Highly considering a 2nd stove...Pros/cons?

My home is a split level, hard to heat evenly layout with pretty poor insulation. There are 3 attics that need more insulation blown in, to the tune of roughly $2500. Also suspecting there isn't much in the side walls, so dense pack cellulose in those would be a good idea as well, and who knows how much that would be - I assume a lot. As it stands now, I have a wood stove we got installed shortly after moving in which is to the far south end of the house in that living room. The stove is a Pacific Energy T5 and it heats that room and entire downstairs quite nicely. Getting the heat upstairs is the struggle and just not practical given the split level layout. The house mostly relies on a natural gas furnace, which runs way too often given the lack of insulation.


Given all of these factors, I'm strongly considering a second wood stove in our upstairs living room on the far north end of the house which would heat that and the kitchen quite easily and hopefully upstairs as well into the bedrooms. There are only 5 or 6 stairs going up to that floor and it's not far from where the stove would go. The idea is that I either install another T5 or spend practically the same amount or possibly more upgrading the insulation. Even by upgrading insulation, the gas furnace will still run. Having two stoves would allow me to only need the furnace to run if we weren't home for extended time, greatly reducing that gas bill. I love running our stove and am confident that keeping up with two wouldn't be much of an issue for me. I have about a 2.5 year wood supply split and stacked at my house as of now with room to expand if necessary.


Does anyone here run two stoves, and if so, do you love it or hate it? pros and cons? Is it crazy to buy a second wood stove rather than a more efficient furnace/upgrade insulation? I guess I figure a second stove would pay for itself much quicker, and I'm a bit more obsessed with them than a gas furnace...

 

Does New York have an efficiency program? Vermont does, and even if you have to pay for it at least you get a healthy tax break for doing it

I have always found that insulation and weather sealing, is much more cost-effective, then trying to heat the outdoors.

 

NY does but as far as I know the maximum is a $500 credit in your lifetime as far as filing it on your taxes. I have about $30 left for that credit which I'll get for the 2018 tax year due to other upgrades. There is another program called the Home Energy Efficiency Program but my understanding is they basically give you a deal on an energy assessment, identify the issues with your house, then offer you a loan with interest rates anywhere from 5-8% unless you're dirt poor and they just pay for all of it. With mine and my wife's combined income, we basically won't benefit from that program at all.

The attics will be blown in regardless at some point, however what I'm dreading more is having the sidewalls done. Haven't gotten an estimate but I would assume it's pricey to do properly. Last year I had a company come in to estimate blowing in the 3 attics, fully insulating a crawl space, and a bunch of other stuff not even including dense packing sidewalls and the estimate was about 8k. I wouldn't go with that company based on the headache they caused me even trying to get the estimate out of them. All I ended up doing last year was having the rim joist of the crawl space spray foamed by another local company for $800.


I've only owned the house for about 2 years now and have done a ridiculous amount of upgrading and remodeling including the new stove install during our first winter there. Prior to that, that part of the house was uncomfortably cold. I cannot figure out how the prior owners lived there so long just cranking the furnace non stop.

 

Have the home Energy Efficiency program, come in and do an assessment. They'll basically prioritize the biggest factors and you start knocking those off one of the time when you get a chance.
That's what I did, you'd be amazed at how much can be done with air sealing.

 

I have a good idea of the most problematic areas but you're right, until I get the assessment I wouldnt know for sure. Still, I would love to be able to heat exclusively with wood and avoid the natural gas bill.

 

If the attic is going to be blown someday, I'd do it now. The attic will give you the biggest bang for the buck regarding insulation. And seal everything, like it was your religion.

Then consider installing a stove.

 

Sorry, I ignored the actual question ... I haven't done it, but I think it would work fine. You may find it a hassle moving wood to both stoves.

I would work on moving the heated air rather than moving the wood, even if I had to spend some coin to make it work. Or maybe I would put a small pellet stove with a thermostat to automate it a little.

 

I assume by having two stoves that one would end up being run more than the other, but neither run as hard as my current one right now.

Attics will get done hopefully ASAP. the question for those is cellulose or fiberglass....really leaning toward cellulose but after gutting a ceiling at my old house and being up to my knees in that crap I get nervous of the idea. Still will probably end up going with it due to it being what I "think" to be the superior insulator.


Backwoods, are you talking about spray foaming side walls? I understand it to be the ultimate insulation choice but cost is a bit of a factor at this point. At my old house which was a Cape Cod style house, we gutted the whole upstairs which was just one big bedroom. Got a quote to spray foam it and it was 4k. I cant imagine what the sidewalls would run me at my current house.

 

I agree with Backwoods Savage & bushpilot I'd go for air sealing the attic and insulating with your choice of insulation, easiest being fiberglass batts or blown in. When we did a reno to our kitchen I used Roxel batts I love that stuff, more $$ than fiberglass but its a better product. Spray-foam is superior to all as it air seals as well as create an air barrier, BUT it's a very costly product to DIY as well as having a pro do it.

Am probably not really answering your original question but only a few years ago before we moved to current home I owned a split level much like you are talking about. Was very difficult to keep all the levels warm or cool! At the time we signed up for a NJ Energy program where we got an interest free loan for a new furnace, new A/C unit, plus they air sealed and insulated the attic and ran all sorts of tests. Noticed immediate difference!
Shortly after, we had put in a gas fireplace (pre hoarding days and it was free ) and just like your home we had about 5 or 6 steps going upstairs to 3 bedrooms. When we ran that gas fireplace WOW, the upstairs was 100 degree, we had to shut the doors. Not sure how big your home is but that house was 1500 Sq roughly.

So back to your original question I'd air seal and get insulation in those attics 1st, regardless. See if that helps any with the 1 stove, and adding that 2nd stove is gonna really heat that upstairs big time IMO.

 

Thanks ReelFaster, glad you can attest to the inefficiency of the split level layout! Though, by design I do love the layout of our house. Just a pain to maintain a good temp. Anyway, I have a call into a local company to come estimate air sealing/blowing in the attics. Last year when this company spray foamed my crawl space rim joist, the guy took a quick look at the 3 attic spaces and said about $2500 to seal and blow in with either fiberglass or cellulose, to bring it up to the proper R value. Not bad considering currently, there's 3" of fiberglass bats AT MOST up there. Problem is, I can only have two of them done right now. The third one, which is the room where the wood stove is, doesn't have a drywall ceiling. It has an old school tile type ceiling (think drop ceiling material) stapled to firing strips....Pretty 60's if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, I wouldn't want to blow in anything above that until I ripped that ceiling out and got it dry walled. Fortunately that attic is the least of my worries out of the 3 anyway.


Yes, I bought myself a home owner specialty, that's for sure.

 

No experience burning two stoves, but I can attest to sealing/insulation being the best option to start with. Do the 2 attics you were talking about, then the other one as money allows. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Heck, do one of 'em to start with. Cellulose is a better insulator than FG, but if you want to pull down a ceiling at some point.....well, you know how that goes.
Any chance you'd do it yourself? Much less expensive going that route.
I'd think that doing the sealing/insulation MIGHT allow the single stove to keep the house more comfy. Fix the poor insulation situation and everything else should fall in line.
Just my 2 cents.

 

Originally I was going to do it all myself. Once I figured out the amount of material I would end up having to buy (either from Lowes or Home Depot) the savings started to seem fairly marginal compared to having one of the local companies do it in one shot. Between amount of material, air sealing, and putting up the baffle boards to allow my soffit vents to keep venting, I think I'd gladly pay the difference for the pros to come in and do it. I was surprised when he threw that $2500 estimate at me last year for 3 attics to get them up to R38-R49 per our zone recommendation.

 

I do run two stoves and have for two full burning seasons. My reason for doing it was to heat the basement and utilize the space more in the winter months. I also wanted to reduce the load on my upstairs stove and limit the temperature swings we used to get while at work. The basement stove has done all that and more.
As mentioned above, budget at least some improvements in insulation. The remaining money doesn’t need to be spent on a top of the line new stove; our basement stove is a used Lopi Liberty that was only $400. The lower-priced steel stoves (nc-30, Drolets, etc.) are another option and are good quality.
Stoves are space heaters. We put more wood through the upstairs living room stove since that’s where we are usually. Our wood usage has increased but our propane heat is essentially 0 now. I like the whole process of cutting, splitting, cleaning ashes, etc. so the extra work is welcomed.

 

Lopi Liberty Basement Install

 

Thanks for all the input. As of now the plan will be to get the attic spaces up to recommended R value. If I'm not happy with the results or rather I still find the furnace struggling to keep up, I will likely buy another T5 for my upstairs living room which will alleviate the use for the furnace all together and ultimately what I would most desire. I source all my own wood and love the work that goes into all of that. One big reason for another T5 is the close clearances they allow for (3" from back corners of stove to combustible w/ corner install), ease of use and overall ability to heat.

 

My brother has an old sprawling farmhouse built in the 1850’s with 3 types of heat going to keep up. An oil furnace in the basement, a pellet stove in the kitchen, and 2 heat pumps. $3-4K a year to run it all. They got an energy assessment done last winter and had the basement walls and sill spray foamed and sealed and the attic sealed and blown in to R48 or thereabouts. They immediately noticed that the cold spots were gone and their heating costs were cut by over 50%. I’m really impressed at how even the temperature is throughout that house now compared to before. They had new windows installed a few years prior and hardly noticed any improvement but this is really paying off.
Their walls are not that well insulated, just lathe and plaster, but the contractor explained that the stack effect is where you lose the vast majority of your heat, so air leaks and insulation are most important above and below, and sealing air leaks is more important in the walls than insulation. Makes sense to me, and I’ve seen it work. I’ll be doing the same to our split entry.
I vote for the energy upgrade first, then another stove if needed.

 

That's what I've been told as well! Wall insulation is always good and helps but the biggest bang for your buck is above and below!! My current house is very thin, thinking of doing myself but what a job and I hate breathing in that insulation and wearing a mask!!