My wife and I are looking at buying a new wood stove for our house in Alaska. We currently have radiant in-floor heat provided by an oil-fired boiler. We are looking to install something to supplement our in-floor heat (to save on oil as it is quite expensive in AK), to take the chill off in the evenings and on weekends and to provide a back-up in case of extended power outage. Our house is about 1600 sqft and is 2 level, the main level is about 950 sqft and is a fairly open plan with the main living area having vaulted ceilings at about 18'. the upstairs is partly open loft and then a closed in bedroom/bath etc. that has a door that opens onto the loft.
We have looked at a number of wood stoves and think we have it narrowed down. We are wanting something that has fairly tight clearances to sheet rock wall in back and that won't take up a bunch of space in the room. We really like the look of the more contemporary soapstone stoves i.e. Rais Bando and Morso 8151. Does anyone have experience with either or these or their like? The other stove that we are looking at (which is quite a departure from the soapstone look of the others) is the Pacific Energy Fusion.
A few of our concerns are; proper sizing for our application, don't want something that doesn't put out enough heat but also don't want to feel like we are being cooked out of the house, want something that feels a part of the space and not something that feels like it intrudes on the space, with the smaller fire boxes of the Rais and Morso am I going to being constantly stuffing wood into it? The PE is quite a bit less expensive than either the Rais or the Morso is the soapstone etc and quality worth the extra $?
Thanks for any insight or assistance you can provide.
We have looked at a number of wood stoves and think we have it narrowed down. We are wanting something that has fairly tight clearances to sheet rock wall in back and that won't take up a bunch of space in the room. We really like the look of the more contemporary soapstone stoves i.e. Rais Bando and Morso 8151. Does anyone have experience with either or these or their like? The other stove that we are looking at (which is quite a departure from the soapstone look of the others) is the Pacific Energy Fusion.
A few of our concerns are; proper sizing for our application, don't want something that doesn't put out enough heat but also don't want to feel like we are being cooked out of the house, want something that feels a part of the space and not something that feels like it intrudes on the space, with the smaller fire boxes of the Rais and Morso am I going to being constantly stuffing wood into it? The PE is quite a bit less expensive than either the Rais or the Morso is the soapstone etc and quality worth the extra $?
Thanks for any insight or assistance you can provide.