New to wood stoves

[Redduc1199]

New to wood stoves and forums for that matter so thanks in advance for the advice and thoughts. Last weekend we went to a fireplace store and got our feet wet about stoves in general but there’s a lot to learn. We live in central PA just north of Harrisburg.
My wife and I are planning a great room addition onto our existing house. Our current house is about 1800 sq/ft. The first floor contains a foyer, 1/2 bath, stairs to the second floor, a living room, dining room and kitchen. The second floor contains a full bath, two bedrooms, a master bath and bedroom. All ceiling heights are 8ft. The great room addition will be off the first floor kitchen/dining room @ 600 Sq/ft with 13ft ceiling. Our house currently runs electric forced air heat pump with the t-stat on the first floor. The addition will have a mini split for heat and AC as well. Our original plans of the great room was to add a gas fireplace but we already have one in our current living room. It has 0 character and puts out minimal heat. I suggested we add a wood stove to our addition for a back up heat source as well as some character(that was a selling point for her). We would run the stove over the weekends and would not rely on the stove to heat the entire house.
Im looking for some advice and ideas as far as how to proceed this through or maybe just stop right here because it’s a bad idea. Again wood stoves are completely new to me and have 0 experience with them.
pros: access to plenty of free wood. Not a primary heat source for the entire house. Starting on a blank canvas.
Cons: don’t know Jack about stoves.
Any thoughts?

 

[begreen]

Wood is nice if you have a good source and can get ahead by a couple years so that you always have dry wood. Otherwise, it may not be much fun. With dry wood a modern stove will heat the area easily and if the great room is open to the rest of the house then it will help heat that too. Free is good and if you are thinking of a woodstove, start splitting and stacking now. Check out the Wood Shed forum on this site for tips, suggestions and questions on properly storing stacked wood for best drying.
If you did get a freestanding wood stove, what would the budget be and what style best fits the house?
An alternative would be to get a good freestanding gas stove. There are some very nice stoves on the market with realistic flames and good heat output. Take a look at stoves by Lopi, Jotul, and Valour for examples.

 

[Redduc1199]

I work at a custom harvesting farm. We clear trees and fence rows regularly. We store and dry wood for retail. I helped with 3 full triaxle loads Of split wood myself in 2020 but all together there must have been at least 10 loads that got stacked for drying. The great room would be opened to the rest of the house through a opening which is currently a Sliding glass door to the outside. The door would be completely removed when the addition is Finished. As far as a budget Goes. If its 20k to install a wood stove for occasional use we won’t be doing that. Knowing nothing about stoves I don’t know where to begin with our project or budget.

 

[begreen]

You have an enviable wood supply. For wood there are a couple of choices. One would be to install a freestanding stove, vented straight up through the roof. That would run around $4000 to $6000, depending on stove choice. This is with a basic hearth. Fancy stonework can add up.
The other option would be to put in a good quality, EPA rated, zero-clearance fireplace. That would be a more traditional look if you wanted a more built-in look. The cost range is wide but a basic install could run from $6K-7K up to $10K-12K for a fancier fireplace and finish.
Whatever the choice and cost, remember that you are not only installing a heat source, but also a focal point that many times will be better than tv.

 

[Redduc1199]

The misses has been finding pictures and researching on her own about the design. She’s made up her mind that a free standing stove sitting on a hearth. The black pipe (class A chimney please correct me I’m wrong about that) would be Exposed up to the the ceiling and exhaust outside above the roof. The background would be a stone floor to ceiling wall between the two windows. I added a picture of the room. The picture is designed with the original gas fireplace but you can get a general idea. You can also see the opening into the main first floor. One of our main concerns is overheating. As I said before we went to a stove store over the weekend. We liked the jotul f500 v3 oslo. Heating cap: 2300 sq/ft. Is a stove like this to big. One thought I had was to move our t-stat for our Heat pump to the second floor.

 

[Redduc1199]

Great room drawing with gas fireplace

 

[begreen]

The flue pipe on the interior should be black, double-wall stove pipe. Class A chimney pipe will be what is on the exterior. That is usually shiny stainless steel.

The Oslo would be oversized for the room if that is all you want to heat. If the intent is to use the stove to heat more of the house then no, it wouldn't be too much. Plan on a ceiling fan in the room to help still up the hot air that is going to want to pocket at the ceiling. Or consider a window from the second floor opening to the top of the great room. That would allow heat to warm up the 2nd floor.

 

[Redduc1199]

So flue pipe= black= ok to run inside.
Class A= SS= exterior.
Got it!
I’m assuming there has to be some type of cap for both rain and birds topping the Class A piping?
Didn’t think of a ceiling fan but makes sense. I’m ok with the stove heating the entire first floor. That would actually give our electric bill a break.The design of the great room and second floor would not allow for any heat to be transferred from the great room to the second floor. There would be no place for a window or fan into the second floor. Having said that the house t-stat is on the first floor so the second floor would not have any heat f I turned the t-stat off.
What are the options?I could move the T-Stat to the second floor? When we have the stove on I could shut the vents to the first floor. Or get a smaller stove?
what makes/sizes a stove at 2300 sq.ft? Is it the amount of wood in the stove And burning at full strength? Meaning do you regulate the amount of square footing the stove is heating by the amount of wood in the stove?

 

[begreen]

Both are flue pipe, stovepipe (often called connector pipe) on the interior transitioning to class A chimney pipe on the exterior.

Moving the heat thru a 6' x 7' opening will probably need some assistance if the goal is a larger stove. Without a sketch of the house floorplan I can't say what would work best, but I would not move the thermostat unless really necessary.

 

[GENECOP]

Mine as well get something with a coil and throw in some radiant in that new room

 

[Redduc1199]

Thanks for all the replies and advice. We will be making another trip to our local retailer. They specialize is stoves and installs as well as working with out contractor to get exactly what we need

 

[begreen]

If the goal is just to heat the room then a small stove in the 1.2-1.5 range will suffice. If the goal is to heat more of the house, that is possible, but it may need assistance from a well-placed fan blowing in the main house air into the warmer stove room.

 

[Woodfire2019]

Check out the bigger sibling of mine - MF Fire Nova 2. If you're new to wood burning, Nova stoves are very easy to use. After using "old" stoves before, I am glad we went with our Nova. I try to pump this stove up because I don't think anyone else on here has said they have one! https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/mf-fire-nova-anyone-else-have-one.180468/

 

[kennyp2339]

I wouldnt go below 2 cu ft stove, many people here start off thinking that they want to run a stove maybe on the weekend or perhaps an evening during the week, they see the results and then kick themselves in the butt for not getting something a little bit bigger to hold a longer burn time or more wood, there def is a market for smaller stoves, but trust me, you dont want to go smaller then 2cu ft, if anything, just build smaller fires at first in the bigger stove.