Is buying a considerable bigger stove for the space intended to heat a good idea .Example:heating 1200 square feet with a stove rated to heat 2500 sq.ft.
sw mariner said:Is buying a considerable bigger stove for the space intended to heat a good idea .Example:heating 1200 square feet with a stove rated to heat 2500 sq.ft.
Complete BS.flamereader said:If your stove is non-cat it will be difficult to throttle it down and still burn clean. With the cat you can turn it to low and still be clean so use an extra large cat stove or close to the size you will need in the non-cat. So you are left building small/short fires in the large non-cat or large/long fires in the cat.
sw mariner said:Is buying a considerable bigger stove for the space intended to heat a good idea .Example:heating 1200 square feet with a stove rated to heat 2500 sq.ft.
Hogwildz said:Complete BS.flamereader said:If your stove is non-cat it will be difficult to throttle it down and still burn clean. With the cat you can turn it to low and still be clean so use an extra large cat stove or close to the size you will need in the non-cat. So you are left building small/short fires in the large non-cat or large/long fires in the cat.
jotul8e2 said:Hogwildz said:Complete BS.flamereader said:If your stove is non-cat it will be difficult to throttle it down and still burn clean. With the cat you can turn it to low and still be clean so use an extra large cat stove or close to the size you will need in the non-cat. So you are left building small/short fires in the large non-cat or large/long fires in the cat.
Yes, you most certainly can have too big a stove. I have a Jotul Oslo heating 2500 sq. ft. and there are about four weeks in the fall and another four in the spring where it would be nice to have supplemental heat; but to keep the Oslo going at even a minimal level pushes the thermometer up to 80 deg. inside. A smaller stove would be nice for that period, but would not be sufficient for a good part of the winter. A larger stove would mean another week, maybe two on each end when it could not be used. If I had only 1200 sq. ft. to heat I might be able to use my stove only a few weeks each winter.
For a non-cat epa rated stove to operate efficiently it must achieve and hold a certain internal temperature. It does not matter if the stove is packed full of wood, or only has a couple of matchsticks, the box must still be above the critical temperature or the secondary burn will go out and creosote formation will begin. That energy will be transferred to the surface of the box (in the case of my Jotul, about 325 deg. f.), which in turn will predetermine the minimum btu output of the stove. To stay with the Jotul example, a Castine can generate fewer btus/hr. than an Oslo while remaining within its operating perameters. An Oslo can likewise generate fewer than the Firelight. It is simply a matter of the internal temperature and the amount of radiant surface area on the stove.
Now, you can "BS" all you want, but if you insist on it your problem is with the laws of physics, not with me or the stove builder.
Yes, you can build a smaller fire. You can let it sit there and smoulder and smoke, building up deposits in your chiminey and smoking out the neighborhood. But it cannot be argued that it is a smart way to go. In many stoves, including mine, you can deal with the issue but opening the front door and using it like a fireplace, which will let a lot of excess heat go up the chimney.
Cat stoves operate differently, of course. With them, the key is not the internal box temperature, but rather the temperature of the cat. As long as the cat keeps its temperature hot enough you can allow the box to drop to a much lower temperature than you can with a non-cat stove.
Hogwildz said:In the time I have belonged to this forum since 2006, I remember seeing many posts from folks that bought a smaller stove and regretted it. I don't remember one post of someone complaining their stove was too big.
SolarAndWood said:Hogwildz said:In the time I have belonged to this forum since 2006, I remember seeing many posts from folks that bought a smaller stove and regretted it. I don't remember one post of someone complaining their stove was too big.
+1. Moosetrek's was probably the closest to a complaint and he resolved it by buying an equally big replacement. As far as the never ending cat/non cat debate, there is a place for both and both perform far better at low burn with dry wood. My current stove is much bigger than the old one with the ability to burn both higher and a lot lower. This is great because it sits in a room with 300 sq ft of south facing glass on a windy ridge that has huge swings in heat demand. The bigger stove has also completely eliminated even thinking about getting up before I am good and ready.
iceman said:the 30 to the t6?
or did he get rid of the 6??
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