Looking for wood stove recommendation for 1000 sqft house

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Jslts

New Member
Aug 8, 2024
14
Vancouver Island
Hi, I'm new to wood stoves and looking for the right one for our new house.
It has a 28'X28' walk-out basement and the main floor is 28'X38', which makes it just over 1,000 sqft.
It'll be fairly well insulated and the ceiling height is 9'.
The kitchen, dining and living room area (less than 500 sqft together) is open concept and there'll be baseboard heaters in the bedroom, bathroom, office and sunroom.
I'm hoping to heat those rooms with the heat from the stove but I wouldn't mind using the baseboard heaters in addition.
We have LOTS of fir and alder already cut and stacked 2 years ago on our property, produced while clearing the lot, and we can harvest more.
I'm close to Vancouver, Canada and it doesn't get too cold in winter. It's usually above freezing except a few days around 20F's here and there. The coldest could be 10F once every few years.
I'm going to put a wood stove in the corner of the small living room (12'X13') and there will be a TV on the same wall.
So I'm looking for a small stove with tight clearance.
I like the look and the size of Drolet nano but the burn time is only 5 hours. I want to be able to keep the living room somewhat warm until the morning so I won't come out to the cold from the bedroom.
I also considered TN20.
Which would be a better choice for my situation?
Any other recommendations? Thank you.
 
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If you want long burn times with a smaller stove I’d look into either the small Blaze Kings or Woodstock Soapstone stoves. Low outputs with easy overnight burns.
 
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I have the escape 1200 and love it, but ya it dosent burn for too long and it's the smallest stove they make I believe. If you want a overnight burn you'll have to buy a bigger stove. I always figure someone will wake up to use the washroom at night so they can just throw in a log here and there.
 
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If your house is small, new and well insulated you may find your stove doesn't need to burn overnight to keep it warm. You may end up with more cold starts but either of those options breathe well and shouldn't be fussy to get started in the morning. We have a small very insulated living space so I usually do a load at 5pm and let it go out from there.
 
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If you want long burn times with a smaller stove I’d look into either the small Blaze Kings or Woodstock Soapstone stoves. Low outputs with easy overnight burns.
Thank you. I'm not sure if I can get Woodstock Soapstone where I am in Canada but I'll look.
The Blaze Kings stoves look great, especially Chinook20, but sadly they're quite a bit more than the budget we are thinking of.
Also, I'm not sure if cat stoves would be for us. My neighbor has one and it seems a bit of effort maintaining it properly. It might be easier just loading wood more often with a non cat stove than maintaining a cat stove. As we have lots of trees on our property we can harvest, I'm okay with using a bit more wood with a non cat stove. I'm still new to wood stoves so my knowledge is limited, though.

I don't necessarily need a stove burning all night. I'd be happy as long as I get nice hot coal bed in the morning so I don't have to start a fire every time. I'm just not sure 5 hours of burn time will give me that.
In case Nano is too small, I'm considering Drolet Escape 1200, too.
 
I have the escape 1200 and love it, but ya it dosent burn for too long and it's the smallest stove they make I believe. If you want a overnight burn you'll have to buy a bigger stove. I always figure someone will wake up to use the washroom at night so they can just throw in a log here and there.
Great. I was also looking into the Escape 1200, too. How big is your place to heat? Do you get enough hot coal to add more logs in the morning even if no one puts in one over night?
 
If your house is small, new and well insulated you may find your stove doesn't need to burn overnight to keep it warm. You may end up with more cold starts but either of those options breathe well and shouldn't be fussy to get started in the morning. We have a small very insulated living space so I usually do a load at 5pm and let it go out from there.
That's a good point. I lived in a very poorly insulated rental cabin with a wood stove (probably the cheapest one the landlord could find) once, and it was an hour-long work starting a fire.
I guess that's why I'm so worried about cold starts but it's good to know I don't have to be.
 
That's a good point. I lived in a very poorly insulated rental cabin with a wood stove (probably the cheapest one the landlord could find) once, and it was an hour-long work starting a fire.
I guess that's why I'm so worried about cold starts but it's good to know I don't have to be.
Take a peek at some of the threads for top down fires here. If your wood has been up 2 years it should be pretty easy I end up doing a lot of cold starts minimal issues with smoke.
 
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It might be easier just loading wood more often with a non cat stove than maintaining a cat stove. As we have lots of trees on our property we can harvest, I'm okay with using a bit more wood with a non cat stove. I'm still new to wood stoves so my knowledge is limited, though.
The difference in efficiency for modern noncats and cat stoves is negligible - as in if you are feeding both properly dried (<20% - get a moisture meter!) wood and have the system (flue) set up properly, the difference in loading density (gaps between wood) from load to load is much larger than any of the listed differences in efficiencies.
 
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Great. I was also looking into the Escape 1200, too. How big is your place to heat? Do you get enough hot coal to add more logs in the morning even if no one puts in one over night?
I'm unfortunately heating my shed for fun and hangouts which is only a 12x16 and it's way too much for the shed. I use random wood that I got for free so loading it with oak for a overnight might give u 5 hours but my usual load times are around 3-4.

You can get a medium sized stove from drolet, I'm sure it'll be good and a bit cheaper than the other manufacturers.

Coals do last a long time in this stove and I would assume that you would have some left in the morning for a reload. I've walked back into the shed a while after a fire and sometimes find a few coals here and there.
 
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I want to add also that if you're looking into a drolet, I believe they go on sale from time to time, so when I focused in on mine I just waited during the summer to buy one. The escape 1200 is posted for $1199 on the website, I got it for 999 from home depot and price matched against a different website that had it cheaper and got the stove for 719 plus tax.

My pipe was roughly 1k but again it's a small shed so I didn't need much.
 
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Now I'm leaning towards TN20 as its side clearance is only 12" and I can cook things on the top. It also has long burn time of 15 hours.
Does it really burn that long?
 
burn time is ill defined. Will it have coals after 15 hrs - should be possible. It's a 2 cubic foot firebox, so I think this will be the max to expect (some coals after 15 hrs).

Will the "burning" (flames) stop after 15 hrs - that will have stopped way before that.
Will there be "usable" (ahem, who says so?) heat after 15 hrs? - most likely not, though usable is in the eye of the beholder, and the level of insulation your place has.

So don't go by burning time. Compare firebox volume. The more fuel you can "tetris" in there, the longer you can burn. Modern stoves of similar firebox size and with the same technology all will have a similar longest burn time - the EPA made sure of that (not being able to go lower = dirtier).
Some cat stoves can burn longer because lower.
 
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It'll average about 8 hrs burn time, but that could go up to 10 in mild weather and down to 4 if the stove is being pushed hard for heat. 15 hrs is unlikely unless some coals get covered by ash and remain glowing but it won't be throwing off much heat.
 
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