Heating a house with wood

[Snojetter]

Hi folks - I've read several threads about the stoves people have in their homes. Oftentimes the comment is something like "I have xxxxxxx stove, and I can heat my entire 2500 sq ft home with it." Ok, that sounds great. But my understanding is that stoves are basically space heaters, and even though heat rises and can create it's own air currents, I question the ability of a free-standing stove (or fireplace) to create heat that makes its way to every room in the house.

Obviously, a stove's location and the house design is going to have an impact. For those of you who are heating with wood, what is your set-up that allows you to keep the home warm and the electric or gas furnace running at a minimum.

Regards,

Kyle Sands <>< Alexandria, MN

P.S. My question is prompted by the fact that I am planning to build a house this spring and intend to install a free-standing stove (no outdoor boiler, no wood-fired furnace - I like the ambiance of a flame in my main living area). I'd like to use this heater as much as possible rather than rely on electricity or gas.

 

[jthornton]

Hi folks - I've read several threads about the stoves people have in their homes. Oftentimes the comment is something like "I have xxxxxxx stove, and I can heat my entire 2500 sq ft home with it." Ok, that sounds great. But my understanding is that stoves are basically space heaters, and even though heat rises and can create it's own air currents, I question the ability of a free-standing stove (or fireplace) to create heat that makes its way to every room in the house.

Obviously, a stove's location and the house design is going to have an impact. For those of you who are heating with wood, what is your set-up that allows you to keep the home warm and the electric or gas furnace running at a minimum.

Regards,

Kyle Sands <>< Alexandria, MN

P.S. My question is prompted by the fact that I am planning to build a house this spring and intend to install a free-standing stove (no outdoor boiler, no wood-fired furnace - I like the ambiance of a flame in my main living area). I'd like to use this heater as much as possible rather than rely on electricity or gas.

My buddy has an insert and his hvac system has two inlets, one in the center of the house for summer and one near the insert. He just runs the fan on low speed and heats the whole house with the insert in the winter.

Insulation will go a long way. I cut my heating bill in half by adding 9" of insulation to my attic.

John

 

[Garmins dad]

A couple fans may be needed to move air for you to get more even heat.. Or the furnace fan..

What is your floor plan like?

 

[Whitespider]

That depends on what you mean by "heating the entire house".

If the room where the stove sits is 85[sup]o[/sup] and the far bedroom is 58[sup]o[/sup]... that ain't heating the entire house in my mind, but to some people it is. Personally. I don't want any room in my house much over 70[sup]o[/sup], and I don't want any room much under 70[sup]o[/sup] either... getting relatively even heat throughout the house ain't gonna' happen with a free-standing stove, no matter what room it's located in. So if ya' don't mind sweating in your shorts while sitting in the living area, having cold toes in the kitchen, and needing a heavy quilt in the bedroom (not to mention you'll need to leave all the doors open to get some heat into all rooms), then get yourself a free-standing stove and some fans to move air... otherwise, you need to rethink your plan.

I do the wood-fired furnace thing... By regulating the amount of air exiting the registers, we keep the "living" area 70-72[sup]o[/sup], the kitchen normally stays right at 70[sup]o[/sup] (that register is completely closed), and the bedrooms 68-70[sup]o[/sup]. Enough heat radiates from the furnace in the basement to keep the floors warm (single story house), and we go barefoot all winter. In my mind, that's "heating the entire house".

 

[Jredsjeep]

i live in an old ranch house, the whole house is heated all winter with my indoor wood stove. my furnace has been turned off for years. the open floor plan really helps distribute the heat around the house and creates a natural cycle of heating. the only assist we run is two ceiling fans in my living room but they are not really needed. no my back bedrooms are not within 1 deg of the living room where the stove is but usually within about 5 deg. its more noticeable in the colder times but its not bad having a cooler bedroom in my opinion anyway. the steps to the attack are open to the hallway and we have a large 6 ft wide arch between the living room and kitchen. we really like the archway to keep things open and for heat distribution.

one of the other improvements that i really liked was making a floor to ceiling backing of bricks that the wood stove also sits on. this REALLY helped take down the temp swings of adding wood and when it burns down to a much more overall even heating. i attached a rough floor plan of my house that's about 1100sqft to give an idea of what works for me.
View attachment 279502

 

[Snojetter]

The floorplan is a fairly standard split-entry home. Entryway leads up to an open area for the kitchen/living/dining rooms. Entryway down leads to large open family room. The other half or so of the house is bedrooms and bathrooms. The stove will be in the basement near the base of the stairway (centrally located). Downstairs family room should be well-heated, and the open stairway should allow some heat to make it's way upstairs. But what about the bedrooms and bathrooms?

We plan to install central heating/cooling ductwork. I've heard of installing a "cold air return" to pull heat off the stove and use the furnace blower to distribute it to the rest of the house. This sure seems simple enough, but I've also heard this may not be as simple as it sounds to make it happen...

Kyle

 

[flashhole]

You need to move air. Several ways to do it but if building from scratch you should be able to use a duct system with embedded circulating fan. If you have an upstairs floor vents will work too just have to be careful to meet fire code.

 

[HaTaX]

I live in the same state as you and have been successfully "heating the entire house" while cutting my furnace run time back considerably, probably 90% less then it would normally run honestly.

Home is a ~2400sq ft 70's split level home with the insert in a masonry fireplace in the lower family room. I leave the basement door wide open and there are ceiling fans in pretty much every room and the stairwell that goes to the upstairs. Blower runs on the insert almost always when there is a fire, and in the room with the insert I took one of the cold air returns to the furnace and placed a "twin" up near the ceiling. Those returns can be closed so I can have hot or cool air drawn in for the season I'm in. The furnace also has a switch on the side of it that I put in years back to run the blower on low for easy recirculation.

Upstairs I can easily keep in the target range (low 70s) with the bedrooms upstairs being in the middle high 60s. Really any room that you want heat in, you just open the door up for 15 or so minutes and it will get toasty. Basement bedrooms aren't used much so they stay shut, typically low to mid 60s if they're just getting recirculation air from the furnace.

Furnace sometimes kicks on in the AM to bring the upstairs to 72 around wake up time, then it won't kick in unless it's under 67 upstairs for the rest of the day. I normally see about 30 minutes of run time from it in a week if the outside temps are teens to twenties.

Since you're designing this from the start you're in a much better position then I, if the stove is on the main living level in the center of the house it has a much easier time of evenly heating the house. Just remember you'll want to go bigger than what you need if you're basing stove selection on the advertised sq ft rating, we get some frigid temps in this state and a stove that's not being worked over will last much longer and be safer overall.

FWIW, two inserts I've been eyeballing are the Blaze King Princess and a Pacific Energy Summit. I think either of those would be up to the task of heating 2500sq ft in MN easily, just look at the stove counterparts to get an idea of what might work for you.

 

[blades]

Kyle if you really want to heat the whole house evenly, then a wood furnace is the best way to go, combination unit would be tops. heats with wood, but if it runs out or your gone extended time switches to back up half( ng , lpg, oil) You could sill have a stove in the family room.
Here is a fact of life with the wood stove, partly as you described in your opening post and with a two level ( we always called it a split level ranch) cold air is going to flow across the floor & down the stairs to the warm room to make up for the rising hot air escaping to upper level. makes for cold feet, not very comfy ( believe me you will hear about it in no uncertain terms) and that cold flow is increased somewhat by the stove itself drawing inside air ( they all do, haven't seen one yet that is a true sealed unit only drawing combustion air through a outside air intake.) note I live alone so I do not have to deal with the significant other syndrome and related complications. Yes, I was at one time involved that mode of existence. ( all american family, keeping up with the joneses ect.)

OK, I have a NC30 stove, I do heat 98% of my 1960, 2000 sq ft ranch with it. Is it perfect? No. The bedroom wing is at least 10 deg cooler sometimes more. ( depends on outside temps) That said the main living area is fine ( kitchen living room and a den ) I have a fan , about a 12" unit on the floormaybe 4 ft away from the stove it blows past the stove towards the den there are 3 entrances to my kitchen I keep the door closed to the front hall which creates a circle ( living rm > den>kitchen, repeat) because the fan is on the floor and the rear of it is aimed at the hall to the bedrooms it pulls cold air from that wing ( heat travels back along the ceiling to make up what flows out) all in all not to bad. When we get the 5 deg and below temps I do need to help the stove with ng furnace a bit. Even then my combine energy bill is $100 or so/mo or less. Not too bad in the scheme of things otherwise on straight NG i would be looking at $2-3 hundred/mo.

 

[Woody912]

small 9" fan to move air back to the bedrooms when it gets subzero, I use my extra bedrooms as heat sinks to regulate the overall temp. Open and close to save or dissipate heat. I don't like a warm bedroom anyway, don't use anything except my Fisher to heat with

 

[Sayheymj]

I live in the mountains, heat portions of my 4500 sf home with wood. My career is Energy Efficiency for over 25 years, and since building my current home (went form a 1500 sq ft home in the city to building my large home on acreage in the mountains) I knew utility bills would be killing me. I have propane heat forced air systems but do not typically use them due to cost. I heat primarily with wood.

In my case, I am well insulated of course, but more importantly, I created the ability to section off or isolate the house in zones. I have 4 separate forced air systems rather than one big one. That way, sections of the home can be independently controlled. for the wood heat, I use a separate duct system where by a duct with an inline fan is used to ship hot air from living room area where the stove is, to the bedrooms. Yes, ideally you could use your forced air system (fan) and duct work, but the losses in all the duct work are great and it is very inefficient. Not to mention your forced air system is not designed with the same objective you have with your wood heat distribution.

The inline fans and duct work is the most affordable and effective way to go, unless you want to entertain installing a wood furnace. A fan duct setup will run around $ 300-400 each fan/duct line depending upon distance, volume, etc. You simply install a register in the ceiling in each room and connect the duct work with a inline fan that pulls the warm air from one room to the other. One important point is to consider where your combustion air is coming from and make sure you are not disturbing it. In other words if you were to try this near an open fireplace for instance, you risk pulling the air from the fireplace (smoke and all) into the room. Theoretically, the pressures in the home will remain the same, but the air will come from the path of least resistance. So, if that is a open chimney, (especially where combustion air is not coming from outside) you need to be diligent in considering that in your placement of your registers. Always use co detectors in the rooms too to be safe.

 

[howard270]

I heat a 1999 square foot house with my Osburn 2400 insert. I take the faceplate off during the winter to allow as much radiant heat as possible. My living room is about 350 square foot with 9 foot ceiling. I have a ceiling fan that stays on low running in reverse all winter long to circulate the air. I do not run the blower on the insert unless it is single digits outside.

The living room is between 78 and 80 when the insert is roaring and the bedrooms are 72-73. Usually the living room is 76-77, but the bedrooms are almost always a constant 72-73 degrees.

My house is very tight and pretty well insulated.

 

[kd460]

Hi folks - I've read several threads about the stoves people have in their homes. Oftentimes the comment is something like "I have xxxxxxx stove, and I can heat my entire 2500 sq ft home with it." Ok, that sounds great. But my understanding is that stoves are basically space heaters, and even though heat rises and can create it's own air currents, I question the ability of a free-standing stove (or fireplace) to create heat that makes its way to every room in the house.

Obviously, a stove's location and the house design is going to have an impact. For those of you who are heating with wood, what is your set-up that allows you to keep the home warm and the electric or gas furnace running at a minimum.

Regards,

Kyle Sands <>< Alexandria, MN

P.S. My question is prompted by the fact that I am planning to build a house this spring and intend to install a free-standing stove (no outdoor boiler, no wood-fired furnace - I like the ambiance of a flame in my main living area). I'd like to use this heater as much as possible rather than rely on electricity or gas.

Let me cut to the chase: My home is 12 years old, 2000 sq ft colonial, I live in Michigan, and no design consideration was made when building the house with regards to using a wood burning stove/insert.

I put an insert in my prefab zero clearance fireplace about 5 years ago. To sum it up, I would not have it any other way. I love to cut , haul, scrounge or gather wood and all that is related to it. I love heating my WHOLE HOUSE with the wood burning insert. That includes the upstairs bedreooms on the other end of the house.

If I had to do one thing over again, it would have been to design the home to take a free standing wood burning stove instead of the insert, but that is minor in my book.

I can't imagine being without a wood burner and my wallet is alot happier as well. KD

 

[Fred Wright]

Agreed, you'll need some sort of forced air to keep the entire house heated to a given temp when using any space heater, wood burner included.

Most folks make use of ceiling or space fans, others run central furnace blowers to accomplish this. However you do it, bear in mind that the more heat you move to other parts of the house, the more wood you'll probably use.

We have ceiling fans in the living room and bedroom (1400 SF home) with the stove in the living room. Neither of us can sleep if the bedroom is too hot anyway so a 10° difference serves us well.

 

[Mad Professor]

Many old houses had iron louvers/grates that would control heat convection to upper floors. Generally a large one above the heating unit, if it was in the basement, among the rest upstairs.

I have heated several homes solely with wood and although some rooms were cooler they were never cold.

A bigger problem, if the stove is not in the basement, is keeping the basement plumbing warm in very cold weather.

If you do have forced air heating the blower can be run without the furnace. This works best if the air return is in room with the wood stove. I've done this with all the upstairs warm outlets closed and just the basement ones open to heat the plumbing in the basement.

 

[bayard]

wood oil boiler

i have a wood oil boiler in the basement.from nov to apr. i use no oil at all.house is 72-74 everyday .endless showers or tubs etc. now we can not see the flames but we can walk barefoot any where in the house.if you are good with wood type and use, this has worked very well for 35 years. this can work well with in the slab floor heat system,s.k

 

[zogger]

Masonry heater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[flashhole]

Some of those Masonry stoves were really nice.

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

My buddy has an insert and his hvac system has two inlets, one in the center of the house for summer and one near the insert. He just runs the fan on low speed and heats the whole house with the insert in the winter.

Insulation will go a long way. I cut my heating bill in half by adding 9" of insulation to my attic.

John

My house, part built in 1890 and the other half in 1980 was set up to heat with propane. I put in a wood heater and am drawing off of it with the propane furnaces's blower. If it gets really cold or windy out, I have a blower on the wood heater I kick on. I keep the propane thermostat set at around 65 or so. If it hear it kick on, the fire needs attention.

The heat isn't hot heat because it's mixed with cold air from the air returns. However, it's consistent warm air. It's not the ideal setup and I'm consistently thinking of ways to improve on it. I've thought of running all of the return air though the wood heater.

I do like the idea of installing a multi fuel furnace. If you want to watch a fire, put in another stove in that room.

 

[Toddppm]

Masonry heater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pretty cool, didn't know there was such a long history of heating like that. Have seen different kinds of these Thermal mass rocket heaters | Living Off the Grid: Free Yourself, some of the ones built by the hippies in the videos are not quite as refined:msp_w00t: