Wood Stove or Indoor Add on Furnace?

[jcurse8]

Just bought a new house, and am looking to add a wood burner to aid in the gas bills this winter. House is small, about 30x30. Wide open basement, 1st floor is main living floor, with one bedroom. 2nd floor has 2 bedrooms. I figure that a regular wood stove will heat the whole basement rising to heat the 1st floor. Will it be enough to heat the second floor as well? I have a 6 month old that sleeps on the second floor. want to make sure it will stay warm all the way upstairs for her. do I need an add on furnace to ensure even heating of house? I am aware that by running the fan on my gas furnace that it will distribute the air, but don't want to over work my furnace fan to keep air circulating...Please Help

 

[Danno77]

For me the answer was stove, but if my basement had easier access then i'd probably have picked add-on furnace. My basement is borderline, because I have a cellar door set, but it's on the wrong end of the basement.

If the only way to your stove is through a teensy window or traipsing through the house to the basement stairs, then getting wood to it is gonna be a HUGE PITA.

Probably will have better results getting the heat to second floor with add-on furnace, but that doesn't mean you can't make a stove work.

 

[Danno77]

you could also put the thermostat to the furnace upstairs and close off most of the registers downstairs, essentially making your house a "dual-zone" heating system. Only problem with that generally becomes that furnace systems are generally balanced with return air and registers and sometimes closing off a lot of registers can create problems with air circulation and impact it's efficiency.

 

[jcurse8]

I have a basement door close to where the unit will be placed. just more concerned about even heating of the 2 upper floors. I would assume that if i was able to keep the first floor around 74 degrees, that the 2nd floor shouldn't drop below 70 degrees

 

[Cutter]

Furnace blowers are much cheaper than either other choice. Ours run full time during the burning season and also when the AC is running.

 

[jcurse8]

I thought about moving the thermostat upstairs. That way if it did get chilly up there, the gas furnace would kick on. I like that idea.

 

[tiber]

I figure that a regular wood stove will heat the whole basement rising to heat the 1st floor.

Oh god, I was sold on this idea - and it was the only way my wife would agree to heat the house with a woodstove. However, once I started mathing it out, I quickly realized it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

The list:
* Square footage - your house is so many square feet, but your basement isn't included in that number unless it's a finished basement. Provided it's unfinished, take the sqft of your house, divide it by two and add it onto the original number. That's how big a stove you'll need to heat the entire thing.
* Finishing the basement - you need to insulate the walls. You also need to add floor registers. Are you willing to do this?
* Radon - one thing I ran into exploring this idea is that if your basement has radon in it, you probably don't want to be heating that up and lifting it into your house. Same goes for mold and mildew if the basement is wet.
* Chimney - that's a LOT of class A pipe you need to buy to go from the basement. For me, it was too much.

 

[jcurse8]

including all three floors of my house, I only total 2,200 square feet. Cape cod style house, and the 2nd floor is not a complete 2nd floor, just 2 bedrooms 12x15. Planning on buying a burner capable of 2,000 square feet.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Beware that 99% of the people who have tried to move the warm air from a wood stove have had very poor luck. It simply does not work well at all. It will for an add-on furnace, but not for a stove.

You might be amazed at how little of a fan you need to circulate the air in your home....provided you do it right. The correct way is to blow the cool air from an adjoining room or hallway into the warm stove room. It sounds backwards but it really works and you only need a small fan running on low speed.

With the size of your home I would go with a stove and only try to heat the 2 floors rather than 3.

 

[deck2]

Beware that 99% of the people who have tried to move the warm air from a wood stove have had very poor luck. It simply does not work well at all. It will for an add-on furnace, but not for a stove.

You might be amazed at how little of a fan you need to circulate the air in your home....provided you do it right. The correct way is to blow the cool air from an adjoining room or hallway into the warm stove room. It sounds backwards but it really works and you only need a small fan running on low speed.

With the size of your home I would go with a stove and only try to heat the 2 floors rather than 3.

+1 tried to heat our 1500 sq ft ranch from the basement and boy what a waste of heat and physical energy- up and down the stairs with wood and to load the stove. Last year put a new stove in the living room and all is good, we get to look at the fire and I can still use the unit in the basement if I am down there in my woodshop if not the basement stays around 60F or so!

 

[Wood Duck]

I would look at putting a wood stove in the main living area, not in the basement. That way you can enjoy the fire, feel the warmth, and get heat to the second floor more easily. It may also be easier to get wood into the main floor. I think a wood stove is more interesting than a furnace to look at and to run, although it might mean you'll need supplemental heat from the gas furnace sometimes.