Hitzer Insert Heating Distribution

I have a 2250 sqft 2 story home and would like to use Hitzer 503 in my fireplace located in the living room on the first floor. Anyone have any experience on how warm the second floor will be ? That is, will the heat rise naturally or will I need to force it upstairs somehow ? the stove is rated for 2500sqft.

Thanks

JBCoal -- Interesting question, we have a 3 floor colonial -- that we heat with a Hitzer 503. Outside measurements of the house are 40 X 27'. The third floor has a knee-wall arrangement so total sq. footage is on the order of 2800. The home was well-built in 1936, we added 15" of insulation in the attic and replaced all but 3 of the original windows with modern
"Pella"windows. The home is in the fashion of a central fireplace in the living room with large doors of this room into the DR and to the hall. D'r opening roughly double the size of the opening to the hall/srairwell. We like the LR at 75/77F - this
keeps the second floor at 71/72F. With our arrangement the kitchen is coolest at 68/69F, depending on the cooking! It warms
rapidly as you cook. The last 3 years we have burned about 3.5 tons of pea/nut. We are NOT able to hold those(given)
temperatures easily if the temperature is steadily below 10F ... we use our "steam" system to supplement on frigid days
when it is most effective. Routine summertime gas = $50, Dec. and January gas was =/-$120. Four years ago the
gas company sent a $800 bill in December - we switched! We use no fans to move the warmth due to our good
fortune of having a classic design .... you may have to use fans depending on your layout. As per other threads we sent,
our only regret was in not supplying the combustion air to the appliance from the former ash door cleanout -- believe it
would reduce the drafts we get in the LR from a set of too beautiful to loose oak "french" doors.
Best Regards, baldeagle

JBCoal;
Just started running a 503 insert a month or so ago. Our house is 2850 Sq.Ft. two story ,built in 1839. We have replaced most all of the windows in the last 5 years.36 in. of insulation in the attic. In other words, a spruced up old farmhouse.
The house has a forced air furnace,so we use the house fan to distribute the air. In addition,we put a floor fan at the base of the stairs when the temps go below 20 Degrees.
We have had no problem keeping the upstairs 67-70 in the coldest weather,and we hit lows of 4-6 below on a few days too.
On the coldest days we used a good 80lbs. a day. Currently,with the warmer temps.30's to 40's,the use is cut in half.
Speaking as a rookie on burning Anthracite,I am quite satisfied with the 503 insert.From the ease of operation,to the general appearance of the unit.(welds looked good to me)
As I just had a face plate fabricated and installed,i will try to post a photo now that the job is complete. Looks cool...........

2000 sq ft gambrel central enclosed stairs reasonable insulation, Anderson windows
503 kept the main floor at 72/74 with the second floor at 68/70.
Stove is at 300/325 normally
425 when it went to zero outside.
Held the inside temperature no problem.