Help size my future BK

[Diabel]

Excellent read/thread! Tons of good information from seasoned members here. Cannot really add much but here are my 2 cents. I simply love my Princess, it does everything as advertised.
It sits in a 1100sqf area (bottom one of two levels, total 2200). The upper level is accessed via spiral staircase 4ft in diam. so very small. I do not expect the stove to heat the upper level, any heat going up is bonus. I use this house on weekends only (3-4 days at a time). During the 3-4 days the stove heats the lower level perfect while turned down. On few occasions (holidays) I will spend 10-14 days at that house. If I keep feeding the stove 20-23h cycle, it will overheat the space. By day 6 temp on lower level will be pushing 80-82. House is uber insulated, outside temps at times are brutal.
Every set up will differ. Just trying to expand OPs decision making horizons😜.

 

[reaperman1]

My forced air LP furnace has a terribly annoying blower/ductwork noise. Blower speed is likely set to high?
Bad enough i feel the need to adjust the TV volume to offset the blower noise.
The BK blower noise for me is not even on the same wavelength. BK is much much quieter at the rate we run them (never over halfway). My experience fwiw.

The boxer has a two blower fans spaced 4" or so inches apart so perhaps that's a bit more noise, maybe its just me. I generally keep them on the lowest speed. Overall, I havent found a cat stove to be any more complicated than any other stove.

 

[kennyp2339]

Princess owner w/ blower kits / convection deck, love the stove, I can get 24hr cycles when temps are in the upper 30's + anything lower I need to go to 2 loads a day, thats burning hardwoods, I suspect you'll fit right in w/ the 2 average loads a day, burn a little hotter at night and a little lower in the daytime.

 

[Poindexter]

Not a fan of the BX24 I take it? My wife says you're a hoot! hahaha

Princess 9.1k-30.4k

I think the BX 24 is a sleeper. Like a 1974 Triumph TR-6 with an LS7 shoehorned into the engine bay, and a T56 taking up too much of the passenger compartment. That combination would not do right on Michelin RedLines.

When I think of a 5 star cabin, at 16x24 (384 sqft) with a BX 24, I think that cabin will be comfortable at 50 below. I am going to call my local BK dealer tomorrow and ask to rent a BX24 if they ever get one returned. I am sure there will be many folks with one eye brow raised at the store, but I bet if they get a return they will call me.

I think you and I both have a few too many sqft to heat to be satisfied with a BX24 longterm.

Take your wife with you to visit the friend with whatever stove he is raving about. Go on a cold day, and watch to see how many layers of clothes your wife removes when the stove is set for 12 hour reloads. Give her a solid hour if she isn't reaching for her purse after 15 minutes. After your princess is installed and broken in per the manual, then run that thing like a GT40 at LeMans for 24 hours. Then give your wife a couple Benjamins to go buy some new comfortable clothes to go with the new stove. If you shop around a little bit on Etsy you should be able to find a seller with an area rug made out of 9 sheepskins stitched together, you want one of those and a wooden chest near the stove to keep the rug in when the kids are visiting.

 

[Nealm66]

I was pretty amazed at some of the posts on the bk Sirocco 20 . If I remember he was in the North Pole and burning spruce? It sounded like it was doing really good.

 

[ironglen]

I think the BX 24 is a sleeper. Like a 1974 Triumph TR-6 with an LS7 shoehorned into the engine bay, and a T56 taking up too much of the passenger compartment. That combination would not do right on Michelin RedLines.

When I think of a 5 star cabin, at 16x24 (384 sqft) with a BX 24, I think that cabin will be comfortable at 50 below. I am going to call my local BK dealer tomorrow and ask to rent a BX24 if they ever get one returned. I am sure there will be many folks with one eye brow raised at the store, but I bet if they get a return they will call me.

I think you and I both have a few too many sqft to heat to be satisfied with a BX24 longterm.

Take your wife with you to visit the friend with whatever stove he is raving about. Go on a cold day, and watch to see how many layers of clothes your wife removes when the stove is set for 12 hour reloads. Give her a solid hour if she isn't reaching for her purse after 15 minutes. After your princess is installed and broken in per the manual, then run that thing like a GT40 at LeMans for 24 hours. Then give your wife a couple Benjamins to go buy some new comfortable clothes to go with the new stove. If you shop around a little bit on Etsy you should be able to find a seller with an area rug made out of 9 sheepskins stitched together, you want one of those and a wooden chest near the stove to keep the rug in when the kids are visiting.

You've got a great point on checking out my friend's stove/home/temp situation. I'll reach out to him but I'm confident we'll be installing a BK.

I just looked and you're way cooler than me, based on climate data
Check out the Dec and Jan lows and highs: 1/-17F in Fairbanks vs 3/32F in Del Norte in Jan, and you're in a 2400ft2 home vs my 1100ft2. We're good with most models/designs, my hangup is about too much daytime heat for months other than Nov-Mar. This is where my lack of experience comes in and I have trust issues Seriously, I want to use the stove as much as possible. I think my concerns on overheating are valid but unnecessary. I'll just have to light a small overnight evening fire in the spring/fall for 2-4 months with no stove heating between June and Sept as our home stays fairly warm from daytime solar gain.

So, which BK stove will work best for me? I'm going to find out as soon as I get a price for the BX24 and Chinook 30 to consider along with the Princess and make a decision.

Fairbanks, AK

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Average high in ºF	1	10	25	44	61	72
Average low in ºF	-17	-13	-3	21	38	49
Days with precipitation	9	7	7	4	8	11
Hours of sunshine	54	120	224	302	319	334
Av. precipitation in inch	0.58	0.42	0.25	0.31	0.60	1.37
Av. snowfall in inch	10	8	5	3	1	0

Previous ColumnNext Column

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average high in ºF	73	66	55	32	11	5
Average low in ºF	52	46	35	17	-6	-13
Days with precipitation	13	15	10	11	9	8
Hours of sunshine	274	164	122	85	71	36
Av. precipitation in inch	2.16	1.88	1.10	0.83	0.67	0.64
Av. snowfall in inch	0	0	2	11	13	12

Del Norte, CO

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Average high in ºF	32	37	47	56	65	74
Average low in ºF	3	8	17	24	33	40
Av. precipitation in inch	0.39	0.36	0.83	0.83	0.83	0.75
Av. snowfall in inch	6	6	10	5	1	0

Previous ColumnNext Column

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average high in ºF	77	75	69	59	45	33
Average low in ºF	46	44	36	26	14	4
Av. precipitation in inch	1.56	1.88	1.18	0.83	0.57	0.55
Av. snowfall in inch	0	0	0	2	6	6

 

[BKVP]

You've got a great point on checking out my friend's stove/home/temp situation. I'll reach out to him but I'm confident we'll be installing a BK.

I just looked and you're way cooler than me, based on climate data
Check out the Dec and Jan lows and highs: 1/-17F in Fairbanks vs 3/32F in Del Norte in Jan, and you're in a 2400ft2 home vs my 1100ft2. We're good with most models/designs, my hangup is about too much daytime heat for months other than Nov-Mar. This is where my lack of experience comes in and I have trust issues Seriously, I want to use the stove as much as possible. I think my concerns on overheating are valid but unnecessary. I'll just have to light a small overnight evening fire in the spring/fall for 2-4 months with no stove heating between June and Sept as our home stays fairly warm from daytime solar gain.

So, which BK stove will work best for me? I'm going to find out as soon as I get a price for the BX24 and Chinook 30 to consider along with the Princess and make a decision.

Fairbanks, AK

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Average high in ºF	1	10	25	44	61	72
Average low in ºF	-17	-13	-3	21	38	49
Days with precipitation	9	7	7	4	8	11
Hours of sunshine	54	120	224	302	319	334
Av. precipitation in inch	0.58	0.42	0.25	0.31	0.60	1.37
Av. snowfall in inch	10	8	5	3	1	0

Previous ColumnNext Column

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average high in ºF	73	66	55	32	11	5
Average low in ºF	52	46	35	17	-6	-13
Days with precipitation	13	15	10	11	9	8
Hours of sunshine	274	164	122	85	71	36
Av. precipitation in inch	2.16	1.88	1.10	0.83	0.67	0.64
Av. snowfall in inch	0	0	2	11	13	12

Del Norte, CO

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Average high in ºF	32	37	47	56	65	74
Average low in ºF	3	8	17	24	33	40
Av. precipitation in inch	0.39	0.36	0.83	0.83	0.83	0.75
Av. snowfall in inch	6	6	10	5	1	0

Previous ColumnNext Column

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average high in ºF	77	75	69	59	45	33
Average low in ºF	46	44	36	26	14	4
Av. precipitation in inch	1.56	1.88	1.18	0.83	0.57	0.55
Av. snowfall in inch	0	0	0	2	6	6

He is "way cooler."..and so is his much better half! (Using 70's jargon!)

 

[Poindexter]

I encourage (again) for the OP to turn his NG thermostat up to +95dF and let the furnace run until his wife starts taking her clothes off. Note the temperature of that event, shut down the NG furnace for 10-12 hours, be aware of outdoor temperature, and come up with first data point on degree loss per hour curve.

With that data any fool can start calculating desired BTU/ hr into the envelope. Without those data points we are talking about our feelings instead of problem solving.

Good luck and best wishes.

 

[ratsrepus]

A lot of over thinking going on here, relax, just go get the princess and be done with it.

 

[ironglen]

I had some things come up but found the time to buy a BK princess. Thanks for all of the helpful feedback. I previously posted undue criticism for BK engineers despite the fact they designed the most efficient wood stoves on the market. I still think there's room in the line for a 'Prince' that's smaller, perhaps narrower, than the Princess with a slightly lower minimum output.

Wow, dealer prices vary on products, $1600 difference from lowest to highest for the same stove! I'm pricing chimney pipes now and finding an $1800 difference between brands, 2.3 x more, is it really that much better when both are 304 SS inside/430 SS outside?