New to wood stoves and really need your input...

Hi Don,

I don't have a lot of experience with other wood stoves, but I know I'm very happy with my Alderlea T5. We have a 1,700 sf 3-level split, newer windows and well insulated - it heats our entire house no problem - we'll keep our main level around 74 -76 when we're home and it's below 0 outside (stove is on lower level, one-half flight below main). I remember being somewhat obsessed with burn times when I was looking, thinking I could get it going and just forget about it for long periods of time, but that's really not the case, at least for me. It will definitely put out heat for a long time do to the stored energy in the cast iron, but I prefer to add wood more often, before it gets down to end-of-life coals.

It's not the cheapest stove, especially when we decided we needed to get the fancy majolica brown finish on the outside, but haven't had any regrets on this stove choice whatsoever.

Welcome to the forum...

To get the best answers the folks here will need a little more information. Some pictures of where the stove will be installed, is it an existing fireplace or will you be building a chase? Layout of the house, etc.

What are your clearance constraints? That will help define the stove and installation requirements.

Where are you located? Florida? New York? Alaska? Local climate also plays a part in the planning.

Good luck.

ps: Before anybody else says it, you need to start gathering seasoned wood NOW for next season!

KaptJaq

Big Donnir Brasco said:

My wife just HAD TO HAVE an old poorly insulated house, so now instead of running the heating bills through the roof I've decided to get a wood stove.

I need one with a VERY low wall clearance.
looking at about 1200 sq ft.
8-10 hour burn would be nice.
Not sure that TOO much else matters (log size etc)

So far with my VERY limited experience, I am considering something like the Pacific Energy Alderlea.

Which brings up another question.... where am I likely to get the most reasonable price? Like everyone else in this economy we are on a tight budget.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to listen to all my "new guy" ramblings!

Sincerely

Don

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I can relate. Just how poorly insulated are we talking?

Welcome Don!

Glad you found this forum - you will get lots of good advice here I'm sure.

I don't know that stove at all so can't comment much there. However I'm sure others will jump in. There are many great stoves out there and I'm sure you can find one that will meet your needs. As KaptJaq said - do get your fuel figured out quick if you have not already. The main source of problems is generally wood that is not really as dry as it needs to be. Sellers claim 'seasoned' and 'dry' but for a really good experience you will want it to be drier than almost any seller will have (there are exceptions of course, but those are rare!).

Since you mention wall clearance I'm betting you are not putting this in front of a fireplace or as an insert. Thus I imagine you will be installing a new chimney at the same time - if you haven't already, keep in mind that the cost of a proper chimney can be as much as the stove in your budgeting/planning. Don't try to cut corners there as it is just as important in many ways as the stove to your overall burning experience.

One other thing to consider - get that home insulated and/or air-sealed. That will pay for itself very quickly. Depending on where you live you may even be able to get it heavily subsidized by your local utility company or such so that it could cost you pennies on the dollar up front.

Best of luck with your stove decision as well as whatever else you decide! Hope to see you around more...

The stoves with the tightest clearances also come with a premium price tag. Jotul, Pacific Energy, come to mind. You said you were on a budget............. If you can get away with more clearance and are willing to do some fabrication, look at the Englander,30NC or 13NC. These are very economical stoves with great reviews. The drawbacks being clearance and hearth requiremnts.

You can also put insulated panels with standoffs on the wall behind the stove to reduce clearances, in addition to getting a heat shield on the back of the stove.

Big Donnir Brasco said:

Thank you SO much! I have actually ordered a cord of seasoned wood as of last week

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Order at least 4 cords.

The house is 100 year old lathe and plaster, in East Central Kansas, with poorly fitting windows and doors!

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You are going to have to oversize quite a bit to compensate. Trust me on this.

I don't know about the other stoves, but I initially went with the Lopi Endeavor because of it's reduced clearances (4 inches form the wall behind it with double wall pipe). Only ember protection is required below and out front, so you can save a few bucks on the hearth. You'll need to have your chimney lined or a new stove will not work properly. Make sure to run up a few feet before making a turn for better draft.

If there was a way you could open up that wall between the stove and the chimney, the heat may be more even. I don't know if that is practical or not, just thinking. I heat 1600 SF with mine easily, but the house is tighter than yours by a large margin.

As many will attest to, just because it's advertised as dry get a moisture meter and double check or come time to burn you will be unhapppy!

Most full time burners use at least four cords per winter, and with a big stove and leaky house you might use six. The first year you'll burn more wood than you will in subsequent years due to your inexperience, and possibly also due to wet wood. If you get wood for this year soon you should be able to season it reasonably well by winter; all of Kansas is open, sunny, windy, and dry all summer, right? Of course the complete lack of trees in my mental image of Kansas doesn't bode well for you.

Lopi Endeaver. Check out the Lopi web site. We have used this stove for 9years with no regrets. Clearances are the best we could find. Used telescoping double wall stove pipe and factory chimney straight up from the stove. That allows us to sweep the chimney without getting on the roof.
Tom

If you have a masonry chimney inside that rear wall, perhaps lose the combustable wall board, and give yourself the ability to jam it closer to the rear wall?

Good quality storm windows on an old traditional single-glazed double-hung window is more efficient than most double-glazed replacement windows, and cheaper by a good margin. So, there's no need to lose the character of your old windows or break the budget in tightening up your house. You can buy or build traditional storms, or get lazy and go with manufactured storms. Either way, you want to tighten that house up where you can, if fuel costs are of any concern to you.

If the home is poorly insulated with bad doors and windows, even though it is a 1400 sq ft home, a T6, Summit, 30NC, Defiant, or any other 3 cu ft stove would probably be the best move if insulation and window/door replacement is not practical at this time.

In the proposed location, the 14 ft sq room, the hearth pad will have to be circumnavigated when passing thru this room. So besides wall clearances, you should also consider the "livibility" of this obstruction to traffic flow in a 14ft sq room with a stove and hearth.

Best suggestion would be to pick any stove for starters, download the installation manual, and read it about 4 times, tape an outline on the floor for the required hearth pad, place an appropriate sized cardboard box representing the stove in the taped area, and live with this for a cpl weeks -- while reading more stove installation manuals....

Is that a closet just to the left of the dry sink? What currently utilizes the chimney, is there an unused flue for the stove? What kind of shape is it in? Has it been inspected?

As mentioned above, to reduce clearances you can remove the combustibles from the chimney wall. The closet door might also have to be addressed. If the brick is not presentable as it ( and it probably is not) then dress it up with non-combustible stone, tile, or other finish. Look for stoves that only require "ember protection" on the hearth pad. These pads can be very thin. You can cut out the finished floor to the pad size and put a sheet of cement board covered by tile for an ember protection pad. It can be made flush to the floor so it will not create a tripping hazard. If the stove requires thermal protection (R factor > 0) on the pad it will be thicker and probably built up above the floor.

Most stove manuals are available online. The suggestion to read them and make a cardboard mock-up is a good one. You have a couple of months to finish the install, use the mock-up to see what intrusion on your living space you can deal with first.

KaptJaq

Big Donnir Brasco said:

My wife just HAD TO HAVE an old poorly insulated house, so now instead of running the heating bills through the roof I've decided to get a wood stove.

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We should start a support group.

After paying stupid money last winter to keep our house barely heated we bought a stove this spring. I'll be able to tell you how it worked out sometime in February, but I think we did good getting a Woodstock Progress Hybrid, they had them marked down $1,000 a couple of months ago...

If you're really going to do it, get your wood now and stack it.

Bath Maine Burner said:

We should start a support group.

After paying stupid money last winter to keep our house barely heated we bought a stove this spring. I'll be able to tell you how it worked out sometime in February, but I think we did good getting a Woodstock Progress Hybrid, they had them marked down $1,000 a couple of months ago...

If you're really going to do it, get your wood now and stack it.

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It works. Trust me. I went from 1,500 gallons a winter to using 100 gallons the last two winters combined.

Welcome aboard BDBrasco, did you check out pellet stove options yet? Nice house btw