the right stove?

I'd go with something with a 3+ cuci foot firebox... possibilities include (but are by no means limited to): Avalon Olympic, Lopi Liberty, Hearthstone Mansfield, Hearthstone Equinox, Blaze King King (ugly as ****, though), Pacific Energy Alderlea T6, Pacific Energy Summit, & others. You might also want to consider whether you want a radiant-only stove, or a convective stove that uses natural convection to circulate heated air w/o the use of a blower. The Avalon & Lopi are both convective, & the Hearthstones are radiant. I'm not sure about the Pacific Energies & Blaze Kings, but I think that they're also convective.

Also, another option you might want to consider is a high-efficiency zero-clearance fireplace. Many of them can seriously throw out the heat & some, like the Heat N' Glo North Star & the yet-to-be-released Fireplace Xtrordinair Model 36-CVT, can be hooked up to heat ducts to distribute hot air thoughout the house. Fireplaces do tend to be more expensive than stoves, though.

May want to consider the Summit Classic. You get the largest PE firebox as well as the porcelain enamel finish and different door and feet finish choices.

I'm in Colorado Springs at about 6000ft in elevation in a 1400 sq ft tri-level average insulated home with the stove on the middle level. I am burning only soft wood (lodgepole pine primarily) in a T5 without a blower with 15 ft of pipe. It does pretty well but when it gets around 0 I could definitely use the blower. Just to give you an idea.

FYI I'm pretty sure the Spectrum and the T5 have the same firebox in them.

If you are worried about the space that it will take up comparing the Spectrum classic to the Summit classic. They are actually almost identical in terms of clearances from combustibles. Dimensions wise: The spectrum classic being 23 7/8 inches wide by 27 1/2 inches deep. The Summit Classic being 25 3/8 inches wide by 27 1/2 inches deep.

I have to agree with the others you should consider a 3 cubic foot firebox stove: It will provide more heat as well as longer burn times (which is a big deal especially with burning primarily soft wood.)

Are you planning on burning 24/7?

A floor plan always helps.

Keep throwing ideas and questions out there. The folks on this forum have a wealth of knowledge. But of the stoves you have listed I don't think you can go wrong. Hope this helped. (if you can't tell I am a little partial to PE

Wood furnace in the basement and a nice stove to fire and look at on the main floor is what I would do...since you're building it..it would be feasible.

dispatcher101 said:

if you can't tell I am a little partial to PE

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that's alright... I think we're all a bit partial to our favorite stove brand

stoveseeker said:

We are building a new home in Western Colorado. The home is at roughly 8,500 ft in altitude... The total square footage of the home is 2500 living... It is a very open 2 level design with an the living/dining area vaulted and open to above which is also vaulted. The ceiling height averages 16' with it being roughly a 14' vaulted ceiling first floor and 25' on the second section that is open from the bottom. The total open square footage is 1500, the master bedroom below and 2 additional bedrooms above are not included in that. We also do not anticipate the wood heating the bedrooms, perhaps the upstairs bedrooms would benefit from heat rising? What size stove would be sufficient for this space?

The stove store locally directed us towards an Alderlea T5, but I am concerned that is not enough stove.

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Enough stove for what? What are your expectations? Unless you build a superinsulated house there may be no stove made to provide 100% of your heat in that climate for that many square feet. The Alderlea is too small for anything other than providing some warmth to the immediate area, given the volume of air you need to heat (floor area X average ceiling hight) and the -20 deg. f. temps you will be dealing with.

I have a house in Colorado at 8600 ft. which I bought as is where is. I have worked very hard and spent a fair amount of money making it so that a reasonable amount of heat stays inside. You have a chance even now to build your house with future energy costs in mind. Even if the plans are complete - plans can be changed. Some fairly inexpensive choices in design can make a difference of 200% in energy usage for the same basic floorplan. Something to think about.

I am guessing a major function of the vaulted ceiling is to open one, or even both ends of the house for windows? If I am right, lots of glass, and high ceilings. Vaulted ceilings typically do not leave much room for insulation either - although they can if designed for it. Your upstairs bedroom will be a piece of cake - that is where all your heat will go anyway. Think about ways to move that heat back down to were you live. You can't "push" the whole air mass down with fans... you will have to create some kind of circulation pattern, possibly with a ceiling fan blowing down on one end and another pulling air up on the other end.

If you like the looks of cast iron the Jotul F600 would be a bit better, but I like some of the other suggestions made above even better yet. Think 3 cu. ft. firebox or greater.

Like you will be (I expect) I burn primarily lodgepole and ponderosa pine. I agree with others - you need the bigger stove, not just for heating capacity but also because the pine will burn faster than if you were in the east with hardwood. You need a larger size firebox to hold the same amount of BTUs in softwood as the smaller stove does in hardwoods if you want to be able to go with fewer reloads. But anything you can do in construction will help; in theory you could make the house so well insulated a smaller stove would be fine but there's a balance of cost to over-insulate vs. cost increase heating capacity. Good luck and welcome!

I am heating ~ 1600 SF L shaped home. The firebox on my stove is 2.2 CF. Here is southern Appalachia, the climate is milder and I the 8 degrees is the coldest I saw last winter (before wind chill). The stove was adequate. I am so glad I purchased a radiant stove AND the blower. The stove with the blower and ceiling fan pushing down moves the heat to the hallway and back to the bedrooms nicely. I have been thankful so many times that I did not get a pure radiant stove because I feel as if I would have a super heated living room while the rest of the house may have suffered a little. The heat shielded stove tucks nicely into a corner as well (~ 6 inches) and that is what steered me onto it. I made cardboard cut outs and laid them out in the room. The radiant stove seemed to take up the whole room.

You'll obviously need a bigger stove than I have and I really don't know a lot about the other stoves. But I did want to echo the other poster about radiant type stoves. I am also greatfull I did not get a top loader which I believe they call a down draft stove. Have fun with your project