After several years of renovating (and still not being done), splitting and stacking wood. scrimping and saving, and countless hours of research on here I am finally burning wood. And I couldn't be happier. To be honest I am kind of afraid to show you guys what I have done because I went against the grain a bit and put in a smaller stove than most would recommend for the house. But thus far I'm very impressed with my 17VL and it's doing a lot more than I had originally hoped.
I had originally planned to put a small stove in an addition I added to our house. But after some tweaking to our plans and some consultation here we decided to knock down a wall and create a more open central space creating a perfect spot for a stove. I'm very glad we opened this up and brought the stove out here. This past summer I installed the chimney, built a hearth, and installed a 17Vl. My intent was to heat the main living area and mainly just supplement the gas furnace. So far the results are that it is easily able to heat the entire house.
I put the receptacle for the blower on a wall switch. When this thing is up to temp and the blower is on it really pumps out the heat. And so far I've only had it on low. We still have work to do in the kitchen behind the stove. So this is really a temporary hearth. I made it up for less than $30.I have plans for something nicer once we get the kitchen done.
The outside temps here recently are in the 30's and staying in the 40's during the day. I back the thermostat back to about 64 at night (I like a cool house at night). The furnace has only been coming on about once before morning. I get up and start a fire. My start up time is getting better as I am learning the stove. This morning I had it up to a 450-500F surface temp in 45mins- an hour, cruising on low at that point with the blower on, and the house is getting nice a warm. I am surprised at how well the heat spreads to the rooms in the back of the house. I really didn't expect a lot of benefit back there. I have thermometers on each end of the house and so far I've easily been able to keep each end of the house 72-74F. I'm looking forward to seeing how well she preforms in colder weather.
Burn times are around 3 hrs so far. I haven't dipped into my oak yet though. I think I'll be able to get around a 4-5 hr burn time with a good load of some better hard woods. I've been burning mostly gum and maple so far.
I did improve the house insulation greatly over the course of our renovations, which was miserable before. The house was 960 sq ft with single pane windows and little to no insulation. Now the house is about 1300 sq ft with almost all new windows and beefed up exterior and attic insulation. I have about $1000 in the stove, chimney and hearth. And more money in windows and insulation than I care to think about. But now the energy savings will rack up from here on out. And that feels great. I have always wanted a stove. I love this heat and the 17 has very much impressed me for such a small stove.
![[Hearth.com] My First Stove. The Englander 17VL](/talk/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi72.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi162%2Fmautdr%2F170.jpg&hash=6e36e66458d6c0875e2849aabb1c9603 "[Hearth.com] My First Stove. The Englander 17VL")
![[Hearth.com] My First Stove. The Englander 17VL](/talk/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi72.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi162%2Fmautdr%2F169.jpg&hash=b85b50e1de9bc7f923b359625237ea9d "[Hearth.com] My First Stove. The Englander 17VL")
I had originally planned to put a small stove in an addition I added to our house. But after some tweaking to our plans and some consultation here we decided to knock down a wall and create a more open central space creating a perfect spot for a stove. I'm very glad we opened this up and brought the stove out here. This past summer I installed the chimney, built a hearth, and installed a 17Vl. My intent was to heat the main living area and mainly just supplement the gas furnace. So far the results are that it is easily able to heat the entire house.
I put the receptacle for the blower on a wall switch. When this thing is up to temp and the blower is on it really pumps out the heat. And so far I've only had it on low. We still have work to do in the kitchen behind the stove. So this is really a temporary hearth. I made it up for less than $30.I have plans for something nicer once we get the kitchen done.
The outside temps here recently are in the 30's and staying in the 40's during the day. I back the thermostat back to about 64 at night (I like a cool house at night). The furnace has only been coming on about once before morning. I get up and start a fire. My start up time is getting better as I am learning the stove. This morning I had it up to a 450-500F surface temp in 45mins- an hour, cruising on low at that point with the blower on, and the house is getting nice a warm. I am surprised at how well the heat spreads to the rooms in the back of the house. I really didn't expect a lot of benefit back there. I have thermometers on each end of the house and so far I've easily been able to keep each end of the house 72-74F. I'm looking forward to seeing how well she preforms in colder weather.
Burn times are around 3 hrs so far. I haven't dipped into my oak yet though. I think I'll be able to get around a 4-5 hr burn time with a good load of some better hard woods. I've been burning mostly gum and maple so far.
I did improve the house insulation greatly over the course of our renovations, which was miserable before. The house was 960 sq ft with single pane windows and little to no insulation. Now the house is about 1300 sq ft with almost all new windows and beefed up exterior and attic insulation. I have about $1000 in the stove, chimney and hearth. And more money in windows and insulation than I care to think about. But now the energy savings will rack up from here on out. And that feels great. I have always wanted a stove. I love this heat and the 17 has very much impressed me for such a small stove.
happy to hear you like our little monster, she's a great example of the old addage about the size of the dog in the fight versus the size of the fight in the dog. stove looks to be purring along great in the photo's
!
![[Hearth.com] My First Stove. The Englander 17VL](/talk/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi72.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fi162%2Fmautdr%2F17-vllg.jpg&hash=37fc482197dfe28bcc14e65869a8f1c5 "[Hearth.com] My First Stove. The Englander 17VL")
