In the winter, I use them to supplement the stove on the coldest days or just to take the edge off until the wood stove's heat works its way around into all of the nooks and crannys. I will set the thermostat to 50 degrees at night so that after the fire dies out, it will keep the sleeping spaces warm enough until I wake up and start a new fire.

 

[Rob the Scott]

I have a similar arrangement, with my Vermont Castings Encore (catalytic) in the middle of the great room, and the two bedrooms off of an loft and an 18ft vaulted ceiling over the woodstove. 16ft of glass facing the (windy side) lake. 12ft x 4ft high triangular windows in every room. The woodstove does a nice job with the great room, but the bedrooms heat very slowly (they both have 14 ft vaulted ceilings).

Small fans to pull cool air from the floor of the bedrooms so warm air flows in at the top of the doorframes help. But I also have hot water baseboard heat (Natural gas) as a primary heat source, so the woodstove only get lit every morning when I turn down the central heat.

Good luck!

 

[EbS-P]

I’d sell it and get a 3 cu ft. Maybe something more radiant than convective.

 

[begreen]

I’d sell it and get a 3 cu ft. Maybe something more radiant than convective.

Yes, it's is a solvable problem with a larger stove. There are several good choices. This will make a nice difference, but stock up on a lot more wood.

 

[EbS-P]

Yes, it's is a solvable problem with a larger stove. There are several good choices. This will make a nice difference, but stock up on a lot more wood.

That much glass when the highs are single digits and then add some wind I would be making insulation panels for the windows. Get 1/2” insulation board and cover the foil faced is good. And cover the other side in wall paper and cut to fit some of the windows. We did this for all our big windows on the KS farm. Don’t remember where we stored them. One was always out to block sun from the TV in the room.

 

[Rob the Scott]

Be careful with the insulated panels. I did that once in some very large triangular windows (12' across the bottom and 4' at the high end). The result was that some air infiltrated between the panels and the glass, and I ended up with a condensation lake on the window sill! If you are going to insulate the windows, make sure that they are completely sealed to prevent room air (with moisture) from reaching the glass around the perimeter!

 

[EbS-P]

Be careful with the insulated panels. I did that once in some very large triangular windows (12' across the bottom and 4' at the high end). The result was that some air infiltrated between the panels and the glass, and I ended up with a condensation lake on the window sill! If you are going to insulate the windows, make sure that they are completely sealed to prevent room air (with moisture) from reaching the glass around the perimeter!

I’m not certain how insulation panels could damage modern sealed windows. My guess is your windows failing around the same time as being insulated was a coincidence.

 

[Rob the Scott]

The sealed window was fine. The slow infiltration of air between the inside glass and insulating foam panel allowed significant condensation, but not enough air flow to evaporate it. Hence, condensation ran down the inside pane of glass to the inside window sill, forming a puddle. Perhaps this is a unique situation to my windows, but I thought it worth mentioning.

I still recommend that any insulating foam panels are sealed to the inside frame so no air movement is allowed.

 

[all night moe]

I made interior storms for some of my windows. I've yet to do them all. They're 1x2'' frames with double sided, 4mil ultra clear plastic. I am using 2'' wide self adhesive foam. The foam is made for between truck beds and caps. The storms are undersized 3/16'' and are pressure fit. I screwed in small eye screws on the bottom corners to aid in pulling them out for the of season. They work well. I haven't any condensation issues to date.

 

[EbS-P]

The sealed window was fine. The slow infiltration of air between the inside glass and insulating foam panel allowed significant condensation, but not enough air flow to evaporate it. Hence, condensation ran down the inside pane of glass to the inside window sill, forming a puddle. Perhaps this is a unique situation to my windows, but I thought it worth mentioning.

I still recommend that any insulating foam panels are sealed to the inside frame so no air movement is allowed.

Ahh yes I see now. That could definitely be an issue.