Suggestions for a small wood stove?

[Carlone]

We have a new home under construction in Canada and, based on heat loss analysis, need 35,000 BTU to heat it on our coldest nights (-45 C). We have a maximum 28" clearance from the front of the stove to the back wall (24" would be better). I have been looking at suitable wood stoves and have found the following that would work with our clearances: Morso 7110 (38,000 BTUs), Regency F1100 (55,000 BTUs) and Blaze King Briarwood II (70,000 BTUs). I'm concerned that the Regency and Blaze King are too big and would overheat our super-insulated house. I would very much appreciate any feedback on these stoves, tips on stove sizing or suggestions for other stoves that would fit our needs.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Heating a super-insulated house can be a challenge because during milder weather very little heat is needed. If the goal is to use the stove as a chill chaser then the small Morso will work, but if the goal is to burn pretty regularly throughout the winter I would suggest a catalytic stove that can run at 10K BTUs. Blaze King and perhaps a Woodstock Keystone will work. Otherwise one will need to be feeding the stove frequently with small loads of wood.

How large is the space that is to be heated? What is your average winter temp? Are other options for heat like electric, gas or pellet viable?

 

[bholler]

Also those btu output numbers are a max output. You wont get that for very long. I agree with begreen a cat stove will fit your needs the best because of the control you get.

 

[Carlone]

Welcome. Heating a super-insulated house can be a challenge because during milder weather very little heat is needed. If the goal is to use the stove as a chill chaser then the small Morso will work, but if the goal is to burn pretty regularly throughout the winter I would suggest a catalytic stove that can run at 10K BTUs. Blaze King and perhaps a Woodstock Keystone will work. Otherwise one will need to be feeding the stove frequently with small loads of wood.

How large is the space that is to be heated? What is your average winter temp? Are other options for heat like electric, gas or pellet viable?

The house is a 1160 sq ft bungalow and the wood stove will be in a central great room (about 600 sq ft). Winter is is at least 6 months long here and includes the short and cold days of Dec/January/February (-20C to -45C) and some "warmer" periods (0C to -20C) in November, March and April. We are installing a low-mass, in-floor hydronic heating system with an electric boiler (no natural gas here) and expect it may be a fairly expensive system to run full-time. We have plentiful access to free firewood (mostly birch) and plan to run the wood stove as a cost-savings measure when we are home regularly (only about half of the winter). I expect low, slow and steady would be the best way, especially considering the hydronic system. I looked at the Blaze King catalytic stoves buy they are all too deep to fit our available space.

 

[webby3650]

A Blaze King will not over heat your house. The thermostat design works very well. These other little stoves you mentioned need to be fed often, have huge temperature swings, and need the fuel to be nearly toothpick size. Cutting wood in such a way is very time consuming and rules out the option of buying wood if necessary.

 

[begreen]

Not sure webby. Even on low @ 10K btus/hr could be too much in a super insulated house without a window or two open, especially when it's above 0C. But I agree a cat like the BK Sirocco or Woodstock Keystone would be my first choice. The shallow 24-28" depth requirement makes it even more challenging and cuts out the cats. I am wondering if a simple Englander 17VL would suffice here.
http://www.heatredefined.com/englander/stove/Englander-Tranquility-1200-Sq.-Ft.-Wood-Stove
The PE Alderlea T4 might just squeak in here too and the PE Neo 1.6 looks like a good fit.

 

[Carlone]

Not sure webby. Even on low @ 10K btus/hr could be too much in a super insulated house without a window or two open, especially when it's above 0C. But I agree a cat like the BK Sirocco or Woodstock Keystone would be my first choice. The shallow 24-28" depth requirement makes it even more challenging and cuts out the cats. I am wondering if a simple Englander 17VL would suffice here.
http://www.heatredefined.com/englander/stove/Englander-Tranquility-1200-Sq.-Ft.-Wood-Stove
The PE Alderlea T4 might just squeak in here too and the PE Neo 1.6 looks like a good fit.

Based on the advice so far, it seems like a catalytic stove is definitely the way to go. I've gone back to the Blaze King web site and figure that with some minor modifications to our floor plan (still easy to do at this stage), we can make the Sirocco 20 work. Thanks for your help!

 

[webby3650]

I guess a BK could overheat you in an extreme situation. But it will have better control than any other stove and will be more usable on those Warmer days.

 

[begreen]

Where there's a will there's a way. The BK Sirocco 20 or the Woodstock Keystone with a wall shield are the two I'd be considering.

 

[Jags]

I agree with the Sirocco or the Keystone. On the rare occasion that there might be a little too much heat produced an open window and a little fresh air (especially in a super tight home) isn't a bad thing.

 

[kennyp2339]

Please factor in a outside air connection (OAK) a tight house like yours will need one, also make sure what ever brand you go with has a true connection for one, BK's I know have them, unsure of the other stoves.
Speaking from experience, almost everything that everyone on this site says about BK stoves is true, you can dial the stove down for long low clean burns, you can also turn the stove up for longer than average hot burns, they are simple to use, the cat has a ten year warranty, the stoves are very easy to clean / take apart and there door gasket design is simple yet very effective. The only thing that's of concern with them (and its not really a concern) is that when you order gaskets you need to order high density ones, if you ever remove the cat for any reason a new gasket needs to be put in for the cat to work correctly.

 

[DickRussell]

If the "superinsulated" house is only 1160 sqft, then either the house isn't really superinsulated or, more likely, the heating load at design min temp is more likely much lower than that 35KBTU/hr. Calculating expected load for a truly superinsulated house requires more careful attention to detail than for a "code built" house. Shortcuts taken with canned software typically overestimate the load. My own house, a double-wall superinsulated structure, has almost 4000 sqft of conditioned space, and the best number I have for actual heating load is about 19 KBTU/hr, vs predicted 22, at a design delta T of 73 F. For your -45 C outside temp (-49 F) and 70 inside, your delta T would be 63% greater, but the house has only 30% of the floor area. Very crudely, I'd expect the heat loss for yours to be more like 1.63 times the square root of 0.3, or perhaps 90% of my 19 KBTU/hr, or perhaps 17. OK, if one floor, the exterior surface area for heat transfer relative to floor area, compared to my two floors, will be greater. Still, I have to think that 35K is too high. Make sure that 35K has been well done. If more careful calculations give a lower number, that will affect your choice of stove. Mine is a small Quadrafire Millenium 2100, with OAK. Its firing rate is advertised as 11-28 KBTU/hr, and that has worked well for us, and actually was used to heat the house by itself during the winter when interior work was being finished, burning just half time. We don't burn around the clock, though; it's just for perhaps six hours in the late day/evening. The house absorbs the heat comfortably, so we don't overheat.

 

[kennyp2339]

If the "superinsulated" house is only 1160 sqft, then either the house isn't really superinsulated or, more likely, the heating load at design min temp is more likely much lower than that 35KBTU/hr. Calculating expected load for a truly superinsulated house requires more careful attention to detail than for a "code built" house. Shortcuts taken with canned software typically overestimate the load. My own house, a double-wall superinsulated structure, has almost 4000 sqft of conditioned space, and the best number I have for actual heating load is about 19 KBTU/hr, vs predicted 22, at a design delta T of 73 F. For your -45 C outside temp (-49 F) and 70 inside, your delta T would be 63% greater, but the house has only 30% of the floor area. Very crudely, I'd expect the heat loss for yours to be more like 1.63 times the square root of 0.3, or perhaps 90% of my 19 KBTU/hr, or perhaps 17. OK, if one floor, the exterior surface area for heat transfer relative to floor area, compared to my two floors, will be greater. Still, I have to think that 35K is too high. Make sure that 35K has been well done. If more careful calculations give a lower number, that will affect your choice of stove. Mine is a small Quadrafire Millenium 2100, with OAK. Its firing rate is advertised as 11-28 KBTU/hr, and that has worked well for us, and actually was used to heat the house by itself during the winter when interior work was being finished, burning just half time. We don't burn around the clock, though; it's just for perhaps six hours in the late day/evening. The house absorbs the heat comfortably, so we don't overheat.

That's is a great post, thanks for explaining