Choosing a Woodburning Upgrade in an existing house

Hello Permies,
    I've been peeking at Rocket Mass builds for so many years that it's a joke between my husband and me when the subject of cold comes up. But this winter, push has come to shove and said "what about it?!?"

We would like to reduce the amount of firewood we handle. Currently 7 cord keeps us chilly all winter long and especially from January onward when my husband starts worrying about how much wood we have left and rationing it and doing things like turning off the propane back-up at night so we wake to 50 degrees or even lower in the morning.

That combined with an experience a couple of years ago with our conventional woodburning/forced hot air (by electrically powered fan) heating system. On the first day of the heating season, the house filled with smoke coming out of the ductwork. It was on a teaching day for me--I teach piano lessons in my home.  Luckily for us, my husband knows all of the "old-guard" craftsmen in our community and he called a furnace guy who came and told stories with my husband while the two of them patched up the firebox with furnace cement and added a layer of firebrick to reinforce it. We're still, at least 3 years on, limping along on this undeniably ineffecient system and we both agree it's time to look into changing things for the better.

So of course I've been talking about Rocket Mass Heaters, but, truly, I'm in the beginning stages of research and I don't think one is going to suit our needs. Realistically, we're not going to take on a huge building project of any kind AND our current system is in our basement.

My first question is this: Does anybody use a Rocket Stove or wood furnace that burns the volatile gases to power a whole-house hot air system? My second is related--Has anybody used a Masonry Stove in the basement to heat the first flour of a house?

Our house is built on a slope. Our basement is a walk-out arrangement. We have two stories above that--All connected with complicated and probably home-made ducting. We have a central chimney with a metal liner installed after a chimney fire some 17 years ago or so. Our framing is post and beam, but I don't think it could support the mass of a Rocket Stove on the main floor.

Direction in choosing some next research steps will be much appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Hi Ellen,
I have heard of people heating the first floor using masonry heaters in the basement. I also know of quite a few places that have added supports in the basement, in order to add heavy things on the first floor. Now, while we wait for the RMH experts to show up, I want to encourage you to also look at insulation.

Insulation will be a big help going forward, no matter the style of heater.

the only people who seem to have success heating from the basement are the ones with a wood boiler and hydronic heat/forced hot water radiators to distribute the heat to the upper floors.  Relying on forced air to get the heat upstairs just doesn't work.

Do you have a fireplace on the first floor?  We heat our entire house with 3 cords of wood using a Blaze King woodstove that ties into the old fireplace chimney.  We reload it twice a day; three times when it's in the single digits or below.

It's not cheap, but will last for decades, it's insurable, installed to code, and the workers had it up and running in a single day.  Compared to a rocket stove, which as you said is a big DIY project.

Wow, thanks for that quick response, Davis and Matt.

Matt, your comment about insulation is definitely salient and there are further easy things we can do to improve the situation a bit. We may even be willing to further reduce our living space during the winter.  

And thanks for the tidbit of hearing about some people using a masonry stove on at the base of the house to heat that level and the next level up. When My husband moved here at age 5 he and his mom had a wood-burning furnace in the cellar that produced drift heat through a grate into the living room. That was the entire heating system. They survived, anyway, but I don't think it was easy. Fast forward (70 years!!) and now we want a bit more comfort.

Davis, I will certainly check out Blaze King Stoves. We do have a central chimney that goes all the way to the cellar. But we don't have easy access to that chimney on the first floor because we had a stainless steel flexible liner installed in it about 17 years ago. At least, I don't think we could DIY access that. But maybe a furnace/stove installer could access it.

Matt, if you have further information about Cellar Masonry heaters suppling heat for two floors, I'd love to know where to look.

Thanks again for the conversation,
-Ellen
P.S. I love the C.S. Lewis quotes, Davis.

yes, insulation (and air-sealing) should be priority #1

if you're burning 7 cords a year, you're likely eligible for NH Saves incentive program from the state utilities: https://nhsaves.com/residential/weatherization/

the stainless chimney liner is likely exactly what a stove installer would need to tie in a wood stove.  Have them come out and take a look.  I used Icon Unlimited out of Dunbarton 603-365-7746

I have no experience heating with wood, but I also have a forced air system in my house and I would like to heat with wood.
I also find that rocket stoves don't fit my situation, but I do want a clean efficient wood fire that doesn't need to be fed constantly.

I think a gasifying  wood fired boiler, located indoors ,equipped with a huge buffer tank and a water to air heat exchanger, could offer a relatively clean efficient burn, while the liquid thermal mass would allow for infrequent firing.

Such a setup would be expensive, starting at around  2500$ for  just the gasifying  wood fired boiler, but honestly, my conventional natural gas furnace cost more than that.