You need at least 75% efficiency HHV to get the 30% federal tax credit.
Advice for a new, large stove
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kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
After further research, at the moment the Lopi Evergreen is the leading contender. Low and slow isn't too important to us. We just want to crank out heat when it's really cold. The efficiency matches most cat stoves and qualifies for the tax credit. The Evergreen seems well liked, reliable, and a somewhat modern look. I wouldn't mind a bit larger of a firebox, but we can deal with slightly more frequent reloads.
I took a friend, new burner who just got a new house, to check out the Lopis at one of the local shops. They are good-quality stoves. I don't recall looking at the Evergreen, but we saw the Endeavor. The step-top is probably less your style, though. He ended up with a PE Vista, even though the dealer was out of town. I suggested he go up a size, but he liked the shallower profile of the Vista for his small living room.
Now, the Endeavor did have the ash grate in the floor, a feature I got spoiled on with the Dutchwest, and didn't have to give up going to the Woodstock Keystone. That's not a deal-breaker though, and the Evergreen apparently has two ash drops, left and right--that might be a plus, I don't know. And it looks like the openings are decent-sized, which I found handy on the Buck 91. I also like the cupped ash dump covers--just make sure they go down all the way, or you have uncontrolled air entering the box. 😲
I also like the bypass cover the just slides over the opening--no gasket to replace. Buck 91 had that as well.
Optional blower that strips heat from the back and top. Not sure how quiet that will be, with the conventional round fan. The older Lopi Liberty I saw running at the shop once had a very quiet blower but I think it was one of the long, narrow ones, like the PE has.
As I recall, the blower for the Endeavor was like $300! 😖 You might be able to get an aftermarket that would fit. My brother just got a motor and snap disc for autofan, and fabbed his own blower unit. He's a lot smarter than I am, though. 😏 I ate the cost of the OEM blower on my SIL's T5. 😖 It wasn't 300, though..
My SIL only uses the blower if her stove top is trying to push over 700, and she wants to cool it off. Usually she relies on the convection jacket of her T5 to warm and move air. I bet the Evergreen would also convect pretty well with the rear and top shields.
I see 70000+ BTU on their website, saying it's EPA, but I'm not seeing the stove in the EPA database, only the Evergreen "NexGen-Hybrid"...??
No enamel finish on the Evergreen, like the PE in several colors, but it's got a nice clean look you probably like, nonetheless.
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All the stove makers are hiring, so you have a bunch of rookies assembling the stoves now. 😒 Woodstock maybe not so much, I dunno..
The original poster has radiant heat and wants to add a wood stove to it. He lives in Wyoming and the winters are cold, so it's natural to want a big stove.
My recommendation is to air-seal the house very tightly and insulate it well. Then, size the stove so that you can still run radiant heat 100% of the time, but at 15 or so degrees less water temperature than what would be required to heat the house if it didn't have help from the wood stove. If the house is open floor plan and/or distributes the heat well, this will provide nicely warm (but not hot) floors, add a little heat to balance out the woodstove in places where heat from the woodstove doesn't travel well (e.g., perhaps bedrooms).
This is basically what I am doing in my new house and it works great. When I am running the woodstove, the downstairs radiant heats not required and not running (thermostat for radiant has no call for heat). The downstairs stays at 69-70 degrees. The upstairs gets less heat from the woodstove, so I just keep the thermostats set to 69 upstairs and the heat radiant heat runs all the time up there (each room upstairs is on its own radiant heat zone and has its own thermostat), but instead of the radiant water temperature being about120 degrees at 0 degrees outdoor temperature, it is 105 degrees or so. Everything stays nice and warm.
My woodstove is catalytic and I get reasonable 5 hour burns where the stove top is 400-580 degrees, and a lot of time around that where the stove is 350 degrees (especially when coaling). It takes a long time for my house to cool down (very tight construction, good insulation) so there are no rapid temperature dropoffs, and the radiant heat slows the temperature drops inside as well.
Just a thought on how to look at a stove a little differently when used with your radiant heat. When running my stove and radiant heat this way, the house is comfortable and I'm probably using 20-25% of the fuel (electricity) for the ground-source heat pump that I would otherwise be using.
My recommendation is to air-seal the house very tightly and insulate it well. Then, size the stove so that you can still run radiant heat 100% of the time, but at 15 or so degrees less water temperature than what would be required to heat the house if it didn't have help from the wood stove. If the house is open floor plan and/or distributes the heat well, this will provide nicely warm (but not hot) floors, add a little heat to balance out the woodstove in places where heat from the woodstove doesn't travel well (e.g., perhaps bedrooms).
This is basically what I am doing in my new house and it works great. When I am running the woodstove, the downstairs radiant heats not required and not running (thermostat for radiant has no call for heat). The downstairs stays at 69-70 degrees. The upstairs gets less heat from the woodstove, so I just keep the thermostats set to 69 upstairs and the heat radiant heat runs all the time up there (each room upstairs is on its own radiant heat zone and has its own thermostat), but instead of the radiant water temperature being about120 degrees at 0 degrees outdoor temperature, it is 105 degrees or so. Everything stays nice and warm.
My woodstove is catalytic and I get reasonable 5 hour burns where the stove top is 400-580 degrees, and a lot of time around that where the stove is 350 degrees (especially when coaling). It takes a long time for my house to cool down (very tight construction, good insulation) so there are no rapid temperature dropoffs, and the radiant heat slows the temperature drops inside as well.
Just a thought on how to look at a stove a little differently when used with your radiant heat. When running my stove and radiant heat this way, the house is comfortable and I'm probably using 20-25% of the fuel (electricity) for the ground-source heat pump that I would otherwise be using.
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