Questions about BTUs and Mid vs Large Stoves

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Dtunes

Member
Mar 7, 2012
78
Southern NH
Hi Folks,

Short version: What's up with the very slight variation in BTUs between medium(2.2-2.3 cu ft) and Large (3.1 cu ft) wood stoves?

Long version below:

A little background:

My wife and I are planning to have a new free standing wood stove installed this fall. Using our chosen dealer we have our options mostly narrowed down to Lopi(Endeavor/Liberty) or Regency(s/f2400/3100).
Our home is about 2300 square feet and built in the mid 90s so it's relatively well insulated and sealed. We also live on about 5.5 acre of woods so I plan to cut the bulk of my wood by myself(yes I've already started). We're both teachers so in the summer we're generally time rich, cash poor which is a big motivation for a wood stove over pellets(or our current propane furnace).

Having poured over brochures, manufactures websites, and hearth.com, I have a relatively solid understanding of most wood stove topics but something doesn't add up in my mind.

Why is there such little variation in BTU output from the medium to large even though it's roughly 30% larger? Is the main benefit increased burn time or does the BTU ratings not truly reflect heating capacity?

ex:
Lopi Endeavor 2.2 cu ft = 72.4k btu
Lopi Liberty 3.1 cu ft = 74.3k btu

What am I missing here?
 
Im no expert on this but generally BTU's are not the most accurate measurement of heating value. Also thats per hr, the Liberty has 2 more hours per the specs.

Larger fireboxes make it easier to fill and you can use bigger splits. Not a huge issue since you'll be cutting your own wood. I like my 24inch wide insert as sometimes the wood i get is not cut to the perfect size and i can generally get about all my wood to fit in it.
 
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