Advice for Wood heating system for log house

[THoll]

Hello,

We are building a full log, log home in norther WI.
Basement, 1st floor, 2nd floor,3000sq ft approx.
We want to heat with wood and avoid forced air if possible. We have talked with many wood stove & furnace suppliers and have not received consistent responses.
Could a wood stove in basement, with vents in floors and ceilings heat the whole house?
Are there any wood furnaces that would work without ducting? Would a wood furnace be damaged if the blowers were disconnected, would the blowers work (and help) without ducting?
Are there formulas for placement of and sizing of vents?
Any information on how to create natural air flow through building
Any other alternatives?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

[rider77]

Id suggest a wood fired outdoor boiler with fossil fuel backup. Run either hydronic air handlers, radiators or in floor radiant.
Many insurance companies frown at the idea of wood burning stoves inside the structure. Plus there would be no real way of getting consistent, even heating of the various spaces with a single non-ducted heating source.
I cannot endorse the use of an appliance other then how it is suppose to operate from the manufacturer. So I can't comment on running something without blowers or fans.

[firecontrol]

What you are looking to do used to be done all the time long long ago. I grew up in a 2 story home with a single large grate in the middle of the center room on the main floor and registers to the bedrooms upstairs. The kitchen was heated by a Jungers oil burner.

What I remember was waking up in my bedroom and could see my breath in the winter. Big difference between then and now (hopefully) is that your new home will be a LOT better insulated.

Can you make it work? Sure. Will you get the types of even temperatures between the different levels that you'd get with a forced air or hydronic system? No Will you be happy with this large stratification of temperatures? Will you?

Buy a unit that doesn't come with a fan and you won't damage it if you don't run a fan. Yes, the fan is there on some units to move air through ductwork, but in all the cases I know of the fan is engineered to keep the stove from getting hot spots in it and damaging it also.

As for how and where to place pass registers for moving heated air between floors you are probably going to have to find some very old reference materials ........ if they even exist.

Keep in mind though........ cold air sinks and hot air rises unless you mechanically make it do something else.

Good luck.

[hearthman]

The best way for using wood heat is with a radiant woodstove mounted centrally in an open floor plan. In that application, you can heat an enormous area comfortably with a modern EPA Phase II stove. Locating a radiant stove in a basement defeats much of the benefit. Then you would rely on convection to transmit that heat up into and evenly throughout the house. Central wood-fired furnaces have a spotty reputation. Outdoor wood-fired boilers can work well if the local air quality groups will allow that smoke machine.