Zero clearance fireplace vs woodstove in new build

Im going to be building soon and am faced with the choice of a zero clearance fireplace vs woodstove. Anyone have any insight or been faced with a similar choice? House will be a 1900sq ft ranch. I was originally going with the stove but after thinking about it and looking at some zero clearance's with forced air kits Im leaning that way. Anyone have experience with them and how well do they move heat around?

 

Better to have someone weigh in that has a zero clearance with ductwork.
Scotty Overkill

 

I love my woodstove (Woodstock soapstone) but moving heat from the basement to the rest of the first floor can be [interesting]...
Luckily (for me) i have an open floor plan and my staircase goes from the stove room (in basement) to the center of the house on the main level.

Ductwork wood be great to distribute the heat evenly. I've seen my stove room as high as 96°.

 

What about a forced air wood furnace BuckeyeFootball ?
There are a few good options out there, the Kuuma VF100, the Drolet Heat Commander, and the PSG Caddy...the Caddy and the HC are "sister models" made by the same parent company...the HC can be bought here. DROLET - HEAT COMMANDER WOOD FURNACE
The PSG is dealer only, and the Kuuma is available only direct from MFG here Wood Burning Furnaces with Blower | Add-On Wood Furnaces
They are in order of price (and quality...and probably life span too) starting at the bottom (although the bottom is not bad in this case)
1. Heat Commander
2. Caddy
3. VF100

 

Not an insert but similar. Something like this.
FP25 Arch LE Zero-Clearance Fireplace | Pacific Energy

 

If I was living the single life this is the route Id go. But I don't think a wood furnace in the living room would fly with the wife.

 

I went back and forth on this decision this past year as we were finishing our basement. We built the house 8 years ago and put a chimney on then anticipating a wood burner when we did the basement. I always wanted a duct kit to move air up to the main floor which is why we ended up going with a zero clearance. We narrowed it down to the Pacific Energy FP-30 and the Kozy Heat Z42. FP-30 puts out more heat but we couldn’t make it work with the chimney pipe being offset in the alcove where it was going and the required 36” of straight pipe off the top of the FP-30.

I designed my own duct kit with a high speed variable fan and pushed the air up through a cast iron grate on the main floor in front of our gas fireplace. It isn’t quiet when cranked up on high but it moves a lot of hot air and lowering the fan speed down to about 1/3 seems to be the sweet spot for keeping the basement warm and moving air throughout the rest of the house and the fan noise is minimal. The last fire I had, the air coming out of the vent was 132 degrees and did a nice job of warming up the entire house (3200 sq ft first and 2nd floor, 1200 sq ft basement) when it was in the 30’s outside. Last February shortly after it was installed we had the big arctic blast with temps down to -14 and it kept the whole house warm with the furnace barely kicking on. The ability to send warm air from the fireplace up to the main floor is really nice as it can get too warm in the basement without it. House is very well insulated so that does play a big part in its ability to heat this many square feet.

Here are some photos from our project. I made a panel for access to the duct fan for future maintenance through the wood storage shelving on the right side of the fireplace.

 

I'm kinda surprised there aren't more options for a ducted "fireplace" style heating system.
I love my woodstove, but the (lack) of heat distribution is annoying.

 

Thanks Eric! Thankful to find this community. I’ve been browsing the forum and have found a lot of valuable info which I appreciate. Glad to contribute in some way.

 

Looks great! Nice work. That’s a big safe!

 

I am not an expert by a long shot on this subject, but if they make a zero clearance fireplace with a distribution system that will provide enough heat & burn time to do what we do with our stoves I see no downside. Certainly not in a new construction that you can plan for it. All the ambiance of a fireplace & hearth & the ability to heat the entire house, what's not to like? Only drawback then would be a long term power outage if you can't move the heat a wood stove might be better.

 

Thanks Warner. Turned our concrete room under the porch into a combo gun safe/storm/safe room. Took 6 of us to carry the door around and set it. Decided a bigger room would be nice over a traditional gun safe and having to move it around. My wife was skeptical about the look but she likes how it turned out. It’s been a fun project to tackle. I still have a bathroom to finish but the basement project is winding down. Looking forward to relaxing around the fire this Winter after all the work.

 

I’ve been planning a battery backup system for this very real downside risk to my setup. If we were more remote in the mountains/woods I would make sure to have a backup system or lean towards a wood stove. The z42 would easily heat the basement without the blower but not the whole house. Wood stoves like the Blaze King would be more efficient.

Currently I can unplug the main blower kit on the fireplace that pushes air into the basement and hook it up to a generator or inverter if needed. I would like a whole house backup system and partially wired for it when finishing the basement but that is probably a few years out.

 

Welcome to the FHC Trailman beautiful pics

 

Oops sorry, what he said lol. I forgot to welcome you. Welcome! That's a beautiful setup too.

 

What a first post. Awesome setup! Thats the kind of info I was looking for and hoping to hear. Those are also the 2 models Im looking at. Do you know offhand how many feet your ducts are?

 

I'd just run it a generator in a worst case scenario.