Hi everyone - I'm glad to have found this forum, with what seems to be a lot of very educated wood-burners on it! I've been lurking here for a bit, and have found oodles of info, but I'm hoping to get more specific advice about my hunt for a new stove.
Excuse the length, but I figure the more info I put down, the better you'll understand my particular situation. And I like to talk...
My situation: my husband and I bought this house a year and a half ago, just outside of Augusta, Maine. It's a 220-year-old farmhouse with some draftiness issues, though it does have new-ish double-pane windows throughout. I'm planning to add insulation to the basement sills and attic crawlspaces this year, which should help. We've got two woodstoves, one in the kitchen which is an Ashley - we use it on colder days to get the kitchen comfortable, because that room is less open to the rest of the house, and the floor is over a crawlspace and quite cold. Our main source of heat (which you can see in my avatar) is an old Dovre. It used to be a catalytic, but that's all burned out and destroyed (happened before we inherited it) - not sure if you can even get parts for this thing anymore. The grate that the fire sits on has a big ol' hole in the middle of it, so the fire ends up burning half in the ashpan. Nevertheless, we have heated our house almost completely with this sad broken thing for going on 2 winters now (and this latest one has been a doozy so far).
The house is about 2000 square feet, and the layout, while not really open, is better than a lot of these old houses here in Maine. The living room (where the stove is) and the dining room have been opened up into one space with a half-wall between them (a built in shelf with space for the TV and stereo), and the stairs go up from the dining room into an open alcove space that the 3 bedrooms are situated around. We've done alright keeping it pretty warm in here (70's in the LR/DR, mid 60s in the rest of the house), but we went through 6.5 cords last year and are on-track to do the same or more this winter. Better than oil, but I'm hoping that with a new stove and some insulation we can do a lot better.
What I'm looking for:
I want a non-CAT stove (I like simple technology that doesn't require a lot of upkeep and replacement parts, and I don't need 30 hour burn times) that is well-built, easy to maintain, with minimal costs for upkeep, that I can use as my primary heat in a cold climate. I've been looking at larger capacity fireboxes (3 cubic feet or more), though in the shoulder seasons I will be burning smaller fires in it. I'd like to get at least 8 or 9 hours of burn time, though 10 or 12 would be awesome. I don't think I'll need to worry about my clearances - if you can see in my avatar, my brick "hearth" is pretty darn roomy.
I went to two local stove shops today, just as a first pass to see what was available. At the first, the salesperson steered me toward the Pacific Energy Summit, and at the second, the Regency (don't remember which model, but the biggest non-Cat). I'm leaning toward the PE - any thoughts on the Extended Burn Technology?
My husband, who's a romantic, is pushing for a cast-iron stove, or perhaps the PE Alderea T6. My only worry with an iron-clad stove is hearing complaints that it doesn't put off enough radiant heat. It is a very pretty stove, as compared to the plainer steel stoves, but I'd rather sacrifice beauty for utility. This thing is going to heat my house, and fire looks pretty in any box, as far as I'm concerned.
A couple of other thoughts...I'm used to having a side door now, and very seldom use the front door on this stove - am I going to miss having a side door?
What about adding thermal mass around a stove? Anyone here try this? My hearth runs over a middle foundation wall in the cellar, so I think I have some leeway to add some serious weight if I want to, but I wonder how effective it might be (like a pseudo-masonry stove for cheap), or if it would negatively affect the performance of the stove (or, god forbid, the stove itself).
Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more questions, but that should get you started. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
Excuse the length, but I figure the more info I put down, the better you'll understand my particular situation. And I like to talk...
My situation: my husband and I bought this house a year and a half ago, just outside of Augusta, Maine. It's a 220-year-old farmhouse with some draftiness issues, though it does have new-ish double-pane windows throughout. I'm planning to add insulation to the basement sills and attic crawlspaces this year, which should help. We've got two woodstoves, one in the kitchen which is an Ashley - we use it on colder days to get the kitchen comfortable, because that room is less open to the rest of the house, and the floor is over a crawlspace and quite cold. Our main source of heat (which you can see in my avatar) is an old Dovre. It used to be a catalytic, but that's all burned out and destroyed (happened before we inherited it) - not sure if you can even get parts for this thing anymore. The grate that the fire sits on has a big ol' hole in the middle of it, so the fire ends up burning half in the ashpan. Nevertheless, we have heated our house almost completely with this sad broken thing for going on 2 winters now (and this latest one has been a doozy so far).
The house is about 2000 square feet, and the layout, while not really open, is better than a lot of these old houses here in Maine. The living room (where the stove is) and the dining room have been opened up into one space with a half-wall between them (a built in shelf with space for the TV and stereo), and the stairs go up from the dining room into an open alcove space that the 3 bedrooms are situated around. We've done alright keeping it pretty warm in here (70's in the LR/DR, mid 60s in the rest of the house), but we went through 6.5 cords last year and are on-track to do the same or more this winter. Better than oil, but I'm hoping that with a new stove and some insulation we can do a lot better.
What I'm looking for:
I want a non-CAT stove (I like simple technology that doesn't require a lot of upkeep and replacement parts, and I don't need 30 hour burn times) that is well-built, easy to maintain, with minimal costs for upkeep, that I can use as my primary heat in a cold climate. I've been looking at larger capacity fireboxes (3 cubic feet or more), though in the shoulder seasons I will be burning smaller fires in it. I'd like to get at least 8 or 9 hours of burn time, though 10 or 12 would be awesome. I don't think I'll need to worry about my clearances - if you can see in my avatar, my brick "hearth" is pretty darn roomy.
I went to two local stove shops today, just as a first pass to see what was available. At the first, the salesperson steered me toward the Pacific Energy Summit, and at the second, the Regency (don't remember which model, but the biggest non-Cat). I'm leaning toward the PE - any thoughts on the Extended Burn Technology?
My husband, who's a romantic, is pushing for a cast-iron stove, or perhaps the PE Alderea T6. My only worry with an iron-clad stove is hearing complaints that it doesn't put off enough radiant heat. It is a very pretty stove, as compared to the plainer steel stoves, but I'd rather sacrifice beauty for utility. This thing is going to heat my house, and fire looks pretty in any box, as far as I'm concerned.
A couple of other thoughts...I'm used to having a side door now, and very seldom use the front door on this stove - am I going to miss having a side door?
What about adding thermal mass around a stove? Anyone here try this? My hearth runs over a middle foundation wall in the cellar, so I think I have some leeway to add some serious weight if I want to, but I wonder how effective it might be (like a pseudo-masonry stove for cheap), or if it would negatively affect the performance of the stove (or, god forbid, the stove itself).
Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more questions, but that should get you started. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
