I’m new here and to wood stoves and am afraid I bought without doing my proper research. We’ve decided to heat our small house (850 sq ft) 100% with wood heat. I went to my dad for advise who is use to non EPA wood stoves and told me not to worry to much about the square footage the stove could heat because I “could close off the air and shut the damper and have a slow burning fire”. I went Friday and picked up a stove rated for 2,000 sq ft and after finally doing research I’m learning these EPA stoves burn hot all the time. I’m worried our house is going to be insanely uncomfortable due to my neglects. Is it possible to not load up the stove and maybe burn small fires that burn less time? Any info on how to run this stove would be very appreciated! Thanks in advance!
New to wood stoves
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what stove brand,how well insulated is the house?.they put the perfect storm results for square footage figure 1400sqft real world.and yes you can build small fires in a epa stove.whats the low end footage?
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EbS-P
Minister of Fire
We couldn’t afford an expensive one this year. It’s a Grand Teton from tractor supply.
Gaston County NC. The house was built in 1930 and from my understanding has insulation under the house and has insulation board put on when the siding was updated.
Have not burned it yet. But our price range this year was about the best we could do.
The specs work out to 1.75 cu ft firebox. It’s probably smaller than that in practice. Your place doesn’t seem well insulated. Your average temperatures in winter look to be around 50 for a high, 30 for a low.
I think your stove is bigger than you’d need. I think you could make it work if you keep lots of ash in the bottom of your firebox to make it smaller and burn small loads.
The main question now is how dry is your wood? EPA stoves like very dry wood, most people who run Pre EPA stoves don’t run dry enough wood through their stoves and it leads to a frustrating experience.
What’s your chimney like?
I think your stove is bigger than you’d need. I think you could make it work if you keep lots of ash in the bottom of your firebox to make it smaller and burn small loads.
The main question now is how dry is your wood? EPA stoves like very dry wood, most people who run Pre EPA stoves don’t run dry enough wood through their stoves and it leads to a frustrating experience.
What’s your chimney like?
We’re currently in the process of having a stainless steel liner put in to run through the existing chimney. I need to get some drier wood on hand. I’m fine with not using the full potential of the stove. I just don’t want it to be where the house is so hot we’re all miserable.
I’m glad you’re getting a liner installed. If your chimney is on the exterior of the house, it needs a 1” air gap between it and combustibles like framing and sheathing. If it’s interior it’ll need 2”. If that clearance is not there. Or can’t be verified, the liner must be insulated.
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
If you have dry wood you can always build a smaller fire. Remember pine dries fast. A solar kiln and the weather we’ve had this week 4 sunny weeks in a decent kiln would be a good start. If you can find two year old wood split and stacked for purchase consider bio bricks (compressed saw dust products. Probably not much cheaper than a space heater running in the room you are in but I haven’t checked prices this year.
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
Dry pine is fine. Any less than 23% mc is not fine. A moisture meter is a good investment. I get it free from a tree guy I know.
You probably will be ok. Could it be better? Yes. Chimney height might make a difference here. You will need to learn the stove and learn what it'll do with your wood. I've never heard of your stove before today so couldn't tellyou if it has a reputation for easy operation or not. But with all stoves a propor chimney and dry wood will make any experience better.
I have plenty of dry pine out back of my house that’s has been down for 3+ years. I was under the impression it was hard wood only.
If it's on the ground in log form it may not be ready. Wood doesn't really fully dry until after it has been split and stacked. Get an inexpensive moisture meter to check the wood after it's split. This is done by testing on a freshly split piece in the center of the wood's newly exposed face, preferably at close to 70º. You're looking for wood that tests below 20% MC.
There was a recent long discussion that goes into burning pine:
This old house segment
Just saw that there is new TOH segment on cleaning creosote from a fireplace. Trigger warning- he mentions pine is a big culprit for creosote. 😞
www.hearth.com
EbS-P
Minister of Fire
If you can build a solar kiln and we get a warm sunny November there’s a chance I could be dry by January if you get a cord done this week. But realistically you would need ideal conditions
To be fair, he has highs 60+ on average in November. He might still be in the 70s!
Edit: Just noticed you’re in that warm country too! Lol
Edit: Just noticed you’re in that warm country too! Lol
Some good answers on here already. Yes, you are correct, you need to burn it hot. Small fires will not work, except that you can burn a small amount of wood hot and let the fire die out. You will have pretty wild temperature swings doing it that way berceuse you have light (350 lb.) stove that will heat up quickly and cool off quickly. You might need to crack a window to keep the temperature comfortable on mild days, but that's not the worst thing in the world. The worst thing is NOT burning the stove hot and clogging your chimney up in two weeks or having a chimney fire.
You could probably keep your 850 sq. ft. house comfortable through the winter with 30,000 BTUs, so most wood stoves will be too much, unless your 1930s house is a lot draftier than my 1930s house. The data on the tractor supply website is fairly suspect, but it says the stove can run 40k - 60k BTUs, so maybe it's not as bad as you think. Ignore the sq. ft. numbers. A fairer estimate is 3-4 BTUs per cubic ft for primary heat for this part of the country.
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