What size wood stove?

[Trials]

The bigger the better:

My favourite

These are awesome if you really want heat, a damper just above the stove really makes it easier to control the fire and reduce wood consumption :thumbsup: That's an 8" stove pipe output.

A good wood stove setup starts with a serious good chimney. Something in a large clay tile liner with vermiculite insulation between that and refractory brick will leave you lots of room for a stainless steel liner virtually impervious to chimney fire damage. You'll probably have to build your own cap with a screen to keep the birds and animals out, the spun aluminum ones you buy at the store are useless, they can't take a lot of heat. I made mine out of copper sheet, small angle iron and expanded steel screen. Make sure your chimney has a straight run and a good clean out reservoir, if you do have a chimney fire, that is where all the fire ends up.

 

[CalG]

A ceiling fan goes along way towards comfort with high ceilings.

A small firebox run hard is a much "cleaner" , if that's anything to you.
I have a Vermont Castings Resolute (16 inch wood) in a 30X16 'open floor plan" with a fan.
Lots of comfort there.

 

[aircommuter]

My ceilings are 18'6", I zoned out an area in front of the fireplace, it is an airtight fireplace with nice glass vlewing area and a blower. If I don't use the fireplace I can always turn on the zone in front of it. I used Warmboard for the hydronics.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I have burned wood for 15 years and for several years I was rather active on a wood stove website. I installed my own steel chimney liner for my 2 story house. But sizing this thing, with all the different variables has had me spinning in circles. I may still go with a hearthstone stove, with soapstone, just one that is significantly larger than the "Bari" that were were first looking at. I love the look, but I really don't think it can handle heating the place if the power is out. The house is being built at the base of a mountain in the Shenandoah mountain range of Virginia. Elevation for the house is only 900 feet. In a power outage, a ceiling fan will be useless to me...during normal operation, it will be awesome The main room is about 900 SF but total SF will be around 2500 sf. I will take all of these suggestions into account when looking for a stove. I am familiar with the Englander stoves....But my wife always likes the pretty shiny things, And this will be no different.

 

[TomSeller]

Have you given a wood boiler to supply your radiant any thought?
I have a "Gasification" wood boiler for my (in slab) radiant and DHW all winter, love it.
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Nice setup. I often thought about going that route. Do you also heat or preheat your hot water with the wood boiler in the winter?

Edit. DWH must be domestic hot water? Did not catch the acronym on first read.

 

[MossRoad]

The way that house is laid out, you're never going to heat the side rooms with a stove in that big room without forced air circulation. You're just wanting to heat the large room in an emergency, or enjoy the ambiance of a nice looking woodstove. So sizing it for the entire house isn't going to help you. In fact, if you size a stove in that location for the entire house, it will make the main room uncomfortably hot without a way to move the heat out of the room. You're looking for looks more than function. So go with a really nice looking quality stove that's sized just for that room, not the entire house.

 

[Egon]

As mentioned.

Consider putting a heating coil in the stove that ties in with the In floor system. For circulation use a 12 volt pump that can run off batteries in those cases power is out.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

As mentioned. Consider putting a heating coil in the stove that ties in with the In floor system. For circulation use a 12 volt pump that can run off batteries in those cases power is out.

I don't think the stove would have enough power to run the hot water. An outdoor boiler might Right now I will be continuing to work my regular job and building my farm on the weekends. Stoking and maintaining an outdoor boiler is a commitment that in not in a position to make.

 

[TomSeller]

If you are putting in a central forced air system, maybe put a filtered return grill in the main room so that you can use the fan to circulate that room's warm air through the house.

 

[westcliffe01]

WoodChuckDad:

Is the orientation of the house as showed in your plan (glazing to the North ?) If so, that would definitely contribute to a significant loss in energy efficiency... If the main glazing faces south, you would get solar gain and with a heavy concrete slab would be perfectly set up for passive solar.

I personally suggest you beware of Hearthstone. Make a very careful comparison between the way a Hearthstone and a Woodstock soapstone stove is built and its operating principle. A few hints: Hearthstone has single wall soapstone and their stoves work by the secondary air principle. Woodstock stoves are double wall soapstone and for the most part are catalytic. The combination of catalytic burn and double wall makes the woodstock stoves very easy to control for heat output and low stress. Anyone who knows how compromised the secondary air stove design is, when combined with how the emissions test is done for the EPA the stoves have a tendency to run away on a full load of fuel and be very difficult to control. When combined with 1 layer of soapstove, that frequently causes cracked stones and other air leaks, making the stove run away even more.

Most complaints I have heard about were not compensated for their damaged Hearthstone stoves since the factory regards overfiring as the fault of the owner, not inherent in the design and the nature of what one gets with a tall chimney that produces good draft under cold conditions.

I have had several secondary air type stoves and all have had the same runaway issues, its just that good quality steel stoves (NC or Pacific Energy) or good quality cast iron (Morso) survive overheating better than soapstone, especially single wall.

If you don't want a catalytic stove, look at the Pacific Energy T6 stove. It has a large firebox, the steel core of the stove is of high quality and the cast iron jacket promotes convective cooling of the stove which in turn makes a big convective plume of hot air in the house. I have a T5 which is the smaller model and it heats the upper 1300 sq ft of my home here in MI through the last few polar vortexes with -30F....

I'm having trouble sizing the wood stove for my new construction house that I am about to build. I am not using conventional construction, but also nothing revolutionary. This is going to be a post and beam SIPS house on a cement slab with cement floors and hydronic radiant heat in the floors. The wood stove will not actually be "needed" under most conditions, but I have been burning wood for 15 years and love it, and I also want an emergency heat source.View attachment 474179
The main room will be 22x40 and have hi ceilings that slope from 9 feet to 16 feet. In the main room there is more glass than wall in both the front of the house and the back. So I am going in constant opposite directions on efficiency. Sips construction with great R values and lots of glass which significantly lowers the R values. Radiant heat from the floors but a high ceiling which creates a larger pocket to heat when using a wood stove. We like the look of some of the more contemporary round stoves, but they are all built for smaller spaces. We were also told by one of the sales reps at the wood stove place here Charlottesville va that we should probably stay away from a soap stone stove because it gives a softer heat and we would loose that with the high ceilings. They recommended something steel or cast iron. I'm throwing this out to TBN'rs to weigh in on because I figure this group has a broad spectrum of experiences that will help.