Hi John, Thats a great question.
Yes there is a big difference in the stove and firewood market in Europe.
The best European stoves, generally, are from Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Jotul and Morso are probably the biggest and have been building stoves longer than anyone.
I notice that the North American market generally has bigger, older styled stoves with larger burn boxes and if I may venture a criticism, they are not quite so modern and clean burning, tho I dont know about Catalyst stoves, which are not available on the European market.
Jotul cater very well for the North American market, but dont seem to sell any Contemporary stoves, so have a look at a Jotul European site to see what is available.
Morso have just started selling contemporary stoves to North America and they are worth having a look at.
The European standard log length is mostly 12", however some countries are as small as 10" or even 8", and this tends to be the regions where open fires are still used, Scotland being one of these places, and I have to admit that our mentality for heating our homes has been backward compared to other places, especially Scandinavia, I dont know the situation in the States?
I know I wont please everyone by what I m saying;
There are 3 main advantages that the contemporary stove has over what most manufacturers call the Classic (or traditional) stove;
The fire box is smaller and better insulated (usually with Vermiculte plates), so wood will burn at higher temperatures and more cleanly and also the combustion air is pre-heated by following a path thru the stove where it heats up, again improving clean burning and efficiency. Some of the latest Jotuls and Morsos have 80-85 % efficiency.
The other advantage is that small loads, ie a single log, will burn efficiently and cleanly, whereas the tradtional stoves would tend to creosote burning single logs unless they are burnt quicker!
So efficiency, economy and clean burn are the advantages.
The traditional stove does have the advantage of larger loads, but I will point out that both my brother and I have a contemporary stove each (Jotul and Morso) and they both have enough embers to relight the following day.
Incidentally, I have the polar gene, that means I generally dont feel the cold, and thinking about the reason for this is growing up in an old stone house, with no insulation whatsoever and only one open fireplace in the whole house.
I remember when I was about 12 years old, I got a bit of frost bite on my toe, after one foot had slipped out from under the covers whilst I was sleeping.
It was common to wake up in our house with ice on the inside of the windows from the breath having condensed and frozen on the windows.