New wood stove Alderlea T4, T5 or Jotul F400?

[Jimithepope]

Hello,
I have a ~900SF home, 1 story. The Living room where the current woodstove is has dimensions of 20'x11' and vaulted celings that max at 12' with ceiling fan in the center. 2 bedrooms and a small bathroom to the south are connected to the living room via a small corridor. To the east of living room is the kitchen with flat ceiling at 8' or so which has a 7' wide entrance from the living room. East of the kitchen is the dining area which has a 9' wide pass through and is 9.5'x17.5' with vaulted ceilings and 2 skylights with all glass walls on north and east side; ceiling fan as well. Now our current wood stove is a Vermont Castings Intrepid I from the early 80s that came with the house. I had to replace all firebrick, gaskets, flue pipe, HT chimney etc before we could use it last year.

I am looking to get a new stove because of some issues I had with the VC intrepid (which I think is a great stove just not for this house). The main things I encountered last year was poor burn times which I expected from small firebox, overheated the living room (84 degrees was normal) while the bedrooms hovered around 60 and dining room/kitchen would be around 69-74. This was usually achieved by just loading enough wood to get a nice 2-3 hour burn. Stove drafts great but can sometimes it can seem to take off and the air control in the back doesn't really shut the stuff down 100% when you get into those situations.

I have narrowed choices down to Alderlea T4, T5(just because it seems everybody leans in that direction) or the Jotul F400. I like the looks on all of them except the T5 may be a little too deeper than wide looking on my corner situated hearth (by the kitchen doorway area). Would the T5 be too much for 900SF since its rated for 2000SF? Would the more convective nature of the Alderleas be beneficial for having the vaulted ceilings and trying to provide more even distribution throughout the house? I do like the heat that the Intrepid gives off when its running at optimum but it burns quick and its hard to just get a moderate warming small fire that will keep the house level because the stove really only seems to burn well when its loaded; since the small fires will only last 45min-1hr. Not too mention trying to keep the living room at 72 means that the other rooms are in the low 50s which of course makes me have to kick on the oil heater so my baseboard doesn't freeze if temps dip too low ( which happened last winter in the dining room(northeast corner glass window walls with baseboard).

Last note I live in Hudson Valley area of NY near the Catskills. My hearth is corner situated and has brick floor that measures 45"x45" with an angle in the front cut out at the 30" mark. So Jotul vs PE and T4 vs T5. Would T5 even fit? I have metal wall protection with 1" air space between a faux brick wall on sheetrock. I didn't see any clearance measurements for this in the Alderlea manuals...unless I messed it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Jimmy

 

[begreen]

The Alderlea would do a better job at reducing temp swings than the F400. The T5 will work fine with a smaller load of wood. It has good, long burn times when loaded 50% or more. Consider a smaller cat stove too, maybe a Woodstock Keystone? That will be even more comfortable running cleanly at a low burn.

It sounds like the secondary issue is heat distribution. Have you tried placing a table fan low in the cool area blowing the cold air into the stove room at floor level? That often works well to even out the heat. Run the fan on low speed.

 

[jeff_t]

Ceiling fans break up stratification in the rooms with high ceilings, as well.

It is easier to move cool, dense air toward the stove at floor level. The cooler air will be replaced by warm air up higher in convective loop. Sounds backwards, but it works.

Longer burns will also help to even out temp swings, and allow those bedrooms to warm up before the stove temp drops off again. Bedrooms in our marginally insulated ranch home are typically only 2-3° cooler than the living area.

As for what fits, you can download manuals for the stoves you are considering. They will show minimum hearth requirements. You can also use the dimensions of the stove to make a cardboard cutout of the footprint of the stove, and see if it works on your hearth. Definitely go for the T5 if it fits.

 

[Jimithepope]

Thanks Begreen and jeff,
I haven't tried using fans on ground level. I actually had bought those small corner mounted fans to put in the doorways that operate quietly at 55CFM but I had them blowing into the kitchen and hallway toward the bedrooms. So should I not operate the ceiling fans? I initially had them running in reverse toward the ceiling but it seemed to work better when I had them blowing down.
Begreen; I didn't look at those Woodstock stoves until I got your reply. they look like a great stove also, but me and my lady still like the looks of the jotul and alderlea better.
Now that I think I narrowed it down to the PE stoves the cardboard cutout is a great idea jeff to get a better idea how each stove will fit on the hearth.
I appreciate the help gents. Cheers

 

[begreen]

I think the Alderlea line is an excellent choice, but that is with an admitted bias considering I own one. Had a very nice Castine prior to that. It was a beautiful stove and hard to give up, but we have no regrets now.