Sizing wood stove

[Davej_07]

I know this has probably been discussed already, but the search didn't turn up much on it.
My house is 1600sf built 12 years ago. Open concept, cathedral ceilings. Basically heating one big room and my den. Would I be ok with a stove rated to 1500sf as I'm not heating the full 1600sf or should I look for 1800-2000 sf and regulate the fire size more?

Any help would be.......um, we'll... Helpful

Dave

 

[ethan1]

The bigger the better.

Not only will a larger stove allow you heat your house better. It will also prolongue burn times and assist in overnight burning.

 

[trophyhunter]

That much square feet can be tricky to size a stove to, if your thermostat is any where near the stove location the rest of house is going to be cold if your stove isn't putting out enough heat to do it all.

For 1600 Sq', I'd go big and heat the house with it. You have enough cubic feet of air to heat with the cathedral ceilings to burn a larger stove at operating temps and not run yourself out of house with it.

 

[stihly dan]

How did you make the other sq footage disappear?

 

[danthe]

I will respectfully disagree with the bigger the better philosophy for a wood stove.

It is a lot more efficient to run a medium stove at full capacity than to run a bigger stove at medium heat. Burning at full capacity will also lower the creosote build up and the probability of chimney fires.

 

[blades]

1600 ft with Cathedral ceilings, go big and install ceiling fans. Got 1800 sq ft 22ft at peak of ceiling lots of heat gets driven back down by fan. With out the fan there would be a nasty stratification problem.

 

[Davej_07]

How did you make the other sq footage disappear?

I don't heat th master bedroom, I like it cold for sleeping.

 

[stihly dan]

Ahh I see. Go slightly bigger. You can always open a window if its to hot. If you have a stove that has to run full fire all the time, there WILL, be days that it just won't get it done.

 

[EXCALIBER]

I will respectfully disagree with the bigger the better philosophy for a wood stove.

It is a lot more efficient to run a medium stove at full capacity than to run a bigger stove at medium heat. Burning at full capacity will also lower the creosote build up and the probability of chimney fires.

Not true. Just depends on the stove and what is designed to do. Mine is designed to run at med to low heat all day long with an hour on high at night to clean everything up. No creosote build up thanks to the efficient design, and the cat burning the gas that is given off. This is probably true for most good EPA stoves. For the old stoves I would agree with you.

Might I suggest looking into a Blaze King King model. Big firebox, thermostat, and cat make it easy to get the right amount of heat. Good luck.

 

[stihly dan]

Not true. Just depends on the stove and what is designed to do. Mine is designed to run at med to low heat all day long with an hour on high at night to clean everything up. No creosote build up thanks to the efficient design, and the cat burning the gas that is given off. This is probably true for most good EPA stoves. For the old stoves I would agree with you.

Might I suggest looking into a Blaze King King model. Big firebox, thermostat, and cat make it easy to get the right amount of heat. Good luck.

Or a woodstock, 2 reburns and a nice evan soapstone heat sink.

 

[Gavman]

Not only will a larger stove allow you heat your house better. It will also prolongue burn times and assist in overnight burning.

I very much agree with this:msp_wink:
I wish I had read this before buying my smaller pacific energy stove, it heats the house great but the box sure is small so for loading more than three decent sized logs you have to play a bit of tetaris...

Upside though is if you drink 4 to 7 beers before bed the 3am pee break is a perfect time to reload the stove....

 

[stihly dan]

Go big!


You'll be glad you did.

Thats what she said.

 

[EXCALIBER]

Bottom line buy the biggest stove that will fit. You can always put less wood in the bigger stove to keep it from running you out of the house. However, you will find it way harder to add more wood to a small stove that is alread filled to the brim with wood.

 

[Patrick62]

it's a simple formula

worked for centuries. You determine the decempeda quadrata of the dwelling, and then mulitiply it by the palmipes of height. Take this and then using 4/5's you multiply it by the number of servents. Count the number of trees in your sight using only your left eye. use this as the variable in determining the size of the chamber of the fireplace :hmm3grin2orange:

with a ceiling of 90 palmas you are going to be burnin' a lot of wood. The servants might revolt. Hire more servants and place them on pedestals with large fans to bring the heat down.

Get a big stove. The servants with fans is a good idea tho.

 

[tooold]

My house is 1580sqft ranch with 6" walls and open floor design. I installed a country stoves st210 which was rated at 1200-2000sqft. The next stove up was rated at 1600-2500sqft. I think the stove I have is the correct size and it works great. The furnace only runs a few times a year when it is below zero out side and the woodstove runs out of fuel. That is always a good time to clean the ashes out anyways. The picture shows the secondary burn up by the tubes in the stove.

 

[4seasons]

I see 3 problems here. One is you live in Wisconsin where it gets a good bit colder than here in Tennessee. Second is the cathedral ceiling -- In other words all your heat goes to the center of the ceiling. Third is trying to heat 1600 sf with a 1500 sf appliance. You said that you don't need to heat the full 1600 sf. Do you mean you don't want to heat the bedrooms? A wood stove will always heat the room it is in several degrees higher than any other room and the farther you get from the stove the cooler it will be. Some of the heat can be moved around by ceiling fans but it is much easier to push cool air from a room with a fan than it is to push warm air into a room. Something else to consider is how well you are insulated. A 2000 sf house with good insulation, tight doors and good windows is much easier to heat than a 1000 sf house with no insulation and drafty doors with single pane windows.
All that said I come down on the side of go big and be warm rather than wishing you had. Not only will a bigger stove hold more wood and thus give longer burn times but you can burn longer logs as well. A small stove that only holds a 16 in long log will drive you nuts when you get a few 17-18 inch long logs. But if you can burn up to a 24 inch log you don't have to be nearly as picky about your wood.
Now if you go too big you will have a creosote problem but only if you are choking the fire back too much. For example I have a 1200 sf house that is very well insulated. My old stove (pre-EPA) is rated for 1800 sf. When the temperature is dropping to below freezing at night and getting up to 50 during the day I can load the stove one time for well over 24 hours of heat. When the temps stay below freezing I have to load twice a day. I also clean my chimney every month or two. A basic brush and rod don't cost much and it only takes 30 minutes to clean most of which is digging the ladder out of the shed to get on the roof. With a hotter fire and a new EPA stove I'm sure I wouldn't need to clean near as much but I probably couldn't get those 24 hour burns either.

 

[sunfish]

We're using a Jotul 118CB rated for 1800 sq feet in a well insulated 1200 sq foot house. It's nice in late December and January but too much stove for the rest of the season.

 

[Fyrebug]

If I may add my 2 grains of salt here. We manufacture wood stoves (lot of them) and we use the Sq Ft rating and this is heresy on my part but I hate the Sq Ft rating for stoves for the following reasons:

1) It's up to each MFG to decide what to rate their stoves at

2) There is no lab or scientific protocol to test this and no agencies to monitor and certify this rating.

3) Some MFG are ridiculous in their rating (over 3,000 to 4,000 Sq Ft!). Gimme a break

4) A wood stove is a 'zone' heater, not a forced air furnace. it has no means to transport the heat from one side of the house to the other. If you put a wood stove in a closet and close the door you will have a warm closet... no more.

Unfortunately, customers really like the Sq Ft rating and we all follow suit. A better baseline is the cubic foot of the firebox ( a small stove is a little over 1 cu ft and a large one over 3.0 cu ft.)

Some people will buy a specific model and claim it heats their entire 1,500 ft house. Other people will buy the very same model and say it doesnt heat their 1,000 Sq ft house. It depends on your level of insulation, air movement, ceiling heights and too many variables to mention.

When choosing a stove placement is more important. If its on the main floor with open space it will be easier to radiate heat. If you have cathedral ceilings makes sure you have ceiling fans turning slow to move the ambient air.

In case of doubt you can always go bigger and once your stove is up to temp you can choke it down and it will cruise slower. Also do smaller re-loads if its too much heat.

Ask away if you have any questions. Which models were you considering?

 

[Iron Head]

I wish that I had oversized mine.
My house is 1200sqft and my stove is rated for 1400.
A full load will not last the entire night at medium burn.
If I could do it all over again, I would step up one size.
Bigger stove hold bigger pieces and bigger pieces stack a hell lot better than shorter pieces.
And they burn longer too.
With the new energy effecient stove these days, you can choke it down to low burn and don't need to worry much about creosote build up.