Choosing the Correct Wood Stove for 750 sqft Home in Alaska

[ChristyInAK]

Hey Everyone! Long time lurker, there's some really great info here!!

I could use some recommendations on the correct wood stove for mine and my husband's house. Here are some basic details:

• The home is 2 story 24'x32' with 8' ceilings - garage on bottom, living space on top (approx 750 sqft of living space upstairs)
• The stove will be for the upstairs, and secondary heating source
• We live in interior Alaska so it gets COLD, -30F, -40F is common in winter
• But! We like it chillier than most indoors, 55-60F range is ideal; anything hotter and we are miserable
• New construction, finished summer 2021, so great insulation, windows, etc; Our house is very well sealed

We use a pellet stove downstairs in the garage for primary heat, and it keeps it warm enough for us at anything above 0F. Electricity is very expensive in Alaska, plus power outages are somewhat common. We want a wood stove for secondary heat upstairs because it can be operated in an outage.

The Blaze King is the industry standard in our area, but we're concerned it will heat us out of the home! We're looking at a smaller Quadra-Fire, like the Millennium 2100. I've read that steel will cool down quicker than the cast iron stoves, and it seems to be pretty efficient for heating a small space. We're also considering a Woodstock Soapstone stove, since the stone provides more even, radiant heat. I'm open to any suggestions! I figure actual experience will be much more helpful than a sales pitch. Let me know if additional info would be helpful! Thank you all!

 

[begreen]

It's not the brand of the stove to be concerned about. The minimum BTU output for this situation is what's important. And it sounds like radiant heat may not be a qualifier. A Blaze King would be fine, these are not high-output stoves. I think the Woodstock Fireview may be their lowest output stove.

How long are the power outages? If the pellet stove does the job then it might be worth considering backup power for it in the form of a battery bank or a generator.

 

[ChristyInAK]

It's not the brand of the stove to be concerned about. The minimum BTU output for this situation is what's important. And it sounds like radiant heat may not be a qualifier. A Blaze King would be fine, these are not high-output stoves. I think the Woodstock Fireview may be their lowest output stove.

How long are the power outages? If the pellet stove does the job then it might be worth considering backup power for it in the form of a battery bank or a generator.

Thanks for the input! I appreciate it! We are looking at solar, but it'll be a few years before we get the money to do that. The pellet stove works most times, but in the extreme cold we could use a little extra boost of heat upstairs. Power outages vary, but generally they last for a couple hours at least. Things can cool down quickly when it's -30 outside though. And with dogs that need regular outside time, we don't always have the luxury to leave the doors shut and sealed.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

How big is the pellet stove and how hard do you run it? That could help sizing the woodstove.

 

[ChristyInAK]

How big is the pellet stove and how hard do you run it? That could help sizing the woodstove.

It's a Winslow PS40. It has 5 heat settings. As a general guideline, 25F+ on a 1, 15F+ on a 2, 0F+ on a 3, below 0F on a 4. We haven't used it on its highest setting (yet). It's our first winter with it (and the house!), so we do have electric radiator heaters upstairs for some extra heat, that we use when it hits around +10F. But it's expensive, so we want to be better prepared next winter. Also worth noting, we have mostly spruce wood, a little birch around here.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Ok. So you have a 40k btu pellet stove that you will be running all out and will be using supplemental heat at the same time. If you are running 80% at 0F, and get to -40, I bet you could easily, run a similarly sized stove upstairs.

You could do a cat stove or a non cat up to 2cu ft. If you go non cat, I'd look into thermal mass to even out the heat spike.

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

It gets very cold here however not quite as cold as you in Alaska, the one thing I have learned from experience is that the manufacturers ratings is based on warmer climates, so a stoves capacity rating of 2000 sq. ft. in Washington state needs to be knocked down by 40% - 50% for Maine or the green mountains of Vermont or Alaska as an example where it does get extremely cold. My 2 cu. ft. fire box in my Pacific Energy Spectrum Classic is to small for my house when it gets below -15° - 20° that is when a Summit model would be sized far better to heat 1500 - 1600 sq. ft. in those colder temps. I guess what I am saying is size your stove for the extreme cold you get in Alaska, you can always build smaller fires in a larger stove to have lower heat output, you can not over stuff a smaller fire box as you are simply limited by its size. The heat output you require in extreme cold and what you will get out of your stove is what you should be mainly concerned with, a well experience stove dealer in your area should be able to guide you expertly.

 

[begreen]

Ok. So you have a 40k btu pellet stove that you will be running all out and will be using supplemental heat at the same time. If you are running 80% at 0F, and get to -40, I bet you could easily, run a similarly sized stove upstairs.

You could do a cat stove or a non cat up to 2cu ft. If you go non cat, I'd look into thermal mass to even out the heat spike.

Agreed. Another thing that would be helpful to know is specific info about the electric heaters. When it's 0 or colder, how many do you run and at what wattage?

 

[Poindexter]

We just got our electric bill yesterday. 743 kilowatt hours delivered last month, $196 billed. $ 0.26xxx per kwh. My wife said, oh no, look honey, they are only charging us 12 cents per kwh, it is the fee this and excise that and the fuel surcharge that makes the bill so high. Still $196 billed for 743 kwh delivered. They might only be charging me 12 cents per kilowatt hour, but they are charging my bank account 26 cents per kwh.

We are also in yet another air quality alert, this one runs until tomorrow afternoon. My house is 40 years older than that of the OP, but I will be putting a BK King into our next house in Fairbanks. Inside the rectangle of death, or non attainment area, whatever it is that makes me a regulated burner, I am not allowed to add fuel to my solid fuel heating device during AQ alerts. If I got a BK King I could load that sucker up at the last minute and run 3-4 days on low (in 1200 sqft circa 1980) without having to reload.

I would caution the OP that the "Goldstream Valley nonattainment area" is already defined by ADEC, zone three I think they call it, though not yet recognized by the US EPA.

Look at how low you can run a BK King - during an AQ alert when your pellet burner has to be shut down (coming soon to a subdivision near you)- before you buy anything smaller.

Spruce is fine. Get it down to 18% and spend less per BTU than all the yay-hoos who want birch birch birch.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Wow, yeah, reloading schedule would certainly influence my choice in that situation.

My only worry with that would be the 8" pipe. If you were not thrilled with the stove you have limited choices to replace it without changing out the chimney. You might want to look at the blaze kings that use a 6" chimney and see if they meet your needs.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I like burning spruce.

We're spoiled by the wood available here, but softwood does the job just fine.

 

[ohlongarm]

Hey Everyone! Long time lurker, there's some really great info here!!

I could use some recommendations on the correct wood stove for mine and my husband's house. Here are some basic details:

• The home is 2 story 24'x32' with 8' ceilings - garage on bottom, living space on top (approx 750 sqft of living space upstairs)
• The stove will be for the upstairs, and secondary heating source
• We live in interior Alaska so it gets COLD, -30F, -40F is common in winter
• But! We like it chillier than most indoors, 55-60F range is ideal; anything hotter and we are miserable
• New construction, finished summer 2021, so great insulation, windows, etc; Our house is very well sealed

We use a pellet stove downstairs in the garage for primary heat, and it keeps it warm enough for us at anything above 0F. Electricity is very expensive in Alaska, plus power outages are somewhat common. We want a wood stove for secondary heat upstairs because it can be operated in an outage.

The Blaze King is the industry standard in our area, but we're concerned it will heat us out of the home! We're looking at a smaller Quadra-Fire, like the Millennium 2100. I've read that steel will cool down quicker than the cast iron stoves, and it seems to be pretty efficient for heating a small space. We're also considering a Woodstock Soapstone stove, since the stone provides more even, radiant heat. I'm open to any suggestions! I figure actual experience will be much more helpful than a sales pitch. Let me know if additional info would be helpful! Thank you all!

My friend lives his whole life in Alaska off grid big time , he has a BK with I believe a 2.5 cu ft box , one floor cabin well insulated about 650 sq ft.He says he's always warm. softwoods as you know .

 

[ChristyInAK]

It gets very cold here however not quite as cold as you in Alaska, the one thing I have learned from experience is that the manufacturers ratings is based on warmer climates, so a stoves capacity rating of 2000 sq. ft. in Washington state needs to be knocked down by 40% - 50% for Maine or the green mountains of Vermont or Alaska as an example where it does get extremely cold. My 2 cu. ft. fire box in my Pacific Energy Spectrum Classic is to small for my house when it gets below -15° - 20° that is when a Summit model would be sized far better to heat 1500 - 1600 sq. ft. in those colder temps. I guess what I am saying is size your stove for the extreme cold you get in Alaska, you can always build smaller fires in a larger stove to have lower heat output, you can not over stuff a smaller fire box as you are simply limited by its size. The heat output you require in extreme cold and what you will get out of your stove is what you should be mainly concerned with, a well experience stove dealer in your area should be able to guide you expertly.

That makes a lot of sense, and I didn't think of the type of climates they used for their estimates! Thank you!

 

[ChristyInAK]

We just got our electric bill yesterday. 743 kilowatt hours delivered last month, $196 billed. $ 0.26xxx per kwh. My wife said, oh no, look honey, they are only charging us 12 cents per kwh, it is the fee this and excise that and the fuel surcharge that makes the bill so high. Still $196 billed for 743 kwh delivered. They might only be charging me 12 cents per kilowatt hour, but they are charging my bank account 26 cents per kwh.

We are also in yet another air quality alert, this one runs until tomorrow afternoon. My house is 40 years older than that of the OP, but I will be putting a BK King into our next house in Fairbanks. Inside the rectangle of death, or non attainment area, whatever it is that makes me a regulated burner, I am not allowed to add fuel to my solid fuel heating device during AQ alerts. If I got a BK King I could load that sucker up at the last minute and run 3-4 days on low (in 1200 sqft circa 1980) without having to reload.

I would caution the OP that the "Goldstream Valley nonattainment area" is already defined by ADEC, zone three I think they call it, though not yet recognized by the US EPA.

Look at how low you can run a BK King - during an AQ alert when your pellet burner has to be shut down (coming soon to a subdivision near you)- before you buy anything smaller.

Spruce is fine. Get it down to 18% and spend less per BTU than all the yay-hoos who want birch birch birch.

We are (luckily!) well outside the non attainment area. We actually had to sign a waiver to buy our pellet stove earlier this year - it was a couple percentage points below the required efficiency. Bonus, we got it at half price, because they couldn't sell it to anyone within the nonattainment zone. We are still well outside of the Goldstream zone too, thankfully. Creative way to get around the AQ alert - I love it!

The electric prices here are crazy!

 

[ChristyInAK]

Agreed. Another thing that would be helpful to know is specific info about the electric heaters. When it's 0 or colder, how many do you run and at what wattage?

We have 2 electric heaters upstairs, one in the living room, and one in the bedroom. This winter is a bit of a learning curve for us. I can tell you, we're running them a lot less after we got that first electric bill ha! They have variable settings, which change the wattage (750, 1000, or 1500 watts), and we keep them as low as we can while still staying comfortable. It may be worth noting, they are rated to heat 1000sqft. But they often do struggle to do so.

 

[Poindexter]

You know, my wife and I looked at a similar sounding property just north of Hilltop back in I think May 2021.

Given the reasonably small size of the upper level, you could look to see how low you can turn down a BK princess. it is about the biggest stove you can put under a six inch chimney, you should be able to turn it down pretty low. If it ends up being too much stove you should be able to resell it - back into the rectangle of death- without taking an enormous hit on price and have more or less infinity options for plug and play stove install with a 6" chimney ready to go.

I too have noticed locally people either have a wood stove, or not, and the stove is either a Blaze King, or not. the last couple days while we have been in the -30s and -40s I have run my stove pretty hard, but we are forecast to get up to -26 tomorrow and it will be warm enough to snow on Thursday. While the non-catalytic stoves can do "better" at wide open throttle, we just don't need that all the time here.

My previous stove was an EPA certified non cat, and I am not excited to go back to that technology in the future.

FWIW I am in a 1980 build, heating about 1200sqft with a BK '30' size box, (Ashford/Scirocco/other cosmetics I forgot). I would have liked a little bit bigger stove. A 30 box might also be a good fit for you. If you had last winter's utility data (duh) this could be a slam dunk. How good is your data for BTU usage so far this winter by week or month? If you can walk into our local BK dealer tomorrow and say in October we used this many kwh and pellets, in November this much, and in the first two weeks of December this much they (and we here) can narrow down your range quite a bit. Probaly won't have electricity data for December until your electric bill is printed on January 4 unless you track your meter yourself... but the last few days are about as bad as it gets for the last several years.

 

[ChristyInAK]

You know, my wife and I looked at a similar sounding property just north of Hilltop back in I think May 2021.

Given the reasonably small size of the upper level, you could look to see how low you can turn down a BK princess. it is about the biggest stove you can put under a six inch chimney, you should be able to turn it down pretty low. If it ends up being too much stove you should be able to resell it - back into the rectangle of death- without taking an enormous hit on price and have more or less infinity options for plug and play stove install with a 6" chimney ready to go.

I too have noticed locally people either have a wood stove, or not, and the stove is either a Blaze King, or not. the last couple days while we have been in the -30s and -40s I have run my stove pretty hard, but we are forecast to get up to -26 tomorrow and it will be warm enough to snow on Thursday. While the non-catalytic stoves can do "better" at wide open throttle, we just don't need that all the time here.

My previous stove was an EPA certified non cat, and I am not excited to go back to that technology in the future.

FWIW I am in a 1980 build, heating about 1200sqft with a BK '30' size box, (Ashford/Scirocco/other cosmetics I forgot). I would have liked a little bit bigger stove. A 30 box might also be a good fit for you. If you had last winter's utility data (duh) this could be a slam dunk. How good is your data for BTU usage so far this winter by week or month? If you can walk into our local BK dealer tomorrow and say in October we used this many kwh and pellets, in November this much, and in the first two weeks of December this much they (and we here) can narrow down your range quite a bit. Probaly won't have electricity data for December until your electric bill is printed on January 4 unless you track your meter yourself... but the last few days are about as bad as it gets for the last several years.

Thanks for the reply! That's a great idea. I haven't been tracking the meter myself, so I think I'll hold off until that December bill comes out, so I have a better idea what to take down to the BK dealer to size the stove correctly. I don't have an opinion (yet) on cat vs non cat, but you are definitely right in the resale value of a BK!

On a side note, we lived in the valley before we finished building our house, in one of the coldest spots around. I am getting spoiled in the hills with this inversion layer! Our record so far this winter is a comparatively "warm" -25!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Make sure you have enough wood up! Sellers usually sell wood on the green side and cat stoves are more sensitive to wetter wood than non cat stoves!

 

[begreen]

We have 2 electric heaters upstairs, one in the living room, and one in the bedroom. This winter is a bit of a learning curve for us. I can tell you, we're running them a lot less after we got that first electric bill ha! They have variable settings, which change the wattage (750, 1000, or 1500 watts), and we keep them as low as we can while still staying comfortable. It may be worth noting, they are rated to heat 1000sqft. But they often do struggle to do so.

OK, that helps. So if we are designing for the worst-case cold, assuming at that point that both heaters are run at 1500w, then that is the equivalent of approx. 10,000 btus which is about 1,000 btus above the low-end output for some BK stoves. However, the area will need more heat if the pellet stove is run at a lower output or if there is a power outage.

The other thing to consider is how well the heat will circulate. Unlike electric space heaters which can be located in different areas, the woodstove will be a fixed point of heat.

 

[ChristyInAK]

Make sure you have enough wood up! Sellers usually sell wood on the green side and cat stoves are more sensitive to wetter wood than non cat stoves!

That is good to know - thank you! We are big DIYers, but are quite inexperienced. I will have to do some more research on the learning curve with cat stoves before we make a decision.

 

[ChristyInAK]

OK, that helps. So if we are designing for the worst-case cold, assuming at that point that both heaters are run at 1500w, then that is the equivalent of approx. 10,000 btus which is about 1,000 btus above the low-end output for some BK stoves. However, the area will need more heat if the pellet stove is run at a lower output or if there is a power outage.

The other thing to consider is how well the heat will circulate. Unlike electric space heaters which can be located in different areas, the woodstove will be a fixed point of heat.

Thank you for the wattage to btu comparison - that definitely helps! We do have ceiling fans with winter settings that help circulate the warm air as well.

 

[begreen]

That is good to know - thank you! We are big DIYers, but are quite inexperienced. I will have to do some more research on the learning curve with cat stoves before we make a decision.

Do a cost analysis too. If there is no current chimney in place then figure $5-6K out of pocket to get started. A BK stove will qualify for the tax credit if you can take it, so $3.8-4.5K after the credit is applied to the next year's return.

 

[Poindexter]

The thing that makes me nervous here is not having the 40k BTU/ hr pellet downstairs online and running during power outages.

We can't really suggest making 50k BTU/hr upstairs, cause that will just cook out everyone upstairs while the basement/ lower level gets cooler and cooler and cold.

I would be much happier with the idea of a smaller stove on the upper level if there was some kind of backup power for the pellet. Will the pellet burnder run on 12 volts DC? What about a fair sized boat or truck battery on the lower level on a trickle charger, then when/if the power goes off, unhook the trickle charger and hook the pellet burner to the battery for a day or two?

Another possiblity, with plentiful pellets, would be a smaller pellet burner on the upper level, cheaper install, no cord wood to split, and two stoves needing backup power during utility outages.

 

[ChristyInAK]

The thing that makes me nervous here is not having the 40k BTU/ hr pellet downstairs online and running during power outages.

We can't really suggest making 50k BTU/hr upstairs, cause that will just cook out everyone upstairs while the basement/ lower level gets cooler and cooler and cold.

I would be much happier with the idea of a smaller stove on the upper level if there was some kind of backup power for the pellet. Will the pellet burnder run on 12 volts DC? What about a fair sized boat or truck battery on the lower level on a trickle charger, then when/if the power goes off, unhook the trickle charger and hook the pellet burner to the battery for a day or two?

Another possiblity, with plentiful pellets, would be a smaller pellet burner on the upper level, cheaper install, no cord wood to split, and two stoves needing backup power during utility outages.

We have plans for solar down the line, and that'll come with a battery backup. For the immediate, we have a kerosene heater we can use in case of a power outage. We also installed our water lines with easy shut off/drain points, so if we are out for a while, we can ensure our lines don't freeze or burst. We have some water on hand if we need it.

We didn't want to do a wood stove downstairs, as it's harder to maintain/monitor when we aren't around it much. We do strongly prefer a wood stove upstairs, since rounding and splitting our own wood is free.

 

[RockyMtnGriz]

I'm sure you have good reasons to want what you want where you want it, but I'll say that I have a similar setup to yours, where I'm not downstairs much, but having my wood furnace downstairs is not a problem, at least when I'm not nursing a leg injury. I haven't owned one (yet, maybe), but from what I read of those who do, putting a BK King or the like downstairs would be similar to my situation. You fill it up every 12, 24, or 48, or whatever it takes, set the thermostatically controlled burn rate, and come back when you know it's going to need reloaded. Not much interaction required.

While my furnace downstairs chugs away taking care of the baseline heating, my desire (that I haven't worked out yet) is for a more adjustable form of heat upstairs. Similar to you, my house is usually 60 degrees +/- 3 degrees year-round. It would be nice to be able to have a little shot of heat in the master bedroom or living room for an hour or two in the morning or evening, when there's large daily temp swings, or when you stumble in damp or half frozen, especially radiant heat. I have the same fear as you that even the lowest btu output wood stove would often be too much heat, or too long of a heat source in the upstairs supplemental role. I currently have a fireplace type stove in my living room that's pretty, but it's just too much unless it's seriously sub-zero, and repeated fire starts get to be a pain. A pellet stove would do much better in that role, I think (if you could tolerate the noise - I couldn't), or pretty much any fuel other than wood.

In my case, a propane stove in the living room and bedroom would probably be ideal - I just can't get past the propane part.

Just something to think about, and again, I'm sure you have your reasons, that you certainly don't have to defend to me, but from what I've read, I'd be thinking about moving the pellet stove upstairs (if you could tolerate it there), and putting in a large capacity, but very controllable stove like a King downstairs to handle the main load.