Old Defiant vs. Fisher Bear series vs. NC30 vs. ???

[agcowvet]

Of course the new Englander will make way less creosote, given dry wood; but, which one can make more heat? And which is less picky about seasoning? (Is that even *that* much of an issue?) Hate to put all eggs in the "Wood" basket (vs. "Wood and Coal"), then get stuck buying 'seasoned' wood in March that the stove won't burn...

Perhaps a better question would be, what would be a good choice for a 1600sf house with a design-day heat-loss around 85k BTU/h? (Besides, of course, more insulation and air sealing--an ongoing project!) I think, maybe, just maybe, have got the wife on board with a stove UPstairs. Been running a Hitzer 50-93 in basement this year (anthracite coal=no seasoning required) to reasonable effect but it can't keep temps above 67 when below around 20 outside--esp if wind blowing. No chance of putting it upstairs though, too much fly ash. I'm resisting a furnace as would require adding outside acce$$ to the basement...maybe that isn't as expensive as I imagine either, but I reckon at least $2k for that, plus furnace and ducting--at least double the cost of a nice stove install.

 

[begreen]

Whoa, heat loss of 85K/hr in a 1600 sq ft house is big. Are you sure that is correct? If so, that should be addressed first. After that the 30NC will do the job well.

Yes, seasoned wood is important, but far from impossible. It just takes a bit of planning and a minimum of procrastination. It's important in old stoves too, but they masked it with the brute force of volume.

 

[BobUrban]

No expert but I ran a old skool Defiant for a year and now have the NC30 in a less than adaquatly insulated 1600sq' home and the 30 is head and tails better IMO. The Defiant did the job but was less efficient, more finicky and just not as user friendly. With good wood I can just load the 30 and forget about it for 8hrs or more.

Another concern is insurance - my insurance company did not like the pre EPA stove so I was granted a year to run it but had to get a modern stove to keep my HO insurance. Fortunately that was the plan anyway but still a PITA. Because dry wood should be the goal with either option I believe you will be happier with the 30 in the long run. We are getting into NC30 sales season soon so it will likely be the economical choice unless the others are free.

 

[agcowvet]

Heat loss calcs from builditsolar website. 1870ish farmhouse. IIRC I put air exchange at around 1.7/hour, which is of course a "SWAG". That does include the basement, was trying to figure heating from there...would more like 63k or so without that, and no floor insulation...a bit hesitant to insulate floor betwen basement and 1st floor, don't want frozen pipes eh. r10 walls and round r15 ceilings, as determined with IR thermometer ((broken link removed to http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ageng/structu/ae1373.pdf)) back when it was +/- single digits.

Of course dry wood is goal with any stove, just would hate to get caught short and have a stove that wouldn't work at all (vs one that will, but be smoky, and have to have chimney cleaned weekly...) Perhaps a better way to look at it would be that if a more modern stove would truly use a third less wood, the chances of getting caught short are way lower!

 

[corey21]

Yeah if i were you i would go With a EPA stove.

 

[BobUrban]

Rest assured a EPA stove with green wood will make heat - it just will not be as efficient as it could be with dry wood. Same for a smoke dragon it is just harder to identify from the inside because there are no secondary burn tubes to watch. Probably no glass to even see the tubes through or if there is glass in the old dragon it will be so black with goo you cannot see in there anyway. A fire in a steel box in your living room will make heat no matter how it was designed to perform, you just may not get nearly the secondary combustion you would like which is not happening in the dragon anyway - hence, the smoke.