Sizing - how to guess your heating needs in terms of square footage.

[tickbitty]

My house is like 1430 sq feet so when I am looking at stoves and inserts I figure on wanting one where my number falls somewhere within the middle of the given range - like a stove that says 1000-2000 sq feet for example. I would rather not get one that says 500-1500, but then again don't want to go large and heat myself out of the house and have to underfire the stove.

But my house is a rancher, has an interior chimney about 3/4 to one side, and has rooms of a modest size. It's not an open plan, has an OK sized living room and big doorway to the dining room, but the den is in back of the chimney, the kitchen to the other side of the dining room, and the bedrooms all around a corner and down the hall. Given that it is not a very open plan, BUT that room is the core of the house, am I right in thinking I need a "medium" sized insert to get good heat for the house? Or should I be thinking smaller and recognizing that the stove won't be able to heat the stuff down the hall without cooking the core of the house out?

The house is solid masonry, like a bunker, and decently insulated, but the windows are old and probably a bit drafty (compared to replacement windows that is.)

I wonder about the square footage specs on these stoves anyway... some give a huge range like "500-2000 feet" and today on two Regency stoves (the medium insert - I forget it's name) and the Hearth Heater, the specs on the stoves were very similar including the firebox and BTUs, but the hearth heater, which sits more IN the house than out, had a considerably smaller stated heat range than the other. Thought that a bit odd.

 

[branchburner]

I think you are correct to be thinking in terms of "medium" size. I would pay more attention to firebox size than to BTU or sq ft ratings. Probably something in the 2 cu ft range. When in doubt go bigger.

 

[learnin to burn]

Medium size stove is the way to go. If you need less heat just have a smaller fire in the larger stove instead of trying to run a smaller stove at its max all winter.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

I think you are correct to be thinking in terms of "medium" size. I would pay more attention to firebox size than to BTU or sq ft ratings. Probably something in the 2 cu ft range. When in doubt go bigger.

i agree with both burner and "learnin" 2 to 2.4 CF range is about right for you if you are a bit leaky around the windows, maybe a slightly smaller EPA unit 1.8 to 2.0 if you are well insulated with good windows. though these size stoves are dicey when it comes to effective overnight burns. look for approx 2.2 CF with 1800-2K rated coverage

 

[Bigg_Redd]

My house is like 1430 sq feet so when I am looking at stoves and inserts I figure on wanting one where my number falls somewhere within the middle of the given range - like a stove that says 1000-2000 sq feet for example. I would rather not get one that says 500-1500, but then again don't want to go large and heat myself out of the house and have to underfire the stove.

But my house is a rancher, has an interior chimney about 3/4 to one side, and has rooms of a modest size. It's not an open plan, has an OK sized living room and big doorway to the dining room, but the den is in back of the chimney, the kitchen to the other side of the dining room, and the bedrooms all around a corner and down the hall. Given that it is not a very open plan, BUT that room is the core of the house, am I right in thinking I need a "medium" sized insert to get good heat for the house? Or should I be thinking smaller and recognizing that the stove won't be able to heat the stuff down the hall without cooking the core of the house out?

The house is solid masonry, like a bunker, and decently insulated, but the windows are old and probably a bit drafty (compared to replacement windows that is.)

I wonder about the square footage specs on these stoves anyway... some give a huge range like "500-2000 feet" and today on two Regency stoves (the medium insert - I forget it's name) and the Hearth Heater, the specs on the stoves were very similar including the firebox and BTUs, but the hearth heater, which sits more IN the house than out, had a considerably smaller stated heat range than the other. Thought that a bit odd.

Pacific Energy Spectrum

The End

 

[btuser]

I've got a great big house with a great big insert (Lopi Freedom) and its a little too much for the room that its in. My house is open, but long so moving the heat is a challenge. If you have forced hot air in place, and can set your air handler to fan I'd say get the biggest firebox you can, but I think you lose quite a bit of efficiency trying to downfire a larger stove/insert.

Even the smallest insert will heat your house, but your house may not want to keep the heat you give it.

 

[smokingolf]

I have to agree with what everyone is saying. Go with as big an insert that will fit in your fireplace opening. When I started looking for inserts a few years back I was almost settled on the Quad 3100i, when I went to the dealer they asked the dimension of the fireplace and suggested the 4100i instead and said you want to put the biggest you can fit as you can make smaller fires if it is too much. With a smaller stove if it can't heat your house you can't heat your house.

Good luck

Brian

 

[BrowningBAR]

My house is like 1430 sq feet so when I am looking at stoves and inserts I figure on wanting one where my number falls somewhere within the middle of the given range - like a stove that says 1000-2000 sq feet for example. I would rather not get one that says 500-1500, but then again don't want to go large and heat myself out of the house and have to underfire the stove.

But my house is a rancher, has an interior chimney about 3/4 to one side, and has rooms of a modest size. It's not an open plan, has an OK sized living room and big doorway to the dining room, but the den is in back of the chimney, the kitchen to the other side of the dining room, and the bedrooms all around a corner and down the hall. Given that it is not a very open plan, BUT that room is the core of the house, am I right in thinking I need a "medium" sized insert to get good heat for the house? Or should I be thinking smaller and recognizing that the stove won't be able to heat the stuff down the hall without cooking the core of the house out?

The house is solid masonry, like a bunker, and decently insulated, but the windows are old and probably a bit drafty (compared to replacement windows that is.)

I wonder about the square footage specs on these stoves anyway... some give a huge range like "500-2000 feet" and today on two Regency stoves (the medium insert - I forget it's name) and the Hearth Heater, the specs on the stoves were very similar including the firebox and BTUs, but the hearth heater, which sits more IN the house than out, had a considerably smaller stated heat range than the other. Thought that a bit odd.

I would lean towards something in the range of 2000sqft. This would put you into the medium to large category.

The down side of going with something smaller:
Shorter burn times that may not make it throughout the night.
A smaller stove may need to be burned hotter to provide enough heat to your entire house.

The down side of going with something larger:
You may need to burn at a lower temperature to prevent your house from becoming a sweat box. Some stoves can burn at a lower temperature just fine and are quite efficient, others can't and have the risk of creosote build up in the chimney.

A ranch home usually has a very long floor plan and if it is an older ranch style it also doesn't have a very open floor plan, so a smaller stove (one that has a max of 1500sqft of heating capacity) may struggle to get the heat everywhere.

As an example, I own a very old farmhouse that is about 2200sqft. I own two stoves that should give me a total of 2,800-3,500sqft of heating capacity (depending on which specs you believe), but due the fact that I have a very long and boxy layout, the two stoves will not heat the whole house and I am planning on buying a third stove. This, of course, is an extreme example, though.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I think I'm kind of in between on large stoves. It's nice to have the extended burn time of the large firebox, but a small stove can really make a difference in the heating bill. Most of our winter isn't in the -X*F range. It's probably somewhere between 10 and 20*F. A small stove can make a huge dent or even heat the place most of the time.

I think a mid sized stove or insert is the ticket personally.

YMMV,
Matt

 

[Hurricane]

I agree with medium.
I went with the largest that would fit and I would have my screen door open when it was 20 outside. I made the house bigger and now it is jut right. I did not know that would happen when I bought the stove and could not enjoy the stove when it was 40 degrees out because the house would get too hot. You can have smaller fires but when starting the stove it gets real hot and overheats the space.
Right tool for the job, would be like using a sledge hammer to put finish nails in, it would work but overkill.

Just my 2 cents

 

[wsorg]

A medium sounds like the right size. You can always just have a smaller fire if it starts getting too hot.

 

[begreen]

One place to start is to look at prior heating bills. Figure out how many btus/month the house has been losing over the past couple years during the coldest months. Then divide that month's number by 720 (30 days * 24 hrs) to come up with an average btus/hr required.

 

[tickbitty]

One place to start is to look at prior heating bills. Figure out how many btus/month the house has been losing over the past couple years during the coldest months. Then divide that month's number by 720 (30 days * 24 hrs) to come up with an average btus/hr required.

Oh wow, gosh, that sounds like more math than I can handle!
We have been heating with an OLD oil furnace that was, I am told, worked backwards, meaning the intakes are on the outer walls and the heat vents on the inside core walls in the house. The furnace is in a small basement and the ducts are uninsulated. It worked fine, but probably not the most efficient thing in the world. Used a lot of oil, and kinda stinky. It's now broken and needs to be replaced, so instead we had a heat pump added to the AC system that was put in the attic a few years ago. I am not excited about going all-electric which is what threw me back into the market for a stove/insert.

Thank you all for your responses. It does make sense to look more at firebox size and btus more than just the stated heat ranges. Unfortunately it does put the lower end stove (inserts) I was looking at in the "too small" range I think...

I have looked into PE stoves but nobody carries them around here - even the dealers their site lists don't really, they might consider ordering it for me at a big markup but they couldn't tell me a thing about them. Same with Quadrafire.

Locally I believe that Regency and VC/Dutchwest are all I can get, go a little further out of town and I could get Lopi, Flame, Hearthstone, maybe Morso and Jotul. Due to some other advice on here I have also become aware of some other decent brands I could get online, Napoleon, Osburn. But looks like Englander and the like are pretty small in their insert selections.

 

[tickbitty]

And again, I really appreciate everybody weighing in, I am so much more well informed now. I dropped by the local dealer yesterday and didn't need much from them (which is good because you don't GET much from them!) I could just check out their inventory and prices and be on my way.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

One of the local offerings you mentioned has had some serious warranty issues lately. There are some threads on the site detailing the issues. You will want to be familiar with the issues should you decide to purchase one. Oh, and it wasn't Regency that had the issues.

Matt

 

[begreen]

A mid-sized stove will fall in the ~2 cu ft range. Regency or Lopi would be a good choice. If you want fancier, then the Jotul C450 is nice. If you want simple with a good price, then the Englander insert is in this size range and it is made in VA.

 

[tickbitty]

One of the local offerings you mentioned has had some serious warranty issues lately. There are some threads on the site detailing the issues. You will want to be familiar with the issues should you decide to purchase one. Oh, and it wasn't Regency that had the issues.

Matt

Yeah, thanks... I'm staying away from "those" brand of stoves and they aren't really what I am looking for anyway. If I saw a used one for a great price I might consider it but I am definitely not looking at them for new stuff. At all!

 

[tickbitty]

A mid-sized stove will fall in the ~2 cu ft range. Regency or Lopi would be a good choice. If you want fancier, then the Jotul C450 is nice. If you want simple with a good price, then the Englander insert is in this size range and it is made in VA.

Really? Did not realize Englander were made in VA. That is kinda nice. I wonder where? And if I could go factory direct!
Their insert claims it heats "up to 1500" which I thought seemed a little small. That was part of the reason for my posting this thread, I was trying to figure out if one of those stoves would be big enough for what I am looking for. I'm also wondering if I could pull it out onto the hearth a bit to get more radiant heat.

Yes, the Lopi and Regency are major contenders, but pricing them they are pretty up there for my budget. So I am looking at Napoleon, Englander, etc (and a lot of craigslist - I just saw a Buck 91 that looks REALLY nice on Craigslist. But that thing would heat us out of house and home, we would have to double the size of the house!)

 

[rathmir]

My house is a 1350 sq ft ranch that sounds very much like yours in terms of layout and the I2400 does an excellent job heating it in my opinion. Some of the "peripheral" rooms are cooler, but not uncomfortably cold by any means. I get 7-8 hour burns depending on the wood and how I pack it.

 

[DBoon]

I would have to say "medium" also - I can heat a 1250 square foot house with a small 1.6 cubic foot Lopi Answer (with blower) down to 10 degrees. Sure, the faraway rooms are in the low to mid-60s, but I'm not in my underwear in the living room either. I admit that I don't get the overnight burns that others can, but I can take care of a good portion of my heating bill with wood heat, regardless. And I don't mind waking up to a cooler house.

If you like it really hot inside in the wintertime, or you are totally focused on supplying 100% of your heat with wood 24/7, then the large stove may be for you. Otherwise, a little goes a long way...

 

[tickbitty]

Thanks guys. I'm only in VA so hopefully it will never get down to 10! Although I do like it a bit toasty in the house, your points are well taken and I probably ought to be able to do that with a medium stove as you say. Will probably have a hard time with the rooms down the hall regardless. The cordless phone doesn't really work down there even!

 

[wisc harv]

So do you guys think it is better to go by the EPA hang tag or the manufactures numbers when it comes to BTU out put. We now have a Lopi 380-440 that is 22 years old and has done us pretty well, on the coldest days we could use a bit more but were worried about having one too big. We are browsing for a stove that is just a hair bigger. Our original hang tag says 6928-46,270 BTU/HR. We were looking at one that said the BTU's were 55,000 and we thought that was what we wanted but the EPA numbers are lower then the ol' Lopi...... a guy would hate to drop a bunch of money and find out that it was smaller then what we had.

One other thing I have noticed is that the stoves have gotten wider and not as deep. I was told by a dealer that it was so we got more glass, but aren't they harder to load? We load the Lopi sticking the wood in the long way not cross wise.... are there avalanche problems?? Our room isn't laid out very well for a side door and even then it would have to be a right side door. Maybe it is just better to doctor up the lopi and stick with it.

 

[tickbitty]

Wisc, I noticed nobody answered your question but I bet if you started your own thread on it people would weigh in right quick. (I myself couldn't answer your questions!)

 

[jugarf]

FYI, I looked at Jotul stoves yesterday, and I did notice that the Firelight had a side door on the right side.

 

[begreen]

IIRC, the EPA numbers are measured with a specific amount of fir 4x4s burning. The stove will put out more heat with a full load of real splits, especially if they are a good hardwood.

That said, some mfgs marketing depts tend to stretch the truth a bit too optimistically with their specs.

I don't remember the firebox size, but going into a dustier memory bin, I thought the 380-440 was a pretty decent model. It wouldn't surprise me if it was rated conservatively and actually can put out more btus. Best to go on the firebox size as an initial yardstick of heat output. If the Lopi 380-440 is a 2 cu ft stove, go for a 2.5-3 cu ft stove if the goal is a bit more heat. You don't need to run the stove all the time with a full load of wood until it gets cold enough to warrant it.