I have narrowed it down to 2 lopi wood inserts. The 1750 and the freedom. I am looking for personal experiences on which one would be better to heat my 1600 square foot ranch with cathedral ceilings in about 500 feet of it. Any help would be much appreciated.
Need help making a decision on lopi stove
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DuaeGuttae
Minister of Fire
Our family has used a Lopi Revere insert (basically the same as the 1750, I understand) to heat for the past several years. It's located in a walk-out basement that's about 400 square feet with slightly lower than 8-foot ceilings. It heats that space with no problems whatsoever and can really overheat it easily if we wanted it to. (When we load it up for the night, it will easily get into the eighties in the stove room.)
After a couple of years of running the stove, we changed over to using it as our main heat for the whole house. That works, too, but we also will let the natural gas furnace pick up some slack if necessary since it ends up being 2,500 sq. ft. on two floors. (We are pretty well insulated and air sealed but not in the harshest of climates.). Our house is a raised ranch, and the heat likes to go vertically more than horizontally.
One issue to think about is how well the heat will be able to move. If the floor plan (feel free to post it here, and people will give you lots of feedback) allows good movement of air, that will help a lot. Are the cathedral ceilings in the same room as the fireplace? How tall are they? Manufacturers' square footage ratings assume eight foot ceilings, I believe.
When we don't want to overheat our downstairs during the day, we build smaller fires in our Revere. (Our upstairs gets good solar heat gain.). With dry wood, it's no problem to run a small fire with secondary combustion. You could do something similar with the Freedom, and then you'd have the bigger firebox when you really want to crank out the heat.
I'm not really very familiar with the Freedom. I think it was perhaps too big for our fireplace. Is the firebox square like the Revere, or does it load better parallel to the door (called east/west on these forums)? I do like the square firebox on my Revere, but on cold, cold winter's nights an even larger firebox would be nice. (We do get ten hour burns from a box loaded fully with nice hardwood, but the coaling stage at the end of an overnight burn doesn't produce waves and waves of heat in the dead of winter.)
I don't know that I've helped much, but feel free to ask more questions.
If the goal is 24/7 heating then I would go with the Freedom for the larger firebox. The cathedral ceiling adds a lot of cubic ftg to be heated. Is there a ceiling fan or two in that area to break up the heat pocketing near the peak?
The goal is 24/7 heating the house has an open main area of about 1100 square feet 555 of it with cathedral ceilings which one of the rooms is where the fire place is. They are 25 foot ceilings with no power up there. I thought about running a channel up the wall and mounting a fan on the beam that runs across the peak
The bedrooms go down an "L" shaped hallway about 10 feet from the fireplace with the master at the end
I had a Freedom for a few years. It was a monster heater, but it was a wood eater. I could get about 6 hours of useful heat out of it. How well insulated and air-sealed is your house? The better this is, the more the "useful heat" will not be an issue because most of that heat will still be in your house instead of having escaped.
It is very important to have some kind of air movement up at the ceiling to keep the heat from being trapped up there. You could try taking a floor fan and pointing it upwards at the ceiling to see how well that works, if you can't or don't want to install a true ceiling fan.
It is very important to have some kind of air movement up at the ceiling to keep the heat from being trapped up there. You could try taking a floor fan and pointing it upwards at the ceiling to see how well that works, if you can't or don't want to install a true ceiling fan.
The house is insulated ok bit the windows are an issue. They are single pane with wood frames with storm windows that drop down. I had heard about the quick burn and the efficiency is lower than the 1750. I like the larger window and firebox of the freedom. Do you know anything about the 1750?
A cathedral ceiling may look grand, but it's not good for heating. Hot air is going to stratify up at the peak. It could be as much as 30-40F hotter up there. A ceiling fan or two will help move the air.
Is Lopi the only option available?
My only options to fit my firebox that the local store sells are the 2 lopis and the osburn 2200
I really wanted the osburn 2400but my firebox tapers in the rear so the rear want wide enough for the 2400
maple1
Minister of Fire
From what I have read Lopi is a very well built stove. I really wanted a jotul but their inserts arent big enough to heat the house.
Do you have the option of a freestanding stove vented out your fireplace? That is what I do. If you can do that it will open up the possibilities.
I can but I don't want to lose the floorspace plus I have 2 young children who love to run around the house no matter how many times I tell them not to.
I had a lopi freedom bay insert for a couple of years before tearing down the silly masonry chimney and fireplace to install a far superior freestanding stove on a hearth.
I only have 1700 SF of low ceiling rambler but never felt like the stove was too big. I would absolutely recommend the largest insert you can fit into the fireplace in terms of firebox size and output. The Lopi was a fine stove. They are very expensive for a plate steel stove.
Single pane windows! Yikes, I had those too and even got frost on the inside!
I only have 1700 SF of low ceiling rambler but never felt like the stove was too big. I would absolutely recommend the largest insert you can fit into the fireplace in terms of firebox size and output. The Lopi was a fine stove. They are very expensive for a plate steel stove.
Single pane windows! Yikes, I had those too and even got frost on the inside!
Yeah they are not nice for heating. The drop down storm windows help a bit. This was my first winter in the house. My goal is to save money for a few years with the wood stove and use the savings to put new windows in. Oil killed me thus winter
We also get some strong winds in my location and I remember watching my wooden blinds swing back and forth from the wind blowing past the seals. Mine were aluminium framed. All replaced now but only after a year or two when it made sense.
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