Hello. This forum is great and I’ve spent a lot of time searching through and learning while trying to decide on a new wood stove for our house. I wanted to ask for your opinion on stove size based on our specific situatuion. We are replacing an old Country Stoves Striker.
Our ground floor area is about 2300 sq ft total, the upstairs is just two beds and a bath totaling 500 sq ft. The section of the house with the woodstove (living, dining, kitchen) is about 875 sq ft and it’s fairly open. The woodstove (circled) is way in the corner of this open space in the living room which has cathedral ceilings and two ceiling fans for circulation. We have a brand new highly efficient heat pump that is rated to heat our total square footage. We are also installing a zoned thermostat system. The house was built about 25 years ago and is newly renovated with upgraded insulation and windows in much of the ground floor. Anything unchanged is in great shape and well insulated. We are in mountain foothills in the PNW. Temps are typically in the 40-30F range in the winter, but it goes down to the 20’s occasionally and sometimes the teens.
That being said, we will be using all the tips and tricks with fans around the rest of the house to try to circulate air so the woodstove can help offset our heating costs. We do want the woodstove to help with that as much as is reasonable in our space. I also want to be able to hang out in my living room without feeling like I’m on the surface of the sun. My question now is how big a unit (box size, BTUs?) should we be looking at? We are leaning toward non-catalytic 2020 EPA certified models. I am totally open to specific suggestions as well. (I like the traditional fancy looking stoves-like Vermont Castings look.) TIA!
Our ground floor area is about 2300 sq ft total, the upstairs is just two beds and a bath totaling 500 sq ft. The section of the house with the woodstove (living, dining, kitchen) is about 875 sq ft and it’s fairly open. The woodstove (circled) is way in the corner of this open space in the living room which has cathedral ceilings and two ceiling fans for circulation. We have a brand new highly efficient heat pump that is rated to heat our total square footage. We are also installing a zoned thermostat system. The house was built about 25 years ago and is newly renovated with upgraded insulation and windows in much of the ground floor. Anything unchanged is in great shape and well insulated. We are in mountain foothills in the PNW. Temps are typically in the 40-30F range in the winter, but it goes down to the 20’s occasionally and sometimes the teens.
That being said, we will be using all the tips and tricks with fans around the rest of the house to try to circulate air so the woodstove can help offset our heating costs. We do want the woodstove to help with that as much as is reasonable in our space. I also want to be able to hang out in my living room without feeling like I’m on the surface of the sun. My question now is how big a unit (box size, BTUs?) should we be looking at? We are leaning toward non-catalytic 2020 EPA certified models. I am totally open to specific suggestions as well. (I like the traditional fancy looking stoves-like Vermont Castings look.) TIA!
