New House

[Wes Black]

Hello everyone,

I am brand new to the site and heating with a woodstove; what a great place to learn! I've been reading around this forum for some weeks now and some questions for you guys.

My wife and I are building a brand new house (last one). I really want to make it as "wood stove friendly" as possible so to minimize cold spaces. There are some great discussions on draft through the house etc, but most seem to be on improvements to existing homes? I thought I could get a jump and ask for well-deserved advice before we start to build which will be in the next month or so. I have attached a floor plan so you can see what we're facing. So,

1) Are there things I can do as we build to make the home more suitable for wood heating? Best insulation is a given.
2) What size heater rating should I be looking at i.e. heat capacity, BTU's?
3) Fans, no fans?
4) Catalytic or non?

And finally..... not sure I should even open this can because it is a matter of many opinions I know; let me put it this way then:

I want the most reliable, longlasting, plain-jane (meaning looks, not negating worthy components) stove available. Not concerned with looks at all, can this be narrowed to a few builders? There are so many it is really hard to figure out.

Thanks in advance for any information you will provide.
Wes

 

[firefighterjake]

I've thought of this some in the past.

I can tell you what I would not do . . . put in a loft or cathedral ceiling . . . or put in very tall ceilings.

I would also insulate very, very well.

I would put my stove in a central location.

I would keep the home with an "open" lay-out as much as possible and keep it on a smaller footprint . . . if I needed more space rather than sprawling out on the first floor I would go with a second floor . . . and I would keep the shape more or less simple -- square or rectangle, not L-shaped, U-shaped or other fancy configurations.

As for the stove itself . . . if you had the money and the space . . . the real cat's meow would be a masonry stove. In my opinion these stoves look as good as they perform. I have yet to meet anyone who has built one of these and not liked loved it. As for a traditional stove . . . without knowing the size of the house there is no way to give you the BTU needed . . . general rule of thumb by many of us here is to figure out the size of the home, look at stoves and go with one size larger than what the manufacturer says . . . seems to work for most folks.

Fans or no fans . . . depends on the stove . . . some stoves do very well with fans . . . such as convective heating type of stoves. Other stoves are fine without . . . in many cases moving the heat in a home depends on the lay-out, ceilings and sometimes oftentimes you can move the heat throughout the home very easily with a cheap-o desk top fan placed in an adjacent room.

Cat or no cat . . . I like cats . . . I now have five of them. As for cat stoves . . . if you're burning 24/7 I would certainly give them a look as they are well known for being able to have long burns and are very good at the long and low burns. I would not rule them out by any means even if you may not find a lot of manufacturers selling them. BlazeKings and Woodstocks are highly regarded here. That said, don't rule out secondary burners either for 24/7 burning . . . many of us have secondary burners and are doing quite well with 24/7 burning . . .

Plain Jane looking stoves that have good reps here . . . Englander, Napoleon and Regency without the fancy trims, Lopi . . . come to mind.

 

[Beer Belly]

IMO, I'd want a ceiling fan in that loft area overlooking the living room to push the heat back down....being new construction, have you considered a wood burning furnace next to your Oil / Gas furnace, so you can burn wood when you can, and Gas / Oil when you need to

 

[Jags]

I hate to say it, but... your floor plan is going to make it difficult. Locating the stove in the living area will prove difficult to get the heat back to the bedroom and that master bath will end up cold.

Typically if designing a home for stove heat (or masonry heater), it would be located in the most central location, or the home would have a very open design.

I am not trying to discourage you, just pointing out some reality. This in no way negates the use of a stove for heat, just trying to point out that whole home heat may be difficult with this design.

 

[rideau]

Most reliable, long lasting...Woodstock has to be up there. Plain jane? No, Functional, not fancy, but very handsome stoves.

 

[DAKSY]

I can't open your floor plans here at work, so I maybe shouldn't even jump into this one.
Have you considered any of the EPA rated fireplaces? HnG Northstar, for example, or the like.
Quad 7100...FPX...etc.
Big fireboxes. Not overly fancy. You can pretty much make them look as rustic or as contemporary
as you want. The main reason I mention them is due to the option of heat take-off attachments
that allow you to move heat to additional areas thru hidden ductwork , rather than floor fans or
doorway fans...

 

[nola mike]

where are you located?