Wood stove

[McMike]

I'm moving north and the new house has a wood stove chimney already installed but no wood stove. The hookup is installed in a "side room" that is sitting over a crawl space connected to the main house via one open 32" passage. The house is around 1800 sqft, has two floors. Will this heat the entire house, say, if I get a VC Defiant? I'm not looking to be able to heat the house to 72 degrees, but to keep it warm enough to keep us and the pipes from freezing if the furnace goes down. Also, any suggestions on stoves with similar specs but cheaper but still quality? Also, How much wood should I keep? Lets say I'm looking to burn the stove three days a week during the winter.

[JayInOz]

I'm guessing you're talking wood heater and not actually a stove- thing for cooking on, usually with an oven as well. Doesn't take a lot to keep the chill out of a house if it's well insulated. Ours isn't -we burn a lot of wood

[Paul Pless]

best troll ever mike
nine pages at least
vermont castings ain't what they used to be
besides which a defiant in a side room won't do what you want it too
wait till spring and shop for used second hand stoves

[McMike]

I'm guessing you're talking wood heater and not actually a stove- thing for cooking on, usually with an oven as well. Doesn't take a lot to keep the chill out of a house if it's well insulated. Ours isn't -we burn a lot of wood

Yup, just for heat.

[McMike]

best troll ever mike
nine pages at least
vermont castings ain't what they used to be
besides which a defiant in a side room won't do what you want it too
wait till spring and shop for used second hand stoves

I plan on buying spring. They're not what they used top be but are they still the best? What is you opinion on a new stove? What's your suggestion for my sicheation? In other words, need specifics, need more input.

[Paul Pless]

In other words, need specifics, need more input.

where ya getting the wood?

does your stove need to be pretty?

do you want to see the flame?

[McMike]

where ya getting the wood?

From the 100 acres I own. FFS . . . I'm going to buy it like every one else.

[cathouse willy]

My stove, Pacific Energy, the top grills swing away to allow cooking over the firebox. It's Epa cert.and claims an efficiency rating of 80%.
It keeps my poorly insulated old place comfortable in sub freezing temps. How much firewood?...as much as you have room for.

stove.jpg

[bluedog225]

Drolets are good and cheap. No regerts.

[Paul Pless]

From the 100 acres I own. FFS . . . I'm going to buy it like every one else.

sorry, i didn't know

if youre buying wood, i think there's easy cheaper cleaner ways to heat your home

[Canoez]

I had a Jotul Oslo that I liked.

it was both front and side loading, could take a decent load of wood, you could see the fire if you want to enjoy that. The ash tray held about a week’s worth for our small house - 1200 SF at the time. It also had “air bars” to bring in pre-heated secondary air to get stuff that hadn’t completely combusted to burn, reducing smoke and creosote in the pipe and chimney.

A big enough stove to heat the whole house would likely make the room it is in awfully hot to be in.

Wood stoves are nice, and I like the heat from them. They do dry out the air pretty considerably, are on the dirty side with wood, ash, smoke and the occasional guest that comes in with the wood. (What Paul said, too. Lot of work.)

[hawkeye54]

How far 'North' are you moving ? And how much insulation in the walls / floor ? When I moved from South Texas to Minnesota back in 1993, I found that the farmhouse I bought had 'no' insulation in the outside walls. I had ice building up on the baseboards in that room.



Rick

[McMike]

sorry, i didn't know

if youre buying wood, i think there's easy cheaper cleaner ways to heat your home

I want one for the ambiance primarily. I've always wanted one. I have to upgrade the oil burner for the main heat source so it'll likely be the most efficient I can afford, so the stove is not for saving money or as a main heat source. I do want it for backup heat in case my furnace goes out at exactly the right moment at 20 below.

[McMike]

How far 'North' are you moving ? And how much insulation in the walls / floor ? When I moved from South Texas to Minnesota back in 1993, I found that the farmhouse I bought had 'no' insulation in the outside walls. I had ice building up on the baseboards in that room.



Rick

North, northeast USA. Standard R15 insulation.

[McMike]

I had a Jotul Oslo that I liked.

it was both front and side loading, could take a decent load of wood, you could see the fire if you want to enjoy that. The ash tray held about a week’s worth for our small house - 1200 SF at the time. It also had “air bars” to bring in pre-heated secondary air to get stuff that hadn’t completely combusted to burn, reducing smoke and creosote in the pipe and chimney.

A big enough stove to heat the whole house would likely make the room it is in awfully hot to be in.

Wood stoves are nice, and I like the heat from them. They do dry out the air pretty considerably, are on the dirty side with wood, ash, smoke and the occasional guest that comes in with the wood. (What Paul said, too. Lot of work.)

I really like the Jotuls! Wasn't sure if my estimation of them was valid. As for really heating up the room, will putting vents with 12v fans in between the rooms help? or is it a losing battle and pointless to attempt?

[McMike]

My stove, Pacific Energy, the top grills swing away to allow cooking over the firebox. It's Epa cert.and claims an efficiency rating of 80%.
It keeps my poorly insulated old place comfortable in sub freezing temps. How much firewood?...as much as you have room for.

stove.jpg

Nice and simple!

[McMike]

Drolets are good and cheap. No regerts.

I'll have to look at those.

[JayInOz]

Get one with a water jacket and you can also have free hot water while ever you're using the heater. Dunno about over there but here electric hot water heaters are one of the biggest chewers of electrickery.

[Canoez]

I really like the Jotuls! Wasn't sure if my estimation of them was valid. As for really heating up the room, will putting vents with 12v fans in between the rooms help? or is it a losing battle and pointless to attempt?

Well, heat rises. The Jotul was in my basement woodshop and there was a register vent that was above it in the floor of the living room just in front of the fireplace. With the stove going, the basement was like the Bahamas, the first floor a pleasant 70-75°F and the second floor bedrooms were a nice sleeping temperature . The mass of the concrete in the basement kept the place warm when the stove would go out for a bit, so there was that. Had an enameled kettle we had on the stove to humidify a bit and one of those heat-powered fans that sits on the stove to circulate air in the basement towards the stairs up to the kitchen.

[Canoez]

I really like the Jotuls! Wasn't sure if my estimation of them was valid. As for really heating up the room, will putting vents with 12v fans in between the rooms help? or is it a losing battle and pointless to attempt?

Well, heat rises. The Jotul was in my basement woodshop and there was a register vent that was above it in the floor of the living room just in front of the fireplace. With the stove going, the basement was like the Bahamas, the first floor a pleasant 70-75°F and the second floor bedrooms were a nice sleeping temperature . The mass of the concrete in the basement kept the place warm when the stove would go out for a bit, so there was that. Had an enameled kettle we had on the stove to humidify a bit and one of those heat-powered fans that sits on the stove to circulate air in the basement towards the stairs up to the kitchen.

[McMike]

Get one with a water jacket and you can also have free hot water while ever you're using the heater. Dunno about over there but here electric hot water heaters are one of the biggest chewers of electrickery.

So, that's a different thread but I do have an electric HW heater i the new house that needs to be replaced too. I can get an instant $750 rebate in my state and so that brings a $2000 heat pump unit into price range. And, when you consider the savings over time, it'll be worth it. That said, I was toying with the idea of ruinning copper pipe into other rooms from a water jacket to spread the heat out around the house. Probably just a pipe dream . . . haha, get it? But seriously, I'd love a unit like that, even a small cook stove, but that's a little overboard.

[McMike]

Well, heat rises. The Jotul was in my basement woodshop and there was a register vent that was above it in the floor of the living room just in front of the fireplace. With the stove going, the basement was like the Bahamas, the first floor a pleasant 70-75°F and the second floor bedrooms were a nice sleeping temperature . The mass of the concrete in the basement kept the place warm when the stove would go out for a bit, so there was that. Had an enameled kettle we had on the stove to humidify a bit and one of those heat-powered fans that sits on the stove to circulate air in the basement towards the stairs up to the kitchen.

I would love to put it into the basement for that reason, but then I'd have to finish the basement to enjoy it. maybe a cheap one if I upgrade my oilburner to a propane or electric heat pump so I can use the chimney for a setup like you had.

[CWSmith]

North, northeast USA. Standard R15 insulation.

That's 2x4 construction? Most houses up here are now built with 2x6 and an inch of rigid foam on the outside. You're going to burn a lot of wood.

[Canoez]

That's 2x4 construction? Most houses up here are now built with 2x6 and an inch of rigid foam on the outside. You're going to burn a lot of wood.

Anywhere between 4 and 6 cords of wood for our small place over the course of a winter.

[David G]

We have a big old welded steel wood stove in the basement which we have for just that purpose. From the 70's, with no pollution control measures incorporated at all, so we don't fire it up casually. On thing I love about it is the flat top which allows us to cook or heat water when the electric heat has an 'outage' during a winter storm.

[McMike]

That's 2x4 construction? Most houses up here are now built with 2x6 and an inch of rigid foam on the outside. You're going to burn a lot of wood.

Yup, this place was built in 84 so maybe it has rigid foam under the vinyl siding? Don't know yet.

[McMike]

Anywhere between 4 and 6 cords of wood for our small place over the course of a winter.

So a cord on hand to heat the place for a week or two if the power goes out?

[David G]

So a cord on hand to heat the place for a week or two if the power goes out?

A cord would likely be way overkill... but a comfortable suprplus to have.

[Canoez]

So a cord on hand to heat the place for a week or two if the power goes out?

I had a rack made of 2x4’s that held 4’x4’ 1 log deep. That was enough to heat the place for at least a week and a half if not more with seasoned mixed hardwood. We would usually be starting late September to early October and going through until early April. What you burn varies with the weather and the quality of the wood.

[McMike]

I had a rack made of 2x4’s that held 4’x4’ 1 log deep. That was enough to heat the place for at least a week and a half if not more with seasoned mixed hardwood. We would usually be starting late September to early October and going through until early April. What you burn varies with the weather and the quality of the wood.

That's a good baseline. Thanks!

[Ted Hoppe]

2BF8037F-F9E4-490D-96FB-10DE0BEE33B9.jpg

melts the cheddar on the apple pie.

62D9DA66-4BF7-4475-BF46-84C5EB238CF2.jpg

[gypsie]

I don't think a stove should be made out of wood. IMHO

[McMike]

Ba-dum-bum.

[StevenBauer]

We’ve got he smallest Vermont Castings - the Aspen. They cost about $1100 and are rated to heat about 800 sq ft. When I was looking into stoves it was the only small stove that had an ash drawer. It’s small so two cords of hardwood keeps it going full time from Fall to Spring. Maine has that rebate on the heat pump water heaters - you aren’t moving that far North are you?
The stove I dream about is the La Nordica:

285CDD6C-FB9D-44A9-96F4-8E194F9F5CCE.jpeg
They cost about $3000. But I really, really want one. They have a sheet metal cabinet but a cast iron firebox and top.

[Tom from Rubicon]

High Efficiency Wood Stove | Escape 2100 | Drolet
Exhausted with double wall insulated stainless steel stove pipe. The existing tile/brick chimney it nothing but trouble. Side room as you know is BS. Drolets have a hot top you can cook on and the glass window is self-sweeping.
Cheery fire light. Go as big as you can afford. Smaller can't make heat like a big one. Efficiency about the same.
16 years of use is about all the Empirical data you will need. Replumb the chimney in the main house.