SIZING A STOVE?

[RONK]

Hi,I have a question about sizing a stove,our house is about 1,500 sf,two bedrooms upstairs,we never turn the heat(oil,baseboard hot water)on upstairs,do we still include the upstairs bedrooms when we size the stove?

 

[savageactor7]

Just the downstairs sq footage will do Ronk.

 

[Andy99]

When they say a stove will heat 1800sqft or 2000sqft. To what temperature? To 60 degrees or to 70 degrees?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

When they say a stove will heat 1800sqft or 2000sqft. To what temperature? To 60 degrees or to 70 degrees?

in most cases the estimate is to 70 F with an outside temp of 32 F figuring for at least reasonable if not best case scenario of insulation and floor plan. you cannot rely just on what the flyer says , one , it may be inflated , or at least as i stated , best case, and it all really boils down to how well your dwelling holds heat. if you wish to research it , check your insulation factor , look at your floor plan and how well it will allow heat to travel , and find a site (hopefully someone has a link to post for this i dont) which helps calculate how much heat you will need to heat the space adequately

 

[jdurando]

My house is 1200sq ft and I just bought a Pacific Energy Alderlea T5 that will heat 2000 Sq ft my main reason for over sizing the stove is the get the longer burn time for over night . the way I figure it I can always put less wood in a bigger stove , but not the other way around. Also make sure you shop around, I am Also in NJ and I contacted 5 or 6 different dealers before I purchased and found almost a $1000 difference in price for the T5

http://www.pacificenergy.net/product_alderleaT5.php

 

[begreen]

It's an all too frequent regret of stove owners to underestimate their stove size. (Yours truly included.) I would say that the number of folks complaining about not being warm enough vs being too warm must be like 20 to 1. Maybe think of the stove like getting a sweater. Buy about one size larger so that you can put it on top of the regular clothing to be warm when it's particularly cold outside.

johnd, at some point this winter you are going to have to wipe a big silly grin off your face. While logic says you should be shivering, you will be toasty and warm. Enjoy!

 

[derecskey]

And yet, oversizing a stove and over-choking it down and burning cool fires can be a problem with creosote buildup, no?

My installer and dealer felt comfortable setting me up with a 1.6 cu ft Buck 21 for a 1475 L-ranch home where one leg of the L is an addition (meaning a hard break between legs of the L, poor air circulation among them). The stove is 'rated' for 800 to 1800 sq ft, and we're expecting to only heat the 650 square feet in the addition plus about 150 square feet in the adjacent kitchen.

 

[caber]

I'd rather oversize. It's easy to open a window to cool off, wear shorts or just clean the chimney a time or two extra. If the stove is undersized, your choices are to spend the money on supplemental heat or put additional money into a bigger stove. I like when the house is 77 in the dead of winter and not costing me anything. Makes me giggle.

 

[Jags]

I'm going to state the obvious (well maybe). Don't go extreme in either direction. Too small and your cranking the poor stove to the max, Too large and your choking it down. PROPER size is hard to figure out by guessing and using blanket statements like "I'm heating 1800 sqft how big of stove do I need". Lots of variables.

Typically, I think most stove mfgs rate their sqft ratings on a temp differential of 40-50 degrees. There is a big difference from raising canadian -30F temps by 50 degrees and south carolinas 25F temp up 50 degrees.

Take into consideration how "hard" or "easy" it is to heat your house currently. Is it drafty? Well insulated? Whole house heat, or area heater? 24/7 heat or nights and weekends?

For 1500 sqft, I would BEGIN by estimating a 2 ft firebox and go from there. The insulation not so good? Go to 2.2. House heats with a bic lighter, go to a 1.8. I can see moonlight through the cracks in the window frames, goto a 2.5 or 3. Get the idea?? I need overnight burns goto a 2.5+......yada...yada....yada.

 

[burntime]

Jags hit it on the head. I have a 1950's ranch in Wisconsin (yep pretty cold) and almost all new windows, good attic insulation (R-50) and r-11 in the walls, 2.3 cu ft heats my home well. That being said if you want to burn overnight look at at least 2 cu ft box. Good luck!

 

[Henz]

there are so many factors that come into play. Trust me, I am speaking from experience. Your hosue sounds about the same size as mine. My downstairs is all open. We dont heat the upstairs and just allow whatever heat that gets up there through the stairway. I first purchased the Avalon Rainier that said it will heat up to 1800sqft. My house is 1350sqft. All hardwood floors and not the best insulation (been working on it). I had it for about 2 months and wasent happy with it so I had them take it out and bring in the Olympic which is supposed to heat up to 2500sqft..its perfect.

 

[MishMouse]

For me I originally went with a small stove Drolet 500-1500, I had to run that thing above 650 just to get the 1000 sqft basement into the upper 60's with around 2-4 hour burn times. Now I have a Harman TL-300 and even running on low I can get the basement into the lower 70's with 10-12 hour burn times.

As for creosote buildup most of the modern stoves have secondary burn which when activated and run properly keeps it clean especially when burning seasoned wood. With my Drolet I had build up when I didn't burn it above 650, I also had to send it up and over 700 when I just started it to get all the stuff that accumulated when the stove went out which it would in about 2 - 4 hours.

The bigger the stove with good secondary burn technology will keep it clean and give you extended burns, the smaller stove you will have to constantly feed and depedning on the stove may not get good overnight burns.

 

[begreen]

Good points MM. If the intent is to use a larger stove, be sure it is one that does burn well and cleanly at low burns. Some stoves like BBs large Englander are reported happier burning hot. Others have like your stove or the Fireview work well at low continuous burns.

 

[karl]

When it's 15 degrees out and youre wood isn't the best, and you have a stove half full of coals you can't get rid of, you'll wish you had a bigger stove.

I know the small fire big stove argument will be on going forever. Here's how I see it. You wake up in the morning and the house is kinda cold. The big stove heats it up quickly and leaves alot of coals behind to give you a low heat for a long time. Then you get home from work, build a big fire again and heat the house up. Top if off before you go to bed and do it again the next day. Also what about softwoods? They don't last long and you need alot of them in a stove.

That said I have the PE Summit, and I wouldn't complain if it were a little bit bigger.

 

[eba1225]

Ronk,

Am heating a 4br 2 story colonial 2700sq ft with A Lopi Declaration. The main floor runs between 75 and 68 while the upstatirs is about 65. The main floor heat never runs but the upstatirs comes on about half as much as it used to. We have a fan to move the heat upstairs and around the main floor.

Erik