First of all, let me say thank you for all of the great information on this site. I've learned a ton from lurking on the forums, and reading the posted articles. Any suggestions that you all could provide with my specific issue would be greatly appreciated!
I'm in the market for my first wood stove. It'll be going into new construction (actually, I'm still working on construction...). The house has 2x6 framing with dense pack fiberglass insulation (~R20), and construction is tight. I really took my time air sealing everything well. The attic is insulated to R45 with cellulose, and we used energy heel trusses to make sure we got full insulation value over the entire ceiling. The house is right at 1,700 sf (850 sf each for top and bottom floors), with 8' ceilings on both levels. The downstairs is a fairly open floor plan, but the upstairs is a bit more cut up with rooms. I'd say we've got a typical number of windows, but we spent a bit extra for the fancy coating upgrade, so they should perform pretty good.
In terms of weather, we usually get quite a few nights into the winter in the upper teens, but wintertime daytime temps usually get a bit above freezing. We'll typically have a few nights get into the single digits, but that's usually only a few days/winter.
I'm planning to use the wood stove as my primary source of heat, but I'm also going to instal a few minisplit units that I'm hoping will only be used when my wife and I are away from the farm for a few days. The woodstove will be sitting pretty close to the middle of the house, and all of our main living space is on the ground level.
My wife and I are both home quite a bit during the winter (not much going on in the vegetable farming department during that time of the year), so someone will be there to occasionally tend a stove most days.
What recommendations would you all have for a good, simple stove that won't break my budget? I'm leaning toward a Englander NC-30, but I'm afraid that will be too much stove, given the insulating and air sealing that I've done. The last thing that I want is to buy a unit that we won't be able to efficiently use without running ourselves onto the porch!
Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it!
I'm in the market for my first wood stove. It'll be going into new construction (actually, I'm still working on construction...). The house has 2x6 framing with dense pack fiberglass insulation (~R20), and construction is tight. I really took my time air sealing everything well. The attic is insulated to R45 with cellulose, and we used energy heel trusses to make sure we got full insulation value over the entire ceiling. The house is right at 1,700 sf (850 sf each for top and bottom floors), with 8' ceilings on both levels. The downstairs is a fairly open floor plan, but the upstairs is a bit more cut up with rooms. I'd say we've got a typical number of windows, but we spent a bit extra for the fancy coating upgrade, so they should perform pretty good.
In terms of weather, we usually get quite a few nights into the winter in the upper teens, but wintertime daytime temps usually get a bit above freezing. We'll typically have a few nights get into the single digits, but that's usually only a few days/winter.
I'm planning to use the wood stove as my primary source of heat, but I'm also going to instal a few minisplit units that I'm hoping will only be used when my wife and I are away from the farm for a few days. The woodstove will be sitting pretty close to the middle of the house, and all of our main living space is on the ground level.
My wife and I are both home quite a bit during the winter (not much going on in the vegetable farming department during that time of the year), so someone will be there to occasionally tend a stove most days.
What recommendations would you all have for a good, simple stove that won't break my budget? I'm leaning toward a Englander NC-30, but I'm afraid that will be too much stove, given the insulating and air sealing that I've done. The last thing that I want is to buy a unit that we won't be able to efficiently use without running ourselves onto the porch!
Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it!
