Hi All. On the advice of a good friend who swears by the Hearth.com community, I'm asking for opinions and recommendations for the installation of a new wood stove (and my first wood stove).
I'll apologize in advance for a novel length first post.
Based on online reading, recommendations from shops and friends, we think the Jotel F 100 best fits our needs. We have a 5 year old ICF (insulated concrete form top to bottom) chalet style (cathedral living area) home located on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada (if you are not familiar with the area, this is one of the warmer zones in Canada with fairly low snowfall as the climate is tempered by the Gulf Stream). The main windows in the house are south facing so decent passive solar during the day. Heating is currently done with an electric hot water boiler with a concrete over-pour on the main level (with heating pipes) and in the basement floor. Inner dimensions are approximately 22x34. Upper floor (2 closed bedrooms and small bathroom) is approximately 1/2 of the floor space (cathedral ceilings 22ft high at peak inside) over living room and dining room space.
Hopefully that gives a reasonably complete description of what we're dealing with.
We want wood heat primarily as a backup to our electric heat (we were without power for 5 days after a storm in the summer this year). So we want to be able to survive a winter storm with a prolonged power outage (basic water boiling cooking and heating) and we want something that will be fun for evenings. Currently our boiler comes on for 2 hours in the early morning to heat the main floor and again for a couple hours late afternoon to maintain a comfortable temperature (this is sufficient so that we don't heat the basement floor or upper bedrooms). It would be great if we can avoid the 2 hour late afternoon power usage and replace with a log in a wood stove.
As space is at a premium, a small footprint stove is preferred. Also the high insulation factor of ICF, I think should mean that we maximize the output of a stove - again hopefully meaning a smaller stove will work. The looks of the Jotul F 100 (cast iron, legs, large glass area) are appealing.
In the attached pictures gallery our current plan is to remove the desk in the right hand corner of the living room (and replace with a storage shelf of some kind) and position the stove between the rightmost window on the tall wall and the large window to the left of it (29" between them). In that location, it is approximately 14 feet from floor to ceiling, with 2 feet of roof trusses and blown-in insulation above that. Roof angle is 45 degrees. Since it will be less than 10 feet to the peak of the roof (horizontal), I believe the exterior chimney will need to be approximately 12 feet high from the roof where it exits.
So... after all that... what is your opinion? Location, stove choice, installation, etc? Anything else us newbies should consider?
I'll apologize in advance for a novel length first post.
Based on online reading, recommendations from shops and friends, we think the Jotel F 100 best fits our needs. We have a 5 year old ICF (insulated concrete form top to bottom) chalet style (cathedral living area) home located on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada (if you are not familiar with the area, this is one of the warmer zones in Canada with fairly low snowfall as the climate is tempered by the Gulf Stream). The main windows in the house are south facing so decent passive solar during the day. Heating is currently done with an electric hot water boiler with a concrete over-pour on the main level (with heating pipes) and in the basement floor. Inner dimensions are approximately 22x34. Upper floor (2 closed bedrooms and small bathroom) is approximately 1/2 of the floor space (cathedral ceilings 22ft high at peak inside) over living room and dining room space.
Hopefully that gives a reasonably complete description of what we're dealing with.
We want wood heat primarily as a backup to our electric heat (we were without power for 5 days after a storm in the summer this year). So we want to be able to survive a winter storm with a prolonged power outage (basic water boiling cooking and heating) and we want something that will be fun for evenings. Currently our boiler comes on for 2 hours in the early morning to heat the main floor and again for a couple hours late afternoon to maintain a comfortable temperature (this is sufficient so that we don't heat the basement floor or upper bedrooms). It would be great if we can avoid the 2 hour late afternoon power usage and replace with a log in a wood stove.
As space is at a premium, a small footprint stove is preferred. Also the high insulation factor of ICF, I think should mean that we maximize the output of a stove - again hopefully meaning a smaller stove will work. The looks of the Jotul F 100 (cast iron, legs, large glass area) are appealing.
In the attached pictures gallery our current plan is to remove the desk in the right hand corner of the living room (and replace with a storage shelf of some kind) and position the stove between the rightmost window on the tall wall and the large window to the left of it (29" between them). In that location, it is approximately 14 feet from floor to ceiling, with 2 feet of roof trusses and blown-in insulation above that. Roof angle is 45 degrees. Since it will be less than 10 feet to the peak of the roof (horizontal), I believe the exterior chimney will need to be approximately 12 feet high from the roof where it exits.
So... after all that... what is your opinion? Location, stove choice, installation, etc? Anything else us newbies should consider?
End result is clean and what we were hoping for. Ended up with Excel stove pipe, that my limited research tells me is quite good. Here's some pics:
