So hello, and no rudeness intended if this is seen as a dram-o-rama intro, but aaaaack! Just put a deposit down Monday morning on a Fireview after months of shopping and thinking and perseverating and functioning under the assumption/delusion that most people want to talk about woodstoves and now . . . [breathes into paperbag, puts head between knees] . . . am second-guessing this decision after reading a thread wherein a resident of Sterling, AK (a.k.a. the banana belt of AK) was advised not to get a Fireview. So jokes aside, I am a single parent homeowner in an unforgiving climate, and feel the responsibility to get things right the first time.
Locale: Fairbanks, so -30, -40 for sometimes extended periods is pretty much a given most winters, -50 noteworthy but not exceptional. Not the coldest part of the state, but cold enough for the likes of me. (How cold is -50? Best way I know to explain is that -50 makes -20 seem pretty mild.)
My house: 2000sf, two-story, bottom story is earth sheltered to the north and half the east-west sides, 8' ceilings throughout except in staircase, one semi-open staircase on the north side. Mid-eighties super-insulated, ducted (4" joe-homeowner) for an HRV that was never installed (looking at an Eko 1.5, but yeah). Tight. When I run the kitchen fan, I can hear the motor pitch change if I open the door. Many large windows to the south functioning very effectively as dehumidifiers when it gets to -25 or colder. System 2000 in detached garage. Infloor heating downstairs, very comfortably warm; not-enough baseboard upstairs, too cool when it's -30, cold when it's -50 (run electric heaters for supplementary heat). Open floorplan downstairs, not so much so upstairs. Kitchen-diningroom-sunroom-livingroom downstairs, bedroom-baths-familyroom-laundry upstairs, so we occupy both stories all day long when we're home. Sunroom is long and narrow, runs 2/3 length of house, floor is a good heatsink, ceiling fan distributes heat somewhat. Fuel use for house & garage average between 815-840 gpy over the last couple of decades (I've only been in it for two years, but have records). It's mostly finished, which is kind of unusual, country house, vaguely Craftsman in style, lots of hand-crafted wood trim, deep windows, etc. Plumbing all on inside walls, drain-able in the event of emergency or extended trips to Hawaii in mid-winter.
Family: single parent, two teenagers, one dog. Teenagers take many showers, forget to leave fans on, etc. One has promised to help with firewood if I get a woodstove. The other wants to move someplace warm. We are all on the run a lot--school, work, activities, except dog who just hangs out most of the time. Lots of houseplants in the sunroom (aka the hyperbaric chamber), so more moisture from them.
Lived w/a variety of woodstoves: my favorite was a wood cookstove, least favorite was a tin-walled Ashley with a funky thermostat. Lived w/barrel stoves, cast-iron, steel, wanted a soapstone from the first time I saw one, but never lived with one. Want a woodstove as a secondary-that-can-be-primary heat source for the just-in-case independence, bun-toasting ambiance, hopefully cut down on fuel use, cleaning up my property which has a couple of cords of cut, stacked wood, a lot of trees down that still have burnable parts, and a lot of standing deadwood on it (mostly poplar, alack). Also hoping it will dry out the house a bit when the weather gets cold. Work an office job, have summers off, have an old pickup and I'm not afraid to use her, so I would plan on gathering my own wood rather than buying. No chainsaw at this time, but watching for one. My strategy is to let other people drop the big trees and take the trunks in the public woodcutting areas, and I come along behind and glean all the limbs they leave behind.
So did my homework on a lot of stoves, thoughtfully considered Blaze King, but something about the looks just didn't suit. Liked the Oakwood, but the 77" hearth was going to eat more of the corner of my dining room than I wanted to dedicate. Almost went locally w/the Hearthstone dealer, just because they are local and really good people to do business with, but the construction of the Woodstock seemed to be better, liked the cat (although I respect arguments to the contrary), liked that the surface allegedly gets hot enough for cooking, and that it burns cleaner than most. Still a few lingering doubts about whether this is going to be adequate. No stovepipe/hearth in, planning an install. Going to place the stove about central to the house, downstairs in the dining room, across the room from the stairs. Semi-open to kitchen, double-doors into sunroom, open to downstairs livingroom. Hoping to get the upstairs warmer, and use an Eko to get air circulating (one of the ducts for the HRV that isn't runs into dining room ceiling about 3' from where the stove will be located.
That's about it, and it's time to get the kids up for school anyway. Any thoughts on the adequacy of the Fireview for this application? I appreciate the input.
Locale: Fairbanks, so -30, -40 for sometimes extended periods is pretty much a given most winters, -50 noteworthy but not exceptional. Not the coldest part of the state, but cold enough for the likes of me. (How cold is -50? Best way I know to explain is that -50 makes -20 seem pretty mild.)
My house: 2000sf, two-story, bottom story is earth sheltered to the north and half the east-west sides, 8' ceilings throughout except in staircase, one semi-open staircase on the north side. Mid-eighties super-insulated, ducted (4" joe-homeowner) for an HRV that was never installed (looking at an Eko 1.5, but yeah). Tight. When I run the kitchen fan, I can hear the motor pitch change if I open the door. Many large windows to the south functioning very effectively as dehumidifiers when it gets to -25 or colder. System 2000 in detached garage. Infloor heating downstairs, very comfortably warm; not-enough baseboard upstairs, too cool when it's -30, cold when it's -50 (run electric heaters for supplementary heat). Open floorplan downstairs, not so much so upstairs. Kitchen-diningroom-sunroom-livingroom downstairs, bedroom-baths-familyroom-laundry upstairs, so we occupy both stories all day long when we're home. Sunroom is long and narrow, runs 2/3 length of house, floor is a good heatsink, ceiling fan distributes heat somewhat. Fuel use for house & garage average between 815-840 gpy over the last couple of decades (I've only been in it for two years, but have records). It's mostly finished, which is kind of unusual, country house, vaguely Craftsman in style, lots of hand-crafted wood trim, deep windows, etc. Plumbing all on inside walls, drain-able in the event of emergency or extended trips to Hawaii in mid-winter.
Family: single parent, two teenagers, one dog. Teenagers take many showers, forget to leave fans on, etc. One has promised to help with firewood if I get a woodstove. The other wants to move someplace warm. We are all on the run a lot--school, work, activities, except dog who just hangs out most of the time. Lots of houseplants in the sunroom (aka the hyperbaric chamber), so more moisture from them.
Lived w/a variety of woodstoves: my favorite was a wood cookstove, least favorite was a tin-walled Ashley with a funky thermostat. Lived w/barrel stoves, cast-iron, steel, wanted a soapstone from the first time I saw one, but never lived with one. Want a woodstove as a secondary-that-can-be-primary heat source for the just-in-case independence, bun-toasting ambiance, hopefully cut down on fuel use, cleaning up my property which has a couple of cords of cut, stacked wood, a lot of trees down that still have burnable parts, and a lot of standing deadwood on it (mostly poplar, alack). Also hoping it will dry out the house a bit when the weather gets cold. Work an office job, have summers off, have an old pickup and I'm not afraid to use her, so I would plan on gathering my own wood rather than buying. No chainsaw at this time, but watching for one. My strategy is to let other people drop the big trees and take the trunks in the public woodcutting areas, and I come along behind and glean all the limbs they leave behind.
So did my homework on a lot of stoves, thoughtfully considered Blaze King, but something about the looks just didn't suit. Liked the Oakwood, but the 77" hearth was going to eat more of the corner of my dining room than I wanted to dedicate. Almost went locally w/the Hearthstone dealer, just because they are local and really good people to do business with, but the construction of the Woodstock seemed to be better, liked the cat (although I respect arguments to the contrary), liked that the surface allegedly gets hot enough for cooking, and that it burns cleaner than most. Still a few lingering doubts about whether this is going to be adequate. No stovepipe/hearth in, planning an install. Going to place the stove about central to the house, downstairs in the dining room, across the room from the stairs. Semi-open to kitchen, double-doors into sunroom, open to downstairs livingroom. Hoping to get the upstairs warmer, and use an Eko to get air circulating (one of the ducts for the HRV that isn't runs into dining room ceiling about 3' from where the stove will be located.
That's about it, and it's time to get the kids up for school anyway. Any thoughts on the adequacy of the Fireview for this application? I appreciate the input.
