Square Ft Capacity vs Burn Time

[leeave96]

Firstly, thanks everyone for answering my pesky quesitons!!

I have been spending HOURS reading and searching posts here - this is one GREAT forum - thanks!

I have a small house with a small room into which to put a wood stove.

I read posts here regarding general sizes of wood stoves folks are using for a given size house/room and read the BTU output of woodstoves on the manufacturer's websites - outputs which I take with a grain of salt.

I also read posts about upsizing one's woodstove selection to get longer burn times via a larger fire box.

I have read several posts that if a person had it to do over again, they would go the next size up on their woodstove - but I don't think I have read where a person would have gone smaller.

So my quesiton is - when is to large of a stove a problem?

I am interested in a cast iron stove (and maybe a soap stone stove) for looks and even heat too.

Where is the trade-off between a large stove - to get a longer burn time and a stove that will operate properly without driving us out onto the porch in the middle of the winter?

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Todd]

Small house and small room screams for a catalytic soapstone stove. Long burns, even, gentle, no blast you out heat.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The tradeoff is in efficiency with a non cat stove. You can only choke it down so much before it burns dirty and creosote forms.

Matt

 

[Battenkiller]

Too big is when you rarely, if ever, get to fill it up to capacity. Yes, you can build a small fire in a big stove, and you can't do the opposite, but if you can only load it 1/2 full without driving yourself out of the house in the dead of winter, you've oversized it.

I think Todd hit the nail on the head. A cat stove seems to make for very happy campers in most cases. That's probably the best way to get long, controlled burns... unless you buy a VC Cat. :roll:

 

[summit]

your desired burn time shold trump the stove's sqft capacity every time. I you want an overnight burn, then go for the larger stove, irregardless, as that is the only way to achieve that longer burn. If you don't want all the extra heat, just do not put as much wood into it. Small stoves will heat you fine, but they will not go overnight. If you are fine w/ just a supplement that will max out @ 5-6 hrs, go for a small unit. If you want to go all night/day 8-10 hrs, go big or go home.

 

[fbelec]

to large of a stove is a pain sometimes. sometimes. my stove is to large for my house my house is 1240 square ft. my stove is rated for 1200 to 2500 square ft. to try to keep it at 70 to 72 degrees i have to wait until the house is 66 then load it up. i can do smaller fires like i do in the shoulder seasons, but you have to be careful as to how small. if to small it will blacken the stove firebox and needless to say not good for the chimney. if you got a fire thats small to take the chill out it's usually cool in the house when we wake up. if you got a small fire going to take the chill out but think just a little more to keep it warm throw on two more splits, you wake up to 76 degrees in the middle of the house and 90 in the stove room. but the good part is it could be 10 degrees out and the house is running 70 degrees and the stove still gets 8 hours out of the the load. and that's burning at 650

 

[firefighterjake]

I'll be the first to suggest sizing your house and then getting a stove one size larger than what you think . . . that seems to work well most of the time. I know it worked well enough for me. Sometimes I think I could have even gone up two sizes . . . but that's probably just me being a guy since we always think we need the biggest truck, fastest snowmobile, largest stove, etc.

That said, yeah . . . you can go too large as others have already said. If you go too large you may either a) end up constantly opening the window in the dead of January to cool down or b) end up loading the stove with small loads every few hours. In the first example, you're wasting your wood and heat . . . the goal of running a woodstove is to stay warm, but not be over-heated. In the second example, you may be keeping the temps comfortable in the Goldilocks Zone (not too hot, not too cool), but if it's a pain in the butt to continually load the stove every few hours you will not enjoy the experience . . . to say nothing about partial loads often not being all that efficient.

So yes . . . you can go too large. As others have said . . . small house and a small room . . . sounds like a perfect setting for a cat stove . . . and since you mentioned soapstone you may want to check out the Woodstock line-up since many folks love 'em. If you opt to not go with soapstone or a cat, I would suggest again taking my advice to hearth . . . figure out your spacing and go one size larger. It is possible to heat a home with a cast iron/secondary burner . . . but in this case it really is very important you size the stove right . . . too little and you're cold or coming close to overfiring the stove . . . too large and you're either being driven on to the porch or loading the stove continually.

 

[Mainely Saws]

I would just add that there are other things to take into consideration when sizing your stove such as 1) how well your home is insulated ,2) your climate ( big difference between say northern Mich & western Va. ) & 3) the floor plan of your home . It may be that in your circumstance that there is only a relatively short period of time in the winter months that would require a large stove & an overnight burn . Maybe it's better to have to load the stove more frequently during that short period & be more comfortable during the majority of the rest of the season with a medium sized stove . Just my two cents worth ........

 

[Jags]

Since each installation is unique in some manner, a general sketch or layout of your house would be very useful. Air movement, room size and placement, insulation level, sqft of heating area all come into play.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

One thing that is rarely brought up about sizing a stove is the fact that your stove should be too big....for most of the season. The stove should be large enough to produce the amount of heat you need on the coldest night of the year. This means that your stove will be too big for most of the heating season!

Every year on this forum we read about these folks just starting to heat with wood and they are amazed at the amount of heat that stove is giving. It's roasting them out of the house! However, they are writing this about their first experiences with the stove which usually is in October, or in some places, December. Yes, at that time of the year their stove is giving off too much heat and they find themselves opening a window or door to cool the house. However, they find out a bit different once the temperature really starts dropping and those cold NW winds kick in. Now all that heat is really needed....and perhaps even more.

So my recommendation is to buy the size stove you need for the coldest night of the winter. During the other times, you will then learn how to operate that stove so it doesn't roast you out (most of the time at least).