locate stove in middle of room?

[sjswood]

I read that a few forum members have located their wood stove away from walls. But not more than 1 or 2 of you, correct? Are there strong opinions for/against the location?

We're planning a new build. One of us would like the wood stove in the middle of the great room to (a) heat the room most efficiently and (b) free up wall space for bookshelves, tv, etc. The other would like it against an interior wall, faced with stone for (a) thermal mass and (b) ease of negotiating through the room.

The attached jpg shows the stove against the wall. The other position under discussion is to put it just under the "x" in "GREAT RM 21'-1 x 19'- 0" (about 3'6" away from the stair, centred between bedroom and kitchen walls).

 

[BrotherBart]

In an open central location you are always going to be able to get more efficient use of the heat from a stove. Heat radiates and heats what it can radiate to.

 

[Grisu]

Since you want to place the stove at an inner wall, any heat it will give out will end up in the room sooner or later anyway. Thus, placing it in the middle of the room for better heating will have only an effect early in the burn cycle at best. b) is a possible argument but you will also lose a lot of floor space for couch, chair, table etc. Be also aware that next to the stove you will need a place for wood, tools etc.

IMHO, I just don't see how having a stove in the middle of a room can be convenient. Not to mention than any potential buyers down the road may not be that enamored by that arrangement.

Btw. Since this is a new built home, have you considered an EPA-approved zero clearance fireplace instead of a stove? It will cost more but heat about as well and give you the look and feel of a fireplace.

 

[BrotherBart]

The only advantage would be negotiating through the room. You could spend the rest of your life trying to plan a worse way to heat a single level house and not come up with a worse and more expensive solution than putting in a ZC fireplace on an exterior wall.

 

[sjswood]

Thank you both; keep the arguments coming! Ah yes.... where to store the wood... where do the folks who have the centred stoves keep their wood??

Btw. Since this is a new built home, have you considered an EPA-approved zero clearance fireplace instead of a stove? It will cost more but heat about as well and give you the look and feel of a fireplace.

Yes, indeed, we have had that discussion. Cost is unhappily a big issue. We wanted the lot and the covenant required a big house. Otherwise we'd be building a smaller place and have more money for extras, like zero clearance fireplaces. Oh well.

 

[BrotherBart]

Either placement will serve you well with a free standing stove. And the point is well made that it could be a PITA in the middle of the room. If a buyer doesn't want a wood stove, a hole in the roof is a hole in the roof. No matter how many feet away it is.

For optimum heating in the middle of the room is still best. But in that layout it isn't gonna be a big deal either way. Well, except for the hearth for up against the wall.

 

[sjswood]

For optimum heating in the middle of the room is still best. But in that layout it isn't gonna be a big deal either way. Well, except for the hearth for up against the wall.

OK, I'm confused... what is the issue with a hearth up against a wall?

 

[BrotherBart]

Just the building of a hearth that meets clearance requirements.

 

[sjswood]

Just the building of a hearth that meets clearance requirements.

Oh. Well, true. That's manageable though. Thanks!

 

[Coog]

Go with a free stander. I have a ZC fireplace because the wife would not go with the free standing stove. It does great but has to have a fan running all of the time which gets old by the end of January. In the middle of the house is best for even heat. If the wife is on board, Go with the free stander.

 

[Grisu]

I suggest making a larger scheme of the room. In the right proportions, make cut-outs of the stove+clearances and the furniture you want to put in there and start arranging those on the scheme to see different layouts. Maybe it works putting it centrally in the room, maybe it doesn't. At least, you'll know where to place everything.

 

[sjswood]

I suggest making a larger scheme of the room. In the right proportions, make cut-outs of the stove+clearances and the furniture you want to put in there and start arranging those on the scheme to see different layouts. Maybe it works putting it centrally in the room, maybe it doesn't. At least, you'll know where to place everything.

Definitely good advice. Thanks again.

 

[dougstove]

I have a similarly sized room for my stove, which is against an inside wall.
I would put the stove against the inside wall, not in the middle of the room.
People do not like to routinely walk within ~1-1.5 m of the stove.
And, except immediately after coming in from the cold, nobody puts a chair within 1.5 m.
So putting it in the middle of your room is going to divide the room into multiple small sectors (maybe that is what you want?).
A covenant restricting small houses???? Wow.

 

[sjswood]

I have a similarly sized room for my stove, which is against an inside wall.
I would put the stove against the inside wall, not in the middle of the room.
People do not like to routinely walk within ~1-1.5 m of the stove.
And, except immediately after coming in from the cold, nobody puts a chair within 1.5 m.
So putting it in the middle of your room is going to divide the room into multiple small sectors (maybe that is what you want?).
A covenant restricting small houses???? Wow.

Oh, now that is very useful info... you don't put a chair within 1-1.5m of the stove? I confess, I didn't expect that. With my current fireplace, I sit as close as possible. I knew a wood stove would be much MUCH better than the fireplace, but hadn't really thought about that much space being required. What size stove to you have?

(Yeah, covenants are really common around here. They do it to push up the prices of the neighbourhood. More money for builders, the tax man....)

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I think the stove in the middle of the room looks great it you have an Alaskan cabin, or enough space where it doesn't effect room set up... If it's you that wants it in the middle and the wife that wants it on the wall, put it on the wall.....

 

[sjswood]

I think the stove in the middle of the room looks great it you have an Alaskan cabin, or enough space where it doesn't effect room set up... If it's you that wants it in the middle and the wife that wants it on the wall, put it on the wall.....

In wood stoves as in wood working, eh? -- There's always SWMBO

 

[dougstove]

I have a PE Super27, heating my house (~1900 sq ft.), placed against a masonry inside wall in a big room similar to yours.
(Mine was a retrofit, it is placed aginst the back of what used to be an inside chimney.
In the winter we have arm chairs that people put ~1.5 to 3 m from the woodstove.
When it is running we would not routinely sit closer than 1.5 m, usually farther. The radiant heat is wonderful.
cheers, Doug

 

[sjswood]

I have a PE Super27, heating my house (~1900 sq ft.), placed against a masonry inside wall in a big room similar to yours.
(Mine was a retrofit, it is placed aginst the back of what used to be an inside chimney.
In the winter we have arm chairs that people put ~1.5 to 3 m from the woodstove.
When it is running we would not routinely sit closer than 1.5 m, usually farther. The radiant heat is wonderful.
cheers, Doug

That is really useful info, thanks a lot!

 

[Grisu]

How close you may be able to sit to the stove will also depend on the type of stove you will get. A cast-iron jacketed stove that is more convective than radiant will be more comfortable to sit by than a plain steel stove. I am not sure if I would go for the minimum clearances only when placing chairs and a sofa around the stove, though. Have you already decided on a model?

Since it is a new construction, I assume the house will be well-insulated and air tight?! In that case, consider adding an outside air kit to the stove to allow better draft and be slightly more energy efficient. Of course, that will be much easier in the wall location.

 

[sjswood]

How close you may be able to sit to the stove will also depend on the type of stove you will get. A cast-iron jacketed stove that is more convective than radiant will be more comfortable to sit by than a plain steel stove. I am not sure if I would go for the minimum clearances only when placing chairs and a sofa around the stove, though. Have you already decided on a model?

Since it is a new construction, I assume the house will be well-insulated and air tight?! In that case, consider adding an outside air kit to the stove to allow better draft and be slightly more energy efficient. Of course, that will be much easier in the wall location.

Well... we (both of us, amazingly) love the look of the Osburn 2200, but we aren't stuck on any one model yet -- reviewing all the options and prices and clearances. I'm not at all sure how to tell which stoves are more convective than radiant... this is all new to me. The only wood stove I've ever known was a 1960s-era Franklin. Things have changed an awful lot since then!

Our house will be as tight as we can make it... I guess I'd better have a look at the outside air kits. I was kinda hoping to avoid that complexity, but maybe I'd better not, eh?

 

[willoweep]

Our stove (Hearthstone Homestead)is smack in the middle of our 864 sq. ft., and my wife has been trying to get me to move it to a corner for the last 15 years! The radiant heat going to the bedrooms is nice, and since we're close to 'Alaskan cabin' standards, it's gonna stay. Any properly sized convective stove is fine against the wall.

 

[Grisu]

As a rule of thumb: The closer the clearances, the more convective of a stove. The Osburn 2200 has 21" side clearances, the similarly sized Quadrafire Explorer 2 only 6.5". For any model you are considering, I highly recommend to check the review section here ( https://www.hearth.com/talk/link-forums/stove-reviews.35/ ) and do a forum search for experiences. Opening another thread asking for opinions about your favorite model(s) may also give you some valuable info. Btw. for a well-insulated home I would recommend taking a look at catalytic stoves from BlazeKing or Woodstock for example. They will allow a more regulated heat output and longer burn times, while still having enough spare capacity to crank it up when it gets really cold.

Will a heat-loss analysis be done on the house? That will help in choosing an appropriately sized stove.

 

[sjswood]

Gotcha: I'll look for the closest clearances possible. Maybe the Osburn won't be the best choice then.... Rats.

Do things like porcelain side panels make any difference at all? My s.o.. thinks the coloured panels are cool.

Yup, found the review section, thanks.

No, I discarded the idea of catalytic stoves as soon as I realised they required regular replacement of the convertor. I think that's just asking for trouble.

I don't think we'll be able to get a heat-loss analysis. We can get a blower test and calculate heat loss on wall area and square footage, but it won't take into account the fact that the house is oriented due south for passive solar. No-one around here takes passive solar heating into account. I'm going to have to guess about the stove size. I expect I'll want a smaller one than usual for my sq. footage especially knowing that the coldest winter days here always have maximum sunshine.

 

[begreen]

OK, I'm confused... what is the issue with a hearth up against a wall?

This seems to be a mistaken assumption. 99% of hearths I have seen are against a wall. Very few stoves are set in the middle of the room because they are not pretty from the back side, you need a large area and it is not convenient. Perhaps you are confusing this with putting a stove on an exterior wall vs an interior wall? In that case an interior wall is often better because as BB said it places the stove more centrally in an open area. That can really help even our stove heating.

 

[sjswood]

This seems to be a mistaken assumption. 99% of hearths I have seen are against a wall. Very few stoves are set in the middle of the room because they are not pretty from the back side, you need a large area and it is not convenient. Perhaps you are confusing this with putting a stove on an exterior wall vs an interior wall? In that case an interior wall is often better because as BB said it places the stove more centrally in an open area. That can really help even our stove heating.

Yup. No worries. The one of us who wanted the stove in the middle of the room has conceded defeat. The stove will definitely be set against an internal wall. Now to start a thread about which stove.