Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Full of Gas.....

Thanks Shawn! Very helpful! As a matter of fact, I saw that "Tree of Life" stove in my internet wanderings and it seemed nice!

Vermont Castings is NOT the same as Hearthstone, correct? Somehow, I knew of both companies but mentally merged them into one Vermont-based company!

You are right - completely separate. Hearthstone is very good as well.

A lot of folks around here are converting from oil to wood pellet furnaces. I have heard a few people say that they discovered that certain pellets will stall out their auger as they will jam in the tiny space where the auger meets the edge inside the pellet box. This limits them when the pellets get scarce (which seems to happen in waves)

Seems more like an auger design issue to me. Those who don't complain seem to have a much tighter fit at this spot. Perhaps something worth eyeballing when you go to look at a stove.

We put a Regency gas stove in my parents' basement about 10 years ago. Part of the reason was to get some hassle-free heat even during a power outage, but it made the basement much more cosy and took it from "never used" to "frequently used". The flames look great and the stove has been as hassle-free as you would expect considering it has almost no moving parts

If you go with a gas stove make sure you get one with a millivolt thermostat (no AC needed) so you get some backup heat in a power failure. If your gas boiler runs without AC then doesn't matter so much.

That said, rather than a second radiator have you looked into a larger radiator ? One thing I saw a lot of in Germany was very attractive floor-to-ceiling radiators which put out a lot of heat. You might need a fan of some sort to move the air around but that would have to be cheaper than an installed gas stove.

Here's the one we put in (pedestal, gold door). The Jotul would be fine too.

http://www.regency-fire.com/Gas/Stoves/Classic/

Mark, also check out Valor/Miles. This is a small, family owned company who is more concerned with quality than volume. All production for North America is in British Columbia.

One of the unique features is the control system. The thermostatic remote will modulate the flame up and down depending on the room temperature, instead of just turning the unit on & off. (Up to 70% turndown)

In addition to this, it is programmable to shut off when not needed, and has "pilot on demand". (essentially both electronic ignition AND standing pilot)

The other great thing is that it's so efficient at radiant and convective heat, adding a blower will only increase its output by 4 to 5 percent.