I had created another thread to get your thoughts on two different places we thought about putting our wood stove:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/ideas-for-heating-with-wood.155783/#post-2093052
We don't have a good spot in our basement, and it sounded like putting the stove in the location that we will be the most was the way to go. So, my wife and I decided to put it in our living room.
We are in a raised ranch with the living room, dining room, and kitchen on one side. The bedrooms are on the opposite side. So, we are looking to heat about 1300 square feet with a wood stove in the living room. Our main goals are to lower our LP needs throughout the year. We have wood on our property and plan on using that as much as possible. I cut and stacked 5 cords of wood last winter in preparation for having a wood stove this year.
Here are the models that were recommended to us after talking to some local fireplace/stove stores locally:
1) Blaze King Sirocco 20
2) Pacific Energy Super 27
3) Quadra-Fire Explorer I
4) Heatilator WS18
Options 3 and 4 were from the same location, just different price points. I have heard of the brands in option 1 and 2 but I am so new to this, that doesn't mean much.
One thing that was interesting to me and my wife was in talking to the Blaze King dealer he was asking us our philosophy in heating with wood. We quickly discovered we didn't have one. What he was getting at was he sees two types of buyers in Wisconsin. Those who want to have a stove capable enough of heating the house and having it keep up when we get those -10 degree days, and those who really want to use the wood stove more months out of the year. He was saying that if you go with a model that can keep up with -10 degree days, that it will put out too much heat for those days when it's low to mid 40s in early fall/late spring. Or, you can get a smaller model that won't be able to keep up with -10 degree days but is capable of being used in those early fall/late spring days without overheating the house. We are OK supplementing with our LP boiler system so we said we would rather be able to use it more months out of the year. Otherwise, it sounds like he would have steered us towards the Blaze King princess. He thought the Sirocco 20 was a better fit for heating more months out of the year.
Before talking to him, I thought the Princess would have been the better way to go as we are on the low end of the square footage it's recommended for. Plus, our house was built in the early 80s so it's not as efficient as something built in the past 5 years. He was saying it's better to run a stove harder to keep it at it's max efficiency than to try to restrict the bigger model because it will put out too much heat otherwise. This was the only guy to bring up this kind of approach.
Please let me know what you guys think of those recommendations. Let me know if there are other questions I should be asking.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/ideas-for-heating-with-wood.155783/#post-2093052
We don't have a good spot in our basement, and it sounded like putting the stove in the location that we will be the most was the way to go. So, my wife and I decided to put it in our living room.
We are in a raised ranch with the living room, dining room, and kitchen on one side. The bedrooms are on the opposite side. So, we are looking to heat about 1300 square feet with a wood stove in the living room. Our main goals are to lower our LP needs throughout the year. We have wood on our property and plan on using that as much as possible. I cut and stacked 5 cords of wood last winter in preparation for having a wood stove this year.
Here are the models that were recommended to us after talking to some local fireplace/stove stores locally:
1) Blaze King Sirocco 20
2) Pacific Energy Super 27
3) Quadra-Fire Explorer I
4) Heatilator WS18
Options 3 and 4 were from the same location, just different price points. I have heard of the brands in option 1 and 2 but I am so new to this, that doesn't mean much.
One thing that was interesting to me and my wife was in talking to the Blaze King dealer he was asking us our philosophy in heating with wood. We quickly discovered we didn't have one. What he was getting at was he sees two types of buyers in Wisconsin. Those who want to have a stove capable enough of heating the house and having it keep up when we get those -10 degree days, and those who really want to use the wood stove more months out of the year. He was saying that if you go with a model that can keep up with -10 degree days, that it will put out too much heat for those days when it's low to mid 40s in early fall/late spring. Or, you can get a smaller model that won't be able to keep up with -10 degree days but is capable of being used in those early fall/late spring days without overheating the house. We are OK supplementing with our LP boiler system so we said we would rather be able to use it more months out of the year. Otherwise, it sounds like he would have steered us towards the Blaze King princess. He thought the Sirocco 20 was a better fit for heating more months out of the year.
Before talking to him, I thought the Princess would have been the better way to go as we are on the low end of the square footage it's recommended for. Plus, our house was built in the early 80s so it's not as efficient as something built in the past 5 years. He was saying it's better to run a stove harder to keep it at it's max efficiency than to try to restrict the bigger model because it will put out too much heat otherwise. This was the only guy to bring up this kind of approach.
Please let me know what you guys think of those recommendations. Let me know if there are other questions I should be asking.
