What size wood stove?

[WoodChuckDad]

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.
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.

 

[cat fever]

If it's for emergency heat I'd get the biggest steel stove I could find. You can always have a small fire in a big stove, much harder to have a big fire in a small stove. Sometimes during the winter we cook tinfoil dinners in our stove just for the fun of it. I've even roasted hot dogs.

 

[groundcover]

Take a look at what jotul has to offer,should be able to find something that works for you. In your case , where you aren't looking for a primary heat source most any size will work,you can alway make a small fire. We never wanted to over size a stove because people would suff it full and damp it down to a smolder and make a creosote factory out of it. Much better to have a small stove and run it hot.

 

[mapper]

A ceiling fan will keep the warm air circulating and the warm pocket of air will not form.

 

[Raspy]

I have a setup similar to yours. Radiant heat, large Great Room with high ceilings.
Make sure you have a large firebox that is easy to load. I like to get mine going and stoke it as seldom as possible. Even though ours mainly supplements the radiant, if needed, I like wood stove heat too. Look at how you clean the chimney on any stove you're considering. Some modern high efficiency ones have a shelf under the stove pipe where all the soot ends up if you brush the chimney. This means you have to remove the pipe and vacuum out the shelf area. It's a pain to do this in my case.

As previously mentioned, a ceiling fan is very important for efficiency and comfort. Very important. I put in a 7' diameter Bigass fan that turns at about 50 RPM. It's not loud and it's not distracting, but it's easy to watch because it runs so slowly. My ceiling is at about 14'. When first turned on there is a warm blast from all that stagnant hot air up at the ceiling.

BTW, the most affective reflective wall you can make behind the stove is galvanized corrugated roofing. The wall stays at room temperature behind the stove

 

[EddieWalker]

After doing a lot of reading, I went with a Napoleon that was sized for a 2,000 square foot home. My house is 1,000 square feet. My need was to be able to heat the house when the power was out and warm up water for bathing and cooking. I've lost power for 5 days during a very bad ice storm the year before and lived off of the generator. Since buying and installing it, I've found it to be perfect for my home. It only takes one load of wood to heat up the house and if I put in too much, I have to open the door to the garage to cool off the house. It's very efficient.

Figure out your square footage, then get a stove a lot bigger!!!!

When budgeting, remember that the pipe is super expensive. Also remember that for the most efficient burn, you want the pipe going straight up. NO BENDS.

 

[FTG-05]

Probably the most cost efficient wood stove on the market today is the Englander 30-NC. About $990 when new, but you can get them on clearance at Home Depot in Feb-March-April for $650-ish when they go on sale.

I have one, bought Feb. 2014, finally got it installed 3rd week Nov. 2014.

I'll have to post pics of it later after I'm done downloading a big GPS file....

Good luck!

 

[Larry Caldwell]

For all that glass, install honeycomb (cellular) blinds. The 2-cell reflective coated blinds will add a lot of insulation to the glass area. We use ours at night in the winter and in the afternoons in the summer. You can get both vertical and horizontal cells.

 

[newbury]

Soapstone = "soft heat"? What the HE$$ is "soft heat"?

Soapstone does not put the heat out quickly like a thin skinned metal stove. Rather you warm up a mass of stone and it holds the heat for a while.

A soapstone stove is a thing of beauty and as expensive as heck. I bought a lightly used Hearthstone III Woodstove with a bunch of triple wall pipe for $500 in 2012 and I just looked and the prices seem to be up a bit, for a similar new stove. But I just wanted something to go in my shop. It complements my 120CC Stihl 088 that I bought for about the same price

To get something big enough for your purposes you would probably be spending $2 to $3K at least for a good NEW soapstone stove.

Since you are building your own place and seem to have the skills have you looked into a "Rocket Stove Mass Heater"? Very efficient.

 

[Rustyiron]

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.
With SIPS construction, I would be afraid to go by "normal" sf calculations for a wood stove, prolly way too much (big) heat for a tight SIPS house. Some heating load calcs were prolly done to design your radiant system, use those numbers to guide the BTU rating of the 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.
.

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.