Woodstove for interior Alaska cabin

[begreen]

A friend of mine builds entire houses with them here for the exterior

Yes, I had a friend that raised his house a full story and set it down on ICF walls. Cool project. Another option is SIPs.

 

[begreen]

The BK stove may work, but the first thing is to determine the heating requirements of the home, otherwise this is all just speculation.

 

[stovelark]

With redundancy in mind, I'd opt for 2 stoves, just in case. This house when built has got to be given supplemental updates here...

 

[stoveliker]

I second begreen. You still don't know how many BTUs you need.
So we can't say whether you need a BK and another one from the heating perspective.

I agree with stovelark though that you better have two stoves for reliability. If one has issues, use the other.
I do suggest a cat stove and a tube stove combo pair for that.

 

[bholler]

A reliable abundant affordable heat source in a very cold area where someone will be living in is obviously one of the top priorities along with proper insulation. The more I do reading into anthracite coal availability in Alaska, it's quite clear it's not an option.

I been calling around anthracite coal producers/distributors and most do not ship to Alaska. Anthracite coal stoves are rare in Alaska for a reason. The idea of a coal stove was a good idea only for it's performance but, it's just not practical in Alaska, it's not widely available. It's a shame since they have such long burn times and low maintenance. I contacted Blaschak Anthracite one of the top producers of anthracite coal and they do not ship to Alaska. So, a anthracite coal stove is out of the picture. Back to the Blaze King King 40.

The question is, is one Blaze King King 40 sufficient to heat the cabin or should a smaller second wood stove be installed in the corner of the first floor or hallway on second floor?

Is there a way to get even more performance out of that Blaze King by having brick or stone built around the stove on the floor and wall within reason ? The brick or stone can also add to the appearance.

Highbeam, your 200 square foot wood shed that holds 11 cords is a good idea and something I've thought about for a while, I just didn't know how big it had to be to hold that many cords of wood but, knowing that your shed can hold 11 cords has given me a lot of confidence.

What insulation value is the house going to have? There is no way for us to know anything without that info.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

We really don’t know the final size either.

If you don’t want to be moving 10 cords a year you have 2 options, go with something really energy dense like oil or shrink the building to something more manageable for a woodstove.

 

[Tonty]

I agree that any advice given now is just a shot in the dark until more is known about the situation.
If you decide to go ICF, check out Superform. They make a great product. I know there's a dealer/builder in Soldotna, AK. I think that is probably the only one in Alaska so would be a ways from you. My son works for a construction company that is also a dealer for Superform. They are the best ICF forms that they have found. They also make a system called Superpex that is for insulated concrete floors where hydronic heat is being installed. It has "pucks" that lock the Pex in so there is no need for other ways of fastening.
https://www.superformicf.com/