Advice sizing a wood stove stand alone.

[1870farmhouse]

Greetings good people, just signed up and have some questions.
I purchased an 1870 German clapboard farmhouse in August.
The original fireplace is great looking with some quite valuable 6” tiles surrounding the firebox facing.
Dimensions of the fire box are 31” H, 35”W, 19” D.
Remember there’s 6” tile on sides and top so the combustible minimum should be 37” H and 47” wide. The floor fire tiles extend out 20” and is 61” wide which is and extra 13” on both left and right sides.
The chimney was swept in May 2024 in preparation for market listing.

I am planning on running 6” insulated pipe through the chimney to a full close rain cap.

I will include floor plans of my house for any extra advice for moving heated air throughout my home.

My house is 1170sf so just under 600sf per floor, with that what size wood stove can I fit in my fireplace to best heat my home?

In the future I am thinking of installing electric duct returns to pull warm air from the 2nd floor and possibly the finished walk up attic down to the first floor to promote circulation.
My home is wood construction. 1.25” thick exterior boards on top of 1.5” thick diagonal structural boards that affix to standard framing 2x6” studs 16” on center.
So I have 2.75” of solid wood on stud framing. There is no insulation so between the 1.5” diagonal boards and the lathe that holds my plaster walls is a void of about 4.5 inches, these voids are how I would place return ducts/registers from 2nd floor down to first and 3rd floor down to first.
In the future I may do blown in rock wool insulation as it’s the best for this type of construction as the voids were purposely made to move air to not allow water to create mold inside the wall voids and create draft. Rick wool sheds water and is good at still allowing air movement in its blown in form. But that’s down the road. I have a feeling if the wood stove dies 1/2 of what I expect it to do I will be very happy.
The current fireplace just puts out little heat and burns wood fast.
I see videos of wood stoves burning for 5-9 hours on one loading of 5-7 16” pieces of wood where my current fireplace would burn that in 1-1.5 hours and out out little in comparison heat to a wood stove.

As you can see in the floor plan the living room the fireplace is located is actually 11’4” x 17’2” and close to the front door and stairs to second floor.

I am thinking of buying a lightly used 1977 Vermont Castings Vigilant which looks to be
30” wide, 22” deep, 29” tall

My house is 1170sf not including my walk up finished attic.
Should I overcompensate estimated heating square footage by a certain percentage?

If you are still reading and viewing the included photos thank you for taking your time and any advice you may have.

 

[Gearhead660]

So, you are planning to put a stove in the fireplace or in front of it? The Vigilant will be lucky to get 5 hours out of a load. Being an old farmhouse, I would do any insulating you can now. Will pay back greatly and allow whatever stove you get to heat your home easier.

 

[stoveliker]

Some remarks:
1. putting ducts where you indicate is not a good idea. There is now no (and there will be no) insulation between the duct and the outside (other than the 3" of wood). Ducts generally loose a lot of heat when running through cold spaces such as wall cavities without insulation on the oustide, or attics and crawlspaces that are not conditioned. Moreover, moving cold air towards the stove generally works better.
If upstairs gets too warm, better to close a door or so, or add a curtain at some place.
To move heat downstairs better, use a fan running low (!) on the ground pushing cold air towards the stove. It'll be replaced by warmer air flowing a bit higher. Run the fan too hard and things will mix (turbulence) and heat transport won't be as efficient.

2. If you buy a 1977 VC, you'll likely have to rebuild it. Unless it's just been refurbished.

3. Buying a stove that can heat the current house will likely heat you out of the home when it gets insulated better, unless you buy a large stove now that you can also run at much lower heat output later.

 

[begreen]

Nice fireplace. The living room is isolated by doorways from the rest of the house. That means that the kitchen and dining room will get a lot less heat from the stove. The small hall and stairwell jog doesn't help. A greater volume of the hot air will go upstairs. This greatly reduces the actual area heated by the stove.

Is there any insulation in the walls or attic? Is there a basement?

The Vigilant was a good stove in its day, 45 years ago. I agree that unless it has been recently and properly rebuilt, it might perform poorly. Parts are getting scarce for them.