Progress Versus Fireview

I've got a 2400 sq ft drafty old house. I have a Progress in a room that's 17 x 17. The room has 2 narrow doors - one opens into the room behind and the other opens into the large central hall that is open to the upstair hall and, thru narrow doors, to the other rooms downstairs. I find that the Progress heats very well. While the room its in is warmer than the other rooms, it is not overly, unbearable hot ever. And the heat makes it to the rest of the house surprisingly well. I love my Progress, it's very easy to use and lovely to look at. Happy to answer any questions you might have.

This is my first year burning an EPA stove, so I can't really comment on reduction of wood consumption nor am I adept at regulating any stove. However, the stove has compensated for my inexperience nicely. It is so controllable and reliable. It is very sensitive and responsive to slight adjustments of the draft control (as in 1/8"). Once you find the spot where the fire is burning as you like, you leave the draft there and it will remain at that level of fire activity until it runs out of wood to support it. The stove has a very wide range of heat output according to EPA testing. The heat from soapstone is different than cast iron as well. It is a softer heat, not as sharp or harsh, don't really know how to describe it better, you need to feel it. I know when I don't have the stove going, I miss that heat, even if the furnace is keeping the house at a higher temp, it doesn't feel as comfortingly warm.

Backwoods Savage can give you a better idea of wood consumption. He has a Fireview and has burned wood for 50 years, so a little expertise as well ;-)

As far as the hearth goes, I had to extend mine as the stove was going into a fireplace area. What my contractor did (because y wanted to preserve the old floorboards as did I) was to lay Durock NextGen 1/2" board on top of my existing, flush hearth and floor topped by 1/4" tile (the tile they have now is amazing, mine looks like and has the texture of slate). So, I have a very slightly raised hearth now, which I don't find obtrusive visually that meets the R-value requirements of the Progress.

Are any of the other chimneys more centrally located in your house? I would go big if it was more centrally located, maybe even consider 2 stoves one on each end of the house?

Can the liner from the one chimney be removed??

Maybe placed within another chimney in a better location??

Ian said:

Thanks. That is very helpful. Is the Progress a fairly easy stove to regulate? I've got a Resolute in the place I'm living in now and boy, it really generates some heat. It can almost get too hot. Since you've started using the Progress how much have you cut down on your wood consumption compared to what you were using before? I've heard it can be considerable.

Another question: how far out does your hearth extend? I may have to expand mine. I'm not interested in cutting into the floor and extending out the brick. Any thoughts on an easier solution?

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Is the Resolute in the 3000 sq ft home? Or have you not moved into the 3000 sq ft home, yet?

Ian said:

I recently purchased a less than efficient 3,000-square foot home in NH. There are three fireplaces and one of the chimneys is lined for a woodstove. Where the stove would go, however, is in a part of the house that was added. It's in a big room (17x24) on the eastern end of the home. It has ten foot ceilings and there are some bedrooms above the room. There is just a normal size doorway between the room and the rest of the house. This bigger room does sit down a few steps from the rest of the house.

I've thought about opening up heating vent between the room and the hallway upstairs to allow the woodheat to flow up there. But I'm trying to weight the size of the stove I should get. I'm really intrigued by the Woodstock stoves but not sure of the size I should get. I'd love that woodheat to flow into the rest of the downstairs of the house, but my fear is if I go to large, I'll just make that great room intolerably hot. I'm looking at the Progress and the Fireview models. Would the Progress just be too large with this space, even if I opened up a vent? Are there other options I should consider?

Thanks so much.

Ian

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Welcome to the forum Ian.

The Fireview would not be enough stove for your home so you would need the Progress. No, I do not think that would be too much stove for you. 3000 sq. ft. is a big space to heat.

Moving the heat in a house can be done much simpler than most folks think. All it takes is a small desk top fan! Ceiling fans can help a lot too. In our house, if the back part gets too cool, we simply set a small fan on the floor, set on low speed and aim the blowing air toward the stove room. The rest of the house will quickly heat up this way. But remember, a small desktop fan and not a pedestal fan. Low speed so it isn't really drafty but low speed will circulate the air nicely. What you are doing is moving the more dense cool air which forces the less dense warm air out of the stove room. It works!

If the resolute is not in the 3,000 sq ft home, I would seriously question the ability of a 2.8 cu ft stove heating 3,000 sq ft of "less than efficient" space. 3,000 sq ft is not an easy space to heat and will require something with a larger firebox.

The progress is a good stove. It is not a large stove though. You will not have too much stove with a progress in an inefficient 3000 SF home and 10 foot ceilings. The Progress will be a decent fit since you will be able to let the hybrid run at medium to high output which is where it seems designed to run best.

As a point of interest, the fireview is rated by woodstock to heat a very small home. I seem to recall 1600 SF which is like a mobile home.

You are right the progress is a good stove and it depends upon your definition of large. Most folks think it is.

On the Fireview, 1600 sq ft is not bad but that is not the size of a mobile home. A large 14 x 80 mobile home though would be only 1120 sq ft.

If you can open that room up a bit to the rest of the house, I vote Progress. If not, I am a bit concerned that room is going to get pretty darn warm with a full load of wood. If you can't open up the room and you will be spending a lot of time in there, I vote Fireview.

Recommending a 2.8 cu ft stove to heat 3,000 sq ft of space is an ill-advised plan. A 2.8 cu ft stove is not a large stove.

begreen said:

The question is, will the stove be heating mostly just the 408 sq ft room or can convection be encouraged to spread the heat out of the room to the rest of the house. A single door connecting the room to the rest of the house is not a big opening. I would be more comfortable making that decision seeing a floorplan. Right now it sounds like a big stove centrally located would work out better.

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Until we see a floor plan it's hard to tell. I big 3+ cu ft stove centrally located would work best, like you said.

If centrally located isn't an option, he would probably be better off with two Fireviews if he is set on soapstone. I like it warm, so I would consider a Progress and Fireview or a T6 and a T5. Two BK Princess stoves would work, as well.

begreen said:

If he can move the Resolute into the new house, that is what I would start off with for this room. It's a sweet stove and it's paid for.

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True. I'm a fan of low budget solutions.

Backwoods Savage said:

You are right the progress is a good stove and it depends upon your definition of large. Most folks think it is.

On the Fireview, 1600 sq ft is not bad but that is not the size of a mobile home. A large 14 x 80 mobile home though would be only 1120 sq ft.

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A 2.8 CF stove is certainly not large. Pretty medium really but woodstock has been able to put up some very good output numbers from such a small stove. Still, not a large stove at all when people actually look at the specifications.

A 14 foot wide mobile is only a single wide, now I don't live where there are lots of tornadoes but that would typically be called a trailer in most places. A standard mobile home for the last few decades has been a double wide but not 80 feet long. 1600 SF is a good sized mobile home. Triple wides and up typically fall under the manufactured home designation.

Back to the thread. 3000 SF of inefficient house with 10 foot ceilings in NH. Most houses that big and that old are not "open" in concept. This is not a job for anything but a large, extra large, or multiple heat sources. Might even be a wood furnace candidate plus a nice living room stove for pleasure.

I wasn't recommending the Fireview to heat a 3,000 square-foot home. I was recommending it to heat a 400 square-foot room with one normal sized door connecting to the rest of a 3,000 square-foot home. I own a Progress, and I would not recommend it for the room if the OP cannot open it up more to rest of the house expecially if they will be spending a lot of time in that room. That room is going to get very, very warm.

To heat the house, two smaller stoves or a centrally located large stove is the way to go. To heat the room and get some heat to rest of the house without having the stove room get too hot, I would recommend the Fireview over the Progress.

I'm heating 3,800 sq ft in a cold climate with the Progress. However, my home is not drafty, just a lot of windows. Because of the gentle / slow heat of the soapstone, it will heat the adjoining rooms better than a steel or cast iron stove. The steady heat will have more time to move through the house. I don't think you'll over heat your space. If the heat does not circuate well, then yes, you can put a floor vent above the stove to get more heat upstairs.

With the Progress, you will also have the luxury of loading twice a day if you want. With the Fireview, it can be done twice a day, but to really heat a decent size space, you would load it 3 or even four times per day.

We have a 2100 SF poorly insulated antique home in CT. Our Fireview is in an addition with a chimney in good condition. The room is 35X19 feet, is located on one end of the house, and the master is above it. Low ceilings in keeping with the antique style of the home.

We also have a pellet stove in the main keeping room of the old house, where the chimney's soundness is unknown for wood burning. If it were sound I'd put another woodstove in there but since I don't know, a pellet stove it is.

So...2100 SF of poorly insulated, not open plan, low-ceilinged antique house in CT is nicely heated by 2 stoves, not adequately heated (on a day below 35 or so) by just one or the other. YMMV but that is my experience thus far (first winter).


Mary