Would the Lopi Freedom be too much stove for our house?

[ecfinn]

Here's my situation. About to buy new wood-burning insert. House is 1100 sq. ft. one floor ranch with full basement. It was built in early 50s and is made with block walls with 1" furring strips and plaster walls. Notice no insulation in that equation so walls are always cold in winter. Replacement double pane windows hold more heat than the walls. I get condensation on my interior walls before the windows if that gives you any indication. My ceiling/attic is pretty well insulated, but could be done better.

We were looking at either the Avalon Rainier or Lopi Freedom. Not sure if the Rainier would be too small given the thermal inefficiencies of my house. The main room with the fireplace is probably 13' x 25'. Its not a very open floorplan so we'll have some challenges getting the cold air back from the bedrooms to the main room to be heated. My concern is that the Rainier won't be adequate to heat even the rooms we have if my walls are so poorly insulated. My wife prefers the Freedom (even at $500 more) because it has a flat top where we can put a water boiler for humidity (Rainier won't support that unless we install it too far into the room.)

So, the big question is, will we get too hot in the main room if we get the Freedom? My stove shop said "You'll get the same amount of heat from the same amount of wood in either stove, so just build smaller hotter fires in the freedom and you won't get too hot. Then load it up at night when you're no longer in the room and you'll have a fire when you get up" Is that true to some extent or should the firebox always be as full as possible for the secondary burn to work properly?

Thanks,

Eric (almost a woodburner) Finn

 

[Corie]

Actually Eric the shop was correct in suggesting that when you need less heat, just have less wood burning in the stove. Unlike coal stoves, the new secondary combustion stoves will work just fine whether they're packed to the gills or just have a log or two burning.

 

[Dunadan]

Hi Corie,

I'm brand new here but just went through a similar decision.

We have a pretty wide open split level/raised ranch (the raised part of the house with bedrooms is 3 steps up from the lower living room/dining room/kitchen area) and total living area is about 1,400 sq. feet. We also have a finished basement, but I'm not counting that as there's no way an insert on main level will heat down there.

I was choosing between the Avalon Ranier and the Lopi Revere. If anything, I was concerned the Revere might be a bit big, and heat our main living room too much. When I asked about the Freedom, my salesman said definately too big for our house.

I chose the Revere because I liked the bigger firebox and the large cooktop surface which the Ranier didn't have.

Sean

 

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

We have a 2500 sq ft colonial. Family room where our Lopi Freedom resides is 19 x 25 with 12 ft ceilings, 2 picture windows and a sliding glass door. I do not have an open floor plan. I use an Ecofan on the Lopi and a small black super quiet fan in the doorway to move air to as much of the main floor as possible. I can' tell you whether the Lopi will be too much or too little for your space, I think it would be fine, but I will tell you not to count on the cooktop surface to supply humidity. I was enamoure dwiht that as well, but my dealer saved me the cost of a kettle for it by steering me away and he was right! You can only fit a half kettle there and you'd be a slave to filling it with water. Even if it was a full kettle, the top gets so hot it would cook away the water. I have used it to boil water though during a power outage - very nice thing to have! We've used a Bemis Whole House humidifier and use a seperate hygrometer to measure humidity. Have to keep it clean, but it's not hard, no hot water to deal with, have to use the stuff for the water and replace the filter every season. In the driest parts of the winter I think I filled it every 2nd or 3rd day - for a kettle on the Lopi, you'd be doing it about every hour.

 

[Roospike]

more wood = more heat. I would opt for the bigger stove. Take the max heat range with a grain of salt. Just because a stove says it will heat up to 3000 sf dont make it so. The larger stove for nothing else is just better becasue you have more room for ash , wood coal and less times to clean out your stove. You can always put in less wood in a bigger stove but your cant make the smaller stove bigger.

 

[Shane]

Take into consideration that the Freedom has more mass to warm up before heat is transferred. So you will see a slight decline in heat transfer efficiency when burning the same two splits in those stoves. What about the Revere? It has an awesome surface for steamers. Even with your insulation factor I'm not sure you'd need twice the stove to heat your home.

 

[wg_bent]

With the Freedom, I think you'll be purchasing a stove that is too large. Seems to me the Revere would be a great stove for your situation.

FYI...I do like my Osburn, maybe look at the 1800i and 2200i inserts also.

 

[ecfinn]

Well I'd love to consider Osburn, but the nearest dealer is apparently pretty far away. Nothing comes up on the Osburn website doing a search, although I love the specs of the 2200i. Ok, I found a local enough dealer and they said, the Osburn is the low end compared to Regency or Hampton that they also sell. Osburn seems to be a bit cheaper than the Lopi/Avalon but I think its just not what I'm looking for. Thanks for muddying the waters though.

To answer some other questions, I think the reason we were considering the Freedom was two fold. It doesn't stick into the room as far and would require a shorter hearth (which we're changing now anyway.) And we were enamored of the ability to put a kettle on top to help with humidity. It seems from past comments that that reason is not a good one. I appreciate that feedback. I'm back to considering the Revere again now....

Ok, anyone else with experience with the Freedom, Revere, or Rainier I'd appreciate your experiences and details on your heating situation.

Thanks,

Eric