I suppose a tough question....

[begreen]

It depends. Drafts can make a 70 degree room uncomfortable. In that case a radiant stove is going to "feel" warmer because of the direct infrared heat and could be the better choice. The best choice is to locate the sources of draft and seal them.

 

[Light in the Dark]

I definitely appreciate all the posts! This seems like a really good resource, and I hope to become a regular PITA around here.

I will probably take the advice about Labor Day, and make sure the stove is most presentable, and see what I can do with it. Thanks again guys.

 

[MarkinNC]

Looking at your floor plan I would vote for a convective stove to push the heat towards the other end of the house. I hope there is a ceiling fan in the living room to push the heat down. That made a tremendous difference in my house.

My house was built in 97 and is pretty tight. My firebox is 2.2 CF and the stove is rated to heat up to 200 SF. My climate is warmer that yours (the low was 6 degrees last winter) and I had to push the stove harder than I thought at times so I would vote for a bigger firebox as well. I have to admit I wondered if the Endeavor could work for you since it is convective, but I would probably go a little bigger with all those windows.

Nice hearth btw

 

[Light in the Dark]

So what models, from various manufacturers, would be considered convective?

 

[MarkinNC]

So what models, from various manufacturers, would be considered convective?

I don't know but I do know there are a lot of them out there. Last yeast was my first year burning (as an adult). It was a blessing that I bought a convective stove because the other stoves I was looking at were pure radiant stoves. The convective design (in conjunction with the fan on the stove) really does push the heat. I aimed mine towards the hallway. My stove is in one corner of the house with two bedrooms at the other end. The bedrooms are cooler than the stove room of course. The furnace thermostat is by the bedrooms and with the stove up to temp, if I turn on the stove fan at a very low setting, and the ceiling fan, I can raise the temp at thermostat several degrees in a few minutes.

That was a typo in my previous post, my stove is rated to 2000 SF.

I am not trying to sway you in any direction stove wise. I'll post a link to Lopi's video's and they have one on the convective design that you can look at if you like.

http://www.lopistoves.com/Videos/Default.aspx