Wood stove placement

[grunyon]

Hello everyone. You have been a great source of help for my pellet stove in the past.

I am in the middle of purchasing my 2 acre piece of country with a tiny 1.5 bedroom house. I call it this because you have to walk through one bedroom to get to the master bedroom.

Anyway, I am super excited about having a wood stove in the house. I would like to try to use it like my pellet stove and have it so I almost never burn oil. Is this realistic? Because of this, I think I am interested in a new, safe, efficient model. Are these stoves safe enough to leave burning unattended like a pellet stove?

I read the "What stove should I buy" sticky and it sounds like I would be interested in a "no cat" stove. I'm not interested in having to change the cat once every few years I want this to be a "buy it forever" deal. I am trying to shop for a smaller model because I don't want to blast myself out of the house but I don't want it to feel underpowered either. What sizing would you guys recommend for this house? Any model recommendations? I don't have a lot of money especially after I'm done fixing this place up so I'd probably have to stick to the cost effective options. Englander comes to mind. The listing says the house is 704 sq feet but I haven't done the math myself. 40% of that is probably upstairs for the two bedrooms and bathroom.

I have attached a very rough floor plan I drew in 5 minutes as well as a picture of the house so you can get an idea of sizing and roof design. I was thinking of putting the stove at the base of the stairs in the corner in the dead space between the two windows. Would this work? Can't think of anywhere else to put it where it wouldn't take over the limited space.

Thank you!

http://imgur.com/a/ud7km

p.s. I know the floor plan and the front of the house doesn't match up. Someone built a temporary structure enclosing the front porch and blocking that window. That's coming down.

 

[Bobbin]

I can't speak to the proper sizing of a stove for your home. I wonder, though, if placing the stove at the bottom of the stairwell would result in a lot of the heat going directly to your second floor? You could minimize that by adding thick portieres (heavy drape) across the bottom of the stair well; something that could be pulled aside when you want more heat to rise up the stairs.

Proper installation of a quality stove should be plenty safe. We never think twice about leaving the stoves unattended here. But they've been properly installed to code, we burn dry wood, we keep the chimneys clean, and we make sure the stoves are cooking along steadily before we venture out into the real world. Every so often it occurs to me that we have 1100F fire inside a box in our home... but I think it's a testament to Woodstock stoves that we have such confidence in their products.

 

[Fsappo]

Don't discount the idea of a cat stove. Buy the right one, use it the right way and its not an "every few years" replacement. Blaze King has some kind of 10 year warranty on their cats now. The other nice thing is, they like to run low steady heat for a long time. Even a small cat stove will give you a solid 12 hours of burn. If you want to eliminate oil or gas, long burn times are key. Every hour that stove is making heat is an hour your furnace isn't running.

 

[begreen]

Looks like a 2 cu ft stove would do well there. In non-cat I would consider the Pacific Energy Super 27 or their Alderlea T5. In cat take a look at the Woodstock Fireview or the Blaze King Sirocco 20 or 30 or the dressier Ashford 20 or 30.

For location, which works best A, B or C? I'm thinking C at the moment.

 

[westkywood]

I second the PE Super 27 for that size house. Better to have one a little too big than too small. I've had a Super 27 for 5 years now and love it. It's rated for 1200 - 2000 sq ft. I have 1300 sq ft 80 year old house and the Super 27 is perfect for me as long as it's not below 20 degrees. If it's above 25 outside and as long as the wind isn't blowing hard, I can get 8-10 hours out of it before my heat kicks on. I have my house thermostat set on 68. Half my walls are not insulated and they dont even have studs in the walls. A newer 1300 sq ft house ( or bigger ) would have no problem with the same stove. 700 sq feet you'd never have a problem with the Super 27. Those sq ft ratings on stoves are to be taken with a grain of salt. I'm upgrading to the PE Summit in March..

 

[begreen]

Our next door neighbor heats with a Spectrum It's been as low as 10F here and they can heat their 1600 sq ft old house comfortably with it.

 

[westkywood]

Our next door neighbor heats with a Spectrum It's been as low as 10F here and they can heat their 1600 sq ft old house comfortably with it.

Yeah, that"s the way it should be. Little by little I'm studding out walls and insulating more.