The Mother List - Stoves

WOW!

thanks for that, that could be incredibly useful for a host of reasons

A quick look showed how much more efficient the cat stoves are.

who determines the size and efficiency on these. looking at a couple stoves i am familiar with, the numbers seemed off a bit.

Do I see a trend?
non-cat: 63%
cat: 72%
pellet: 78%

My understanding is that they don't actually test efficiency for each stove. They simply assign a 63% rating to all non-cat stoves and a 72% rating to all cat stoves.

Jack768 said:

My understanding is that they don't actually test efficiency for each stove. They simply assign a 63% rating to all non-cat stoves and a 72% rating to all cat stoves.

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That is correct. And also how well the stove is maintained, what kind of condition the cat is in, the quality of wood burned, etc. etc etc. A simple blanket rating does not fit all stoves.

Jags said:

Hogz nailed it. You can't rate the operator with a blanket statement either. The operator can affect efficiency just as much as any other component, if not more.

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That makes more sense. I was thinking my wood stove was rated at 70% + efficiency. I know my gas stove at home is 70% + and our H.E. furnace is 92%, so if you were wanting to heat the whole house to a certain temperature, the furnace would be better, but a space heater can keep one area really comfortable while not having to heat the whole house, so that's why I like it even though it does send more heat up the pipe.

I still disagree with the firebox size #'s though. A Heritage doesn't have a 2.7 cubic foot firebox if an Equinox only has a 3.1. An equinox is double in size I think

firecracker_77 said:

That makes more sense. I was thinking my wood stove was rated at 70% + efficiency. I know my gas stove at home is 70% + and our H.E. furnace is 92%, so if you were wanting to heat the whole house to a certain temperature, the furnace would be better, but a space heater can keep one area really comfortable while not having to heat the whole house, so that's why I like it even though it does send more heat up the pipe.

I still disagree with the firebox size #'s though. A Heritage doesn't have a 2.7 cubic foot firebox if an Equinox only has a 3.1. An equinox is double in size I think

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Is that emission rate?

Joful said:

He's talking about efficiency and cubic feet of firebox. Emission rate is usually in mass per time, such as grams per hour.

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Now, I might be missing something, but where on that chart is firebox capacity?

Jack768 said:

My understanding is that they don't actually test efficiency for each stove. They simply assign a 63% rating to all non-cat stoves and a 72% rating to all cat stoves.

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Not only that, but the tests that are done are designed specifically to only pass EPA standards. As such the stoves are tested using situations that are not typical for home use. So one has to wonder what the tests results really mean and how effective they are at actually testing anything, or how any stove will actually work in real world situations.

The list is iterative and published at least annually. To my knowledge, many of these stoves are no longer sold in the US. I'm wondering if some are even made still. Others don't seem to qualify (ie: Kent Sherwood at 8.1 gms). Not sure what's up there.

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There is a provision in the EPA regs for installation of used stoves, so long as they met Phase I emissions standards when new. To enable code inspectors to verify new installations of used stoves, all stoves that have ever passed at least the Phase I standard remain on the list.

Holy Crap Stoveman...didn't realize there were so many

Thanx for the clarification!