Small cabin with high ceilings. What kind of stove should I get?

[Sagan48]

Hi all. My wife and I just bought a small cabin in East Stroudsburgh PA. It's up on piers, has a bit of insulation but not up to modern standards(built in early 70's). The main living room area that will have the stove is 200 sq ft with a sloping ceiling that goes from 9ft to 15 ft high. There's also a small adjacent kitchen with low ceiling(100 sq ft) and a decent bathroom(75 sq ft). Upstairs there are 2 small bedrooms (not a loft, discreet rooms with doors), each 100 sq ft.

We want to be able to come here if overnight temps go as low as 25 degrees F.

The ceiling height is what's causing me to be uncertain. Will all the heat just rush upstairs leaving the living room cold? There is a ceiling fan that can help circulate air.

I have been looking at the Vermont Castings Encore and Dauntless, which can heat up to 2,300 sq ft or 2,000 respectively. These are mid sized stoves which I feel might do the trick...I figure we can always just do a smaller fire if it gets too hot in there, however if we can spend less on a smaller model and save some space that would be nice as well.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks all.

 

[begreen]

Is there other heat in the cabin to keep pipes from freezing? There is a big difference from bringing a place up to temp if it's 50º to start with than if it is starting at 25º.

It shouldn't take that much stove to heat the place once it's warmed up, but it could take many hours to warm up the entire mass of the interior. I suggest looking at mid-sized, convective stoves with close clearances to minimize the space the stove will take. Where would it be going? Is there dry firewood already at the cabin?

 

[Sagan48]

Is there other heat in the cabin to keep pipes from freezing? There is a big difference from bringing a place up to temp if it's 50º to start with than if it is starting at 25º.

It shouldn't take that much stove to heat the place once it's warmed up, but it could take many hours to warm up the entire mass of the interior. I suggest looking at mid-sized, convective stoves with close clearances to minimize the space the stove will take. Where would it be going? Is there dry firewood already at the cabin?

Hello! No there is no other heat in the cabin. If we went when temps were under freezing we would use an outhouse setup we have so we wouldn't be running any water. It's primarily a 3 season cabin but we want to try and extend our time into the late fall and early spring. 25 is the lowest we'd expect it to be over night if we were to go there.

The stove would go in the corner of the living room (not shown). We will have to order seasoned wood. We hope to have it installed and ready by this fall.

 

[kborndale]

Hello! No there is no other heat in the cabin. If we went when temps were under freezing we would use an outhouse setup we have so we wouldn't be running any water. It's primarily a 3 season cabin but we want to try and extend our time into the late fall and early spring. 25 is the lowest we'd expect it to be over night if we were to go there.

The stove would go in the corner of the living room (not shown). We will have to order seasoned wood. We hope to have it installed and ready by this fall.

Unfortunately ordering seasoned wood is not really an option. You have to buy your wood now so it can dry over the summer in order to have wood that is (hopefully) dry enough to burn next winter. I know every dealer claims their wood is seasoned but that is not reality. Some wood like oak can take up to 3 years to dry.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Order the wood first. Most likely your idea of seasoned and the wood sellers will be different.

The big issue you’re going to have is the thermal mass of your building is going to take a lot of energy to heat up. Then you’ll have lots of capacity for heat with very little need. It’s easy to cook yourself out.

The good thing is 25 degrees isn’t that cold. I’d get a small stove, non cat if wood quality will be questionable, and then use propane or electric to provide some quick but’s to help warm the place up when you first get there. Otherwise it’ll take hours to overcome the thermal mass.

I have a 500 sq ft cabin in the Adirondacks. I don’t really run the stove under 30. It’ll cook me out and a little plug in electric space heater will carry the heat load just fine. I need the extra size when trying to warm the cabin up in single digits and below.

 

[Todd]

If it were me I’d be looking at either the Jotul 602, Morso 2b or Drolet Spark II.

 

[begreen]

It's going to take a lot of extra BTUs to warm up the place when it's below freezing. The Spark or Deco Nano would be as small as I would go. The little firebox in an F602 or Morso 2B would be hard pressed to heat up the place over a weekend when it's 25º. It would take feeding it every 2 hrs. I'd want something no smaller than 1.5 cu ft with 2.0 cu ft being even better. A True North TN20 would work.

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

Kuma makes some close clearance stoves that are smaller but can really crank out heat when needed.

 

[Duds13]

Pretty sure you can dress warm until you get the place heated up with the wood stove. I think some people here think you want to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt as soon as you walk into the camp, lol.

 

[Kylekibbe]

Make sure that ceiling fan is capable of pushing hot air down and circulating it.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Since they are further south, I think 1.5ft3 would be the upper end I’d look at. Most of the time I have extra firebrick to cut down the firebox size enough that I can run clean and not overheat the place.

 

[stovelark]

I'd stay with a medium sized steel stove, or perhaps a steel stove body with cast iron shell (Jotul F45, PE T5), or similar. You do want the quick ability to get heat going, and the cast cladding would temper the effect too. Besides, they are pretty stoves too. Nice home.