Hey guys I have spent alot of time on the site and had to join. There's alot of info and personal experiences to learn from. I was having a hard time deciding what stove I wanted and could afford and alot of people love their nc30. So. That's what I got and for $700 thanks to you guys! But now I'm thinking I should have went with the nc13 because I only have a 1200sq ft house. I'm going to install it in my living room and the 2nd floor stairwell will be only a few feet from the stove so I hope alot of the heat will just go up. Should I just try and sell the 30 and get a13? If I keep the 30 what kind of temperature should I expect in my 260sq ft living room? Thanks alot
Overkill?
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My stove is oversize for my house. I just burn small hots loads at minimum air. Works out good for me. On the upside, if Nanook of the North comes down this far south, we will be ready.
Awesome! I keep kicking myself for buying it and not the nc13, it's so well built and I didn't want to get rid of it. Yeah it's in my house and the guys from non stop delivery saved me the hassle 
One of the best things about the larger stove will be longer burn times. You can load the NC30 at night and have plenty of coals and a sort-of-hot stove in the morning. The NC13 would be pretty cool and maybe a few coals in the morning, maybe not. I have a stove that is about hte size of the 13 and wish I had a larger one.
Is the stove oversized for the house? Probably. Will it work out? Maybe. Depends on the house and location. Though unless the walls are as holey as Swiss cheese you may be running it on a low fire 80% of the time. That's going to be inefficient and dirtier in the flue. I would have gone for the 13NC, or a slightly larger 2 cu ft stove like the Timberwolf, Drolet Escape 1800 or PE TN19.
Try it out for a season or two, then if you feel it is still too much, sell it and buy the 13. Honestly IMO it takes a few years to really get dialed in with your stove. Into 6th season and this is the best year yet for me.
You don't say where you're from (what climate you'll be using it in), how well-insulated the house is/circulation indoors, how you expect to use it, what other kind of heat you have and what your goal is (e.g. improve comfort or cut down on energy bills). It really does all depend and which factors are most important.
Just as an example, my insert outfit is probably oversized by most measures - but I use it for a weekend place with minimal heat when we're away and the absolute priority is to bring the place up to usable temperature as fast as possible (the electric heat is very slow to chase the chill out when the place has been sitting cold). Overheating is less of an issue and so far no problem with overdoing it - but again my priority is to provide a lot of heat quickly, and to cut the use of electric.
Your own priorities/situation will differ, but I'd prefer to have a bit too much than too little. If you really want to downsize after a few years, you'll know better then what works for you.
Just as an example, my insert outfit is probably oversized by most measures - but I use it for a weekend place with minimal heat when we're away and the absolute priority is to bring the place up to usable temperature as fast as possible (the electric heat is very slow to chase the chill out when the place has been sitting cold). Overheating is less of an issue and so far no problem with overdoing it - but again my priority is to provide a lot of heat quickly, and to cut the use of electric.
Your own priorities/situation will differ, but I'd prefer to have a bit too much than too little. If you really want to downsize after a few years, you'll know better then what works for you.
I agree with Hogz. Use that stove for a couple of years and dial it in. If it gets too warm, do like I do and open some windows! I'd rather have a stove that's a little too big than a stove that's a little too small! They don't call me 'Overkill' for nothin'!
Thanks for the replies. I live in upstate NY and I plan to use the stove as my main heat source. I don't know how well the house is insulated but I do know at least some of the ceilings are insulated. I have a oil fired boiler and I hate paying for oil and would be like to cut down on oil usage as much as I can. I have a ceiling fan and hope it will move the heat around enough to keep my living room at a comfortable temperature. The last thing I wanted was too small of a stove.
I think your answer is pretty much there - if you want it for your main heat source, far better to be a bit too large, and with some decent circulation and not knowing exactly what insulation - well, keep that one and try it before going down in size.
You are worrying way to much here. You are in a cold climate with long winters. Burn it and enjoy it. Start with small hot fires and go from there. When it gets too warm, crack a window.
IF, in a few seasons, it proves to be too large, sell it for what you paid for it and by a 2-2.5 cu ft stove.
Me? I like it really warm.
With a smaller stove you most likely would be tapping into your oil heat on really cold days, with a larger stove it would be highly unlikely that you would be using your oil heat. With a smaller stove you would not be able to get extended burn times, with a larger stove you will be able to get extended burn times. With a smaller stove if you have it turned to high and it is not enough to heat your house you would regret it. A smaller stove would take longer to heat your house to a comfortable level. Like other have said use it for a few years, and change your burning habits based on your needs. It is better to get a to big of stove then a to small of stove.
For me my wife has never walked into the house and told me to shut down the stove because she was to hot, though she has told me she is cold and that I need to make it warmer in the house.
If you have to burn it on low make sure you have good seasoned wood to burn and clean your flue at least 2x a year and you should not have a problem.
For me my wife has never walked into the house and told me to shut down the stove because she was to hot, though she has told me she is cold and that I need to make it warmer in the house.
If you have to burn it on low make sure you have good seasoned wood to burn and clean your flue at least 2x a year and you should not have a problem.
Great! So it sounds like I made the right choice. I was pretty sure I just wasted my money by overlooking the nc13 because of all the awesome reviews the 30 got. Thanks again guys I can't wait fire it up next season.
As someone who has a too small stove, I think you'll be glad for it. Guess I'll find out next season.
I made the mistake a few years ago of buying a smaller stove in fear that it may have been too large for my home. In the first month we realized that it was too small. Our home is about 30 years old and the insulation is not as great so the next month we went out and got the NC 30 and love it. I realized that its best to have a larger stove that you can control and not a small stove that wont keep up. You can always crack a window if it gets too hot but going the other way means you would have to turn on your furnace to compensate and thats a NO NO in our casa.
Just remember that you don't have to fire the 30-NC chocked full of wood and blasting all of those secondary combustion flames so loved by people here. Two cubic feet of wood in the 30 burned with flames in the firebox burn just as long as they do in a two cubic foot firebox stove. And if you don't get into the "Gotta run it like a rocket ship." mentality you will be fine. Stuff it full and burn it at 700 degrees and you will be sleeping in the garage.
Burn it like a big steel fireplace. You will love it. And don't be afraid to fire it, get it and the place warm and let it burn out. That five hundred pounds of steel and bricks will radiate gentle heat into the joint for hours and hours after the fire goes out.
Burn it like a big steel fireplace. You will love it. And don't be afraid to fire it, get it and the place warm and let it burn out. That five hundred pounds of steel and bricks will radiate gentle heat into the joint for hours and hours after the fire goes out.
This is probably information overkill (perhaps in keeping with the name of the thread), but woodstock has a decent article on their site about sizing stoves that I just came across:
(broken link removed to http://woodstove.com/pages/guidepdfs/woodstove_sizing.pdf)
There are a few bits that are probably the most relevant, one is a chart showing recommended output by climate zone. I read upstate NY as probably zone two, and keep in mind this is based on typical new-build insulation (they say increase by ~25% if less insulation). I read the chart as showing about 35-40k BTU for you, maybe increase a bit for your insulation.
Then it says:
"In general, if the mid-range of a stove will fulfill
your BTU needs, you are in good shape. If you buy a
stove that will produce the BTU’s you need only at the top
of it’s range, you should expect to fill the stove more often
in order to keep the fire at the high end of the burn cycle.
This will reduce your burn time (time between loads) and
increase the amount of wood that you burn."
The basic idea being that the top of the range output is only when it's really cranking, and not long burn periods, and that stoves naturally have up and down heat cycles. (The trick being to time those cycles to when you want to be really warm, and low cycle while you're out or asleep).
Now the Englander site doesn't show a mid-range value that I could find but woodstock estimates (and probably a decent rule of thumb) that the average or mid-range output might be about half the max rate, which I think for the Englander is about 75k BTU? So ballpark in the right range.
Anyway, this isn't different from what you've heard here already, and these are just rough guidelines, not rules, but I thought you might find the article useful and additional confirmation. Your stove may err a bit on the big side but that's hardly a bad thing in most cases, just have smaller fires. Oh, and you'll have a bit more flexibility on types of wood.
(broken link removed to http://woodstove.com/pages/guidepdfs/woodstove_sizing.pdf)
There are a few bits that are probably the most relevant, one is a chart showing recommended output by climate zone. I read upstate NY as probably zone two, and keep in mind this is based on typical new-build insulation (they say increase by ~25% if less insulation). I read the chart as showing about 35-40k BTU for you, maybe increase a bit for your insulation.
Then it says:
"In general, if the mid-range of a stove will fulfill
your BTU needs, you are in good shape. If you buy a
stove that will produce the BTU’s you need only at the top
of it’s range, you should expect to fill the stove more often
in order to keep the fire at the high end of the burn cycle.
This will reduce your burn time (time between loads) and
increase the amount of wood that you burn."
The basic idea being that the top of the range output is only when it's really cranking, and not long burn periods, and that stoves naturally have up and down heat cycles. (The trick being to time those cycles to when you want to be really warm, and low cycle while you're out or asleep).
Now the Englander site doesn't show a mid-range value that I could find but woodstock estimates (and probably a decent rule of thumb) that the average or mid-range output might be about half the max rate, which I think for the Englander is about 75k BTU? So ballpark in the right range.
Anyway, this isn't different from what you've heard here already, and these are just rough guidelines, not rules, but I thought you might find the article useful and additional confirmation. Your stove may err a bit on the big side but that's hardly a bad thing in most cases, just have smaller fires. Oh, and you'll have a bit more flexibility on types of wood.
If I was a betting man I would guess that far more people install a stove that is too small for their use than folks that go overboard and get a stove that is too large . . . there are a few once in a while . . . but as you can see here from the smattering of replies, a few folks here are upgrading to larger stoves.
As others have said . . . try it for a year . . . if it's too much you should be able to turn around and sell it and get a smaller stove . . . there will be a learning curve as you may over heat yourself next Fall as you will learn to make small fires in the bigger firebox . . . but I also would guess that the first night you have a wicked cold spell you might appreciate all that heating power.
As others have said . . . try it for a year . . . if it's too much you should be able to turn around and sell it and get a smaller stove . . . there will be a learning curve as you may over heat yourself next Fall as you will learn to make small fires in the bigger firebox . . . but I also would guess that the first night you have a wicked cold spell you might appreciate all that heating power.
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