I am looking into getting a wood stove to supplemental heating. We have a fireplace and would be looking to use it. Wife did agree with getting one, but she wants the insert, I was leaning towards the free standing, but it would force me to extend the hearth and it would take up considerably more room. The House size is about 2000 sf, and the fireplace is somewhat centrally located. So how does a comparable insert rate against a free standing stove in terms of heating ability/capicity ?? Also are the inserts at all useful if run w/o the blower, say during a power outage. Any help is appreciated,

MBFish

I grew up w/ one @ my parents house,the square footage was 3,200 & the MFG of the insert was Citation,it came w/ a blower & it was noisy but worked well.I remember loading it up w/ nice pieces of oak choked up on the dampers and that thing would smolder all night long.It did give off a lot of heat & would heat up the living rm and would generously bleed off into other rms.
The only pit fall was the cleaning of the glass door & keeping the iron pot filled w/ H2O.

It's funny you mentioned this thread,I plan on getting an insert for my new home (next year)IMHO I think there pretty functional & sharpe looking plus they don't take up to space on your fireplace.

What brands are you looking @ & where?

Many thank's

5/0

I have a free standing and a pellet stove. I think the insert is probably very comparable to the free standing plus like said above you don't loose a lot of floor space and have clearance issues with furniture and small children touching it and such. Either way I think you will be happy. Way more efficient than using the fireplace. The only downfall in the living room is dust, wood debris, muddy foot prints, etc. But if the wife ok's it you are clear. Look at Avalon stoves. I love mine but they ain't cheap, none of them are.
http://www.avalonstoves.com/default.asp
good luck P.

I have an insert we bought at Lowes for about 8 beans...probally not the most efficient one on the market, but for me works fine.
The glass door stays clean, mostly because I burn at full tilt most of the time, has a blower and would heat with out it if power failed.
I have a cape and once it's going it will heat the room it's in and like 5/0 said it bleeds off into the rest of the house. I basicly shut the oil heat off once stove is lit. Like Proffesor stated...a bit messy...but well worth it...nothing like wood heat

Thanks for the replies guys, 5/0, I am in the beginning stages. I checked out a place in Weymouth, The Fireplace Shop, they seem to know their stuff. I looked that the Summit Model from Pacific Heat, their largest insert. The brochure rates it a 97,000 BTU and able to heat a 2,000 sf home. These figures are identical to the free standing one of the same size. Anyways I got some more homework to do, I don't want to make the wrong choice. thanks, MB Fish.

Go Pellet stove if you can. They are so effortless and they do a real good job heating the house.

another thing to think about if you go with the largest one they make is how will you get all that heat out of that room and into the rest of the house. If it is not an open floor plan then you may cook yourself out of the living room. My stove is in a room not used too much and i use a few small fans in strategic areas to get the heat to other places. You wouldn't be comfortable in the room that the stove is in as it is too small for all that heat. Just some food for thought

We got a Avlon free standing wood stove (middle Size) .
Using it as a semi-insert. Removed the damper and piped with flex pipe direct up thru the existing flue.
Only problem is there is no ashbin & the stove must be cleaned out every 3 days. Plenty of heat the house is 2800sf get the blower attachment & ceiling fan to circulate the heat better.

I got an old Russo that was made in Randolph back in the day. Have it sitting in the fireplace. Heats the house great, has a blower, can also use it as a coal stove. Not as sexy as the new ones on the market, but for thirty years old it works great. Fill my oil tank every other year. Like Mike said, use blowers and fans strategically and it will get heat to the rest of the house.

thanks for all the responses. Will keep you updated if/when I make the move. thanks, MB Fish

We had the same problem that is why we went with the insert for our pellet stove. My cousin has both a free standing pellet stove and an insert for the fireplace. The fireplace insert burns wood but it has a blower and takes it combustion air from the outside so it doesn't pull from the house. ThomT

so is outside air combustion the way to go ??

Yep. ThomT