BTU comparisons

Take all those numbers with a grain of salt. There are only so many BTU's available per pound of wood, so if they all have the same size fire box they will all deliver about the same BTU's give or take a few for efficiency. Do a search here for the stoves your interested in and see what people are heating with them, it's more real world.

From my experience go big or go home, I put a PE alderlea T5 in my 1400 sq ft house, my brother in law went with a much smaller lopi answer. I am glad that I oversized a bit, the bigger fire box is much easier to keep in the sweet spot. My brother in law struggles with the smaller stove and has to run it pretty hot to keep the house warm. Good luck convincing the wife, mine wasn't easy to win over either, but she loves it now.

rm said:

I presently have a Buck 74 insert which dose not produce enough heat for my house. I am currently shopping for a new insert or a stove. The Jotol and PE inserts/stoves are at the top of the list. My confusion is the Buck claims heating up to 2600 SF while the other stoves claim higher BTUs but less square footage. Are the BTUs all calculated within a standard???

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if you are looking for an insert from pe then you want the summit.... bigger firebox will help you to long overnight burns

How many sq ft are you heating? I am considering the Buck 74 insert and would appreciate any info you could give. Do you have the blower with yours?

I have always heard that Buck was a good stove but it seems I rarely see them mentioned here. Is there a reason for this that I am not aware of?

Thanks,
Rob

rm said:

Rob,
The house is a brick 2 story farm house built in 1850. No insulation in the walls but does have some in the attic. Square footage is about 2200. The stove does have a blower which I feel is louder than some of the other units . When the insert is going at 500 degrees it will maintain the main room at 70 degrees. The rest of the house is kept at 61 by the furnace. I have a ceiling fan in the main room, dry and seasoned wood, soft block off plate, and 25 foot liner. The first floor has 10 foot ceilings. I just feel the need for more BTUs!
I know of some one who has a 1200 foot ranch which is about 30 years old and his Buck 74 keeps his house warm.

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Sounds like a job for a furnace instead of a stove. That sounds like some serious heat is needed in a home like that. Insulation would help more than anything. Especially with the tax credits going on.

If insulation is a no go, I agree with the furnace solution and caulking/foaming/sealing everything as well as you can.

Not sure why you were told insulation couldn't be done. There is usually always a way. It's a matter of formulatin the right plan, time & money. We just completed a renovation of approx 1000 sf of living space that had 12" brick exterior walls, previously uninsulated, and the owners are loving it.

Different manufacturers use different "best case scenarios" to calculate their heat output- its the same sort of thing with car manufacturers calculating the fuel economy, which quite often is rather different from what you find in real world circumstances.
Your best bet in my opinion would be to cruise around this site, read what other people experience, ask a few questions like you're doing... just gather up as much real world information as you can and just use what the manufacturers report as a guide at best.

There are still tax credits available to the best of my knowledge which can be applied to the adding of insulation in your home. No matter how small of improvement you make regarding insulation, it'll help pay off.

We had a situation where the walls were finished with sheetrock on th einterior side, not bare brick. So we furred out the several inches and sprayed closed cell foan insulation into the bays. Then rewired and sheetrock finished it up. If you have bare brick showing and want to keep that look you don't have this option.