We just purchased a 100 year old farmhouse... although it has been remodeled, it has an older fireplace that is NOT efficient.... We have LP heat throught our forced air furnace and want to use an alternate heating source....

QUESTIONs: We want to #1.Replace our fireplace with a Wood Stove Insert(it is in the livingroom with open staircase to the upstairs level with 3 bedrooms) #2.Add another small Pellet Stove in the kitchen which is down a long hallway off the far side of the livingroom to help heat that side of the house.

The only other thing we thought of was putting a PELLET furnace add-on in the basement...Would this heat the house the same as my current furance?

Would the wood stove insert in the livingroom heat the entire house? How could I get the heat down the hall and into the kitchen efficiently?

Any pros/cons to the wood verses pellet choices?

THANK YOU for any input/advice you may have! Blessings

-- James Kaiserlian (jmarhk@juno.com), October 10, 2001

Answers

Hi, this is just my two cents worth. I have a propane forced air furnace and a wood furnace working off the same duct system. The wood furnace works great. Very toasty and not too much trouble to keep going. I also run my water pipes through the jacket before it empties into the hot water heater so save a few pennies heating water too. Wood here is really cost effective and easily obtained so it makes sense for me. I also have a pellet stove which I purchased before I was brave enough to use the wood furnace. It doesn't heat the house nearly as well. Plus, the cost of pellets has been increasing and last year there was a shortage in our area. So, I would suggest looking into adding on a wood furnace instead of the insert plus pellet stove.

-- teresa (teresa@ascent.net), October 10, 2001.

James. there are actual fans that fit in your upper doorway to help heat move along. You will always have to buy pellets, they aren't really a D-I-Y project. Wood cutting is. Will that matter to you? I know folks in decent sized houses that heat the whole place with one pellet stove. The key is air flow and insulation. Depends on your tolerance for temperature extremes.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), October 10, 2001.

Teresa: we are interested in using an addon wood furnace. What kind do you have. What features should we look for? Are they all called "add-on wood furnace". Is it called the same thing if it is placed outside the home?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), October 10, 2001.

Last year my husband spent $1500 for a pellet stove and what a joke.I froze and we used a kerosene heater instead. It never gave out much heat and to get warm you had to sit by it. The day he bought the thing a man you worked for the store we bought it at told me that they had nothing but complaints about them and the one we bought was the last one they were carrying. My husband however saw so much positive literature on the web that he thought we would save so much money. Our wood heat was so much warmer but we needed to conserve time so we went to other forms. We want to sell ours but I would feel bad selling it when I know how inefficient it is and we would never get anything like what we paid even though it has been used maybe 5 times. Go wood, leave the pellets alone is my advice.Terry

-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), October 10, 2001.

Just a sugestion. Instead of the insert think about setting a really good free standing wood stove outside the fire place a couple feet. Run the pipe up the chimney and close off the rest of the fireplace. Inserts are good but not great. Better yet is just putting a woodstove in the middle of the room and just go up the roof with your pipe. Also for heat in the kitchen why not go with one of those ventless 90+% effecient propane heaters?

I've also heard of all the problems of pellet stoves. Good Luck...Kirk

-- Kirk (kirkay@yahoo.com), October 11, 2001.

Pellet stoves have their place but certainly not in my house. If your electricity goes out you have no heat. All the time they are running you have to listen to a fan. They have the most maintenance of any heating appliance I know of. Parts such as blowers are expensive and they require a lot of operator assistance to keep them clean and burning efficiently. A good quality wood insert will give you alot of heat IF IT IS INSTALLED CORRECTLY. That usually means a stove pipe running all the way up the chimney and the flue sealed around it at the top. Not as good as a free standing stove but not too bad and it takes almost no floor space if that is a factor.

-- jz (oz49us@yahoo.com), October 11, 2001.