Help Pick A Stove

[Asuaviator]

Merry Christmas! I’m late to the party here but want to try and take advantage of the tax rebate if I can, so choices are limited.

I have a cabin in Willow Ak that offers an unlimited supply of beetle kill spruce. The cabin is 24x28(700sq footprint) with a half loft. It has 12ft walls vaulted to an 18ft peak making it a fairly open space. The 2x6 walls and floor are spray foamed with 2ft of batten in the ceiling. There is a Toyostove 530 for insurance reasons that is supplemental heat.

My available options are a Kuma Aspen (1.8cu ft firebox, 63k btu) or a Kuma Wood Classic (2.5cu ft firebox, 82k btu). I’m debating over stoving it with the Wood Classic because winter temps are regularly in the negatives and a longer burn time.

I have a Kuma Alpine insert at our primary residents that has the same 1.8 firebox as the Aspen. My experience is that it’s not going to burn more than 4-5hrs meaning I’ll be feeding it at least once a night.

The other stove I’m considering is a blaze king princess 32 but I’m not quite sure if that will be available. Sooo with so little time, and a nice rebate to be had, what are your thoughts????

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Is the place heated when you’re not there? Walking into a building and trying to heat from the ambient temperature is a much different situation than walking into a building at 40 or 50 degrees.

 

[stoveliker]

If you can get the Princess, do that. Can go high to heat up the cabin, and low enough to not cook you out (and give overnight burns).
If not, I'd go for the bigger Kuma.

And have a ceiling fan running in reverse.

 

[Asuaviator]

The cabin is off grid and not heated when were there

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I think you’ll want around 2 cubic feet of firebox. Not sure if the larger stove will be too much with your insulation.

 

[stoveliker]

My reasoning was that the larger stove allows to heat up a cold cabin quickly and you can still make a smaller fire if need be.

And the princess can go as low as 3.5 plug in (1.5 kW) heaters.

And it's Alaska...

 

[EatenByLimestone]

100%!

I can’t say that reasoning is wrong!


My thought is 100% sealed R30 walls and not sealed ceiling but approx R72 ! Once that room makes 50F, I think the op might want to consider he’d be running around nekkid in a half hour, lol.

 

[stoveliker]

Lol, we had a guy here from AK that advocated that if your significant other didn't shed clothing, you needed to up the heat output of the stove

 

[EatenByLimestone]

What did the neighbors think? Lol.

*neighborhood meeting*

Ok, who’s going to remove Jeff’s wood pile this year? We need to keep his house cold or get him some curtains!