Hello! I apologize in advance for the long post but here goes. In 2009 we bought a small fixer-upper house with about 1100 sq. ft. of living space on one floor, no basement, 4-ft crawlspace, vinyl siding, electric baseboard heaters and a place for a woodstove but no actual stove. We bought an old Wood Chief that has kept us warm here in southeastern New Brunswick, but is not EPA-certified. We had an energy audit in the fall of 2009 and were encouraged to first insulate the attic and crawlspace, then replace the Wood Chief with an EPA-certified woodstove, and then look at replacing windows and external doors if time & money permit. We started right away with the insulation, wrapping the walls & skylight area and blowing in enough insulation to blanket the attic floor with 15" for an R50 rating. We had a vapor barrier laid in the crawlspace and the perimeter walls & rim joists sprayed with foam, so we have good insulation above and below our living space. This helped our old Wood Chief keep us warm for the last two winters, but it is now time to replace it with a more attractive and efficient EPA-certified wood stove. It has taken me a year of blood, sweat & tears in the workforce to save up for a new woodstove and now time is running out if we are to take advantage of significant rebates from our federal and provincial governments. We must have an EPA-certified woodstove installed before the end of this month when our energy audit follow-up evaluation takes place.
We have gleaned a lot of advice from reading posts on this forum and hope to get some input that pertains to our particular living space, climate, and wants vs. needs. To that end I am providing as much information as I can, including a few photos taken before we moved in & our Wood Chief set-up. Our woodstove is located in the corner of the 21' by 12' living room nearest the back door. A small bedroom is directly across from the wood stove. Our living room has a large opening to the kitchen. Our kitchen has a vaulted ceiling and a skylight and opens onto a short hallway that leads to two small bedrooms and a bathroom. Ceiling fans in the living room and kitchen circulate the air quite well throughout much of the house & we use a box fan in the back hallway to move air toward the bedrooms and bathroom.
The stovepipe is located in an addition to the original house and goes straight up through the attic with no elbows in it. Our Wood Chief needed a 6" diameter pipe and the existing pipe extending from the thimble is 7" diameter, so we bought an adapter. The Wood Chief has worked well and kept us warm without requiring us to use the electric baseboard heaters even on the coldest days and in the rooms farthest from the wood stove; no complaints there. It does seem to use a lot of wood, although that may be unfair to the stove because we have had a really cold time of it here this winter. The main drawbacks are its lack of EPA certification, its looks in our living room, and possibly its condition due to its age. Perhaps it could soldier on for many more winters, who knows? We don't want to get rid of it; it would be great in the unattached garage someday. We just want to have a more attractive, EPA-certified woodstove to meet insurance requirements and to take advantage of rebates currently available. Word has it that our province will soon make it mandatory that all woodstoves be EPA certified.
With the woodstove in our living room I want it to look nice as well as keep us warm as efficiently and with as few emissions as possible. To that end have been looking into Pacific Energy and Jotul models. At this point we are leaning toward buying the Alderlea T5, although the Jotul Oslo with its side-loading door and blue/black porcelain enamel finish is hard to resist. A local dealer has an Alderlea T5 on hand as well as a couple of PE Spectrums but no Jotul Oslos; we still have time for him to order whatever we want, though. We would be able to get a 10% discount on the T5 or one of the Spectrums since he has them in stock already. The T5 looks nice enough with its cast iron finish but I am worried about how well it will withstand moisture from wet mitts and a humidifying kettle. How much fuss will it take to keep it looking nice? Would it be better to go with the porcelain enameled T5 or is keeping the enamel in good shape as challenging as caring for the non-enameled cast iron? The dealer told me that he just uses a duster on the Alderlea T5 he has in the showroom to keep it looking nice and it sits right across from display stoves that burn wood all winter and produce a lot of dust. His T5 is not used, though, and has no moisture around it. Is rust a problem with the cast iron finish? The dealer says that we can paint it if it rusts but that just leads me to think that it WILL rust and require a lot of care to stay looking nice. My husband does 99% of the fire-stoking in our woodstove now but I want to feel comfortable tending our new woodstove. And I will be the one who does any clean-up of it. I'm the one who wants an attractive stove. He is perfectly content with the Wood Chief.
How do you think the Alderlea T5 or comparable EPA-certified woodstove will compare with our current Wood Chief in heating our home? I don't want to buy the wrong stove for our house. I already feel guilty for plotting to boot the Wood Chief out to the garage as it is. I will admit that the Wood Chief intimidates me. I want a woodstove that I feel comfortable building a fire in. I am a caregiver for an elderly man who has a fairly inexpensive Drolet Savannah that I have no problem using, although it seems to require a lot of attention to get a good fire going and then burns the wood up quickly. I don't want the woodstove we buy to do that.
Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated. We must decide within the next few days in order to meet our deadline & build a hearth for the chosen woodstove. Thanks.
We have gleaned a lot of advice from reading posts on this forum and hope to get some input that pertains to our particular living space, climate, and wants vs. needs. To that end I am providing as much information as I can, including a few photos taken before we moved in & our Wood Chief set-up. Our woodstove is located in the corner of the 21' by 12' living room nearest the back door. A small bedroom is directly across from the wood stove. Our living room has a large opening to the kitchen. Our kitchen has a vaulted ceiling and a skylight and opens onto a short hallway that leads to two small bedrooms and a bathroom. Ceiling fans in the living room and kitchen circulate the air quite well throughout much of the house & we use a box fan in the back hallway to move air toward the bedrooms and bathroom.
The stovepipe is located in an addition to the original house and goes straight up through the attic with no elbows in it. Our Wood Chief needed a 6" diameter pipe and the existing pipe extending from the thimble is 7" diameter, so we bought an adapter. The Wood Chief has worked well and kept us warm without requiring us to use the electric baseboard heaters even on the coldest days and in the rooms farthest from the wood stove; no complaints there. It does seem to use a lot of wood, although that may be unfair to the stove because we have had a really cold time of it here this winter. The main drawbacks are its lack of EPA certification, its looks in our living room, and possibly its condition due to its age. Perhaps it could soldier on for many more winters, who knows? We don't want to get rid of it; it would be great in the unattached garage someday. We just want to have a more attractive, EPA-certified woodstove to meet insurance requirements and to take advantage of rebates currently available. Word has it that our province will soon make it mandatory that all woodstoves be EPA certified.
With the woodstove in our living room I want it to look nice as well as keep us warm as efficiently and with as few emissions as possible. To that end have been looking into Pacific Energy and Jotul models. At this point we are leaning toward buying the Alderlea T5, although the Jotul Oslo with its side-loading door and blue/black porcelain enamel finish is hard to resist. A local dealer has an Alderlea T5 on hand as well as a couple of PE Spectrums but no Jotul Oslos; we still have time for him to order whatever we want, though. We would be able to get a 10% discount on the T5 or one of the Spectrums since he has them in stock already. The T5 looks nice enough with its cast iron finish but I am worried about how well it will withstand moisture from wet mitts and a humidifying kettle. How much fuss will it take to keep it looking nice? Would it be better to go with the porcelain enameled T5 or is keeping the enamel in good shape as challenging as caring for the non-enameled cast iron? The dealer told me that he just uses a duster on the Alderlea T5 he has in the showroom to keep it looking nice and it sits right across from display stoves that burn wood all winter and produce a lot of dust. His T5 is not used, though, and has no moisture around it. Is rust a problem with the cast iron finish? The dealer says that we can paint it if it rusts but that just leads me to think that it WILL rust and require a lot of care to stay looking nice. My husband does 99% of the fire-stoking in our woodstove now but I want to feel comfortable tending our new woodstove. And I will be the one who does any clean-up of it. I'm the one who wants an attractive stove. He is perfectly content with the Wood Chief.
How do you think the Alderlea T5 or comparable EPA-certified woodstove will compare with our current Wood Chief in heating our home? I don't want to buy the wrong stove for our house. I already feel guilty for plotting to boot the Wood Chief out to the garage as it is. I will admit that the Wood Chief intimidates me. I want a woodstove that I feel comfortable building a fire in. I am a caregiver for an elderly man who has a fairly inexpensive Drolet Savannah that I have no problem using, although it seems to require a lot of attention to get a good fire going and then burns the wood up quickly. I don't want the woodstove we buy to do that.
Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated. We must decide within the next few days in order to meet our deadline & build a hearth for the chosen woodstove. Thanks.
