Wood stove for New House Construction, small sq. footage.

[jjt42]

Hello-

Thanks to all who contribute for all of the great information on this site- definitely a great resource.

I currently use a Jotul F 600 Firelight to heat an old 2000 square foot farmhouse, and besides for a few design issues, I have been fairly happy with the stove.

My wife and I are getting ready to move though, and are starting contruction soon on a new house here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of South-West Virginia.

The house will be a good deal smaller (1100 square feet), with a fairly open floor plan, 8 ft ceilings, good southern exposure, and well insulated.

We have been really torn over which wood stove to install though! Although the bank is making us put in a "primary" heat source (baseboard electric...ugh), for all extents and purposes we will be heating exclusively with wood. So we're looking for a stove that can heat our entire house, and has decent burn times. The flue will be an insulated stove pipe running straight up through the second story.

Based on past experiences with different stoves, visiting showrooms and talking to dealers (not very helpful!), and reading all of the great advice on this site, we have narrowed our choices down to a few models:

1. Jotul F 3 CB
2. Jotul F118 Black Bear
3. Morso 2B classic or standard.

The Black Bear seems like it might be overkill for such a small house, while F 3 might not be large enough for long burns? (I also am not thrilled with the front-loading, large glass design...on our current Firelight I've gone through 2 sets of replacement glass from logs rolling down onto the front and cracking the glass). The Morsos seem like great stoves, but again I am concerned about the firebox size. I've read conflicting opinions on this site about whether to get a bigger stove and just don't load it as full for heating smaller spaces, or with going for a smaller stove and just running it hotter. Are these stoves approprate for what we are doing, or do we need to consider something larger?

I'm open to any other suggestions for appropriate stoves, but unfortunately one criteria for us is price...we need to stay under $2000 for our contruction budget. Also, while I'd prefer not to have a Catalytic stove (for simplicity sake really), I'd be open to new ideas if somebody presents an argument that a Cat would be my best option.

Thanks so much!

 

[begreen]

Good stoves, but I would consider some others for longer burn time and/or greater thermal mass. We have neighbors with an 800 sq ft house. They have been heating with a Jotul 602CB for the past 2 years and are happy with it, though burn times are about 4hrs, and coals only to about 6 hrs. Also, have you thought of a small soapstone like a Woodstock Palladian or Keystone? Yes they are catalytic, but that works to your benefit providing long, low burns. Alternatively, maybe also look at the Morso 2110 or the Pacific Energy Alderlea T4.

 

[tutu_sue]

For a small home, I would go with wht BG suggests, soapstone or hybrid convection like the T4 so you don't feel like you're standing next to the sun. The heat will be more gentle and even for smaller areas.

I have an F3 and it sure puts out a bit of heat for it's size and price, but find burn times are hardly more than 4 hours.

Best of luck to you and your new home.

 

[jjt42]

Thanks for the advice. I have considered the Woodstock models you mentioned BG, but really the high price is an issue for us unfortunatley (we are going through the appraisal process with our lender right now, and have to trim our construction budget a bit, so we were hoping to stay under $2,000 for the stove). It sounds like the Morso 2B models should definitely be out of contention for us with what we are trying to do. I haven't looked into Pacific Energy stoves and don't know much about them, but it sounds like they are worth checking out? And of the 2 Jotul models (F3 and F118), does anybody have any experience with which stove will burn longer? Or is my under $2000 budget not really realistic, and I need to be looking at bigger stoves?

Thanks again!
(Have stove prices really gone up a lot in the past 2 years? It seems like the price quotes I have been getting have been much higher then when I bought my Jotul Firelight).

 

[Jags]

Kind of my own rule of thumb......Primary heat...overnight fires = >2.0 cu ft firebox and more along the lines of 2.5+. Just something to think about.

 

[tutu_sue]

I paid $800 for my F3 in early 2004. What kind of prices are you looking at now? I'm curious because they seem to have gone up quite a bit.

 

[akhilljack]

those stoves are great but i don't know why people don't ever mention osburn stoves, they are great for genuine heating needs and are aesthetically pleasing in my eye unlike some of the other stoves like the blaze kings . i would suggest these as another option if you are looking to heat your home. i have a 1080 sqft house and an osburn 1600. it heats the intire house here in alaska where it gets -30 to -60 most of the winter. i find my self opening doors and windows even. i can lite a fire in the morning and let it go out after burning about 3 start up logs. my house will hold the heat in at a steady 80 degrees+ all day and i will lite another at night burning about 3 logs. my house is 5 star rated with lots of insulation which helps. my boiler is a cold fired oil ek-1 and it only kicks on to heat the hot water. even in the cold days it burns maybe 1/2 a gallon a day with us taking like 3 or 4 house hold showers. thats about 10-15 gallons less than most traditional boilers around here. the osburn 1600 i have is about 8-10 years old but it burns like new and has never had any problems. the glass looks spotless and i dont know if it is the design of the fire box but i have never had a log roll off in to the glass. it is very efficient even though it is older but it should last a life time. once i get the stove top thermometer up to 350 degrees f i cant even see smoke coming out of the chimney. the secondary air burns everything pretty well even when i some times through in a green piece on a hot fire. also the part i like is you can get one around here for roughly $1,000 when most other stoves here go from $1800-2500. they are well built, efficient and nice looking and should more than fulfil your heat needs you may even want to get a slightly smaller stove honestly they do make a 1100 and 1500 that are similar but one draw back would be the amount of wood and size that would fit that is why i like the 1600 with a 1.8 cf fire box (the perfect size for my house maybe even a little big). if i wanted to i could load it up and damper it down and go from 10pm to 7-8am and still have enough to get it going when i wake up with just a bellow. i just thought i would bring up an often over looked, less trendy, less expensive, but comprible stove that has and will continue serving me well in a simiilar size home in a much colder climate.

 

[jjt42]

Believe it or not, the F3 quote we got is twice what you paid for it a few years back- $1600! Like everything else we have encountered with this house construction project, it seems like prices on building materials have really skyrocketed in the past 2 years or so...Doing most of the constuction myself, I was hoping to be able to build for $60-70/square foot. It's now looking like $90/square foot is a more accurate cost.

Anyway, thanks for all of the input.

 

[pyro68]

I work at a hearth shop that sells Jotul and Hearthstone. The F400 may be worth considering. Depending on how cold it gets where you are you may have challenges burning it hot. So much depends on things like do you like the house temp at 70 or, like my wife, the closer it is to 85 the happier she is. Sounds strange but you are talking 15 degree difference. We heated approx 12 to 14 hundred square feet with the hearthstone homestead and were very happy. 6 to 8 hour realistic burn times and very comfortable to be around. Price will most likely be over 2k though.

 

[begreen]

The Alderlea T4 is about $1800, I think this will give you the longer burn times without driving you out of the place. FWIW, my friend picked up his Morso 2110 in July for about $1600, west coast pricing.

But if the budget is tight, maybe just get an Englander 13NC to tide you over for a few years? You'll burn smaller fires a lot of the time, but it would get the job done.

 

[jjt42]

What do you like about the T4, in particular, that makes it stand out from similar-sized stoves from other manufacturers?

Just curious because like I mentioned before, I don't have any experience with Pacific Energy.

I got a quote on a Morso 2110 for over $2000! Are all of my local stove dealers quoting inflated prices?

 

[gator1]

I'm heating my first floor with ease with my Avalon Rainier. It's about the same size as your new place in the mountains. It does have the large glass front that you spoke of though. I don't think it would cause you a problem though. You wont need the large logs to keep the stove going for six hours. Just get the stove smokin hot, load it up and damper it down and you will keep warm most of the night.