Looking at Buying a New Stove or Furnace. Are They All Great

Ok, new house, 1540 ft^2 modular with R21 walls plus R4 foam, R38 ceiling, superior wall XiPlus (R21) basement with an inch (R5) of foam under the floor. We have and heating system with both a propane furnace and a heatpump. I'm a fan of heatpumps for their efficiency during mild weather, but propane was known to be as is complete BS. Outdoor coal stoves were just way over the top expensive for the total project, was at 17k all in.

Anyways, i'm onto the stove train and drowning in good choices. I have an opportunity to pickup a 5 year old ACS Channing III for 1500 but the dealer is suggesting I move on to a full on furnace. He has a leisure line for $3,800. Another local store has a Hitzer 710 which was ordered but the deposit was not paid, so its just sitting in his warehouse. He is offering it up for 3000 even.

Is there anyone out there that has experience with more than one of these brands that can give a good comparison?

I was hoping that the channing would put off a portion of my needed heat, some would warm our floor, the rest would be pulled in through the propane furnace's cold air return but maybe I should belly up to the bar and buy a full furnace.

Anyone have any information about connecting a leisure line or hitzer to existing duct work?

nate

Welcome! I have no experience wit hooking up the leisure line or hitzer, but ran a hotblast forced air unit all this winter and most of last, and now am installing a boiler so that I can move the heat even more, my advice, go with either a hot air furnace or boiler stoves are nice for a single room or the view of the fire, but if you want to heat your whole home equally, do it right the first time. The people on here are great! Once you go coal you'll never go back.

Oh YA and finish filling out your profile! It's easy to heat a house in Virginia, not so easy up in Plattsburgh ny

Yep...Are you looking to heat the whole house and cut down or eliminate the propane and the heat pump? If so then the best money goes on a furnace that will sit next to the propane furnace. If you want to heat a couple of rooms and just cut down the use of propane and the heat pump do a stand alone stove. With the insulation you have and it being a new home your coal usage shouldn't be outrageous.

What is it your looking to do? If I was in your shoes and had the options, I would do the furnace and set it up next to the propane furnace and use the existing ductwork.

Finish filling out your avatar and it will give us a better idea on how to recommend. Location location location makes all the difference in heating. Some folks have shut their equipment down and others are still burning hard. Just depends on where you are.

I have a small (950 *ft) raised ranch in Rhode Island that I heated with a LL Pioneer. It was built 15 years ago and is well insulated and came with baseboard HW. My daughter used 3 tons to heat this season. The stove gravity feeds up the central stairway and keeps the basement about 4 degrees warmer then the upstairs. It has a coaltrol.

I also had 1450 *ft modular ranch built last summer and it is super insulated. I decided to install a Reading Juanita hot air furnace. We burned 4600 lbs this season with the house set at 70*. The furnace is next to the backup propane furnace and is connected to the hot air duct work. The cold air return is not connected but I have a vent in the return duct just above the furnace and coal air spills out of that. The basement runs about 2* warmer then the upstairs and the furnace uses the timer based controller. My basement is a small machine shop work area. The upstairs floors were warm.

I would strongly suggest a system that can be connected to existing duct work. Like the previous poster, a home in upstate New York is much harder to heat then one further south.

Many years ago, I also heated with a hand fed coal furnace purchased from Sears that burned wood or stove coal. It was also connected to the existing duct work both supply and return. It was an old farmhouse in Vermont. I'd get through the winter on 5 cord of wood and a tank of oil or 3 tons of coal and no oil.

The channing will heat your house I have one and heat 2400 sq ft, the stove is in the basement of a ranch R13 in walls and r19 in cieling basement is finished.

A furnace as others said will be more even heat but the channing for the price won't be bad, I have a second stove that I fire when temps get in the low teens single digits but with your insulation you won't need additional heat from propane or the like. Put the stove in the basement in the middle of the house if possible. Alaska could install a 6 inch duct ring in the top for 60 bucks, I had this done after I purchased the stove used then cut a 12 X10 register in the floor above the stove and ran 6" stove pipe to the register, this is very easy to do and the channings convection blower transfers the heat upstairs and the heat is fairly even with the center upstairs 72f and rear bedrooms 68F and basement 64F on about 4 to 5 ton a year.

These stoves are simple to service,repair,operate so if you have any questions about them fire away

Do you have a chimney, and if so what is it made of? Do you really have a budget, or is money tight? We all understand when money is an issue, or we all would be sitting in our easy chairs and cranking the thermostat! We don't judge here, just help from any angle we feel is realistic. I just wish this forum was around 35 years ago, it would of saved me a fair amount of effort.

2001Sierra wrote:Do you have a chimney, and if so what is it made of? Do you really have a budget, or is money tight? We all understand when money is an issue, or we all would be sitting in our easy chairs and cranking the thermostat! We don't judge here, just help from any angle we feel is realistic. I just wish this forum was around 35 years ago, it would of saved me a fair amount of effort.

No budget, and normally we can absorb a big one time cost, but we have dumped so much cash into our new house and new garage that it tight right now. Plus work is iffy.

Anyways, just looking for the best overall decision: money, effort, safety...

How about the chimney?