Hi Folks,
New to the forum, thanx to all who put in so much time and effort on this great topic.
I am having a cabin built in mid-coast Maine, trying to decide how big (and what brand) a wood stove to get. Read a lot of posts, but it's clear from what is written that every situation is unique, so I'd like to describe mine and see what you all think. Here are the details:
-My cabin is very small...a 386 sq footprint, with two stories, so 768 square feet...plus a walk-out, cement-lined basement underneath
-We will live in the cabin year-around. It is about 30 minutes in from the coast, and we can expect a handful of nights below zero each winter
-We have back-up propane, but would like to do 80 - 100 percent of heating with wood.
-insulation is excellent; there are quite a few windows on the first floor, a few on the second, all are 10-15 years old (recycled) double-pane.
-the stove will go on the first floor, fairly close to the stairwell that leads up to the 2nd floor
-the floor between 1st and 2nd floor is THIN...2 "one-bys" (so, 3/4 inch thick) pine boards, for a total thickness of 1 1/2 inch...friends have suggested I'll have to be careful that the 2nd floor doesn't get too hot, because it will be so easy for heat to get thru the floor to the 2nd floor
My contractor all the while has been saying that I should go with the smallest stove possible or I'll fry, e.g. Jotul F602. But the local dealers are suggesting going for a larger stove, saying that the manufacturer's square footage recommendations are too high (e.g. said Jotul can't really heat 800 sq ft). For a larger stove, we're looking at an Englander 13. Locally available brands include Jotul, Englander, Lopi, Vermont Castings, and (I'm leaving a few out, can't recall). Folks on this site seem to think Englander is okay, and they're much less expensive; but if we go with the smaller stove, we want glass in the door, doesn't appear Englander has that, so we'll go Jotul.
We're aware of the trade-offs between heat and burn time. Of course we'd like to burn thru the night, but realize that's probably not likely. We're not adverse to restocking the stove in the middle of the night, and/or restarting by building from a few coals. People around here in Maine seem to be more concerned about creosote build-up, relative to the postings on this forum, so I'm also a bit lost on pros and cons of short hot fires versus closing the stove down to achieve a longer burn time. My sort-of hope is that the cabin is so well insulated that we could burn the fire pretty hot right before hitting the sack, and the cabin will still be warm when we wake 7-8 hours later, even if the stove goes out. We should have access to well-seasoned oak, maple, and birch (and, oh, I'll bet some aspen will sneak in).
What would you recommend? Thank you very much!
Davis
New to the forum, thanx to all who put in so much time and effort on this great topic.
I am having a cabin built in mid-coast Maine, trying to decide how big (and what brand) a wood stove to get. Read a lot of posts, but it's clear from what is written that every situation is unique, so I'd like to describe mine and see what you all think. Here are the details:
-My cabin is very small...a 386 sq footprint, with two stories, so 768 square feet...plus a walk-out, cement-lined basement underneath
-We will live in the cabin year-around. It is about 30 minutes in from the coast, and we can expect a handful of nights below zero each winter
-We have back-up propane, but would like to do 80 - 100 percent of heating with wood.
-insulation is excellent; there are quite a few windows on the first floor, a few on the second, all are 10-15 years old (recycled) double-pane.
-the stove will go on the first floor, fairly close to the stairwell that leads up to the 2nd floor
-the floor between 1st and 2nd floor is THIN...2 "one-bys" (so, 3/4 inch thick) pine boards, for a total thickness of 1 1/2 inch...friends have suggested I'll have to be careful that the 2nd floor doesn't get too hot, because it will be so easy for heat to get thru the floor to the 2nd floor
My contractor all the while has been saying that I should go with the smallest stove possible or I'll fry, e.g. Jotul F602. But the local dealers are suggesting going for a larger stove, saying that the manufacturer's square footage recommendations are too high (e.g. said Jotul can't really heat 800 sq ft). For a larger stove, we're looking at an Englander 13. Locally available brands include Jotul, Englander, Lopi, Vermont Castings, and (I'm leaving a few out, can't recall). Folks on this site seem to think Englander is okay, and they're much less expensive; but if we go with the smaller stove, we want glass in the door, doesn't appear Englander has that, so we'll go Jotul.
We're aware of the trade-offs between heat and burn time. Of course we'd like to burn thru the night, but realize that's probably not likely. We're not adverse to restocking the stove in the middle of the night, and/or restarting by building from a few coals. People around here in Maine seem to be more concerned about creosote build-up, relative to the postings on this forum, so I'm also a bit lost on pros and cons of short hot fires versus closing the stove down to achieve a longer burn time. My sort-of hope is that the cabin is so well insulated that we could burn the fire pretty hot right before hitting the sack, and the cabin will still be warm when we wake 7-8 hours later, even if the stove goes out. We should have access to well-seasoned oak, maple, and birch (and, oh, I'll bet some aspen will sneak in).
What would you recommend? Thank you very much!
Davis
