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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
This question was asked in another thread but it probably belongs in a thread by itself. Anyone know anything about Quadra-Fire wood burning inserts? We're ready to buy a wood stove insert and are looking at the Quadra-Fire 5100i that is supposed to be capable of heating up to a 3500 sf house (many variables here). They look to be pretty well built but I'd be interested to hear from owners or dealers about any good or bad experiences.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
KW....In looking at the specs i would not recommend a wood insert that would not at least take a 24" log( as long as your fireplace will fit one). If you were heating a small area i guess 21 inch would be ok. You can get the same type or look and heat output with a LOPI
freedom bay model that will hold 24" logs. I had a LOPI freedom insert that would hold 18" logs in the far back and 24in logs upfront. The bigger freedom bay model will hold full 24" logs front to back. Good luck
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KW...almost forgot to mention to get one with a damper to open when refueling. You get much less smoke when you open the bypass damper then open the door. Some do not offer one. The LOPI does and it works great.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Thanks for the input. I was sort of amazed that we could even fit a 21" log into an insert in this fireplace. Do the LOPIs load end-first or sideways? The end-first loading is appealing to us since we've had logs roll out before and that won't happen loading end first. The QF does have several damper controls.
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The company selling you the stove is probably telling the truth when they advertise that the unit will heat a 3500 ft2 house, but that house probably has a bunch of air circulation and they were probably burning a dence hardwood. Pine logs might get you about 60% of that. My last insert kicked a**, but I was living in a poorly designed house. The room with the stove could be at 90F and my back bedroom would be at 65F. That was with fans. It didnt bother me too much, but it drove my wife (now shes my wife) crazy.
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The house is pretty well built. A blower door test showed 0.48 ACH and all the ducts have been sealed and tested with a duct blaster. There are 8-10 returns in the house and the heat pump fan runs continuously so I'm hoping the heat distributes well. We shall see. One change I need to make is to rewire the heat pump fan so it will run off the generator during power outages.
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Kw...I think both inserts would work for you but to heat 3500 sq ft at 15 degrees is a feat for an insert!! Whats the style of house ? 2 story or 3 story or ranch? The inserts just do not have the cfm's to heat that much space at 15-20 degrees. It will heat the main room its in but the other rooms will be colder for sure no matter what fan system you are using. Now at 32-40 degrees most inserts will do you well.
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The house is 3500 sf with three floors (including an unfinished but conditioned and insulated basement). For the most part the insert will be used for supplemental heat. Here we get some very long power outages and then the insert would become the primary heat source. We also have a fireplace in the basement that can supply some heat and will eventually be installing radiant floor heat in the main floor. Last year we lost power for 4 days when the outside temp was in the 20s and the fireplace could get the house no warmer than about 58 degrees. If we can get it to 68 with the insert during similar conditions I'll be happy. The generator has enough capacity to run a few thousand watts of space heaters for the colder rooms if needed.
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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
OK....shoot me.
I'm a bit off the main topic here. Please bear with me.
While reading up on the various corn stoves, I found some information that I thought was rather surprising to me.
The average home heating requirement is about 100 million BTUs per year. After figuring out my average propane usage over the past five years, I discovered that heating my home requires, on average, 188 million BTUs per year......nearly double the average U.S. home heating requirements.
The difference here, of course, is that I live in Siberia, USA....otherwise known as North Dakota. There is nearly 100 degrees difference between the indoor and outdoor air temperatures (often quite a bit more than that), in January. This means that the furnace never shuts off for more than a few minutes at a time. And with Propane at over $1.25 per gallon, it makes for a very steep heating bill.
I plan on installing a large corn burner in my house this coming year. I do not intend for it to be a primary heat source, but rather a supplemental heat source. I also plan on raising my own corn, which will greatly reduce my operating costs for the supplemental heat.
Corn produces about 7000 BTU per pound. (figured using the corn moisture content at 15.5%.) To get my required 188 million BTUs, I'll need to produce about 500 bushels of corn. (56 pounds per bushel) 500 bushels of corn would produce the same amount of heat as my propane furnace. Since I don't intend to eliminate the propane furnace, I wouldn't need to produce that much corn.
I'm hoping to reduce my propane usage by about half. Therefore, I'll need to raise enough corn to get about 300 bushels. At 150 bushels per acre (irrigated), I should be able to raise enough corn on only two acres of land to cut my propane bill in half. (a cost savings of over $1200 per year.)
Now.....my last job is to pick a corn burning furnace that I'll be happy with. Any and all suggestions, comments, and / or recommendations regarding your experience with corn burning furnaces will be greatly appreciated.
Joel
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I'll pass on the experience of a friend of a friend with his corn stove. Bin run corn even at 12-13% moisture didn't work too well for him, it has too many fines,(cracked kernel pieces, weed seeds, dirt, etc.) that caused it to not burn correctly. He solved that by buying a used rotary grain cleaner and running the corn thru it first. Another fellow in the community has a hook up with a small Mom and Pop seed company where he buys their left over seed that is out of germ test for about market price, that way it is clean and already bagged for easy handling. The other complaint from the friend of a friend was the daily refilling of the small corn hopper on the back of the stove, so he is looking into a hopper bin outside with a small stoker coal type auger to automaticly feed the furnace. He has kind of a trapped feeling now. he put the furnace in with the anticipation of paying 2 bucks or less for the corn, the furnce was pricey and with 3-4 dollar corn the resale on it is zip. n Now he is considering the outside hopper bin deal, so his economies have long since went well past the cost of LP. Just pasing on what I've been told. Frank.
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