30-NC BTUs

[johnstra]

The BTU rating on the 30-NC seems low for a stove with a 3.5 cu/ft fire box. What gives there? Is this a function of airflow related to the very clean burn advertised for these stoves? The Summit shows a max of 97k BTU w/ a 3.0 cu/ft fire box. Curious.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I don't believe that there are any set guidelines for the BTUs advertized. Case in point is this:

http://www.vogelzang.com/browse.cfm/railroad-potbelly-stove/4,19.html

A potbelly stove has a fairly small firebox, yet this stove is advertising 200,000 btus. It also has to do with how fast the load burns. If you want to burn through 40lbs of wood in an hour you could get 320,000+ btus. I wouldn't pay much attention to it. What do you want to do with the stove?

Matt

 

[wkpoor]

Also the mfg BTUs will differ greatly from the EPA testing BTUs. Generally the more surface area a stove has the more potential BTUs it can produce but there are other factors like how long a stove can maintain temps betweens loads. Woodstoves aren't like your gas or electric furnace where they put out rated BTUs from the instant they come on to the instant they should off. They have heat cycles where as over say an 8hr period they might only average a 1/4 or 1/3 of their max BTU potential.