Hello, I'm new to the forum but have learned alot of information from everyone browsing as a guest. This post will be long but i want to give as much info as possible. We are looking to purchase a wood stove for our cabin in Northern Wisconsin. It is approximately 1150 square feet, built in 1986 with 2x4 exteriors batt insulation and 1" rigid foam in place of sheathing on the exterior. The living room, dining and kitchen is open with vaulted ceiling with just batt insulation. The rest of the home (bedrooms and bathrooms) has decent to good insulation and ventilation in the attic. The wood stove will be placed centrally located in the middle of home in the main living room. The home is currently heated with a new high efficiency furnace with brand new ductwork (previously heated with only electric baseboard). I am a plumber/gas fitter and installed the new ductwork/furnace after doing a full heat loss calc (about 55k BTU with the unfinished walk out basement). We will continue to use the furnace but would like to supplement as much as possible with wood. We are there approximately 50% time with a goal of moving up there full time within 1-2 years. Design temp was around -20 degree Fahrenheit with some nights/days getting -30 to -35 air temp.
The LR/Dining/Kitchen where the wood stove will be located is long and skinny (11.5'x~35') and about 400-425 square with the entry way. The woodstove will be located on one end of that room in the LR area next to the hallway with the 3 bedrooms. Chimney will go straight up with no offsets right by the peak. We plan to utilize fans to move the air around to heat the bedrooms as much as possible.
The two local dealers have a number of brands. One dealer has vermont castings and quadra-fire and the other has pacific energy, blaze king and hearthstone. One dealer recommended the pacific energy vista but I am concerned about the burn time and feel it may be too small for the really cold days (I did not give him all this info, just room sizes and square footage). We like to keep a cooler house (66-68) and would prefer not to be heated out of the room by the wood stove or have to open windows to cool it down. I was looking at the hearthstone soap stone stoves because of the low temp radiant heat but have had a hard time finding a lot of reviews on that. Some of their stoves seem to have better reviews than others (full soapstone vs green mountain line)
Thanks for bearing with me during this long post. Does anyone have any recommendations? Will the Pacific Energy Vista be a good stove for the space? Because the room is only 11.5' wide we need something with tighter clearances so we can get it as close to the wall as possible (this is another reason the dealer recommended the pacific energy). Lastly, we are new to burning wood but are very handy and will spend the time learning a catalytic stove if it's the best fit. Thank you for your help.
The LR/Dining/Kitchen where the wood stove will be located is long and skinny (11.5'x~35') and about 400-425 square with the entry way. The woodstove will be located on one end of that room in the LR area next to the hallway with the 3 bedrooms. Chimney will go straight up with no offsets right by the peak. We plan to utilize fans to move the air around to heat the bedrooms as much as possible.
The two local dealers have a number of brands. One dealer has vermont castings and quadra-fire and the other has pacific energy, blaze king and hearthstone. One dealer recommended the pacific energy vista but I am concerned about the burn time and feel it may be too small for the really cold days (I did not give him all this info, just room sizes and square footage). We like to keep a cooler house (66-68) and would prefer not to be heated out of the room by the wood stove or have to open windows to cool it down. I was looking at the hearthstone soap stone stoves because of the low temp radiant heat but have had a hard time finding a lot of reviews on that. Some of their stoves seem to have better reviews than others (full soapstone vs green mountain line)
Thanks for bearing with me during this long post. Does anyone have any recommendations? Will the Pacific Energy Vista be a good stove for the space? Because the room is only 11.5' wide we need something with tighter clearances so we can get it as close to the wall as possible (this is another reason the dealer recommended the pacific energy). Lastly, we are new to burning wood but are very handy and will spend the time learning a catalytic stove if it's the best fit. Thank you for your help.
![[Hearth.com] Help selecting wood stove](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/298/298495-480bdad67b6acd474c8cea561bdd782e.jpg?hash=_bsDhpfbVN "[Hearth.com] Help selecting wood stove")
