Clearances for Wood Stove

[CTSNic]

I am building a house, and I am wanting to plan for a future wood burning stove as auxiliary heat. I only have two places for it to go in the living room...I prefer the corner so it is out of the way of all traffic and furniture, but doing so would put it near a picture window.

So - I am wondering, when I go shopping for a modern day (read: insulated) stove, what are the minimum distances between walls/windows I will have to abide to? I was reading something along 12 to 18" but I want to be sure!

Also, if anyone knows...what kind of sticker price should I be saving up for...not a large stove by any means since it's just a secondary or backup heat for my main floor (1300 sq ft)

 

[begreen]

Welcome. The distance will vary with the stove design. Stoves that have a convective jacket will usually have lower clearances. Some are much lower than 12". The Lopi Endeavor's corner clearance for example is 6.5" when the stove is installed with double-wall connector pipe. The Pacific Energy Super 27 and the Napoleon 1400 goes as low as 4" when connected with double-wall. Figure around $1800 for a stove in this 2 cu ft range. The exception is the Englander Madison which has a clearance of about 6" with side shields and double wall pipe and a price just under $800.

 

[Oldman47]

I would suggest you review the owner's manual on a few stoves about the size you would be interested in buying. A fairly small stove would be a 2 cubic foot firebox and a large stove would be close to 4 cubic foot firebox. Ignore all the advertising hype about square footage as it is just that, hype. At 1300 sq ft and only one floor I suggest you look at stoves around 3 cu ft. All of the owner's manuals seem to include a more or less standard diagram laying out the required clearances. As Begreen said, the Napoleon series of stoves have nice small clearances. I am building a house with a small spot for a stove and ended up with a Napoleon 1100, which will no way heat my new house but will probably keep it above freezing for a prolonged power outage. It is a small stove at a bit less than 2 cu ft but to really heat most of my house would require closer to a 4 cu ft stove.
Use that standard diagram with clearances and the stove dimensions to figure out the footprint you will need for each stove. My guess is that, like me, you have underestimated how much space you really need to leave for a stove.

 

[Grisu]

I am wondering, when I go shopping for a modern day (read: insulated) stove

What do you mean by "insulated"? Modern stoves have the distinction of being more efficient and to have lower emissions but I am not sure how they are supposed to be insulated. However, they need dry wood with an internal moisture content of less than 20%. That usually requires to split and stack the wood in a sunny and windy location for up to three years depending on the species. I recommend you get some wood set up for seasoning in some corner of your lot while building your house.

BeGreen already gave you some good candidates for stoves with low clearances. I suggest looking for a firebox size of 2 to 2.5 cu ft. Be aware that the chimney can be as expensive as the stove, especially when you need to use quite a bit of class A. Is that the top floor? How far from the floor to roof? Many stoves require a minimum of 15 ft of chimney. When your design is pretty airtight I would look into adding an outside air kit (OAK) to the stove. That will help with draft.

Be also careful with the idea that the stove will just be for backup heat. That was our intention when getting our fireplace insert but we soon enjoyed its heat and the fireshow so much that we have it running essentially every night and 24/7 on weekends or holidays.