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

Upgrading the insulation will pay you back 24/7/365 for the rest of the time you live there, summer and winter...do this first.
As for running two stoves...we do, kinda. We have a Drolet 1400i in the fireplace in the living room that works good in the spring and fall when you just need a little heat. Then the wood furnace in the basement takes over when it gets much below 40*...30* for sure.
Then when you get those REALLY cold days in January, rather than run the bag off the furnace, I just load it normally and fire up the 1400i as a "kicker stove" if needed. It works well.
One thing you can try if you haven't already...in the cold part of the house that you want to warm up, put a small fan on the floor pointed in the direction the cold air needs to flow to get back to the stove...you might be amazed how well it works. Also ceiling fans set in the reverse winter mode may help too...

 

I ran two stoves for many years, primary basement stove heated the whole house most days and i used the other to help out as needed. A few years ago i switched out the secondary wood burner for a gas stove. It has cut my wood consumption down by about 1 cord which to me is worth the extra $20 or so per month increase in my gas bill. The older i get the harder it's getting to keep up the firewood hoarding routine.

 

I also run 2 stoves. My house is a ranch style on a walk out basement.My upstairs is heated by the fire view and it does a great job up but I am unable to keep the basement warm. Most of the time the basement is 45 degrees but when we get deeper into winter it will get close to danger zone for freezing pipes etc. I had an old inefficient stove that we would fire up when it got to cold to keep the pipes from freezing. It was a chore running up and down to keep it fed since it needed to be fed about every hour. I have recently replaced that stove with a Jotul F-400. It is a lot less work feeding this stove every 4 or 5 hours instead of every hour and I know that it will be using a lot less wood. The biggest bang we got in heating our home was when replaced the windows. our house is old and it had single pane steel frame casement windows. The new double pane low E glass vinyl windows are a huge improvement to say the least.

I would spend the time an energy sealing the house up before adding another stove. You will burn less wood and your house will be much more comfortable even in the summer months as well. Once that is done if you need some more heating capacity add the second stove.

 

Question on running two stoves concerning chimney height.

Do both chimneys have to be at the same height to ensure one isn't drafting more than the other?

I've noticed when lighting our stove, if I still have the upstairs window open and/or fan is on, I get significant decrease in draft, sometimes even a backdraft.

Wouldn't the same problem occur with two stoves competing for air supply?

Just a curiosity question.

 

My chimneys are not the same because they are in different locations. The Fire view is through the roof near the peak and The basement stove is through the wall and up the side of the house. Class A insulated triple wall there is more exposed chimney above the roof line but they are about about the same overall height if that makes any sense. I haven't had any problems with them back drafting or competing for air. One reason is they have different drafting characteristics. The basement stove has a strong draft due to its height.

 

Known as the "Florida bungalow syndrome", look it up, tons of info on it.

Both of my flues exit at the same height...but one goes to the basement and one to the main floor. I have no problems with backdraft, but I also have makeup air coming into the basement beside the wood furnace since it has a barometric damper and needs lots of CFMs at times.

 

Wouldnt an outdoor air kit for at least one of the stoves alleviate that issue?