Will Ideal Steel work for 2600ish sq ft?

Going to be building a house with about 1400 finished up stairs. Open kitchen and dinning w/ vaulted ceilings. 3 bedrooms on one end. And 1200 downstairs when fully finished. (Basement will slowly get finished as $ allows)

Stove will be placed in basement opposite the stairs. Where the W.I. closet it is. The plan is being changed and the bedroom/bath area will be moved over to the left and take the place of the "storage". With out a blower am I going to get decent heat to the stairway? I do plan on pointing a floor fan at the stove.
Here is the upstairs:

Plan on putting a floor fan by the bedroom doors as well to help with a convection loop there as well. Will have a ceiling fan in LR in the vaulted ceiling too.

Does the stove stay 500-600 for a decent amount of the burn time. I do like the idea of 10-12 hours of "usable" heat many have mentioned.

 

You'll get a good number of hours of heat coming out of this stove. With yellow birch and rock maple I will have temps at 400 twelve hours after loading. Reading this from right over the center of the stove door, which I understand is a hot spot.

Nice house you"re building there, and good to be able to plan where the stove will go.

 

Wow thats impressive for sure! I have 3 yr red oak ready and some elm as well. I hope to be able to have the stove installed and useable for this coming winter! Our completion date is October/ early november.

 

You're on the Dennis plan! I hope to have wood that's been aged two years for the 17-18 heating season. Three year aged red oak will be pretty sweet for that new stove.

 

Hi Sconnie
Thats going to be a nice set up for sure. I like your lay out.
Will insulation in the basement be part of the first phase? Basement walls can suck up a great deal of heat. And pushing heat upstairs can be difficult. And worse yet is getting the return air back. I'm on my third year with a cellar dweller and I've found when the heat cycle is nearing the end that its not enough heat to keep the furnace from running. I think you can have it figured out by planning ahead like you are.

Have you been on Woodstock's site and looked at the sq ft sizing info they have? They mention that with vaulted ceilings you need to add extra to the actual sq footage

 

Partitioning off only the family room for the first year or 2. A wall will go all the way across in the new bathroom location ( just to the left of the rear center window) with a door on the stairs side to still access the other end, that side probably wont get finished for a few years. So everything near the stove (family room and bedroom 4) should be close to finished by winter 17-18. Dont fully expect it to keep the furnace from running but I will sure try! Just won't have the $ to plop a BK in there! If it keeps the basement kozy and the upstairs warm I'll be happy!

 

Sconnie Burner, I run an ideal steel and have many vaulted ceilings also real close to 45th parallel. Will this stove heat house my guess would be yes.. I am assuming since you are building new that it will be well insulated. I personally have enjoyed the Woodstock experience.

 

I think bedrooms M, 2 and 3, and baths in same area, will be difficult to heat as the majority of the heat will be trapped in the vaulted area. But being a new construction and you already know you need big time insulation and gap sealing, you will make out just fine.

Do you know what insulation the contractor will use and how much?
A few thousand dollars spent in the right places now will save you a lot of money later.
What is your back up heat source?

 

If you put in a forced air/central air setup, you can keep the furnace fan only on full time to help distribute the heat. Room to room wall fans can also be a great help.

Other than that, insulate well and you will be way ahead of those of us with older construction.

 

also I am a Woodstock fan but their was a slightly used BK princess for 1750 in classifieds a month or so ago...

 

The vault is only in the main living area up stairs and their will be a ceiling fan or two to help move the air. According to the wall section scematic, insulation will be r-19 walls with r-49 ceiling rating. Basement will have r-11 batt.

And now that I relook at the actuall printed plan, each level is 1585 fin sq ft! So I think that may rule out the IS. Unless I buy 1 for each level...... Or wing it and it heats what it heats. They look cool and I still can play with fire!

 

Other options may be a BK king, Regency 5100, or Quadra-Fire's new Adventure III with the wall thermostat. Not crazy about how well that will actually work? It sounds and looks good on paper though.

 

I believe it could be done with proper insulation and sealing.

My set up isn't quite enough, but I burn less than one tank of oil per year. And I'm ok with that. I always leave the furnace turned on and set at 67-68 degrees. The cold windy days is where I have problems keeping the fire hot enough. the furnace may cycle a couple times per hour for just a few minutes.

 

That seems to be asking a lot out of a stove but I'd like to see you air seal and insulate very well and then see what happens.

At the very least you will be putting a huge dent into your heating expenses.

 

Personally you are going to be heating 3130 square feet some vaulted. some helpful hints. put more than R11 Batts in basement. Do an inch or 2 of spray foam then put your R11 Batts in 2 by 6 walls. You have a great floor plan is your house facing south or south west? are there more windows on that side to catch sun? what about other heating system if forced hot air have some blowers put your cycle cool air out of basement to upstairs (easy AC)...

 

If insulated well enough, the stove could heat 10,000 sqft. Obviously that is not "normal" construction. Your architect should be able to put in the R values of all the walls windows doors and roofs and calculate BTU requirements at various outdoor temps. You can then use that to gauge if a particular stove or multiple stoves will be needed, or you can go with a furnace and stove combo. The BTU calf is going to be way more accurate than an estimate based on floor area or even house volume.

 

That's an expensive fan to run constantly. My electric bill went down $70 when I put my stove in from the furnace not running. That was running normally, not constantly.

That was a benefit I hadn't considered when I installed the stove.

 

Not sure where you live in Wis (I'm near Lacrosse), but I have a 2700+ sq ft home with a straight up the steps kind of set up and have no problem heating my home. It will stay 4-500, but 5-600 is a bit much. My house is a 2004 walkout ranch well insulated. Basement walkout side is exposed and insulated with batts all around. Upstairs stays well insulated and have some vaulted ceilings in living and dining room.

I have noticed that oak burns long and hot, but so do the softwoods too, just not quite as long or hot(go figure), but very close and much more secondary action. I will be honest and say that to heat that house evenly all around with one stove and the shape of the stairs, there are going to be cold spots and places where the heat will get trapped. That said, if you get your house warm and keep the stove going, the even heat this thing throws will do a nice job of at least supplementing if not completely heating on milder days.

Looks like it will be a nice layout regardless!

 

I will have a NG forced air furnace as well. I know its relatively cheap but we have gotten used to 72-74 degrees up stairs. Can get costly keeping a house that warm though!

The front of the house will face pretty much directly west. So the main living area will get the rising sun an probably gain some. Frt bedrooms will then get the afternoon sun.

I will be finishing the basement so could easily increase insulation down there. Joists meeting the foundation will be spray foamed.