Little Cabin in the woods

[Wingman]

My dad finally bought his "little cabin in the woods." Its an A-frame that basically sits on a cliff overlooking a beautiful farmland valley. Right now it has three kinds of heating units, the pictured Olympia wood stove, a Warm Morning Propane heater and an electric 220v heater. With a virtually endless supply of firewood possible and myself using an 13-nci, he decided to go with a new, more efficient Englander stove and put the old one out to pasture.

The cabin is about 1300 sq. ft. set up in a T shape (if you looked at from above) and is basically two rooms, a bathroom and everything else. The kitchen, bedroom, living room and mezzanine are all an open floor plan.
I was trying to sell him on the 30 due to being able to "build a smaller fire in a bigger stove" mentality. But he looked at pricing and figures the 13 would work nicely in the space.

The chimney is currently 8" and the 13 uses an 6". I don't know if the chimney is single or double walled, or if it would matter, but what will I need to connect the 6" to the 8" chimney? Does it sound like a 13 could handle the square footage in a possibly drafty cabin? (I am going to start a sealing and insulation thread in the green room.)

 

[Grisu]

Good that you got him to get rid off that stove because that installation does not look kosher. I doubt it has all the required clearances. The 13NC may heat that space but you will to refuel it regularly. A lot depends on insulation and airtightness of the cabin. You also won't get an overnight burn with the 13NC. For slightly larger stoves take a look at the Pacific Energy True North (2 cu ft firebox) and the new Englander Madison (2.4 cu ft firebox). Both also have the advantage to only need ember protection in a hearth while the 13NC needs thermal protection with a 2.0 r-value. It does not look like your hearth has that. Make also sure that the new stove has all the required clearances to combustibles. Especially look for the minimum ceiling height in the back of the stove as your studs are sloping inward.

How tall is the chimney? A 6" stove can work on an 8" flue but only when it is tall enough. I suspect the stove is just under the roof and the total flue will be quite short. In that case, I would recommend going to a 6" pipe. The True North has only 12' minimum chimney height and would be a good option then.

Does your Dad know about seasoning his wood properly? Or will you help him out with dry wood?

 

[jeff_t]

Yeah, curious about the rest of the chimney. The 10-3-2 thing makes for a lot of pipe above the roof on an A-frame. The way that install looks, it may be best to just start over and get the right size pipe.

 

[Wingman]

Thanks
I'll look into the other stoves. I just got an email from Englander the other day about the Madison. Seems to be a pretty neat stove.

The chimney is between 15 and 17 feet long. From floor to ceiling inside, it is 17' tall and I know the chimney extends above the roof line. I would think that where the cabin is located, drafting shouldn't be an issue. There seems to be a constant breeze blowing.

In trying to keep this diy, and if I have to go that route, would it be possible to fit a 6" liner into an 8" chimney? Or could a reduce work? If we had to rebuild a the chimney, that would be a total turnoff for him and this idea would be shut down and we would be stuck heating with propain and electric.

I know all about the overnight burns. My 13 will give me enough coals after 7 hours to get the next fire going. The Hickory and Oak that was left down should be well seasoned. I found a newspaper article in their wood rack,(a large kettle) from 1981. I also brought down 1/4 cord of oak and red bud that are well seasoned.

 

[begreen]

Getting a new stove is a good plan, but do note that modern stoves really need fully seasoned wood to burn properly. Hickory and oak are great for firewood but they are also slow drying. They need about 2 years drying time, after being split and stacked. Wood lying on the ground in log form is rarely well seasoned.

 

[Wingman]

They had two hoop racks down there that were full of split wood. There were only about 5 rounds of 10" that would need to be split, but everything else was. The wood I took was seasoned 3-4 yrs and split to proper sizing. So we are ready to rock...when we get a stove in there.

 

[dafattkidd]

Sounds like a cool place. Forgive me if I missed this in a previous post, is your dad planning to live there full time? Also, I think that TV is older than the stove.

 

[Wingman]

Its basically a "get out of town" place. It'll be used on the weekends by myself/my family, brothers and their families and of course mom and dad. The TV still works and is in good shape. There is not much of a use for it right now, we're not paying for dish and we might be out of antenna range.

 

[JA600L]

I have one of those stoves too. It is also getting canned.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

If it's not being used regularly and is not kept heated you will need a larger stove to pump out heat quickly and get the place up to temperature. Expect to use a lot of wood doing it too.

 

[Wingman]

That is one of the reasons we thought about keeping one of the other aforementioned heating sources. Flip a switch or light a pilot and turn a knob to get some instant heat. Of course shut it off when the wood fire gets going.

But so then general thought is, the 13 might not be enough for heating and hearth and surrounding requirements?

 

[JBinKC]

Wing- My question to you is did you ever attempt to use the existing stove and how well did it work? It appears to be in decent condition. I probably would be more prone to modify the stove to proper clearances or attempt to fabricate a heat shield since this isn't going to be used 24/7. In MO there is nothing against the law using a second hand pre-EPA stove.
.
I think the 13 is fine assuming you are not building fires with indoor temps much lower than 50 but the 30 will allow less time to get the house to a decent temperature from a very cold room. My bigger concern is the stove's drafting performance being potentially sluggish using an oversized 8" chimney with what appears most of the chimney run located outdoors and subject to the cooler temperatures. I think what you decide to do really depends upon your budget for this.

 

[jeff_t]

That is one of the reasons we thought about keeping one of the other aforementioned heating sources. Flip a switch or light a pilot and turn a knob to get some instant heat. Of course shut it off when the wood fire gets going.

But so then general thought is, the 13 might not be enough for heating and hearth and surrounding requirements?

We need the FA furnace and the stove to get our place comfortable. It still takes a good eight hours or so to get tolerable, and a solid day before the stuff inside gets up to temp. It's a shocker crawling into bed the first night

If you have the utilities, keep another heat source.