PE Super or PE Summit

After combing through the forum I am now left with a hard choice to make. Do I go with the larger Summit that I'm afraid will overheat the room that I spend most evenings in unless I run it at less than optimal capacity, or move down to the Super and run it at it's rated capacity. The Summit will fit in my fireplace, but a custom surround would be needed. The Super will fit with the standard surround just fine. Money is not the issue and since both stoves load n/s the decision to be made is whether to get the bigger stove, run it at a lower temp and risk creosote build up or buy the Super and just be happy with a smaller box. I called PE's customer service yesterday to ask a question about the Summit and after talking to the rep he recommended going with the Super as it is easier to get lit. Any comments or thoughts to help me make a decision today?

My room is 18 x 14 with a open ceiling to the upper 2 bedrooms, there are 3 door openings in the room and one is a double doorway into the kitchen. I have a 95% efficient nat gas furnace so my gas bills are low, last Dec gas bill was $103, Jan was $200, Feb was $178, so I'm not going to be heating my whole house with wood. My fireplace has a Dutch arch which is 44" wide that the insert would fit up to and the Summit with a standard surround would not fit in there, the Super with standard surround will fit.

Since I got bids on both stoves there is only a $350 up charge to get the Summit over the Super, but I'm not getting a surround with the Summit. Should I just get the bigger stove?

I didn't add in my description above that I have a 5 bedroom 2700 sf, odd shaped 5 level home. I only really expect to get a good heat spread on the third and fifth levels. The fireplace is on the third level.

Sean Truesdell said:

I can't believe nobody else has asked... So how are you fixed for wood?

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I have a cord of white oak I split in 4/2013 and 4 cords of black locust I split 2 weeks ago. Both locust trees had been dead for a long time and were dry and barkless. All the limb wood is ready now, the trunk wood not till next year.

Hogwildz said:

By open ceiling, I assume you are referring to a cathedral ceiling?
Any chance you have a ceiling fan in the proposed stove room?
Is there an open area such as loft space up on the 2nd floor?
This is the set up I have, and I get great convection loop/flow between the ceiling fan, the stairs to the loft and upstairs bedrooms and the open area at the loft.
You may get a nice convection loop, and overheating may not be an issue. If this your set up?

That all said,
None of the wood you have is anywhere near ready.
The Oak would need about another year at minimal in my book, and barkless or not, wood split 2 weeks ago, ain't gonna be ready.

What are the average winter temps & lows in your area?

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Thanks for the response Hogwildz,
The ceiling in the room is 9' tall above the fireplace and slopes up to 18' in the center of the house. The room has 2 fans suspended 8' above the floor in the middle of the room, 6' apart in front of the hearth. The fifth level has a 20' long open hallway with 2 door openings to the bedrooms my wife and I use as our offices.
The winter temps in the Kansas City area range from 40's to 10 below zero, last year was a very mild winter until right before Christmas after that we had 14 inches of snow and single digit temps for several weeks.

I have been splitting and selling firewood for the last 10 years but just decided to start burning some myself. I now have a NorthStar 37 ton splitter and split 8-10 cords a year, I keep the best for myself and family sell the rest. A quarter cord of the oak I have left has been split into roughly 2 x 2 inch pieces for firestarters and the rest is split uniformly 2 x 6 x 18 inches, they look like saw mill scraps. Split like this for 17 months and covered only on the top, I believe this wood is ready now.
I think I will go ahead and order the Summit and if I don't use it's full capacity at least I know I have some headroom if I need it. Thanks for all the advice.

Now, any recommendations for a thermometer? An inexpensive non contact infrared gun type or magnetized coil type? any ideas?

I went ahead and ordered my Pacific Energy Summit with a Dec 1 install date unless they have a cancellation before then. I will be building a custom surround as soon as the unit comes in and I get exact measurements of the stove. Thanks for all the comments pro and con about the units, it seems that I couldn't have gone wrong with either insert. I now need to order a hearth pad, poker set, ash pan and thermometer. Mike