How well did you size your stove

When we finally decided on our Mansfield, we were very nervous that it would be too big for our 1870 sq ft house, that it would roast us out of the room. In fact, a few times it did get up in the 80's in here and we had to open some windows. However, after reading a lot on this forum, we learned how to burn in our stove, and the soapstone is just great! If it's not too cold out, we light a small fire to warm the house up, but if its really cold, we load it up at night, get the secondaries going, and about 9 hours later it is still putting out heat with plenty of coals to start a new fire.

So I have to say that ours is 'just right'.

Todd

We just got our stove this year and are new at it. Our house is a little
over 2000' The insulation is fair and windows old with just storms on.
Plan on replacing them soon. Im getting the hang of this stove. It seems
to run better when at temps 500' plus. So I will know more when the
the heating season really starts since this is a low running temp for
the stove. You guys have helped alot. Thanx

Hearthstone Homestead heating about 700 sq feet of open space with 8' ceiling, ok insulation, new energy efficient windows and warming another 300 sq feet. The dealer, along with some of you, helped me decide on the Homestead over the Heritage. Homestead is perfect.

I chose just right. I talked with our dealer but getting the information from this site zeroed me in to the correct decision. I would say it's slightly larger for a normal winters day but when your getting clobbered by cold weather and you need the heat this baby can pump it out. That's just where I want to be. I have a 1900 sq ft cape cod with fair but not good insulation, older single pain wooden windows with storm windows added outside in central MA heated by the Hearthstone Mansfield.

Too small,I had a heatilator fireplace when I bought my log home, it didn't heat anything. I then bought a insert off ebay and that didn't help either. So then went to a fireplace and stove store and went with a dealers recommendation and put in the insert I now have and with good wood it heats the main living room area. I then bought a wood furnace and now I can heat my house and not use my heat pump that was eating me up.

Shipper

my summit is to small does a good job but want more power... thats why i chose summit over the much prettier hi300.. however i am tring to heat rooms 30+ feet away that isn't relly a favorable floor plan... (might be longer than 40 ft dunno)
the only other stove i would gotten .... blaze king but don't know if the wife woulda approved the looks

napoleon 1400
Firebox Capacity 2.25 cu. ft., Approximate Area Heated* sq. ft. 1,000 - 2,000+ Heat output BTU/h** 11,400 - 41,300 BTU Heat output BTU/h (high burn)*** 70,000 BTU Burn Time (low fire)* 9 hours

heating a two story brick home about 1400 sq ft house is old with new windows and poorly insulated if any none in the attic( winter project). , so far this stove is working great heat goes up stairs nicely to keep kids warm and main floor stays very comfortable. can maintain temps about 66 to high 70s upstairs will stay above 65 and peak around 72 74. but well see what hapens in a month or two?
an

We have been very happy with the size and heating capacity of the stoves we own, so I say "just right".

We have 2 stoves, both from the Woodstock Soapstone Co.. In the house is a Classic Fireview (17 yrs. old) that heats 1260 sq. ft., in our second floor "apartment". We have an oil fired boiler that feeds a 5 zone heating system and simply leave the first floor thermostats in the house at 55 degrees when the rooms are not in use. The second is a Classic and it's brand new and is awaiting installation (when we finish the raised hearth), it will heat the studio area, on the second floor of a garage and a little over 1000 sq.ft., with lots of windows. It will be the primary heat source for the studio, although there is an oil-fired furnace to heat it if we so choose.

The house is going on 19 yrs. old and the garage is brand new. Both are stick built with 6" stud walls and are very well insulated. While the stoves we own may be "overkill" for the spaces they heat, we are able to burn fewer fires and still maintain a roasty-toasty interior climate. Had Woodstock offered a stove as handsome as the Classic (all soapstone) in a smaller size I would have strongly considered it for the studio area.

I too marked just right. Altough you would think that our Summit is a complete overkill for our 1500 sqft ranch it is not. We burn smaller hot fires when its in the 30's and it stays around 74 which is perfect! We sit on a hill with southern exposure and we really get the wind so when its 0-20 we load her up and get the light show from the secondaries.....keeps the house about 74. There are a few times we had to crack a window....but I would rather crack a window than give up my very long burns and big firebox

I marked just right as well. My house is a 1960's ranch with an addition on the back and the addition doesn't get the heat flow the way things are--I'm going to have to see about setting up some fans for the winter--but the stove itself heats the rest of the house quite well (2000 sq' or so). The good folks on here said don't get one too small, and they were right. Bigger is better than two small when it's cold outside!

my jotul f3cb is great i guess i could of went a little larger but my house is only 900 sq ft and i have to keep my bedroom door shut and sometime window open to have comfortable sleeping. f3 keeps whole house 70 to 80 no prob..

First season with 1.25 cube catalytic insert (VC WinterWarm small) heating 1,800 square foot Cape in northern Vermont. Estimate this is good to +10* F, then will supplement with 3.1 cube Scandia Defiant copy in basement. Fifth season with this basement stove, a very strong performer in top tune now. Estimate this two-stove set-up good to -10* F, then will supplement with oil.

So is my insert the right size? Certainly not to carry the full heating load 100% of the time in my climate. But with average temps here Jan & Feb about 20* F, the insert should be sufficient "on average".

What's nice is that in shoulder season, like now, the small insert can be run 'round the clock without overheating the house. Thanks to the catalyst, overnight burns with easy restarts are a piece of cake at moderate or low output. On high output, four hour burn time.

I'll get back to you in February!

Mine just got bigger. Sort of.

I had some really noticible drafts downstairs. I have a big roll of that insulating foam tube stuff from when our (log) house was chinked a few years ago. I went around stuffing it in spaces around windows etc- what a huge difference. I think it will make a real noticible difference this winter. Proves the old wisdom about taking care of drafts and insulation first!

Adios Pantalones said:

I have a big roll of that insulating foam tube stuff from when our (log) house was chinked a few years ago.

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What's a log house look like?

bokehman said:

...What's a log house look like?

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Looks like a neatly stacked pile of debarked trees ready to be bucked and split. Rick

Like a log cabin, but with 3 bedrooms

Log house, log home, log cabin...

Jags said:

They didn't have Lincoln Logs in Spain when you were a kid?

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I was never a kid in Spain. I came for the weather (315 days of sunshine). Today, 70ºF high, 50ºF low. :coolsmile: The trouble with that is I don't get to burn the stove too often, :down: so I visit this forum instead to be regaled by everyone else's fiery tales. :lol:

bokehman said:

...The trouble with that is I don't get to burn the stove too often...

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A modest proposal to remedy that situation: You come here, month of February, run my TWO stoves, drawing from my indoor supply of 10 cords of fine hardwood, and ski your *** off on my skis and boots (size 11.5). My family and I will keep the riff-raff out of your villa and make sure your wine bottles get turned :lol: .

VTZJ said:

My family and I will keep the riff-raff out of your villa and make sure your wine bottles get turned :lol: .

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Sound's good to me, but your not allowed to drink any.

I like the look of that VC insert. The cat and thermostat are just what I need for my low heat requirements. I'd love to be able to burn with the firebox interior down at 500ºF, instead of 1100ºF or smoke. At the moment we are just having one tiny fire every evening. Four hours later the stove is just warm to touch, but the house is about 78ºF (50ºF outside). A cat would let me burn longer and cooler I think.

bokehman said:

...The cat and thermostat are just what I need for my low heat requirements...

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Two thermostats in fact -- one for primary air, one for secondary air which enters just upstream from the cat. See photo attached of back of insert. Copper probe from center of thermostat coil extends thru stove back into secondary combustion chamber into the exhaust stream 1" downstream from catalytic combustor.

It works remarkably well for a 15 year old stove now that I have regasketed it and replaced a few parts, this secondary thermostat and probe included.

It was 48* F here last night. I burned a medium output fire from three Maple splits that lasted 7 hours, left about a pint of charcoal and a pint of very fine white ash.

Beautiful wine cellar, by the way. Never seen anything quite like that. Did you build it?

my my my bokehman- I'd feel bad upsetting the order by drinking any of that... but not too bad. Awesome pic!