Winterizing in July

One of the things that give me a chuckle over owning an old home is that you are always preparing a season in advance.

I really like my wood stove. I've mentioned it many times, and it was great to have heat our first floor in the winter. Unfortunately, it can't accomodate the whole house, so that left Karl and I sleeping/showering in 45 degree rooms. The kids had space heaters, so they were fine. Even then, on 0 degree days, I kicked in the radiant heat to get the home to 62 degrees in the mornings (then the stove took over just fine). The gas & electric cost to run the radiant heat was $300. Now, it WAS costing us $600 before the stove, so it was still a savings. It's seems like a waste.

It really go me thinking about the upstairs. We have a loft over the main stairwell, a little over four weet wide. It is inaccessable to kids, it's in a convienient location, because it doesn't take up room there, and it doesn't require modifying the room, to put in the stove. We could punch right through to the roof, a cost savings over running double wall chimneys up from the first floor. We already have a wood supply, we already have the equipment left over from the last installation, and I even have 30 sq feet of marble left over. That's a good sized hearth pad! The best part was that the cold air return for our central air is RIGHT THERE!. To me, that's nothing but a big blower! We have the UNICO system, so instead of several small returns dispersed through the rooms, it is one large 2x3 foot return, perfect for sucking up the heat from the stove and blowing it throughout the upstairs. I suppose now it's a hot air return.

I got a great deal on the stove (Napoleon 1400s), since I called all over the US for the price. It's not as pretty as the one downstairs, but it's convienient. It has a self-closing, large ash dump (pedestal model), with handles you just pull out, which is nice since it's upstairs. The soapstone model you have to shovel out, NOT fun when the stove has a 600 degree surface temp. And, we had to put the ashes in a large steel bucket and run to the outside, since it didn't have a lid. It has a front loading door, perfect for the narrow space it will sit on. Our other one loads from the side. This model only requires a 10 inch side clearance, which the other one has an 18. And, at this point, it was a bonus to have a viewing glass.

So, with our home being 2400 square feet, and between the two stoves covering 3600 square feet, maybe I'll get to enjoy a 72 degree home after all!

Here's a pic: