New Construction options for a house in NC

[Paul in N C]

Hello crowd,

I want to say thank you for the wealth of knowledge I have learned reading on this forum. If you were building a new house and wanted to heat primarily with wood what would you do?

A little background for you.

The house is 2,100 sq ft with out the bonus room. It will be on a crawl space foundation and have 2x4 exterior walls. We are located in central NC where our winters may have one week below 32 deg., other wise we are in the 30's and 40's. The house will have a heat pump, but I would prefer to use wood as much as possible. There is plenty of wood on the property. I am thinking a free standing stove in place of the gas log fireplace. What would you do about separate ducting, what type of hearth would you build and what stove would you use. I have my own ideas, but I have never had a woodstove so I am looking to learn from your experience.

Here is a link to the house plans. I tried a adding a picture but it would not load

https://www.familyhomeplans.com/plan_details.cfm?PlanNumber=59149

 

[Simonkenton]

Can you use 2x4 for exterior walls? I am in the NC mountains, up here we have to use 2x6, that is, if using fiberglass insulation.

 

[Paul in N C]

Yes 2x4 walls. That is all we build with here.

Paul

 

[begreen]

The great room ceiling is going to act like a big heat dome. There will need to be a ceiling fan or two to reduce heat pocketing up there. If you want a freestanding stove where the gas fireplace is proposed then it will be an alcove construction. When looking at stoves consider this, especially for clearances. There are several alcove installations on this forum. Search for alcove in this forum only using the Search function (little magnifying glass at the end of the menu bar) in the upper right.

 

[Paul in N C]

The great room ceiling is going to act like a big heat dome. There will need to be a ceiling fan or two to reduce heat pocketing up there. If you want a freestanding stove where the gas fireplace is proposed then it will be an alcove construction. When looking at stoves consider this, especially for clearances. There are several alcove installations on this forum. Search for alcove in this forum only using the Search function (little magnifying glass at the end of the menu bar) in the upper right.

The fireplace will not be built. I want to put the free standing stove in the room in front of the fireplace. Maybe put the chimney where the fireplace is?

 

[begreen]

That simplifies the installation. I would strongly recommend going straight up with the flue system. It will function and look better.