Looking to change from a fireplace to a wood stove. Would a insert be a good option. I put in my fireplace 6 years ago and never thought of heating the house with wood. But this web site has turned me into a wood hoarder! Now I'm looking for a way to heat but also enjoy looking at the fire. My fire place is on the farthest end of the house in the living room and the bedrooms are at the other end of a 1050sq foot ranch on a slab. I have no idea on how well the heat would move down there. We have natural gas and it isn't to expensive and put in a new high efficiency furnace 2 years ago(also before this sight and my addiction off wood). Any help would be great. Thanks everyone.
Don't go too small on an insert, we were limited by a smaller fireplace opening, I regret it. Hindsight I would have bought a wood stove instead.
Inserts work and have many happy owners. But, given the choice, I would always go with a wood stove. Cheaper, no blower noise, more radiant heat, no electricity needed, more cooking surface, etc. Floor space is the advantage of an insert. Is your FP masonry or a prefab unit? Prefabs must be approved by the manufacturer to accept an insert. Most manufacturers don't bother with the expense/hassle, no $ in it for them. How big is the opening leading from the LR to the rest of the house? The bigger the better for heat distribution but I doubt you'll have much of a problem given the sqft of the house. A small fan on the floor blowing cool air into the stove room can be very effective if needed.
With that size house and a free standing stove in the 2-2.5 cu ft firebox there should be no problem getting heat to the other end of the house. We're slightly larger and the bedroom and bath are at the far end from the stove. No problem. We have a Fireview which has about a 2 cu ft firebox. It is a bit different than listed because of the andirons but it serves us well. Ideally though, a 2.5 would be a bit better, depending on the wood you burn.
If the stove is going to be partially in the firebox of the fireplace you will be limited to a certain size stove, particularly front loaders. Can't offer any help on inserts. If the stove is going to sit out a bit further and you have proper clearances your options increase with side loaders.
Sounds similar to our place Tony. I can heat all but the back bedroom (used to be a 3 season porch) really well, and without that room, the size is almost identical. About half slab and half crawl. I put in an NC30 and in the coldest part of winter, it's still a bit cool, except the stove room. My plan is to eventually get a cat stove....and insulate, insulate, insulate. The glass front allows a great view of the fire, and as long as the floorplan is fairly open, the heat will migrate well. The suggestion to put a fan at the far end blowing cool air into the stove room/area, is spot on if you have problems with flow.
I too would like a cat stove in place. The smallest cat stoves would not fit in our fireplace opening and they are side loaders to boot. The EPA changes coming down the pike may be a game changer. If Jotul has to add cats to their existing line up of stoves someday, it may be the chance for me to get a front loader cat stove. Hopefully the footprint would not change. I can only hope. It would be very costly for manufacturers and their customers...
So how do I heat the rest of the house with out turning the stove room into a sweat lodge? I take it a cat stove is a brand?
My stove room is only about 150 sq. ft., and gets a little toasty, but not that bad. Cat is catalytic converter, like in a car. It burns the gas produced by burning wood.....basically.
My LR and kitchen are open, about 600 sqft. Thats where the stove is, on the north exterior wall. The bedrooms and baths are down a hallway, heating 1536 sqft total. My far bedrooms are about 6F cooler than the LR on a 0F morning (by infrared thermo), but the house is tight and well insulated. I don't use any blowers/fans to move the heat. Cat stoves (not a brand) use a catalyst to achieve secondary combustion (burn the smoke). Tube stoves introduce oxygen into the top of the firebox (through tubes typically) for secondary combustion. Hybrid stoves use a combination of both technologies. All have their advantages, I use a cat. Cat stoves excel at long steady burns.
Lined stoves do a very good job of buffering the heat made by a hot fire. Companies are casting refractory, utilizing fire brick and soap stone to line wood stoves so the heat radiating from then isn't so extreme. Cat stove isn't a name brand, its a catalytic form on an epa rated wood burner. Basically a cat stove increases efficiency by burning the smoke created by burning the wood. Essentially getting much more heat out of every log you put in the fire.
Believe it or not your woodstove decision can wait, if your looking to burn wood this fall your main concern right now should be dry wood, and lots of it. cheers my friend, welcome to fwhc
+1 If you are going to burn wood. DRY WOOD IS THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL BURNING ! Start getting a stash Cut, split & stacked so you have good dry wood this Fall ! Do some research & visit a wood stove store. So may stoves & inserts out there. One will fit your needs. http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-08/documents/certifiedwood.pdf
I wonder how difficult heating the opposite end of the house will be? Too bad the heater couldn't be placed towards the center somewhere. Then again, the square footage isn't outrageous either.
I have a gas furnace & forces air, I put the thermostat on "circ" & every 10 min the blower comes on & moves air around for a minute or 2. Helps keep even heat thru the house. But a small fan can do the same thing, usually a little air movement is all that's needed.
You for sure want a radiant heat unless you want air moving all the time. Our bedroom is about 40 feet from the stove and we have no problem getting heat there. We used to set a fan in the hallway. A small desktop fan (ours is about 6 or 7" in diameter) sitting on the floor running on low speed and aimed toward the stove room works nicely. However, a little insulation where it was needed and now we do not use a fan. Even when it got down to -26 degrees in February the bedroom was toasty warm and the living room was, I think, 76 degrees. We usually keep our home around 80 all winter. Just checked. Blade diameter is 7". Low speed will move enough air but not enough to make it feel drafty.
I'm late to the party, but I use an insert so I'll chime in. I have the smallest insert in the world I'm pretty sure and it'll heat 1000sq ft no problems. Your going to need a fan or 2 to move some air to the bedrooms, but it'll do the job no problem. My pe vista is rated for 1200sq ft and I heat 1700 with it. I've also got a ng furnace as backup jic the insert can't keep up. More often than not, it only runs when I'm too lazy to get up and reload the insert early am. Burn times suck with a small insert. 7 hrs max with primo wood. My best advice is go as big as you can jam into the fireplace to get longer burn times.
tony, I think part of the decision would be based on your climate, a Tennessee climate would be a different choice over let's say northern michigan..
