Hello, I’m new to hearth.com and to wood stoves. I am planning on installing either an Alderlea T4 or T5 in the living room of my ranch home in Massachusetts. The room with the stove is centrally located in the house and the living room is approx 250 sq. Ft. It will be located on an interior wall with 2 wide doorways going into the kitchen that is the same sq. Footage. Off one side of the living room is the master bedroom and off the other side is a short hallway (approx. 10 feet long leading to 2 more bedrooms. Total sq footage is about 1300 sq ft. I think I want the T5 because of the larger box and ability to have longer burns, but I’m no expert on heating with wood and I worry that the T5 will be overkill for my layout. Any advice from knowledgeable wood burners will be greatly appreciated!
Alderlea T4 or T5?
- Thread starter Herdy
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The challenge here is the home's floorplan. Even with the smaller T4 the heat is going to be somewhat trapped in the living room due to the doorways and hall separating the other areas. The 2 bedrooms down the hallway will be the least heated. It will take fans to improve upon this situation. Is there a basement? Is there a ceiling fan in the LR?
Yes there is a basement. And yes there is a ceiling fan in the living room, directly in front of where we plan to put the stove. Here is a picture of the proposed stove location. Both doorways that are visible lead into the kitchen and the doorway off kitchen with the gate is the short hallway leading to 2 bedrooms
It looks like the T4 will suffice. The capacity of the larger T5 may only be useful on the coldest of days. To distribute the heat, the ceiling fans will help keep the air moving, but the hallway BRs will be cooler. This might be improved with insulated ducting in the basement. What is the primary heating system in the house? I see a grille in the ceiling, is this for AC?
Yea the grille in ceiling is for the AC. AC unit is located in the attic. The primary heating system is NG forced hot water. The bedrooms being cooler is not the worst thing. I figured it would be tough to get much warm air down to them from the living room anyway. Through everything I’ve read, whenever someone asks about the T4 vs T5 it seems the overwhelming response is to size up. But I understand every situation is different and wanted to get some feed back on what others would think of my situation. One stove guy said I only want to look at smaller stoves and one guy said if u can fit the bigger one go for the T5 and build a smaller fire. Hard to know who to listen too, but you seem to be very helpful and knowledgeable on the subject.
What you've heard is often true, but each situation is unique. Both stoves will work, and the T5 has several nice features that aren't on the T4. But ultimately it's sort of how one will run the stove. The T5 will work fine on 4-5 split fires, so will the T4, but it's belly will be a bit fuller. The main difference is that the T4 is primarily an E/W loader. 4-5 medium splits will just about fill the firebox because it can't be loaded too high without concern of wood rolling up against the glass. The T5 has a squarish firebox and can be loaded either direction. That means you can load it E/W with the 4-5 splits for a slower burn and with 6-8 splits loaded N/S when you want a longer, hotter burn. It also has the swing away trivet top, which is great for cooking and the patented PE baffle system.
I asked about the basement and heating system because one solution to the heat distribution question is with a ducted system the pulls cool air out of the far bedrooms via floor vents, and dumps it into the stove room via a fan assisted, insulated duct. The warm air from the stove room will be pulled into the bedrooms to replace the cool air being sucked out. The AC system probably would not be good for heat recirc due to heat loss in the ducting and unit.
I asked about the basement and heating system because one solution to the heat distribution question is with a ducted system the pulls cool air out of the far bedrooms via floor vents, and dumps it into the stove room via a fan assisted, insulated duct. The warm air from the stove room will be pulled into the bedrooms to replace the cool air being sucked out. The AC system probably would not be good for heat recirc due to heat loss in the ducting and unit.
In other words, get the T5 if the additional features are attractive, but it sounds like the T4 would do the job. An analogy would be say between a small vs a fancier, medium-sized car. Both will do a good job of getting you to the store for groceries. The larger car might be loafing a bit to do so. But for the once or twice a year long trip the larger car may be more comfortable and you get to enjoy some of the additional features all the time. Hope that makes sense and helps a bit.
I like your analogy! Thank you for answering me and helping out.
In suburbia, get the T4, In the country get the T5. Reasoning: You will unavoidably make more smoke with the larger stove. In shoulder season you either build small, hot fires, then let them go out, starting over again, or, as the temptation often dictates, keep a small fire going that doesn't get the secondaries involved. We live in the country, and just don't worry about a little smoke, but if we had neighbors I'd definitely be more concerned. We need the T5 to keep our house relatively warm in the 3 winter months, otherwise it is overkill for shoulder seasons. Temp is 40F or lower, we keep it going, secondaries working nicely. Fall & spring, not so much. Just another thougt on stove size. Those good catalytic stoves might be a better choice in some circumstances.
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
I am going to argue don’t get anything smaller than 2 cu ft. Wile the less smoke argument is probably true burning habits have a heater impact on smoke. If you are concerned about your neighbors then use Lots of pine kindling while lighting a top down fire. With a spec draft practice and dry wood lighting two spots with small fire starters you can get get smoke free burning in 12 minutes or less.
I’m still leaning towards the T5. If I’m going to spend as much money as this project is going to cost me, I think I’ll spend extra money for the bigger stove that will give me more versatility. As with any stove I’m just going to have to learn how to best load it to fit my heating needs. Also, the stove shop had a T5 burning in the store that I could see in person and no T4 on display to compare it to. In either case I like the cast iron jacket over steel as opposed to cast iron stoves I’ve seen. The heat radiating off the T5 stove is definitely not as extreme.
The cast iron jacket definitely softens the radiant heat and releases it gradually as the stove cools down. And the T5 is fuller featured than the Vista, especially for cooking. Visually, it's the best proportioned IMO.
Enplater, what size space are you heating with the T5? How has your experience with this stove been?
Herdy,
1510 sqft colonial in S Eastern nh. It’s on the main floor in the corner of the living room.
It’s definitely enough stove for the house, I don’t think I’d want anything smaller though. It’s my first year with the t5 so I'm still learning but it’s much more forgiving than my Englander 30 basement install.
I do have a blower but don’t use it often, I’d feel confident running the stove alone during a power outage with no blower.
NS loading is much easier I think, the T5 takes 16-18” firewood NS though 18” is pushing it.
It’s been a tough year for using the stove because it’s been warmer than usual lately and having the stove going when it’s 40f outside is overkill so we usually just use LP furnace.
1510 sqft colonial in S Eastern nh. It’s on the main floor in the corner of the living room.
It’s definitely enough stove for the house, I don’t think I’d want anything smaller though. It’s my first year with the t5 so I'm still learning but it’s much more forgiving than my Englander 30 basement install.
I do have a blower but don’t use it often, I’d feel confident running the stove alone during a power outage with no blower.
NS loading is much easier I think, the T5 takes 16-18” firewood NS though 18” is pushing it.
It’s been a tough year for using the stove because it’s been warmer than usual lately and having the stove going when it’s 40f outside is overkill so we usually just use LP furnace.
Personally for 1,300 sqft I’d go with the smaller stove. I heat a cape main floor and upstairs 1,900 sqft. I was told to get the Super and glad I bought the smaller Vista. With a well insulated house which is key you don’t need a bigger stove. The Vista can drive us out and has no problem getting main floor to 79 if I keep reloading. I don’t feel I’m limited with a 1.6 firebox. Don’t need to stuff the box. I also don’t blow through wood.
Regarding cooking I make venison stews on one side of my stove top on a trivet so you can cook on it. I loaded this am when house was 64. Went out came home had a little coals at 5pm. Reloaded and now 73 and climbing not even 6pm yet.
Regarding cooking I make venison stews on one side of my stove top on a trivet so you can cook on it. I loaded this am when house was 64. Went out came home had a little coals at 5pm. Reloaded and now 73 and climbing not even 6pm yet.
So I ended up going with the T5. I had it installed earlier this week. I had the first couple small fires and last night we had our first real fire. Everything seemed to go pretty well. I just have one question about something I’m noticing for any Alderlea owners. Is there supposed to be a gasket or some sort of seal on the ash dump door when it is closed? The reason I ask this is because it seems like there is air getting into the firebox through this door when it’s closed. The logs on the left side of the firebox , in line with the ash dump location are burning down quicker than on the right side. I also noticed when some coals dropped into this opening they really took off and glowed red like they were getting blasted with air. This is all happening with the air control turned all the way down. Is this normal operation or am I missing something?
I don't recall it being gasketed but I only used the ash trap twice, about 14 yrs ago. Our stove is hot right now so I can't check. Little bits of coals can prevent the door from closing tightly so one needs to be sure it is clear of them before closing.
I think it’s good you went with the T5. After going through a cold spell my t5 was barely keeping up. Coaling was an issue but I’m using oak now and it seems to not coal as much.
Lately, temps are not too bad so it’s back to burning on weekends and not running very hard.
Lately, temps are not too bad so it’s back to burning on weekends and not running very hard.
Grinnell
Member
the T5 is the way to go over a T4. If i hadn't found a great deal on a new T5 i might have ordered a T6
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