3D renderings of new woodstove setup

Any idea on how the wood stove will affect the piano?

How big is the room you're putting the stove in? Also how wide are the door openings? With the big boy Equinox I'm not sure how well the heat will leave that room. Of course opening the doorways is always an option. Do you spend most of your time in the family room or living room? Usually you want the stove were you spend the most time.

1) I'd really look into the effect of woodstove heat on pianos - just finished cleaning up a score of maple at a person house who specifically gave away the wood since he does not own a woodstove due to his piano.

2) Hmmmm.....soapstone or not? Well, I only went with soapstone because I knew I'd be burning 24/7 for the winter. Otherwise, I think I would have went with cast iron. My Mansfield takes a LONG time to heat up to ~ 400-500 deg., and I would not want to come home from work in the evening and have to wait for the heat to begin to radiate into the house. On the other hand, if you charged the fire once during the night, you'd have the benefit of soapstone radiating heat for much of the morning hours when you left for word - not so with cast iron. When I fully charge the Mansfield at ~ 10pm, and add no wood through the night, I have a LOT of coals in the morning (~ 7am), a stovetop temp still at ~ 200-250deg (certainly can't leave my hand on the stove top!), and the house is still in the upper 60's to low 70's. So.....do you want to fast heat in the evening, or lasting heat in the morning? Just my 2 cents, but I'd go cast iron (or steel) for the punch of quick heat when you get home from work.

One last thing to consider, in terms of your layout, is getting cooked out of the stove room - soapstone will help with that, cast iron/steel might make you melt into your piano seat.....

Cheers!

NH_Wood said:

2) Hmmmm.....soapstone or not? Well, I only went with soapstone because I knew I'd be burning 24/7 for the winter. Otherwise, I think I would have went with cast iron. My Mansfield takes a LONG time to heat up to ~ 400-500 deg., and I would not want to come home from work in the evening and have to wait for the heat to begin to radiate into the house. On the other hand, if you charged the fire once during the night, you'd have the benefit of soapstone radiating heat for much of the morning hours when you left for word - not so with cast iron. When I fully charge the Mansfield at ~ 10pm, and add no wood through the night, I have a LOT of coals in the morning (~ 7am), a stovetop temp still at ~ 200-250deg (certainly can't leave my hand on the stove top!), and the house is still in the upper 60's to low 70's. So.....do you want to fast heat in the evening, or lasting heat in the morning? Just my 2 cents, but I'd go cast iron (or steel) for the punch of quick heat when you get home from work.

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I agree with everything NH_Wood says for statement 2.

If you are truly dead set against burning 24/7 and you will be starting a new fire every night, you might want go with a cast iron stove rather than a soap stone. Soap stone takes longer to heat up in comparison to a cast iron or steel stove. If you can get over the fear of burning 24/7 you might want to think about going with two stove considering you floor plan layout and square footage.

Here are your options as I see it:

One stove. Burning on weekends and weeknights:
If you decide to go with one stove and not burn 24/7 you might want to look at an Quadra Fire Isle Royale or a Pacific Energy T6. Those two will give you decently quick heat and offer enough capacity to warm up as much as the house as your floor plan allows during the weekends

Two stoves. Burning on weekends and weeknights:
Put in one stove in the living room that is rated for 2000 square feet (about 60k BTUs) and a second stove rated for about 1,500-1,600 square feet (about 45-50k btus) in the kitchen. This will give you more complete heat and flexibility.

One stove. Burning 24/7:
An equinox will provide burning convenience as it will hold a burn for a long time. Fact is, though, you will be challenged to get heat to all parts of the house with one stove no matter how big the stove is.

Two stoves. Burning 24/7:
Two Woodstock Fireviews or Hearthstone Heritages. One in the Kitchen and one in the living room. The Fireviews will give you a longer burn time, but their clearances make them take up more space (unless you are dealing with non-combustibles).

What would I do? I would go with two stoves and burn them non-stop. If the family room is where you spend most of your time than the stove in the kitchen will really help you get more heat to the entire house. But, this is coming from someone that has three stoves, so take it with a grain of salt.

sksmass said:

Putting a stove in the kitchen fireplace isn't going to fly with the wife. It would take up too much real estate and she likes the ambiance of a fire in the open fireplace when she cooks. And I am not going to do anything to jeopardize the flow of her good cooking. So my options are basically one stove in the LR or no stove at all. There seem to be strong arguments for going cast iron over soapstone given my reluctance to burn 24/7. Hmmm.

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Go with an insert in the kitchen.

I've had my piano in the same room as the wood stove for 20 years and it doesn't seem to be harming it. I have it tuned every year and the piano tuner doesn't say its getting ruined. It still sounds good. But I think your optimistic thinking one stove will heat your whole downstairs in a "typically" insulated 1940's house.

No specific makes or models to recommend here . . . instead I say figure out what you need for the size, look at many makes and models and pick out which one you . . . or your wife . . . likes the looks of the best. There aren't too many makes/models out there that I would not recommend. If you find that you like soapstone and can find one that fits your space needs that you like, go for it . . . sure some folks may say the soapstone stoves don't heat up a space as fast as steel or cast iron (although Backwoods will tell you that he can get his house pretty toasty warm with soapstone pretty quickly) . . . but I suspect the time difference to warm up a house with soapstone is not as great as one would think when compared to a similarly sized/weighted cast iron stove . . . just a guess on my part though.

As others have said -- and you have mentioned -- heating your entire home with a single woodstove probably will not happen. Instead, some of the best advice is to locate your stove where your family spends most of the time -- it will be warmest in this room and besides you may find watching the fire to be as enjoyable as watching TV or watching a movie. Since these are space heaters you will find that the warmest area is the room with the stove . . . generally as you move from room to room, the further away you are the cooler it will be . . . although some heat will radiate up to the second floor. You can use fans to help move some of the heated air around the home, but again, it's doubtful you'll be able to heat the entire place with a single woodstove . . . instead I would suggest sizing the stove based on your heating needs for the first floor . . . realizing that some of the heat will probably not make it to the rooms located the furthest away . . . but some heat will go to the second floor through natural convection.

Again, if you like soapstone . . . I would go with soapstone. You say you do not plan to burn 24/7 . . . I would wager a day's pay that many of us started burning wood with the same idea -- "I'm only going to burn weekends and in evenings" . . . and before long we realized that the woodstove was not to be feared -- respected and maintained, sure -- but not feared . . . and before long many, many of us (myself included) were burning 24/7. I think a soapstone woodstove could be used to burn intermittently . . . it would tend to retain some of the heat during the day after having let the fire die down overnight . . . and should you decide to start burning 24/7 you may find it to be an excellent heater as well. More importantly however . . . buy what you guys like the looks of . . . I mean to say, you'll be looking at this stove for a very, very long time and it's not like you can buy a slip cover for it or hide it in the guest room when visitors come calling.

sksmass said:

BeGreen said:

If you are definitely getting a stove, then get 3 or 4 cords of "dry" firewood delivered asap. Stack it, cover the top, and let it dry for the summer.

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Now the wood supply is something I've taken care of! I have been cutting splitting and stacking for over a year already. I've probably got two years supply which will have aged 20 months by the time I burn the first of it. I find splitting wood enjoyable, probably because it doesn't take any brain power (pick up round, split with maul, repeat). This decision about what stove to purchase, on the other hand, is something I am hemming and hawing about constantly and it is driving me crazy!

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Hey now . . . you're doing it all wrong. You're supposed to pick a stove, get it installed, buy some wood . . . and then come here and post a question or two about getting the black gunk off the glass or wanting to know how come the stove doesn't heat up the place very well.

Sweet deal . . .you'll be very happy having been working on your wood for over a year . . . one of the few, one of the proud -- a newbie with seasoned wood.

And based simply on the fact that you enjoy the manual part of working with wood -- and for the record many of us enjoy it because it's a great physical way to work out and de-stress -- I think you may end up burning more wood more often than you may think . . . since the second half of the Happy To Burn Wood Equation is not just cutting, splitting and stacking the wood, but actually burning it and getting cheap heat.

Hi -

I'm guessing you'll get pretty well used to burning and be 24/7 before long. You seem pretty thoughtful.

What type of chemney set-up? I went with rigid 6" liner inside my 10 or 11" clay flue tile, and insulated it. It puts more metal and insulation in place if anything goes astray. The newer stoves, with dry wood, and a decent chimney seet-up tend not to produce creosote and I was satisfied very quickly that all was well and started burning 24/7. My daughter can and does operate the stove.

I agree with BeGreen's posts.

I was set on an insert, but the noise and reliance on a fan pushed m e to install a nice red porceliin free-standing stove in front of the fire place, and extend the hearth 18" with marble tile.

Don't go to small on the stove. I wish I'd gone a bit larger.

Enjoy!
Mike

This post is sorta funny if you read all the posts, the only thing I am worried about is the piano. LOL

Ok, I say you need a 3.0 cu. ft. firebox.

Soapstone is out ONLY if you stick with your plan of doing startup fires every night, which I personally think you'll get tired of doing

Looks are important as the Mrs. is THE most important factor in this entire scenario.

Show her the Jotul Firelight.
Show her the Quadrafire Isle Royale

OR, get the Mansfield and plan on burning 24/7.

I say NO soapstone unless you're burning round the clock.

I think the Equinox is too big for you application.

sksmass said:

e. Aesthetics. This stove has to look good. That is my wife’s nonnegotiable demand.

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Aesthetics,,, This worked for me when we were planning: I would suggest visiting chimneysweeponline.com, with you wife by your side, and narrow down what she thinks is important, aesthetically, i believe there were charts with the viewing glass sizes (what my wife considered important) as well as breakdowns in stove box volumes. As well as some good pictures, links etc.

After you get it narrowed down, then consider clearances for the stoves still in the running.

Chimney pipe will be determined (properly) by the stove you select as not all stoves require the same chimney pipe dimensions...

And I agree with the above posters, you will change your burning habits quickly, from intermittent nightly, to almost "24/7", I would bet that this occurs withing one month of owning the stove. So, get more wood 24/7 for real by month two of burning.

oldspark said:

This post is sorta funny if you read all the posts, the only thing I am worried about is the piano. LOL

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I found it quite amusing myself OldSpark.

So to the OP . . . have you considered moving the "piano" to another room?

sksmass said:

Aaargh! The fictitious troublemaking piano! Yes, I moved it into the little half bath next to the kitchen. It was easy to move because it lives inside my head

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Stick around for a bit . . . with a reply like this I suspect you'll fit in real well here with us wood burning nut cases.