Hi there, new to the forum but not new to wood burning. What an informative place this is. Like the title says I'm just about to break ground on a new farm house for my family and I'm trying to decide on a stove. Up to this point my experience has been solely with pre-EPA stoves, Fisher Baby Bear, Acorn Ranger and a few others so I'm needing a little guidance on sizing. The house is a very open design with the stove located in a vaulted family room. There would be about 1900 square feet of open space to heat on the main floor and the heat from the ceiling should flow up into the second story (open to the family room) and heat all the kids bedrooms, roughly another 1000 square feet. I live in Fort Langley BC (near Vancouver) so the winter weather is fairly mild but usually wet and I'm hoping to primarily heat with the wood stove. I've been at the local dealer looking at a few stoves and he's been pointing me at the Jotul Rangeley and the Alderlea T5 both of whose looks suit my wife well. I'm thinking Alderlea T6 or Jotul F600 might be better though but I'm a bit concerned about overheating the family room. I just don't know enough about these newer stoves. I burn mainly alder, birch, and maple, all well dried. Do you think the PE Alderlea T6 would be a good stove for this scenario?
Building a new house, need a new stove, Alderlea T6 maybe?
- Thread starter MattW
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
- Status
That's a lot of cubic feet you are planning to heat. You haven't mentioned exposure or amount of glazing or type of construction, how well insulated. Trust you are carefully designing a way to circulate your air so all the ehated air doesn't go up and sit near the ceiling over the open lower area.
I'd go with a good sized catalytic stove. You can always burn it very efficiently at a low output rate if you find you don't need to much heat, on colder days you still have the option of putting out more heat.
Don't know how much you care about how the stove looks.
My personal experience has been with Woodstock Fireview and Woodstock Progress Hybrid. For your situation, I'd recommend the PH in a heartbeat. You'd have it foreever, it's beautiful and very versatile, can be used easily for all your cooking during any power outages, easily burns way over 12 hours, is very efficient, and heats amazingly well. Has a 2.7 cu ft firebox, is EPA rated to 72,000 BTU. The Fireview was EPA rated to about 44,000...and had a 2.3 cu ft firebox. Believe me, those figures carry over into real life. The PH gets the house MUCH warmer than the Fireview. Better stove for a bigger home.
You can also burn the Progress Hybrid at a low catalytic burn and get about 12,000 BTUs per hour.
Another option for your climate is the Blaze King line. They will burn long and low, much longer and about 25 % lower than a Progress Hybrid. The downsides are not as attractive, and doesn't have the same upside heating potential...they top out EPA testing in the high 30,000s-low 40,000s BTUs. They have some new stoves (one I'm cast iron I've heard of but don't know if it's out yet), and it worth your while to check those.
Have no experience with Alderlea or Jotul, but they are both excellent stoves and I am sure those with experience with them will chime in and give you their input. But I do think if you are starting from scratch you should consider Woodstock and Blaze King as well...although perhaps you already have and have excluded them? In which case, I apologize for wasting your time....
Both Blaze Kings and Woodstock stoves will produce more heat than the EPA testing when fired with hardwood cordwood.
We're heating an old farmhouse with the T6 in the same climate and the same wood. In a new construction house I think you'll be absolutely fine and you'll be buying a locally made product which is always good for the local economy, eh? It won't bake you out of the house unless you want it to. The stove works well on a partial load of fuel. If the house is getting warm, stop feeding it. The T5 will also work, especially if you are building a tight, well insulated home. During our coldest weather you'll be pushing it a bit harder, but it will do the job. And it will cruise nicely during our eternal shoulder season burning. The main difference with the larger stove will be longer burn times and more reserve capacity. But really, both stoves will get the job done for you in our climate.
Don't put too much faith in that heat coming through the ceiling to the upstairs. I thought that too. But I sleep in a bedroom right over the top of the stove and the only way the heat gets up there is up the stairwell in the entry hall.
Don't ask me. I don't understand it either. There isn't a drop of insulation in that ceiling/floor.
Go large. Go T6.
Don't ask me. I don't understand it either. There isn't a drop of insulation in that ceiling/floor.
Go large. Go T6.
Thanks for all the input guys. The Blaze Kings had been near the top of my list but my wife doesn't like the looks and I'm a firm believer in happy wife happy life. I'll have to look at these Woodstock stoves. That the Pacific Energy stoves are local is a big plus for me that I forgot to mention. I am planning to put a couple ceiling fans up in the vault and I'm going to talk to the HVAC guys shortly to see if they can grab some of the warm air from the peak and circulate it through the house. There is no ceiling between the family room and second story bedrooms, there is a bridge over the foyer/family room with landing on each end that the bedrooms open to. One more question I had is about chimneys, I've only had masonary chimneys to this point and as I understand they are now made of stove pipe all the way up, do they have to go straight up? Can they have a 45 or two? I realize you lose draft with elbows and bends but this chimney has to go up 31 feet so I don't think I'll lack for draft.
The T6 will do the job. You can rest easy on that. But 31 ft of connector is a hellaciously long run, and then you have the outside pipe. Are you sure about that height?
Yes to get the top of the chimney 2 ft above the peak of the house (code here) it'll have to be 31 ft tall from the floor the stove sits on. It's all set up to go straight up and that's fine but it winds up a little further from the peak than I want and I wind up with a very tall chimney to try and service and keep clean. If I could bend it through the attic a bit I'd have a short chimney near the peak which would sure be easier and safer to work on but I have no idea if that's acceptable or how one would clean a bent chimney.
That sounds like a bottom up cleaner to me. Fortunately this is pretty straight forward with the PE. Though I'm thinking I would put a damper on that pipe.
Not sure how I missed this thread but I thought I would chime in here and say I Love my T6! We are easily heating around 2700sq ft of house without a problem. I'm sure our temperature isn't quite as low as yours in the winter but from the way it performs around 0
I don't think I would ever have a problem. You can read a bit about my initial experiences if you click on the line in my signature. I will caution you that getting the heat to flow to where you want it in a house that size may be a daunting task. Our stove is located in the living room on the first floor all the way on one side of the house. We usually maintain a temp of 74-76 in the living room which keeps our upstairs in the 68-71 range. Our kitchen which is on the catty corner to the wood stove room on the first floor usually ends up being the hardest room to heat without a fan blowing towards the opening into the stove room. I say all of this just to let you know that heat flows in odd ways depending on the layout of your house. Good Luck on your decision!
I don't think I would ever have a problem. You can read a bit about my initial experiences if you click on the line in my signature. I will caution you that getting the heat to flow to where you want it in a house that size may be a daunting task. Our stove is located in the living room on the first floor all the way on one side of the house. We usually maintain a temp of 74-76 in the living room which keeps our upstairs in the 68-71 range. Our kitchen which is on the catty corner to the wood stove room on the first floor usually ends up being the hardest room to heat without a fan blowing towards the opening into the stove room. I say all of this just to let you know that heat flows in odd ways depending on the layout of your house. Good Luck on your decision!
I don't know if it's ever gotten as low as 0F in Ft.Langely. The coldest I've experienced here is 8. (and that froze the pipes 
)
. (and that froze the pipes )
I think your upstairs rooms will be fine. I have a similiar situation with cathedral ceilings and the upstairs with an open balcony. One room is a loft, and that room is obviously quite toasty. The other room has walls and a door and is my toddler's. It stays pretty nice. In the colder nights (which are much colder than you will often see), we open his door when we go to bed to let the heat in during the night.
While either would probably work, I would also go bigger if I were you. It's just great to have extra capacity and longer burn times when needed.
While either would probably work, I would also go bigger if I were you. It's just great to have extra capacity and longer burn times when needed.
We've seen 0F but that's really rare, 10 to 14F is about the lowest we usually see in a winter. Sounds like the T6 will be a good fit at any rate.
- Status
Similar threads
