To install a stove or not in house

[clutch25]

There is a couple of stoves on the "local" CL right now. A PE Summit and another Lopi (not sure of model).

After 3 years of harping, I FINALLY got my mom to put a stove in her house. She lives on a lake and her house is FREEZING in the winter, plus she pays through the nose for heat (not like you guys out east, but not cheap either). Lopi Republic 1750 (used). I have no clue what her wood consumption will be per year, but I have about 8-10 cords cut/split at her place.

I heat my garage with a Clayton 1400 and end up going through 4-6 cords a year in that thing. It is WAY over-sized for what it's heating, but the plan is to eventually punch the garage out to a 26x40 for shop space.

The question is....should I put a stove in my house. The house is a 26x40 rambler with a full finished basement. Currently it is just me living in it and I'm dang sick of freezing (last year I would go out to the garage and read etc at night to get warm). I have electric forced air heat upstairs with propane "off peak" and electric baseboards in the basement.

Electric bill goes up about $150-$200 in the heating season (dead of winter) and I go through about $220 worth of propane a year to boot.

Several concerns/thoughts...

1. not sure I want to cut another 4 cords or so a year.... Currently I am clearing out a shelter-belt about 30 miles from my place, all Ash and it should be a good source for at least another 3 years worth at 10 cords a year. I hand process my wood...

2. Don't have much more in storage space for wood for the house.

3. Consider anything with longer than a 3 year payoff (stove and chimney only) not really desirable. Cost needs to be ~$1200 tops for entire system.

4. Upstairs install vs. downstairs. If I go upstairs, a hearth pad is about $200 and that would be about the same as the additional chimney needed for a basement install. I have more room in the basment family room. The PE summit would heat the whole house from the basement but probably cook me out with a upstairs install. Then you have the hauling wood downstairs thing...

Thoughts anyone?

 

[ddddddden]

Sitting out in the garage with the stove. . .awesome! I think you've answered your own question. You should put a stove in the space where you want to live. If you don't spend a lot of time in the basement, there's no point in putting a stove down there. OTOH, heat doesn't want to travel downward, so a stove upstairs isn't going to do much for the basement. OTOOH, dep on insulation, basements tend to suck up a lot of heat, so a basement stove might not heat the upstairs the way you hope it will, esp if the stairs are not in the same room as the stove. Are you planning on using an existing masonry chimney? Either install would probably require a chimney liner for best results. . .$400+ for liner pipe.

 

[clutch25]

The stove would be on the north end of the basement if downstairs...about 15 ft away from the steps leading to the upstairs in roughly the center of the house. No existing chimney in house so it would have to go right up through my bedroom (adding heat in my bedroom in the NE corner of house).

If it was upstairs, it would be in the SE corner of the house and heat the living room, dining room and kitchen...with leftover heat trying to go to the north end of the house. The good thing is that the main cold air return for the furnace would be about 15ft away so the furnace fan may move some of the heat around.

Personally, I don't mind spending my time in the garage at all...it is occupied more than the house except for sleep. Being a single guy has it's benifits and downfalls....

About the only time I go downstairs now is to grab laundry or check on the mechanicals for the house.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I heat my garage with a Clayton 1400 and end up going through 4-6 cords a year in that thing. It is WAY over-sized for what it's heating, but the plan is to eventually punch the garage out to a 26x40 for shop space.

The question is....should I put a stove in my house. The house is a 26x40 rambler with a full finished basement. Currently it is just me living in it and I'm dang sick of freezing (last year I would go out to the garage and read etc at night to get warm). I have electric forced air heat upstairs with propane "off peak" and electric baseboards in the basement.

Electric bill goes up about $150-$200 in the heating season (dead of winter) and I go through about $220 worth of propane a year to boot.

Several concerns/thoughts...

1. not sure I want to cut another 4 cords or so a year.... Currently I am clearing out a shelter-belt about 30 miles from my place, all Ash and it should be a good source for at least another 3 years worth at 10 cords a year. I hand process my wood...

2. Don't have much more in storage space for wood for the house.

3. Consider anything with longer than a 3 year payoff (stove and chimney only) not really desirable. Cost needs to be ~$1200 tops for entire system.

4. Upstairs install vs. downstairs. If I go upstairs, a hearth pad is about $200 and that would be about the same as the additional chimney needed for a basement install. I have more room in the basment family room. The PE summit would heat the whole house from the basement but probably cook me out with a upstairs install. Then you have the hauling wood downstairs thing...

Thoughts anyone?

clutch, it is a lot of work putting up wood but when you feel that heat in the winter months, it is well worth the work. Here, we do all of our cutting during the colder months. Usually starting shortly after Thanksgiving or December 1. We do the splitting and stacking as soon as the snow melts.

You mentioned not having much storage room but to store enough for a couple winters really does not take that much space. Here is an example: there is enough wood there to heat our home 3 years and it is mostly ash.

(broken image removed)

The size of your home should not cause you to have to burn too much wood. Since we got our new stove we burn only 3 cord per year, which is half the amount we used to cut. So you see, sometimes it does pay to not limit yourself on which stove to buy. Buy a good one and put up less wood! Besides, I always hate to see someone trying to get by with wood heat buy going cheap. Saving dollars is good....to a point.

I would not put a stove in the basement unless that basement was a walk-in. Having to carry wood and ashes up and down the stairs would get old really fast and even more so, the stove would not be in the most convenient spot. You should have the stove where you can keep an eye on it.

A hearth pad may or may not be what you want or need. You must find out from the manufacturer what you need for clearances and for under the stove.

Good luck.

 

[clutch25]

Thanks Dennis!

I live in a small town and my lot is only 120x70. With the driveway and the 6 cords I have already drying for the garage heat, I'm left with not much else. I have a couple of acres at the lakes that I can store wood but that is 35 miles away.

I end up cutting wood pretty much year round (depending on snow conditions). I have my kids on the weekends and we head to the lakes (my mom's house) so I cut down there for something to do and to teach my kids the value of work. The wood for my house was cut last winter/ this spring on the weekends I don't have my little ones.

I agree with you about the stove in the basement....I'm just trying to get the best heat and fastest return on investment from a stove.

 

[tfdchief]

clutch, Honestly, I think you already know quite enough about it to answer all your questions yourself. I put in a second stove because my wife wanted one in her kitchen which sometimes a little chilly in the coldest times. It was excited when she came up with the idea because for me, a second wood burner just seemed like twice as much fun. So, I guess what I am saying is, you really have to like it. If you don't, it can be just plain work. And you have done it enough to make that decision already. You told your mother she needed one......sounds like the same deal to me ;-)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

clutch, that sounds like an ideal situation with the kids. It is a shame it is so far away but yet not all that bad. I do understand the space problem that you have and feel for you on that one.

 

[begreen]

At $1200, the budget does not cover the class A flue system that will be required. That will run at least $1200 or more alone.

Edit: Make that about $1050 if galvalume pipe instead of stainless.

 

[ddddddden]

I didn't mean anything about the sitting in the garage, just that you are clearly a stove guy. w00t! Don't let the size of the Summit scare you. The new EPA stoves don't pump out the heat the way thd old m0nsters do. . .they don't use as much wood either, so your long term solution may be to eventually put an EPA stove in the garage too and feed both stoves with not too much more wood than you now use. Yeah, some folks are going to say it's too much stove for 1,000 sq ft, but can you really have too much stove in ND? I dunno. . .maybe if the house is super insulated and sealed. I like my stove, and it's big enough to heat the place, but it would be nice to have a larger firebox, just so I wouldn't have to worry @ loading in splits like pieces of a puzzle. Given what a chimney costs, and that you said $1200 for the total system, you must be looking @ something like $700 for the Summit. I would snAp that up, assuming good condition.(See threads on the PE welds.) If it turns out that it's absolutely too big...

 

[ddddddden]

. . .if it's too big, then move it to the garage and put a smaller EPA stove in the house, per The Master Plan.

 

[ddddddden]

+ what Mr. Green said about class A pipe. $$. But, if you don't have an attic, then you need only enough to penetrate and reach 2 ft above the apex of the roof, AFAIK. Attic space is also sposed to be class A. Best deal I've seen is SuperVent @ Lowe's or Menard's.

 

[ddddddden]

oh yeah, I don't see much point in putting a stove in the basement, if you go down there only for laundry. . .unless maybe you want to line dry your clothes in front of the stove? :cheese:

 

[Jack768]

Propane + electric -- the two most expensive heat sources -- means you need a main living area woodstove.

 

[Loco Gringo]

. .unless maybe you want to line dry your clothes in front of the stove? :cheese:

Heck we do. 2 clothes racks the night before in the same room as the stove, and then fluff em in the dryer the next day. Family of 4 we save around 50 dollars a month all year. Line dried the warm days weather permitting.

 

[ddddddden]

r0ck on, Gringo! I would do that, but the well water here is high in iron, or iron-loving bacteria. . .whatever. It turns stuff rust-colored I use it only for bathing. Laundr-0-Mat for me. Woohoo!

 

[Danno77]

I'm still trying to figure out how you go through so much wood in a garage.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

. .unless maybe you want to line dry your clothes in front of the stove? :cheese:

Heck we do. 2 clothes racks the night before in the same room as the stove, and then fluff em in the dryer the next day. Family of 4 we save around 50 dollars a month all year. Line dried the warm days weather permitting.

Mark another one. Wife likes to dry the clothes in the house during winter and outside during summer. With the wood stove it does not take the clothes long to dry and adds much humidity to the house.

 

[begreen]

Let's get back on topic OK? Save the wash for the "laundry room" forum.

Clutch, if it's possible to bring the stove up to the first floor that will reduce installation costs a bit and will allow you to use a smaller stove.

 

[clutch25]

Ok....updated on everything.

THe Summit is $500 OBO, but about a 4 hour drive so I can't really eyeball it. Little old lady bought it new and has had it for 7-8 years. Her husband died so she can't heat with wood anymore. So with having to buy all the chimney parts, I would be right around $1200 with a basement install. Menards has supervent for just over $20 a foot. The basement install idea was to heat the basment, upstairs and not have to buy a hearth pad which I would have to purchase for a main floor install. If I have a stove on just the main floor, the basement baseboards will still be running. A basement install would be about 18ft of class A.

The Lopis is an Answer with all the chimney etc for $300...someone painted the dang thing it looks like (orange). That stove is also 4 hours away. Small stove though....

I heat the garage 24-7 in the winter, so that is how I go through that much wood....5 month heating season last year. This year I'm going to be a little more conservative on when I start up the stove in the garage. Not as burn happy as I have been in the past.

Thanks for the thoughts!

 

[begreen]

PE stoves only need ember protection. This can be covered with a very basic, cheap hearth pad, cement board or even a large sheet of metal.

 

[clutch25]

PE stoves only need ember protection. This can be covered with a very basic, cheap hearth pad, cement board or even a large sheet of metal.

Ok, Thanks!

So some tile on the floor perhaps?

 

[begreen]

Yup, with a cement board underlayment for the tile.

 

[clutch25]

Yup, with a cement board underlayment for the tile.

Outstanding!

Sorry about the disjointed posts...I'm cooking and running outside replacing a window well.

Would the Summit be to "big" or hot for the mainfloor install? It doesn't have a fan on it right now. I would put it in the SE corner of my house (living room). The living room/dining room run east to west 26ft and about 15ft deep on the south end of the house.

I'm trying to imagine the Lopi Republic at my mom's in my house and it seems like it might chase me out if I was trying to heat the whole main floor.

To give you a better idea, it would be in the corner where the pink chair is.

 

[begreen]

The Summit will be a bit oversized for your ~1000 sq ft, especially in fall and spring. You will only be able to burn a short hot fire and then let it go out. But once it gets below 30 and through the dead of winter when you have your cold windy weather it should do fine. It looks like the book case will have to scoot over a bit to provide safer clearances.

 

[clutch25]

Thanks BeGreen!

That is about how I would use it. The house sits empty all day so during the shoulder season a fire in the morning or at night should keep it warm enough. Dang white colored house! Cools easily in the summer but I'm about ready to paint it black! Until this weekend warmup, it was down to the low 60's inside.