Help with stove size Please!!

[Kris000]

I am looking for info on a stove size, I feel im in the middle of 2 sizes. I have a bungalow with a finished basement. The basement is 750ish square feet finished, and the upstairs about 1450 (so 2150 in total finished used space. The other part of the basement is separated by a stone wall into the garage which is unheated and thus I don't think needed for this calculation.) I live in a climate zone 6. The stove would be almost directed at the bottom of the stairs and in the center of the house, so a lot of heat should go right up into a fairly open floor plan (kitchen/livinroom, exept the bedrooms being at the back would be not so open. Im looking at either Pacific Energy Super LE, or Summit LE or Jotul F55. The Super says up to 2000 sq ft, the summit says up to 3000 sq feet and the F55 says up to 2300 Sq feet. I kind of want to go with a PE stove though, so I don't know what stove of those 2 or even 3 to go with. I don't want to roast downstairs, but im worried about the summit being to big and having smaller fire with creo build up, if that makes sense? I don't want to get the Super though and when its -15c outside it not make the cut. I should mention this is for both backup heat power outages, and maybe just to use in Jan and Feb steady, no more than that. (Heat pumps primary). I really don't know what to do, get the bigger stove or the smaller one. Don't want undersize and don't want oversized. I also want something easy to use that doesn't require a ton of babysitting. House is of avg insulation and drafts etc. 1984 build. Please Help, advise!

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

If you aren't going to insulate that stone wall in the basement you are definitely going to need a fair amount of heat. To a certain extent the advice to just build smaller fires in larger stoves does work (as long as your woodbis very dry and you do top down burns). My stove is slightly oversized for my small living quarters but I wanted something that I could really depend on when it gets cold here in wisconsin. I would probably recommend either of the two larger options personally.

 

[kborndale]

Insulated the basement first, then you can get a smaller less expensive stoves. Insulation provides much more for your money than a big stove and you will burn much less wood.

 

[Todd]

Yeah I’d go with the bigger options. You should be able to get a clean burn filling the PE or Jøtul with half loads and then you have the extra capacity when needed.

 

[xman23]

Thats a lot of sq footage to heat. A bigger stove is what you need. How well it works is all about insulation, windows and stove location..