A simple, medium sized non cat would suffice, it just wouldn't have quite as long a burn time. There are many on the market depending on your style preference.
New build, new wood heat options....
- Thread starter tlhfirelion
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
If a fire view is unimportant, there is this non-electric pellet stove:
https://www.usstove.com/product/wise-way-2000-sq-ft-non-electric-pellet-stove/
And this clean burning stove that runs on compressed logs (proper fuel might be hard to find in AK):
(broken link removed)
https://www.usstove.com/product/wise-way-2000-sq-ft-non-electric-pellet-stove/
And this clean burning stove that runs on compressed logs (proper fuel might be hard to find in AK):
(broken link removed)
For this next house, I’ll have access to free firewood so I plan to stick with plain old wood. I’m mainly thinking as I get older and if my wife has to deal with the stove as well. The highstyle from Woodstock is really nice with less bending over and longer burn times mean less wood handling in general. I’ve got a long checklist and admittedly I keep coming back to the Woodstock. If they ever go under or the SHTF, will that stove work without the catalytic combuster?
maple1
Minister of Fire
From your first post, you shouldn't need any wood burning at all to keep warm. The splits should do everything, very economically. Except if there is a power outage. Does that happen often?
Rearscreen
Minister of Fire
Just bypass it. I do it all the time on the Progress when it's not up to temp yet or I just plain forget to engage it. It is a hybrid. But I'm on my 5th year with my Cat and it still takes off. So, $175 divided by 5 equals $35 a year to operate. The wood I save with the cat in one year pays for a new cat in my opinion. No scientific data to back this up, just flatlander knowledge living in the hills of Vt.
I can help a little here, I think. I live in southwest Missouri and the climate here is noticeably colder than NW Arkansas. Not dramatically, but noticeably. I also have a near superinsulated house of 2500 sq. ft. plus a full (unfinished) basement. We also are electric only except we heat 24/7 with a Jotul Oslo once it gets cold enough. I did not install an EVR.
A couple of points about your new build: It will be very quiet. It will maintain much more even temperatures across the interior spaces than a conventional house. It will also be far less affected by changes in the outside temperatures and your house will hold heat far longer. And finally, a little heat and cooling goes a long way.
Our house is cooled by a two-ton a/c. We have a three ton unit for the lower level and a two ton on the upper level. As a practical matter, the cold air comes down the staircase and the main level unit almost never comes on. Conversely, the heat almost never comes on upstairs.
Our Jotul is far too much stove unless the daytime highs are 45 deg. or lower. With a high of 45 and a low of, say, 30 overnight, a single load a day is about all we can stand. And our heat pump costs about $1.00 per day to run in those temperatures. This makes the incentive to cut, split, stack, and carry wood pretty weak.
Once the daytime highs drop into the 20's or 30's we can stay quite comfortable by stretching or shortening the loading cycle times. A well insulated open floor plan house will lose heat slowly enough that you do not have much problem with some rooms being hot while others are cold. Insulated window treatments are an enormous help here also.
I like having conventional ducted hvac/heat pumps. They allow me to have high quality air filtering. Your mini-split should be quite satisfactory for both heating and cooling if that is what you prefer. Since you have had good experience with your Woodstock it is perfectly reasonable to get one for your new house. Catalytic stoves offer a much larger range of output than a non-cat and in a smaller house this is big plus. That said, if you are really tired of dealing with a cat there are many, many good quality smaller stoves that will heat your house quite effectively.
A couple of points about your new build: It will be very quiet. It will maintain much more even temperatures across the interior spaces than a conventional house. It will also be far less affected by changes in the outside temperatures and your house will hold heat far longer. And finally, a little heat and cooling goes a long way.
Our house is cooled by a two-ton a/c. We have a three ton unit for the lower level and a two ton on the upper level. As a practical matter, the cold air comes down the staircase and the main level unit almost never comes on. Conversely, the heat almost never comes on upstairs.
Our Jotul is far too much stove unless the daytime highs are 45 deg. or lower. With a high of 45 and a low of, say, 30 overnight, a single load a day is about all we can stand. And our heat pump costs about $1.00 per day to run in those temperatures. This makes the incentive to cut, split, stack, and carry wood pretty weak.
Once the daytime highs drop into the 20's or 30's we can stay quite comfortable by stretching or shortening the loading cycle times. A well insulated open floor plan house will lose heat slowly enough that you do not have much problem with some rooms being hot while others are cold. Insulated window treatments are an enormous help here also.
I like having conventional ducted hvac/heat pumps. They allow me to have high quality air filtering. Your mini-split should be quite satisfactory for both heating and cooling if that is what you prefer. Since you have had good experience with your Woodstock it is perfectly reasonable to get one for your new house. Catalytic stoves offer a much larger range of output than a non-cat and in a smaller house this is big plus. That said, if you are really tired of dealing with a cat there are many, many good quality smaller stoves that will heat your house quite effectively.
A small propane wall heater does not need electric power. It also does not need anyone to tend it if you are on a winter vacation
On other matters.. do not rely on a mini split for heat in the mid new England weather... you will be cold
I have two 12 kbtu per hour, they keep my 1500 ft^2 house at 60 in mid December
maple1
Minister of Fire
I also have two 12k units. Keep our 2700 sq.ft. two storey at 70 no problem so far this winter. We don't know where the OP lives, I don't think, but he has very low heat load based on his description no matter where it is.
I suggested this early on. Sounds like they don't want gas in the house.
Not properly. Are they the only source for combustors for this stove?
I thought he said he was moving to Vermont
It's teat freezing cold in Vermont. I used to ski hike and sometimes work there . I live in NE Massachusetts, compared to Vermont, it's warm here
maple1
Minister of Fire
Just support for your point... Probably makes a difference if they do not have auto refill like they do here in NE
If you are referring to a Woodstock hybrid they work OK if you bypass the cat, not as well, but OK.In the shoulder season, when the draft is not so good, bypassing the cat often helps keep a low fire going.
As to the cat no longer working, it is still a form of draft control in the dead of winter
It doesn’t happen that often but there are two reasons I’ll never have a home without something to burn something in.
A) I was lucky enough to miss some ice storms a few years back that crippled the towns just to the north of me. I work there but live south of there and dodged a big bullet. So many people with no way to heat themselves for 8-10 days in the dead of winter. A simple wood stove literally saved lives. I watched and learned.
B) I’ll have access to free firewood so it’ll reduce my electric bill.
BONUS ANSWER) Wood heat is the most comfortable type of heat,or at least we think so.
That’s good first hand knowledge there, thank you. For some reason I thought the cats were a lot more expensive than that but I may have got my wires crossed.
Thank you for your reply, it was very helpful. We are planning an ICF build so the home will be quite efficient. The only non concrete portion will be the attic and it will be blown in cellulose up to an R50-60 ish. It will be on a crawl space and will have a vapor barrier. My goal is to build as efficient a home as possible within our budget. When I’m retired I want a home that’s hopefully paid for and inexpensive to run. With regard to stove efficiency and cosmetics, as well as the high style, the Woodstock would be our first choice but I can see it being a bit too much stove on some days where it’s 26 degrees in the morning, and 54 during the day. ICF is nice in that regard in that temperature swings are very slow, similar to your house from the sounds of it. I’m sure it’ll take some adjusting to find what works.
The plan, and boy do they change, is to use a bit of a hybrid system HVAC wise. It’s a Daikin mini split that goes to a ducted manifold in the crawl space and is more traditional to the floor vents. So the only ducts are enclosed in the crawl and it’s just a line set going outside. I’m still waiting on the final bid but the discussed cost was good. We plan to do some sort of erv just due to the tightness of the concrete walls.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Do you have a air exchanger to move stale air / moisture out and outdoor air in? If you do, where is located, how does it work and how many times an hour does it change the air? Always wondered what people do with super tight homes.
The specs are still being worked on as we finalize the exact dimensions. I don’t have an exact answer for you there. Aprilair is the brand we are going with, I THINK. The 8100 erv was the model discussed. It’s a bit oversized So we’ll keep looking. It will most likely dump into the main hallway.
https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-products/ventilation/model-8100
Similar threads
