Pellet stove ratings???

[fishpole]

Hi Everyone,

I have never owned a stove before and know very little about them except for what I have researched online and from visiting some dealers. I'm confused by the stove ratings. My home is approx, 1725sq ft. and was looking at stoves that would be sufficiant to heat the whole house this upcoming winter and hopefully take a big chunk out of my oil bill(3.99/gal, 250gal tank). Now my question is will a stove rated for 1500 sq ft be sufficiant enough enough to do the job. My home is an 3 room open floor plan on the 1st floor and where the insert would be is cathedraled up to 3 bedrooms on the 2nd floor. I have a ceiling fan in the cathedral which I plan to use to circulate the heat(hopefully). I was told by one dealer that it would be.

Thanks in advanced

 

[begreen]

Square footage ratings are ambiguous at best and misleading at worst. Most every house has different heating losses depending on construction, age, windows, location, etc.. Better to look at the average of the last several year's oil bills on a monthly basis to determine how much fuel will be used.

What stoves have you looked at or had recommended?

 

[fishpole]

Thanks for your quick responce.
On average I burned about 600 gallons of oil this past winter and about the same the winter before that but they have been fairly mild winters. My guess is that on the coldest of
New England winters I would probably burn around 800 gal of oil.
The stoves I have narrowed down my search to are the Quadrafire Castile and the Harmon Accentra both of which are rated for 1500 sq ft. My third choice would be to buy the Quadrafire Mt Vernon which is rated for 3800sq ft, way more then what I need and almost a grand more in cash. Rarely are the thermostates in my home set for above 70 in fact almost never, at the most they are set for 68 during the day and between 64 and 66 during the overnight.
The house is about 16 yrs old and pretty well insulated. We don't like the house hot. My plan would be to keep the downstairs warm and hopefully with the ceiling fan circulate the heat in the cathedral room into the bedrooms to keep them comfortable. I'd hate to have to spend the big bucks for the Mt Vernon but I also would not want to get something that I will be disappointed with. There is another insert that Quadrafire makes that I think is rated for 2200sq ft but the wife was not to keen on the style.

Hope you can shed some light on this

Thanks again

 

[flueinc]

the castile is to small you would have to run it on high all the time and not get enough heat.

 

[begreen]

Heating sq ftg specs are deceiving. Given the aesthetic and heating requirements, I would go with the Mt. Vernon AE. I calculate that in the coldest months you would need around 38,000+ btus/hr. That is out of the range for the Castile, but in the med-high range for the Mt. Vernon. Note, the stove does not run all the time and doesn't need to run at highest setting. It won't drive you out of the room. By having the bigger stove you will be covered from fall to the coldest winter temps. The other benefits of the Mt. Vernon are that it's quieter than many pellet stoves and has a large hopper capacity. If this is in the living room, these features will be really appreciated.