New and need stove for smaller house in IN

[wendortb]

My wife and I recently decided to get a wood stove after losing power for 2 days with -17F low temps and having trouble keeping the house warm with a 9k btu propane mr heater. Normally it doesn't get this cold but cold snaps do happen. We want something to cut down on propane use to save money, have emergency heat in case of another power outage, and are excited about feeling warmer with a wood stove.

We have propane furnace that outputs 36k btu on low and 48K btu on high. Is this any indicator of the size wood stove we would need?

We have about 1440 sq ft total. The downstairs is 850 sq ft on concrete slab and is where we spend most of our time. The upstairs is 590 sq ft but is a half story since the ceiling is the roof, the center is approx 7' and the side walls 4'. We mostly use it as a guest room and sometimes my wife works up there so I can't just ignore it. Insulation in walls is r16 and r19 in roof (hard to add more in roof with vaulted ceilings)

We were thinking of putting the stove approx where the silver can is. The closet doors hide the furnace and water heater. Not hearing the furnace run would be amazing. The door to the right is the bathroom and open area to the left is the kitchen.

Picture of living room, doorway to bedroom, beside the front door (right side out of picture) is a door that leads upstairs.

We have been looking at this site a lot and the reviews articles and have found either the Jotul F3CB or F400 would probably fit our needs. My wife didn't like to look of steel or soapstone so we are left with cast iron. Looking at the reviews, it seems Jotul is very popular and would be easy to get parts for a long time. We were thinking the F400 would do well if we can build small hot fires normally, then when we have guests and it is very cold, build bigger fires. I am not sure if we will use it 27/7, but I was thinking at least on evenings and weekends since that is when we are home the most. It depends how easy it is to keep the fire going. We are planning on burning the wood that falls on our 5 acres but will probably also buy wood locally.

 

[begreen]

I would look at the Jotul F400 and F45, Hearthstone Shelburne, PE Alderlea T5 stoves. Buy your wood split and stacked now for next fall.

 

[wendortb]

Some other questions:
The hearth seems like we should be able to just put down tile on the concrete after we tear out the carpet. I am tall though so I did wonder about building up the hearth taller so the stove wasn't as short.
The chimney seems straight forward. Run a double wall or single wall pipe up to the chimney which will just be a class a chimney pipe through the ceiling and up through the 2nd floor and out of the roof. Up and out, no complicated bends or anything.
We are going to have a professional do the install since we don't know enough about it. Any tips or advise would be great.
Thank you.

 

[begreen]

Are you saying there is concrete slab beneath the carpet? If so a simple tiling should suffice. The hearth requirements and stove clearances will vary with the stove. Some have ember protection only, and others have more insulation stringent requirements.

 

[wendortb]

Yes, there is concrete under the carpet. I did wonder if a stove on a raised hearth was easier to use. I think the clearances will be ok but will check the manuals.

 

[DamienBricka]

My stove is installed in a finished basement. The floor is concrete but I did build a hearth out of concrete blocks and tiled above it with ceramic tile.

 

[eclecticcottage]

I'm not so sure you'd be able to put the stove in front of the doors. It might be better against the wall where the cds/dvds are.

Our hearth pad is about 4" higher than the floor (2x4's on their side with durarock then stones) but I don't think it really changes how easy to operate the stove is. I like the look of a raised hearth a bit more. Depending on where it is, it could be a tripping hazard, or it could help stop things from rolling into the stove.

You'll hear this more than once. If you're buying wood, even "seasoned" wood, expect it to be green and need to be stacked for a year or two (or three if it's slow to seaosn like oak) depending on species before burning it. Same as if you CSS your own. If you burn unseasoned ("wet") wood, you will not be happy with your stove and you'll end up cleaning your chimney much more frequently to prevent chimney fires due to creosote buildup.