Come on Baby, Light my Fire -- but where?!
October 3, 2014 1:00 PM Subscribe
What is the best location for a wood stove in a one-story ranch house? The options are: an insert for the fireplace in the living room, a free-standing wood stove in the unfinished basement or no woodstove at all.
Current heating configuration is a single zone of hot water heated baseboards (oil fuel) that run the perimeter of the entire house. The house is long and narrow and the fireplace is on the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms, with many walls obstructing air flow. The basement has concrete walls and floor, and a staircase up to the kitchen which is in the middle of the house. What is our best bet for heating efficiently?
*If it matters, the house is in Upstate NY, and needs to be heated mid-October through mid-April. Thanks!!
Current heating configuration is a single zone of hot water heated baseboards (oil fuel) that run the perimeter of the entire house. The house is long and narrow and the fireplace is on the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms, with many walls obstructing air flow. The basement has concrete walls and floor, and a staircase up to the kitchen which is in the middle of the house. What is our best bet for heating efficiently?
*If it matters, the house is in Upstate NY, and needs to be heated mid-October through mid-April. Thanks!!
Loading wood will be a lot more convenient in the living room, and you'll get to enjoy the fire. Is this to replace or supplement your oil heat?
posted by metasarah at 1:30 PM on October 3, 2014
posted by metasarah at 1:30 PM on October 3, 2014
My family hasn't had a woodstove for years, but the principle we used was to locate it where it will heat some part of the structure which can serve as thermal mass. The stove and chimney will heat it up as the stove burns, and it will continue to warm the building after the fire dies. If the staircase in the center of the house runs along a load-bearing masonry wall which extends to the second story, adjacent to it could be a good option.
posted by pullayup at 1:46 PM on October 3, 2014
posted by pullayup at 1:46 PM on October 3, 2014
Response by poster: Space is tight in other locations to put a free-standing stove. We are looking to supplement the oil heat.
posted by RingerChopChop at 1:57 PM on October 3, 2014
posted by RingerChopChop at 1:57 PM on October 3, 2014
2 years ago we put in a Jotul woodburning fireplace insert where our large Rumford firebox had been which was almost 3' square. We loved wood fires but grew tired of the inefficiency and the odor. Total cost was about 5K, which included running an outlet to the back of the firebox to power the small fan for heat output, some extra heavy duty metal surround and a plinth to raise the whole thing 8 inches off the ground, as well as the stove itself which is built like a tank.
At first we mourned the open fireplace but after a few weeks, and now two years, it is probably the one thing in the house we look forward to using every day. And it heats our entire main floor and upstairs with true, warm , well-distributed heat. After work in Oregon on a typical winter day it's probably mid 60's in the house and after an hour of stove running it's in the low 70's.
The noise of the fan is minimal and not really noticed, and if I leave the door cracked I can hear the logs burning without leaking smoke.
So that's my recommendation for an insert on the main floor.
posted by docpops at 2:30 PM on October 3, 2014
At first we mourned the open fireplace but after a few weeks, and now two years, it is probably the one thing in the house we look forward to using every day. And it heats our entire main floor and upstairs with true, warm , well-distributed heat. After work in Oregon on a typical winter day it's probably mid 60's in the house and after an hour of stove running it's in the low 70's.
The noise of the fan is minimal and not really noticed, and if I leave the door cracked I can hear the logs burning without leaking smoke.
So that's my recommendation for an insert on the main floor.
posted by docpops at 2:30 PM on October 3, 2014
Do you use your basement? Or are you thinking that it would keep the mess out of the main living area and allow heat to percolate up? That could be a good way to go, especially if you like being downstairs, although you'll want to do everything you can sealing-wise to keep that heat within your walls.
I'll tell you that we have a small Jotul in a living room that also does not communicate with the rest of the house well. When the stove is burning, it's hot in that room, but it also does a good job of keeping the rest of the 1400 sf house at about 65 F even on 0 F days. Actually, because I like a cool house, it's nice to have a place for those folks who would suffer at the temp I prefer.
I'd mention, too, that this winter we'll be using some pressed-wood ecoblocks that are on a par cost-wise with hardwood, use waste wood, take up less space, and burn more completely than the real stuff. If my back would allow, we'd do it the old-fashioned way, but these seem a pretty good alternative.
posted by bullatony at 3:24 PM on October 3, 2014
I'll tell you that we have a small Jotul in a living room that also does not communicate with the rest of the house well. When the stove is burning, it's hot in that room, but it also does a good job of keeping the rest of the 1400 sf house at about 65 F even on 0 F days. Actually, because I like a cool house, it's nice to have a place for those folks who would suffer at the temp I prefer.
I'd mention, too, that this winter we'll be using some pressed-wood ecoblocks that are on a par cost-wise with hardwood, use waste wood, take up less space, and burn more completely than the real stuff. If my back would allow, we'd do it the old-fashioned way, but these seem a pretty good alternative.
posted by bullatony at 3:24 PM on October 3, 2014
FWIW, we had a wood stove in an otherwise unheated bump out addition. It was awful-- that room got too hot, but the air didn't circulate well, so the rest of the house was frigid (because the thermostat felt the fire heat and turned off). We no longer have a wood stove. I guess this is the flip side of bullatony's response: similar isolated room, but hating the result.
posted by instamatic at 3:47 PM on October 3, 2014
posted by instamatic at 3:47 PM on October 3, 2014
I vote basement. Growing up, we lived on an acreage with heating supplied by a wood-burning stove in the basement. Dad was particularly skilled at setting up a fire that would burn all night long, and we were toasty warm all winter.
posted by lizbunny at 4:08 PM on October 3, 2014
posted by lizbunny at 4:08 PM on October 3, 2014
Best answer: If you put it in the basement, you will be using a lot of fuel to heat unused space, and some portion of it to heat up the dirt around your house. Only a fraction of the fuel you burn will wind up heating the spaces that you are using. It wouldn't surprise me if you wound up spending more to try to heat your house from the basement, even if wood is significantly cheaper than oil per BTU. Take a look at the comments on this forum thread. In the past houses were sometimes heated by a non-forced-air furnace (usually coal) in the basement, but such houses were also designed to have a small horizontal footprint with registers between floors to maximize circulation. If your house doesn't have any forced-air central heating/cooling it's going to be even harder to get heat to travel around because you won't have a return vent system. Without return vents, it's hard to establish circulation because warm air can't move into spaces unless there's some way for the cold air to move out.
We've got a corn stove in our semi-finished walk-out basement, but that works for us because we use that space--pre-stove it was always 10 degrees cooler in the basement than in the rest of the house. Even with doorway fans, the amount of heat that rises to the main floor of the house through the stairway into the kitchen is pretty minimal (and most of it seems to go right to the d*mn thermostat in the center of the house, which then shuts off the central heat and leaves the far reaches of the main level actually colder when the corn stove is running full blast).
The best minimalist alternative I think would be to do the fireplace insert to at least take on the heating load for the living room. Taking a bigger bite out of your heating fuel costs would involve a higher upfront investment in replacing your oil-fired boiler with something using a different fuel source--natural gas, propane, or even an outdoor wood boiler if the house is on a large lot in a rural area.
posted by drlith at 6:38 PM on October 3, 2014
We've got a corn stove in our semi-finished walk-out basement, but that works for us because we use that space--pre-stove it was always 10 degrees cooler in the basement than in the rest of the house. Even with doorway fans, the amount of heat that rises to the main floor of the house through the stairway into the kitchen is pretty minimal (and most of it seems to go right to the d*mn thermostat in the center of the house, which then shuts off the central heat and leaves the far reaches of the main level actually colder when the corn stove is running full blast).
The best minimalist alternative I think would be to do the fireplace insert to at least take on the heating load for the living room. Taking a bigger bite out of your heating fuel costs would involve a higher upfront investment in replacing your oil-fired boiler with something using a different fuel source--natural gas, propane, or even an outdoor wood boiler if the house is on a large lot in a rural area.
posted by drlith at 6:38 PM on October 3, 2014
We have a Jotul fireplace insert and love it. We use it probably most days when it's really cold. It's nice because it's in a space we use, so we get to enjoy the fire/heat, and it helps out with the fact that our baseboard heaters are actually a little underpowered.
We've got a woodstove in the kitchen (came with the house) and we use it maybe twice a season, partly because it's not positioned terribly well to heat the house (and it overheats the kitchen).
I say, put it where you can get to spend time near it. You're not planning on only using it to heat your house, so it just doesn't matter so much where you put it.
posted by leahwrenn at 6:56 PM on October 3, 2014
We've got a woodstove in the kitchen (came with the house) and we use it maybe twice a season, partly because it's not positioned terribly well to heat the house (and it overheats the kitchen).
I say, put it where you can get to spend time near it. You're not planning on only using it to heat your house, so it just doesn't matter so much where you put it.
posted by leahwrenn at 6:56 PM on October 3, 2014
You want it in a living space due to its incredible usefulness in a prolonged power outage. You do not want to be carrying wood down a pitch dark staircase to put heat on. It also gives you a place to congregate after dark.
I was most grateful for the wood stove in the living room when our power was out for two days in winter. It made the experience manageable.
posted by crazycanuck at 1:08 PM on October 4, 2014
I was most grateful for the wood stove in the living room when our power was out for two days in winter. It made the experience manageable.
posted by crazycanuck at 1:08 PM on October 4, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
We have a pellet stove as our only heat source in a ranch, and it's in the living room (opposite end of the house from the bedrooms). It heats all but the furthest bedroom, as long as we leave the bedroom doors open. We put a oil-filled radiant heater in that furthest bedroom when it gets too cold (goose down duvet means we can sleep in a pretty cool room).
What about the kitchen? It's in the center of the house. Could you get a woodstove to fit in there, perhaps with a cooktop so you can cook even if the power goes out?
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:26 PM on October 3, 2014