PE t5 or t6

[Steamer]

Gave up on the wood boiler idea.
Have a Nashua woodstove going to put in basement by direct venting oil boiler and want to replace with a pacific energy T5 or T6.
I use the stove when I get home form work and on days off. House is 1950 square feet 12" in attic 6" in sidewalls. Nashua works well but hard to control burn rate and can take too long to get house up to temperature when it is real cold. Want to get the T6 with blower to be able to get temp up quicker. Saw the T5 in store today and firebox looks about same size as the Nashua. Any thoughts -does the T6 seem like a good choice for my usage? Also, has anyone direct vented their boiler/furnance - how does it work out? thanks

 

[begreen]

How's the heat get upstairs? For fast warmups it's hard to beat the stove being on the same floor as the area being heated. If the basement is finished and you want a nice looking stove, the Alderleas are good. But if this is just a basic heater, I'd go for a less expensive stove. That large amount of cast iron takes a while to warm up.

 

[Steamer]

I guess I wasn't clear. The Nashua is going in the basement for occassional use when I am down there with my winter hobby-trains.
The T6 will be on the first floor. The T5 seems to be the same size as the Nashua. Everyone tells me new stoves sre more efficient and more heat is extracted for heating and less waste up the chimney. Is the T6 oversized? thanks

 

[begreen]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. Do you know which model Nashua this is? FWIW, the Nashua was supposed to be quite an efficient stove for its day.

As far as stove choice, I would guess that either stove will work. The T5 will likely carry the house at least 80-90% of the time, but may need to be pushed harder during the coldest periods. The T6 will cover the house 100% of the time but will be burning more half loads of wood during milder weather. Either should be more efficient (cleaner burning, less wood consumed) than the Nashua.

I have a 2000 sq ft house in a milder climate and was faced with a similar question. But having upgraded twice, I went for the bigger stove. So far I've only run the T6 in late winter/spring, but have been impressed. It's very manageable in milder temps and only needed a half-load, throttled down (stovetop temp about 550) to keep the house toasty when it was about 32 outside.

 

[Hogwildz]

Go big or go home
Better to run smaller loads in a larger stove on the warmer weeks, then not get enough heat from a smaller stove running full bore & teetering on over firing in the dead cold winter nights.

 

[thechimneysweep]

We burned the same T6 that now lives at BeGreen's house on one of our showroom test flues last Winter, and came to refer to it as the "Gentle Giant" for its unique (in our experience) ability to putt along in milder weather, emitting a steady stream of heated air (without a blower, mind you) while maintaining an amazing comfort zone in the immediate vicinity.

That was the gentle part. The Giant part came about during a three-day cold snap, when we "let the big dog eat" and experienced the same 97,000 btu output as the all-plate-steel Summit.

In the relatively mild climate of the Pacific NW, (Seattle avg. January temp: 41 deg F ), we have always made it a policy to talk people down from their natural tendency to buy the bigger stove, lest they get cooked out of the house. After our experience with the T6, we no longer have any such reservations about the Alderlea models.

 

[Todd]

Those Alderlea stoves are a nice looker. Is there an air space between the cast iron and steel firebox? I bet there is, and that probably helps even out the heat some?

 

[begreen]

Yes, the cast iron is a jacket surrounding the steel stove. It evens out the temps a lot and once warmed up acts a bit like soapstone. It's a good stove for 24/7 burning.

 

[Steamer]

Thanks so much for the feedback. The Nashua builders plate says NFP1/NFP2 Serial # 1752 but the box is not checked as to which model it is. The stove top is 21" deep by 27" wide by 29" high. It has a blower in the rear and the air comes out on the sides. It has not seen a lot of use as oil has been so cheap I used it as a backup burning less than 1 cord per year so it is in mint condition. It is extremely well built -I guess they used to call this stove "The tank". The problem is controlling the burn rate -it is tough to get a slow burn. T-6 sounds like a good choice as we can get some cold snaps in Vermont that require more heat output than the Nashua could deliver. Do you think the fan option @ $245 is worth the extra money? Steamer

 

[thechimneysweep]

Only if you find you need it. The combination of plate steel firebox and cast iron outer shell causes extreme heat transfer to the airspace between, so there's a steady stream of superheated air flowing out the ventilated top, which pulls cool air in off the floor to be heated in turn. In most cases, we've found this natural turbulence is sufficient to mix the heated air with the room air.

My advice: try the T6 without the blower and see how it does for you. The blower goes on with two screws into pre-drilled holes, and would install in five minutes should you find you want or need the extra air circulation.

 

[Todd]

Thanks so much for the feedback. The Nashua builders plate says NFP1/NFP2 Serial # 1752 but the box is not checked as to which model it is. The stove top is 21" deep by 27" wide by 29" high. It has a blower in the rear and the air comes out on the sides. It has not seen a lot of use as oil has been so cheap I used it as a backup burning less than 1 cord per year so it is in mint condition. It is extremely well built -I guess they used to call this stove "The tank". The problem is controlling the burn rate -it is tough to get a slow burn. T-6 sounds like a good choice as we can get some cold snaps in Vermont that require more heat output than the Nashua could deliver. Do you think the fan option @ $245 is worth the extra money? Steamer

How tall is the chimney? Maybe your draft is to strong. You may want to install a pipe damper to slow her down some and retain more heat. Another good tool is a stove/pipe thermometer to monitor the temps.