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I love my Generator
Ken, I'm in about the same position as Mark is, big open spaces, 2 storey high, and a lot of space to heat.
I have a single mid-sized airtight insert in the front of the house, fairly central, and can keep the house warm enough with just a moderate fire burning that the furnace will not cycle on regardless of the weather outside.
However, I also find a HUGE difference depending on what I'm burning too.
I have an endless supply of softwood, mostly hemlock, which is the slabs off our sawmill, well seasoned and in fairly small pieces, most of it is about 3" square after splitting, lots of it is smaller than that even, like burning kindling almost. If that's what I'm burning I stay warm just fetching wood and shovelling it in the firebox non-stop. Burning it the house will stay warm, but just.
If I start burning the dry (2+ year old) hardwood you can get a tan standing across the room from the stove, and an arm full of wood will last many hours. Two good-sized blocks piled onto a bed of coals at at midninght will burn long enough that there's still lots of visible coals and you can feel the heat coming off the stove at 7am when I go to put the coffee on.
Best of luck.
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I love my Generator
My understanding of it is, based on my system, that the big problem with heat pumps is that they always start under full load because the pump is mounted directly on the motor's output shaft.
In ourcase the starting load wasn't an issue, but I was told there is a 'soft start' system available which basically consists of a pair of "Y" valves, one on each of the input and output of the circulation pump. For a 'soft start' a solenoid moves the valves so that the pump is only recirculating a couple fo gallons of liquid, then after the pump is up and running, the valves slowly move back to the original position and slowly start moving the entire body of liquid around.
I'm sure a person could rig up their own manual version pretty easy since it would only be needed on a very infrequent basis.
As for the woodstove option, you could likely rig up a furnace blower in the attic, if you have one, which would force the warmest air at the top of the house back down to the lowest point. A simple 1/2hp motor wouldn't draw a lot of power while running, but would make a huge difference in blending the air. As Mark mentioned, the woodstove heats up an area faster because of the higher temperature differential between the fire and the room air temperature.
In my house it makes about 5° diference in the upstairs bedrooms temperature whether I just have the ceiling fan on the cathedral ceiling running or not.
Air circulation is the key, all the hot air in the world won't do you any good at ceiling level, you have to keep it from stratifying.
Best of luck.
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Ken, the one thing (which I'm sure you already know) is that the 'rated' output of any wood burner is a relative thing.
In my case for instance, I can put huge quantities of coniferous wood in my insert all day long and not really do more than take the chill off, on the other hand, an armful of hard maple or some beech will burn all day long and nearly drive me out of the house from the heat if I don't have the damper fully closed.
It's really quite amazing the difference some good dry hardwood will make in the output of the stove.
Best of luck.
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Ken, if you've burned good hardwood and still not gotten much heat out of the insert then I'd say the insert is the culprit.
My unit, as well others in my family, are about the same size as yours, 60k'ish BTU output, and if you have anything more than a single log smoldering you're sitting around in your skivies!!
In my case a SMALL fire will easily keep the furnace from cycling indefinitely and 70° in the house when it's 0° outside.
If I don't keep the ceiling fan going above the insert, it is the 90's upstairs.
Best of luck.
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Gas Generator Weather Protecti
05-14-2007, 09:41 
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