Cabin Advice...Stove Size

[Brigos]

Hello all, newbie here with questions so I would like to start with the Setting: I have a 1 floor cape style log cabin with cathedral ceiling, with a master bedroom out the back in a T fashion with an 8 ft ceiling. The main house is one large open room 19 x 28ft. The master bedroom is 15x16ft. The basement is finished with the same foot print for a total of 1,544 ish sq ft without including the air space for the cathedral ceiling. I have heated with primarily wood for the past 2 years through winter using a wonderful old Lange 6302 in the basement below the master bedroom, my floors are not insulated, the basement walls are insulated with 1 inch bead type polystyrene foam with 1 inch boards over throughout except for 4 feet to either side of the wood stove, the stove is on an outside wall. The Chimney is external field stone. My thermostat is on the wall between the main and bedroom in the main room. I keep it set at 62 degrees and it only kicks on at night or when we are away for more than 4 hours. I have been able to keep the house at around 65 degrees ( we don't mind it a slight chill) using the Lange but I have had to push it, reload every couple hours etc, starting November 1st last year going through to the first week of March (we traveled after) I used 4 1/2 cord of single seasoned wood. This is not a log kit, it is square log, Scandinavian style hand built (consider it drafty), non insulated windows, with wood storms added in the winter. I live in NH just on the zone 2/zone 3 line.

With this said I am looking to change out the Lange (I will be rebuilding the Lange in the future). I am trying to get experienced opinions on a basic stove size to go with, something that could get the house to 70 degrees at times (alright maybe the chill is sometimes a bother). I have NO experience with a stove newer than 1980 and looking to go newish, year 2000 or newer. Would be grateful for any input. I have been happy with the info I have searched which is why I decided to join but nothing that allowed me to be confident moving forward without asking. Thanks!

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Are the basement walls insulated? If not the stove size will need to be much larger to account for the ~33% heat loss through the walls. If this is the case I would put in a 3 cu ft stove. Englander and Drolet make good value stoves in the $1000 or under range.

 

[Brigos]

Welcome. Are the basement walls insulated? If not the stove size will need to be much larger to account for the ~33% heat loss through the walls. If this is the case I would put in a 3 cu ft stove. Englander and Drolet make good value stoves in the $1000 or under range.

Thank you, I meant to mention the insulation. 1 inch bead type Styrofoam. I have edited my original post to include said information.

 

[Grisu]

Welcome to the forum!

That chimney should have an insulated stainless steel liner in it that matches the flue outlet of the stove that you will be getting. Your new stove will also do better with wood that has been dried for 2 to 3 years. Have you checked your wood with a moisture meter yet? Split a few pieces in half and push the pins in the center of the fresh surface. The wood should be below 20% to burn well in a modern stove.

 

[Brigos]

Welcome to the forum!

That chimney should have an insulated stainless steel liner in it that matches the flue outlet of the stove that you will be getting. Your new stove will also do better with wood that has been dried for 2 to 3 years. Have you checked your wood with a moisture meter yet? Split a few pieces in half and push the pins in the center of the fresh surface. The wood should be below 20% to burn well in a modern stove.

The flue is clay lined with a 6 inch single wall stainless liner that was installed before I owned the home, mason friend feels it may be difficult to get insulated down the flue due to off sets that can be seen looking down the corners with the top plate off, Currently have about 4 cord of wood seasoned 2 years, have not checked moisture as of yet.

 

[begreen]

I'd still go for a large 3 cu ft stove. The combo of an older leaky house, cold environment and high ceilings justifies a big stove.

 

[Brigos]

I'd still go for a large 3 cu ft stove. The combo of an older leaky house, cold environment and high ceilings justifies a big stove.

begreen, in your opinion (I see you have an alderea) would you choose Englander or Pacific Energy in my situation, Pacific Energies clearances for the Summit or Alderea allow me to be about 5 inches closer (figured from the center of the stove to combustibles)?

 

[begreen]

begreen, in your opinion (I see you have an alderea) would you choose Englander or Pacific Energy in my situation, Pacific Energies clearances for the Summit or Alderea allow me to be about 5 inches closer (figured from the center of the stove to combustibles)?

Both will do the job, but there's a large difference in price and they are different stoves in construction. The Englander is more radiant and probably will heat the place up quicker if this is mostly for weekend and vacation use. It's a great value and a strong heater. The Alderlea is more convective and will be slower to warm up, but with more steady heat between refills. It's a good 24/7 heater and a more rugged firebox with the stainless steel baffle system. As you've noted it has closer clearances and needs ember only hearth protection. The swiveling trivet top is unique to the Alderlea.

 

[beatlefan]

I bought a 30-NC to supplement my propane heat. Instead, it heated to the entire house without having to turn the furnace on at all. It's a work horse. However, I just looked at the Alderlea online...that is one beautiful stove.

 

[Brigos]

I will be heating 24/7 with it, it is my home not a vacation place. Simply asked because clearances are already a bit tight and the Alderlea and Summit seem more appealing. Thank you for the help.

 

[Grisu]

If you want to shop around a bit: Similar looking to the T6 and I think the clearances are also similar is the Jotul F55. Could be a bit cheaper than the T6.

Take also a look at the Woodstock Ideal Steel. With its catalytic design you will get longer burn times and more even heat output. The base price is ~$1900 and clearances are decent. Woodstock sells only factory direct from Lebanon. Their customer service is usually lauded as one of the best in the industry.

 

[Brigos]

Alright upon reading my original post...again, I wanted to make one update.... I was not very clear on this in my original post, the wood stove sits in the basement room below the T of the house, We use the Master Bedroom as our current living room (right above the stove room). The basement is finished but it is broken up into 4 rooms, the stove sits in the utility room (the same size as the room above 15'x16') that has a 32" wide door that we leave open to allow heat to travel to the front of the house. I believe the original impression re-reading my first post is that the basement is open concept like the first floor and it is not. Wondering if this changes any advice given? Does this work against me using a stove like the 30-NC/Summit? I appreciate the help, thanks!

 

[begreen]

That is definitely going to make it a harder challenge to heat evenly from the basement. Is the stairway in the utility room?

 

[Brigos]

The stairway is directly in front of the door to the utility room coming down from the main room of the house, it is a straight shot, it is not in the utility room. The stairway is completely open, 2 beam stringers with treads, no walls upstairs or down around the stairway. There is a 2 ft x 6 inch vent above the wood stove into the master bedroom although we close the vent often because that room heats well being above the stove with non-insulated floors.

 

[begreen]

The new stove is not going to make a huge difference. A 32" door is a narrow passage to try and heat the rest of the house. If you can point the stove right at the doorway there will be a little boost from its convective fan, but don't expect miracles. The room below the MBR will continue to get hot.

Examine for any possibility to put a stove on the main floor for better area heating results and more heat to the 2nd fl.. Or perhaps put a return grille at the far end of the house and tie it to a duct with an inline fan that blows directly into the stove room. That will greatly assist convecting the heat up the stairway. So will enlarging the door opening.

 

[Grisu]

If the Lange stove was in that same location and able to heat your home I would not worry too much about installing a new stove there. You should get longer burn times and reduce your wood consumption but otherwise it should work similar. However, as it seems you don't want the actual stove room hot but instead heat the air that it can travel around the house, I suggest to go with a more convective than radiant stove. To distinguish between the two look at the clearances. Rule of thumb: The lower the clearances the more convective is a stove. The T6 and F55 would be good examples but there are others. If you want to stick with the 30NC I would think about installing ventilated wall shields even when it is not to reduce clearances. The shields will still convert the radiant heat into convective heat and reduce the amount that goes outside through the basement walls.

There is a 2 ft x 6 inch vent above the wood stove into the master bedroom although we close the vent often because that room heats well being above the stove with non-insulated floors.

Now that is something I would not have in my home. Some reverse draft and you may get carbon monoxide into your bedroom while you are sleeping. It may even be against code in your jurisdiction. At least put fusable link-dampers in there that close automatically when there is a fire.

 

[xman23]

What Be Green said. If all the living goes on on the main floor then that's were the stove should be. Cathedral ceilings (I have them) work well with the stove. Harder to overheat the stove room, whilst heating all the living space. My guess is your cooking the basement trying to heat the up stairs. That said the are ways to improve getting air in and out of the basement. But, I'd put the money into a new chimney, hearth in the great room. Even if you had use the old stove up there.

 

[Brigos]

@begreen I think I will play around with the idea of bringing the air from the front of the house to that room...I may have a very easy way of doing that, thank you for the idea. The stove will be almost centered in the door open on the other side of the room so as far as air flow goes its about as good as I can get it in the current situation.
@Grisu I will be taking a look at the jotul 55 tomorrow or Saturday, the Summit and Jotul are certainly better looking stoves, but it is a utility room. Just found out that I would have to wait for 3 weeks for the Summit, the closest dealer doesn't stock the basic stove and there is quite a price difference between the T6 they stock and a base Summit. the 30-NC is in stock at the local orange box so its easy and the price point is nice which is one reason I am entertaining that recommendation. The vent was put in by the previous owners when the house was built mid 70s, I understand the concern for back draft and monoxide however we currently use the bedroom as a living room so at least the risk is minimal without notice rather than during sleep.
@xman23 The basement has a bedroom, my gym, pantry and full bath in it so having heat there is nice, to be fair It doesn't actually get that hot down there, certainly warmer then the front of the house upstairs but thermometer in my gym is usually steady at about 70/71 degrees. I would guess the room above the wood stove is about the same temp. I do already have another chimney with a very large fireplace however we have decided not to use wood/insert in that room simply because of the mess, the basement is easy to store and easy to clean. So that situation kind of is what it is...

The reason I updated is after chatting with a local store while picking up a new flue brush I mentioned my situation... This particular person said that they may go with a slightly smaller stove 2.4 ish and had concern that the larger stove may work against what I am trying to accomplish, making the utility room really hot without much air movement. So this made me curious if the fine people here would agree, then I realized that I had not mentioned the wall/doorway to the utility room and basement room division to the forum (hard to expect advice without complete information). I greatly appreciate the help you all have offered and thank you for helping me to upgrade my understanding of more efficient burning.

 

[begreen]

The reason I updated is after chatting with a local store while picking up a new flue brush I mentioned my situation... This particular person said that they may go with a slightly smaller stove 2.4 ish and had concern that the larger stove may work against what I am trying to accomplish, making the utility room really hot without much air movement. So this made me curious if the fine people here would agree, then I realized that I had not mentioned the wall/doorway to the utility room and basement room division to the forum (hard to expect advice without complete information). I greatly appreciate the help you all have offered and thank you for helping me to upgrade my understanding of more efficient burning

This is where the convective fan on the insert will make a difference. Sounds like the 30NC or a Drolet HT2000 would do the job. Add a simple convection deck to the 30NC to focus the fan output more toward the doorway.

 

[Brigos]

Ugghhh.... So bought the 30 NC seemed simple. Got it home from HD, installed it, had a nice cold weekend to break it in. Start first fire (small for break in), cant get it to draft well so I have to sit with door open entire time, realizing there seems to be a draft issue about 15 minutes in, I did not add any wood and let the small start pile burn and go out with door ajar. Today I got around to trying to figure out draft issue. Notice that there are sunflower seed shells in the air intake hole. Decide to stick my shop vac in there and hear all kinds of fun stuff suck out. Instead of hooking it back up and testing it with fire I decided to get my air compressor out and blow air through the air wash area to see if I could feel air come out the intake along with air through the hole under the dog house. I can feel a good current of air moving when aiming through the air wash but nothing when aiming through the dog house hole. Using the compressor in the opposite direction, from intake to air wash/dog house I can feel good current through the air wash, nothing at the dog house. Before I get a buddy to help me lug this thing back out of my basement and get a replacement that most likely does not have the left overs of a mouse nest in it. Should I be able to feel the air coming through the dog house hole, I would guess yes given that I can feel the air wash but figured I would get some thoughts first. Thanks.