Sw Ohio here, and the above temperature ranges are nearly identical to what we like. It’s 40’s to 55F here currently. We like the house IAT (inside air temperature) about 70-72 during these more mild OAT (outside air temperatures). Of course bedrooms in that 66-69F range currently. Last week I had -45F OAT one evening and -11F to -15F for about 4 days. Currently 50 at 5am this Saturday morning with 58F yesterday … total temperature swing last weekend to this weekend is 103 degrees.
My home 1350 sq ft of 1954 build construction and not really the worst or the best insulation.
Threads like these are my wheel house and the ones I enjoy the most.
1. Little to no interference from moderators.😂
2. I love the numbers and real world experiences shared by regular forum members who are really into this and the number crunching.
That said, everyone including the OP has done a great job with the numbers so I won’t go into that only to say that your home and mine are very close in size. What we expect and what our concerns are, are indeed very similar as well….strikingly similar.
While I’m NOT currently burning wood, have never burned or owned a BK, WS, or Kuma stove, if you throw in Lopi (I have a Liberty)…those are my top 4 stove pics and I’ve spent about 7-8 years now looking at websites, brochures, going to dealers and crawling over, around, on top of, and into these stove. There are 3 other stove brands that I like that are great but with the exception of one of those brands they never made it into my top 4 choices. Over that time span of 7-8 years researching one unmentioned brand has just about tied to get into my top four, so we’ll call in top 5. LOL! I will not name it and it isn’t important really. Let’s just say it’s well made and fits the category of my last two stoves mentioned above in build quality and features that I’m like. I have listed stoves in order of my preference for your consideration.
If I could chime in here, it would be to give you comparable information that addresses your concerns about which wood stove to buy based on your said needs/wants, but from a different perspective…because I burn coal. That’s right. Anthracite hard coal.
Now before you or anyone else gets their panties in a wad my suggestions and comments for you have absolutely nothing to do with coal. Rather the numbers I’ve gathered for my own use, reasons I bought the stove, and the stoves size might help you.
I had first and foremost set out researching wood stoves and stumbled across an anthracite coal forum, which also led to researching about anthracite, its cost as an alternative fuel, stoves, etc. (Anthracite will be cost prohibitive for you at your location so don’t bother considering it…rather track with me for a Segundo.) Anthracite for me was a cost efficient alternative to fuel oil. An aging body as well as the fact that even though I have my own wood lot I no longer have a wood splitter, need a new saw, need a wood hauler truck/trailer…just too many expenses to get back into cutting wood. We used to cut and sell but sold everything. So for me buying anthracite was an alternative to buying wood and/or fuel oil.
To give you an example…
I was buying wood cheaper than coal but when considering btu/lb coal was still cheaper that last few years. Now coal prices have doubled but still far cheaper than fuel oil. With coal I went from $325/yr ($250/ton) to heat my home to $750/yr ($500/ton). Fuel oil comparison was $2500+/yr to $5000-$6000/yr.
As it turned out two of the coal stoves I researched and learned about peaked my interest because just like Blaze King wood stoves, they too operated by bi-metallic thermostat on the back of the stove for nice steady heat 24/7 that is repeatable. That word repeatable, as it turns out, is very important. You can come close with a soapstone stove, but close is as close as you’ll get. There’s nothing like a thermostat on a stove. It’s just plain convenient, especially for the ladies.
So my interest was peaked about these coal stoves and the coal itself…and enough so that I went to a stove manufacturer, seen how the stoves were made and stuck my head into them being built as well as in the fire box while they were burning. Not literally, but I wanted to see if I could smell the anthracite burning…because if I could smell it the deal was off. I could not smell it…at all…and none of our visitors has smelled it burning inside of our home. In fact, they smell nothing. Anyway…that’s sort of off track…
Being a wood burner I still wasn’t sure if we’d like it and who wants to spend $3k on a coal stove when they aren’t sure if they’ll like burning coal. I’m going somewhere with this…track with me. So I found a nice large anthracite coal stove near new for only a few Benjamin’s, and it was local so I jumped all over it. Been burning that stove and anthracite now for 4 years.
A forum member here, also he’s a neighbor about 5 miles from me,
@logfarmer, got lucky and just last fall found a 2004 used BK King model for a song. He and I had met on this forum, discovered we were local neighbors, he seen I was into stoves, and he sent me a pm or text asking what I thought about it because he wasn’t sure about buying it. I told him he better jump on it at the price if he wanted to try one. So he bought it and installed a new catalyst in it. This is his second winter with it and he’s getting 40+hr burns on coals and a good ash bed…less than half a load of walnut wood…40+hours… and he and I both are simply astounded at his results. Neither of us believed the hype. We are believers now! His home is 1800 sq ft, with a two story masonry lined chimney that by most comments here shouldn’t be working for a King model stove. He gets less than a quart of creosote when cleaning his chimney and it drafts flawlessly in an odd shaped clay lined chimney liner that is smaller than what is recommended. Again, he and I both are astounded by the BK Kings performance. A giant stove in a not so large house.
So with regard to maybe buying a secondary air tube stove or hybrid stove (besides a WoodStock) just for overnight burns: Why??? Unless you really like the WS there’s not even a real good reason to even compare it to a BK, even though burn times with the WS are respectable for the type of stove it is. Reason? With the WS, Kuma, Lopi, just in an overnight burn you will consume more wood than a similar sized Blaze King.
Now before people get their panties in a wad over me saying that…this OP is worried about too much heat from any stove…so he doesn’t need the amount of btu’s that a tube stove can throw over night. It doesn’t suit his needs as much as having a controllable stove with a thermostat that will provide plenty of heat even at higher burns and still use less wood doing it.
Back to my coal stove…a very large Hitzer 354…in 1350 sq ft. A giant stove in a not so large house. That’s the second time you’ve read that in the last 2 minutes. LOL!
By all odds this stove is way too big and the manufacturer told me that I may not be able to use it. If not for the thermostat he would be exactly right, BUT the thermostat makes it possible. Very important.
Anthracite is about 12,500 btu/lb.
My Hitzer 354 is “advertised” to burn from 1-7lbs/hr. The BK King and the Hitzer 354 are similar in size and sq ft heating capacity, approximately 2500-4000+sq ft depending on insulation. My daily consumption for the entire heating season last year was .88lbs/hr, a little bit less than 12,500btu/hr. The coldest few days last season produced the hottest temperatures I’ve ever ran the stove…420F just above the doors on the face of the stove. Most of the year this big stove cruises 275-320. Shoulder seasons it’s cruising below 225F. I couldn’t do that on a constant burn with an ordinary wood stove. My exhaust temperature remain about 94F-104F regardless whether I cruising low or burning at 325F.
The BK wood stove is the only stove made, that I’m aware of, with exhaust temperatures even remotely close to rivaling some coal stoves. The BK stove have the ability to cruise low for long periods just like a coal stove, with less need as often to empty ash, which is a nice benefit.
I had contacted
@BKVP and shared with him information about my coal stove and its size, the size of my home etc. His recommendation was the BK Sirocco for my 1350 sq ft. My chimney is inside the home and masonry lined. Obviously, an insulated metal liner would optimize performance, but may or may not be necessary for my needs.
Now I have no reason to believe that @BKVP’s Sirocco suggestion was wrong. In fact, I believe that stove would serve me or you very well given our circumstances and how much heat we’re actually looking for and/or needing from the stove. The question then becomes how big of a fuel tank do you want beyond that. So how big of a wood stove fuel tank are you willing to consider?
I know that the Sirocco would work well for me…and now with information shared by my new found friend and forum member…information that he’s gathered I can now determine that I could also burn a King model in my house. However, he and both feel that a BK Princess would be plenty big for when I want to extend my burn times. Something you need to consider more. Do you work or are you gone from the home for 8hrs+ daily? That alone to me says smaller BK stove, loading on 12 shifts, but still capable of 20+hr burn times. If you’re home all day loading on 12’s isn’t bad, but a bigger stove not only can go 24+hrs between tending, it can go weeks before emptying ash and can also provide more heat for those unusual and unexpected out of the ordinary cold snaps.
From there you may need to decide how much ambience is important to you, and if it is important opt for a slightly smaller stove to burn more in the med-low to medium rate. Otherwise, get the largest fuel capacity you think you can handle without overheating your home. However, always remember that unlike my coal stove…which responds very slowly to air intake adjustments…can actually take days to stall a fire-to kill it…wood is far quicker in response…you can always build smaller hot fires and let them burn completely out for your once a day fires.
With coal AND burning it in this giant stove, (12,500 btu/lb) my .88lbs/hr … then considering the real estate of the stove body at about 185-225F … that’s about as low as I dare go for fear of the fuel load going out. As these Ohio temps always do, they fluctuate greatly and I’m doing well to burn this very large coal stove as well as I do in such a small home. I would be much better off with a smaller coal stove…and for a wood stove I could burn the King…but it puts me in the same situation I am already in…that is, many days burning as low as I can and using windowstats to cool off and moderate inside air temperatures. What makes more sense is a smaller coal stove or the Princess wood stove. More than likely @BKVP’s suggestion of the BK Sirocco would suffice without the need for more fuel capacity still me long burn times when needed AND clean glass.
All that to say this…I think our situations are very similar down to the size of our homes, albeit wood types burned will be different. I think the Sirocco/Princess stoves would fill our needs…that barring anything I might have missed.
