I'm failing to adequately heat my mountain home with a jotul 500 oslo. It is at 10,000 feet with a 30 foot ceiling. I'm looking into replacing my 2 year old jotul with either a pacific alderlea t6 or the upcoming hearthstone equinox. I use the home throughout the winter on weekends only. There is a large fan above the stove for circulating air. I usually burn aspen or pine which are both readily available. I've been told soapstone would take too long to heat the air volume quickly since I usually only am there on weekends and that the alderlea would heat the space more quickly. Fact or myth? They are both rated with nearly identical btu rating however the equinox clearly has the larger firebox. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
equinox vs alderlea t6
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30 ft ceiling?? What were they thinking? You're trying to heat a big empty space. Get a 4.67 cu ft Blaze King.
Or maybe it would be better to move the living room up to the 15 ft level?
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Or maybe it would be better to move the living room up to the 15 ft level?
(broken link removed to http://www.blazeking.com/king1107.html)
Yes, the soapstone will take an hour or more to get up to temp. It takes mine about 45 minutes to reach 500 degrees. So if you want quick heat go will the T6. But if your looking for a longer burn with a more even heat output go for the Equinox. I here the Equinox has a very large 4cu ft firebox, so burn times will be longer than the T6.
To average out with Todd, it takesmy Hearthstone Heritage a good hour to even hit 350 and then almost never gets past 450 burning red cedar or other softwoods. By the time the stove is at 350 it is producing enough heat to begin warming the room. Once the soapstone is up to temp though I think you will find it superior to the steel stove. Just don't let it cool off for the entire weekend.
The trouble is that the equinox is pretty darn expensive and heavy. Those are both fine stoves. Is there a strong desire for a quick heat up when you arrive for the weekend? If that's a big deal then I would lean towards the PE.
The trouble is that the equinox is pretty darn expensive and heavy. Those are both fine stoves. Is there a strong desire for a quick heat up when you arrive for the weekend? If that's a big deal then I would lean towards the PE.
Another advantage the Equinox would have is that it is radiant heat where as the PE is a convective/radiant mix. I think the radiant heat of the Equinox would warm you at floor level better. If you have a good ceiling fan you can blow the warm convective heat from the PE way back down to where you are. I like Be Green's suggestion about moving the living room up a couple of stories. For just weekends though, it's a crap shoot cause it's going to take a while to warm up that space from cold.
We know about the 30ft ceilings, but how many sqft?
I have the Summit (same as the T6) and love it BUT depending on the sqft I would lean towards the equinox because
1. Your burning softwood which can tend to rage and the soapstone will even it out.
2. There is no replacement for displacement...the Hearthstone is WAY bigger.
3. The summit is a convection heater, the hearthstone more radiant.
I would sacrifice the 20-30 min difference in cold startup time for the above reasons. especially #3
I have the Summit (same as the T6) and love it BUT depending on the sqft I would lean towards the equinox because
1. Your burning softwood which can tend to rage and the soapstone will even it out.
2. There is no replacement for displacement...the Hearthstone is WAY bigger.
3. The summit is a convection heater, the hearthstone more radiant.
I would sacrifice the 20-30 min difference in cold startup time for the above reasons. especially #3
The great room I'm trying to heat is 30 feet wide by 25 feet deep. It is 30 feet to the apex of the ceiling. There is a second floor half loft of which half is open as well as an open third floor loft. There is probably 400 square feet of south facing windows. During the daytime, even with 20 degree temps outside, the great room will get up to 65 degrees with no assistance. When the sun goes down, it gets chilly in a hurry. If I blast my jotul oslo I can keep the temp reasonable, but I'm feeding it every 1-2 hours. I like the look of more classic stoves which is why I'm leaning towards the alderlea, equinox and even the quadrafire isle royale. The input I got from a very pleasant and knowledgeable saleperson at chimneysweep who sells both the equinox and alderlea was to go with the alderlea and not to use a blower but simply use my large ceiling fan. He also recommended I put the question out on this website. Thanks for all the input.
I think the key question is how long you are willing to wait for heat? The Equinox will put out more heat once it gets hot, and it will give you more even heat, but it is going to take a while before it gets there. A steel plate stove won't have the same looks, but is going to give you heat in a fraction of the time.
Gooserider
Gooserider
If you have agood ceiling fan that makes all the difference. It offsets the rising heat disadvantage of a convective stove and will help distribute the heat very effectively. You just then need to size the stove to the space and choose what you like, (that's the hard part!)
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