Englander 30-NC comparison

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KevinG

Member
Aug 10, 2010
113
Lancaster County, PA
Although I grew up with a wood stove, that was 30 years ago. It was an ancient stove by today's standards. So, I'm reading a lot and learning a lot about wood stoves, preparing to buy one to heat our old brick farmhouse (new windows & doors)

My brother-in-law has two stoves to heat his old farmhouse (old leaky windows & doors). He tells me the big stove he bought at Lowes (a 30-NC) to heat the old part of his house burns a lot more wood compared to the Country Stoves Performer ST210 [1] he bought to heat the new part. He also says the 30-NC is almost always burned out in the morning but the ST210 has a good bed of coals.

Well....I see a couple problems right off with his comparison. Size of firebox, new highly insulated addition vs old leaky house...

Of course, I'd prefer to spend $725 and not > $2k. But I don't want to burn an extra cord or two of wood every year. And I really don't want to restart my stove every morning either. How does one go about comparing or estimating the quantity of wood used by two different stoves?

[1] - http://www.lennoxhearthproducts.com/products/overview.asp?pid=468
 
just a quess but is the chimney taller on the nc-30 ?
 
EPA stove has constant flow of secondary air which will diminish the coals. if a fluepipe damper is installed , it'll prolong the coals if closed at night. ideally the damper would close on its own after the flames have diminished so to preserve the coals & not affect the efficiency of the burn
 
Lots of variables to account for, so it is difficult at best to make a direct comparison. Gotta consider things like insulation and windows. Which side of the house take the brunt of the wind in the winter. Number and location of windows and doors in the room. Height of the ceilings. Heck, could be something as simple as the door gasket on one stove giving a tighter seal than the other stove, resulting in a slower, more controlled burn.

You may not find a way to directly compare stove to stove, but you will find a number of satisfied Englander users here.
 
KevinG said:
He tells me the big stove he bought at Lowes (a 30-NC) to heat the old part of his house burns a lot more wood compared to the Country Stoves Performer ST210 [1] he bought to heat the new part. He also says the 30-NC is almost always burned out in the morning but the ST210 has a good bed of coals.

This leaves a lot of questions. Is he burning one hotter than the other? Is he loading them the same? Not making it through the night with an NC30 seems... odd.

How big is your house? What type of layout do you have?
 
It has to do with firebox size and the EPA testing requirements. The large firebox stoves are harder to get up to temp than the smaller confined area in the small firebox stoves. And harder to maintain the higher clean burning temp in the tests. Therefore the designer has to allow more unrestricted primary air into the stove to maintain the clean burn when the intake is closed down by the the user. PE addressed it, with questionable success, with the EBT system trying to get as long a burn time as their smaller Super 27 stoves.
 
BrowningBAR said:
KevinG said:
He tells me the big stove he bought at Lowes (a 30-NC) to heat the old part of his house burns a lot more wood compared to the Country Stoves Performer ST210 [1] he bought to heat the new part. He also says the 30-NC is almost always burned out in the morning but the ST210 has a good bed of coals.

This leaves a lot of questions. Is he burning one hotter than the other? Is he loading them the same? Not making it through the night with an NC30 seems... odd.

How big is your house? What type of layout do you have?

I suppose he could be burning the 30-NC hotter because it's in the less insulated part of the house. Does insulation really make that big of a difference...?

My house is 1,700 sq ft downstairs with a circular floorplan around a central stairway (enclosed but no door) leading to a second floor that is another 1,100 sq ft. I plan to use a fan to push the warm in a loop downstairs and allow it to drift upstairs. In the attachment, the red part is brick 2-story and the blue is frame single-story. Both have new doors and windows but minimal attic insulation. (Although I plan to blow insulation this fall.) The orange box is where I'd like to put the wood stove.
 

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KevinG said:
BrowningBAR said:
KevinG said:
He tells me the big stove he bought at Lowes (a 30-NC) to heat the old part of his house burns a lot more wood compared to the Country Stoves Performer ST210 [1] he bought to heat the new part. He also says the 30-NC is almost always burned out in the morning but the ST210 has a good bed of coals.

This leaves a lot of questions. Is he burning one hotter than the other? Is he loading them the same? Not making it through the night with an NC30 seems... odd.

How big is your house? What type of layout do you have?

I suppose he could be burning the 30-NC hotter because it's in the less insulated part of the house. Does insulation really make that big of a difference...?

My house is 1,700 sq ft downstairs with a circular floorplan around a central stairway (enclosed but no door) leading to a second floor that is another 1,100 sq ft. I plan to use a fan to push the warm in a loop downstairs and allow it to drift upstairs. In the attachment, the red part is brick 2-story and the blue is frame single-story. Both have new doors and windows but minimal attic insulation. (Although I plan to blow insulation this fall.) The orange box is where I'd like to put the wood stove.


I can not tell by the floorplan, but why can't you put the stove in the large room with the staircase?
 
BrowningBAR said:
I can not tell by the floorplan, but why can't you put the stove in the large room with the staircase?

I didn't include all the internal details but that's the kitchen/dining/family room.

I know the single-story isn't the optimal place to put the stove but it'll be really convenient for bringing wood in from the garage. Plus it's a concrete floor & brick walls, so no hearth is required.

Am I right in thinking that a convection stove with a blower that pumps out hot air would be better in this application than a radiant stove that heats objects in the room? Or am I just analyzing this way too much? :-/
 
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