Stove sizing

[Ctwoodtick]

We are looking to downsize. Ideally, the new place would be about 1200 sq feet on one floor, shooting for as open a plan as possible. In Connecticut. Thinking a medium sized non-cat would be too much heat. Wondering if a cat stove may be better for slower rate of heat at a time. Thoughts on the BK Princess in this situation?

 

[begreen]

The Princess would probably work fine, but this somewhat depends on the house insulation and glazing level. There are lots of non-cats that handle this job too. A Jotul F45 or a PE T5 would work well.

 

[jalmondale]

I've got about 1500 sq ft over in the Hudson Valley (similar climate), and I've had a really good experience with my cat stove so far (this is my first winter with it). It's soapstone as well for added thermal smoothing, and it hasn't heated me out of the house on the few 50 degree days we had last week, but was also fine on the single digit days in January.

 

[Manly]

We are looking to downsize. Ideally, the new place would be about 1200 sq feet on one floor, shooting for as open a plan as possible. In Connecticut. Thinking a medium sized non-cat would be too much heat. Wondering if a cat stove may be better for slower rate of heat at a time. Thoughts on the BK Princess in this situation?

Jotul #3 might be a consideration. We have been heating a small ranch with one for 25 years. Wonderful stove but you do need to feed it more often due to the smaller capacity.

 

[Ashful]

Thoughts on the BK Princess in this situation?

Depends on your heating goals. But if your mindset is more toward heating than aesthetic, it is hard to argue with a stove that can be turned down far enough to hit consistent 30 hour burn times, when trying to manage the heating of a smaller space. Of course, there are also much smaller stoves that could likely do the job if reloaded more frequently.

What's your solar gain going to be? I have one of my Ashford 30s in a room that's glass all-around, with 14 ft. vaulted ceiling, in most of the space, and approximately 1800 sq.ft. I will say that on a cold but sunny day, even the Ashford can be a bit much, until the sun goes down. I make it work by only loading it once per day at sunset, and cutting the load size to half if the next day is forecast full sun. The Princess is a hair larger than the Ashford 30.

 

[kennyp2339]

Im heating 1500sq ft from my basement with a princess free standing stove, I can turn the t stat way down and essentially get very little heat out of it when temps are 50 - 55 deg f, or I can turn it way up when its single digits and have it 72deg f upstairs, there's a lot of play with this stove, keeps me very happy.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Just getting some ideas here. Would love the convenience of cat stove- not worried about having to change the cat every so often. Wife likes watching the fire. We’ll have to see.

 

[stoveliker]

It depends on how hard you run the stove whether there will be fire to see in a cat stove (ok, in a BK).

Happy wife, happy life?

 

[Ashful]

It depends on how hard you run the stove whether there will be fire to see in a cat stove (ok, in a BK).

Happy wife, happy life?

Yep. Turned way down, most BK's go black. With the BK20's and BK30's, you can turn up for awhile and get some fire show, when you want it. Most reports from Princess and King owners seem to indicate the glass gets black enough in those models that it may be some time in burning off, before you'll get a good view of the fire, but maybe there was some exaggeration in those posts.