New build

[Jenkle]

Hello, Great forum, been lurking for a few years now...

I'm building a 40x80 shop home with 1/2 (1600 sq ft) being living quarters. I really like the Lopi Endeavor, but with the 10' ceilings will it be asking to much from that sized firebox?

It will be well insulated and has a very very open floor plan. Stove will be in the corner at one end. Cubic foot wise the space will be more along the lines of a traditional 2000 sq ft home with 8' ceilings. It will have forced air or radiant floor heat, but I want the stove to be able to provide the primary heat if so needed.

I grew up next to a big Fisher and love that type style of stove. I just wish that Lopi made something similar with a 2.7-ish firebox, seems to be a hole. Second choice would be the Quad 4300 step top.

Thoughts and thanks!

Jody

 

[Todd]

What about the Lopi Liberty? It has a 3 cu ft firebox.

 

[Jenkle]

Something about the shallow front to back depth I don't care for on the Liberty.

 

[Wet1]

If this is going to be a "shop home", have you considered a wood furnace?

 

[cjsplitter]

I have the quadra fire 3100 step top and love it. Wish I had the 4300 do to bigger fire box. But it will heat my house just fine 75degress is what my wife likes. I go out to the pole barn to work. In the house you just want to sleep.

 

[Pagey]

We're heating 1,800 sq. ft. (1,000 down stairs, 800 up) with a Lopi Endeavor in Middle TN. Though our winters can be relatively mild, we do have cold snaps that have no problem dipping into the teens or lower. We get about 5 hours of true, meaningful heat from the stove. We usually have a good enough coal bed after 8 hours for easy restarts, and the stove top is idling around 250F after 8 hours.

If you want to use the stove for 99% of your heating, you'll probably want a larger firebox than the Endeavor. Now, this is not to say that the Endeavor is a bad stove - we love ours, and I'd recommend Lopi as a brand to anyone. But with a non-catalytic stove, you'll need more fire box for more heat and longer burns.

 

[Slow1]

Heck - if you are going to have radiant floors installed, why not a wood boiler to feed into that system? I'm sure you could feed it off fossil fuel and/or wood somehow. Post in the boiler room and I bet you get lots of answers to how to go about doing this (some may even be good, heh). I would think that if you are busy in the shop trying to run some sort of business you don't want to have to be feeding a stove every few hours trying to keep the shop warm. And I've heard radiant floors are very nice but expensive - if you bother to put them in you may as well use them.

 

[Levi2u]

well, I don't know if you mentioned your budget...
But If I were doing a new construction with that kind of floor space I would want a Tulikivi Soapstone stove/fireplace.
I'm not sure how you are seperating the shop from the living space, but you could strategicly locate it on a comon wall, and have an opening in both spaces. They are quite pricey, but If I was building from scratch I would figgure out how to afford one.
Levi

 

[DAKSY]

A couple of ceiling fans would be better than that POS Magic-Heat...
From my experience, they're nothing but an additional headache...

 

[summit]

the endeavor is a great stove, but make sure you get the blower w/ it... unless you live in a milder climate, however, it is not gonna do 3200 sq ft (40 x 80) yr round for you without aboultely cranking it all the time, and blowing thru tubes and retainers at an alarming rate. I would suggest the liberty, but the way the firebox is configured it is hard to load it up the way you want to (even w/ a 24" stick capacity.) Might i suggest a PE summit series, or the large enviro or sbi stoves.. they are also big steel stoves, like the liberty or fisher, but take a straight in fuel load like the endeavor, vs a side to side load. Also, with that amount of space, i might suggest a soapstone mansfield or equinox... while i am not a big fan of their baffles, they have the long burn and capacity to do your house... although you would probably like the mansfield better because it is also designed for a north- south fuel load.

 

[Jenkle]

Sorry guys I left out that only the living quarters (40x40, 1600 sq ft) with 10' ceilings will be heated. It's a 2 bedroom cabin get away. I plan to put the radiant floor heat in this area as well and set very low to maintain the place when I'm not there (read keep it from freezing). I've been told I can put the thermostat in the floor and set it for 45-50 degrees. The rest of the building will just be cold storage/shop for old tractors and such. I will not be there 24/7 to feed a boiler, but I like the concept!

I guess the big question is a 2.2 cu ft Lopi big enough to keep an open one level 1600 ft area with 10 ceilings comfortable when I'm there for a week or two at a time? (There are 5 celing fans on the blue prints)

Thanks a bunch, this is good feed back!

 

[Pagey]

Yes, the Endeavor will indeed keep 1,600 sq. ft. warm, especially if it is well insulated. However, you will not get the "10 hour burn time" they advertise as "10 hours of true, meaningful heat" in my experience. If I didn't have such tight clearance to combustible requirements, we would have gone with the Liberty to get longer burn times.