New to me house and I miss my stove.

[ManitobaSky]

Hi everyone, I moved into a different house this past summer. It’s heated with electric and well insulate, bills have been ok so far since electricity is low here in Manitoba. I just really miss my stove so I have been looking at models for install next spring or summer. House is around 1200 sq ft, stove would be going in the open kitchen/living room 550 sq ft, new class A chimney straight up, bedrooms and bath are off the living area with a hallway that is open at both ends. I‘ve narrowed my list down to Blaze King Sirocco 30(since the turn down is about the same as the 20), Hearthstone GM60, or Regency Pro 3500. My main questions are on the GM and Pro, how we’ll do they turn down and do low burns? My work has me away for most of the day so the BK would be great since I could stuff it at night set it for a slow burn maybe not even need to fill until the next night. I’m not worried if the electric kicks in part way through the day, for the GM I would assume loading morning and night. I have no idea how long the pro would go on a load because I don’t know anyone that has one. Wood supply is approximately 10 cords of ash, maple, elm, oak and some aspen and pine. Oldest wood is coming up on five years, newest was split last summer. Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated.

 

[bikedennis]

The BK wins the low and slow race.

 

[stoveliker]

Yes, you can turn the BK down a lot. But you might not have the temps in the home that you want (depending on heat losses) when you do that. What I'm saying is that you should have no trouble with a 12 hr reloading schedule but a 24 hr schedule may only be possible with the home temp below your comfort level.
That.might be fine while you are working, and then dialing it up when you get home. With the stove in the living area, it'll heat up quick enough, but the farther laying rooms may take a while.

 

[ManitobaSky]

Thank you for the replies, yes I know the BK is the best for turn down. Just an example of heat needs, so far today I’ve averaged 8100 btu per hour(smart thermostats are a wonderful thing). The warmest we got was -18 c(0f), when I left this morning it was -27c(-16f). Like I said this house is well insulated, it does have a couple older windows that are getting replaced next year. So I’m less worried about not getting enough heat, more worried that even on low they will over heat the space.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I think the BK may be the best option. Even the small stoves are pressed to burn that low. With non cats, you may want to go heavy on the thermal mass to even out the heat swing.

 

[begreen]

Thank you for the replies, yes I know the BK is the best for turn down. Just an example of heat needs, so far today I’ve averaged 8100 btu per hour(smart thermostats are a wonderful thing). The warmest we got was -18 c(0f), when I left this morning it was -27c(-16f). Like I said this house is well insulated, it does have a couple older windows that are getting replaced next year. So I’m less worried about not getting enough heat, more worried that even on low they will over heat the space.

That's miserly for negative temp weather. The house sounds very snugly insulated. I'd be recommending the Woodstock Fireview but not for Canada. What temperature is the thermostat usually set to?

 

[stoveliker]

8100 btu per hour is rather low for any stove... (if you want to be able to reload, i.e. constant heat rather than short intermittent fires).
You also may need an OAK if you're sealed as well as it seems.

 

[ABMax24]

Why not the Blazeking Boxer? It has the lowest turndown of all their stoves, per the specs at least.

8,100btu/hr is a hard number to match to a wood stove, for me that's mid October heating requirements where I burn a load a day to keep the house warm.

I guess that could be the other option, a really small non-cat stove like an Osburn 950. But you'd be lighting it at least once a day but likely twice a day.

 

[mar13]

Another question would be what stove did you burn that you miss it so? Was it the ambiance/flames, the craft of burning, or only the heat that you miss?

 

[ManitobaSky]

That's miserly for negative temp weather. The house sounds very snugly insulated. I'd be recommending the Woodstock Fireview but not for Canada. What temperature is the thermostat usually set to?

The rooms are all scheduled, kitchen/living room set 66f from 8 am to 7pm then bumps to 70f, unused bedrooms a set at 65f, master is 65f until 11pm then bumps to 68f until 8am. I would be fine with the house being hotter I could always keep the master bedroom closed off so it didn't get too hot for sleeping. I would love a Woodstock stove my insurance company not so much!

8100 btu per hour is rather low for any stove... (if you want to be able to reload, i.e. constant heat rather than short intermittent fires).
You also may need an OAK if you're sealed as well as it seems.

The last owner did have a wood burner in the basement that was not on an OAK so it must have been finding air some how but I had planned on an OAK. I would be ok with smaller fires morning and night if need be.

Why not the Blazeking Boxer? It has the lowest turndown of all their stoves, per the specs at least.

8,100btu/hr is a hard number to match to a wood stove, for me that's mid October heating requirements where I burn a load a day to keep the house warm.

I guess that could be the other option, a really small non-cat stove like an Osburn 950. But you'd be lighting it at least once a day but likely twice a day.

I did look at the boxer, not really my jam. The other BK's are already on the bottom of my list in the looks category. I had also looked at the PE Vista Classic however the idea of a larger stove that could be loaded and left for a number of hours is appealing in the event of a power failure. We farm so any prolonged outage requires me to be away from the house for the better part of the day feeding a watering cattle.

Another question would be what stove did you burn that you miss it so? Was it the ambiance/flames, the craft of burning, or only the heat that you miss?

Mostly the ritual of it I guess. I never really sat in from of the stove in my last house, but the quick blast of heat from tending the stove when I got home was very welcome after a day mostly outside.

 

[begreen]

The last owner did have a wood burner in the basement that was not on an OAK so it must have been finding air some how but I had planned on an OAK. I would be ok with smaller fires morning and night if need be.

Ah, there's a basement? How many sq ft does that add? Is it insulated and does it have an outside access for bringing in wood?

 

[ManitobaSky]

Ah, there's a basement? How many sq ft does that add? Is it insulated and does it have an outside access for bringing in wood?

1000 sq ft, insulated except for a small root cellar maybe 80 sq ft. No outside access you have to go through the mudroom/laundry. Basement is heated to 65f just checked it used a whopping 2700 btu per hour today(this was not included in the earlier figure). The basement is a very odd space, you go down the stairs into the utility room with the water heater/pressure tank so the water system the root cellar is off the one end of this area. This is where the wood heater was, it hooked into a clay lined brick chimney that was in very poor shape and was removed in order to get home insurance. Past the utility room is a finished area straight out of the 70's groovy man.

 

[begreen]

A wood stove in the groovy pad might make heating with wood more feasible. Home theater, man cave, sauna?

 

[ABMax24]

There's a part of me that wants to question your heating load numbers, not to say you are wrong, but I'm having a bit of a hard time believing a 1200sqft house plus 1000sqft of basement in 70's era? construction can be kept warm with 10,800 btu/hr average in -20c temps.

I'm heating almost the exact same square footage (including basement), in a similar climate, in a newish house built to the 2014 code, but require an average of 20,000btu/hr for heating in -20 average temps. In -40 my house requires 36,000 btu/hr to keep it warm. My thermostat stays at 20c (68F) pretty much all winter long.

If your heating numbers are off and similar to mine that opens the door to many more options, the Scirocco 30 is now easily viable, so are other models like a PE Super or maybe even the Summit, and of course the Regency and Hearthstone models you are looking at.

 

[ManitobaSky]

There's a part of me that wants to question your heating load numbers, not to say you are wrong, but I'm having a bit of a hard time believing a 1200sqft house plus 1000sqft of basement in 70's era? construction can be kept warm with 10,800 btu/hr average in -20c temps.

I'm heating almost the exact same square footage (including basement), in a similar climate, in a newish house built to the 2014 code, but require an average of 20,000btu/hr for heating in -20 average temps. In -40 my house requires 36,000 btu/hr to keep it warm. My thermostat stays at 20c (68F) pretty much all winter long.

If your heating numbers are off and similar to mine that opens the door to many more options, the Scirocco 30 is now easily viable, so are other models like a PE Super or maybe even the Summit, and of course the Regency and Hearthstone models you are looking at.

I know it's crazy, but that is what it's using. I checked my usage for November with my bill vs the energy report from the smart the thermostats. Going by my bill when I remove my normal usage for hot water,lights, washer drier etc heating came in at 1440 kwh for heat for the month, divide by 30 = 48 kwh per day divide by 24 = 2 kwh per hour x 3412 = 6824 btu per hour average for the whole house per day for November. The exterior walls are 8" and fully insulated, I have not looked in the attic but assume it is insulated at least to R40 or more.

 

[ABMax24]

I know it's crazy, but that is what it's using. I checked my usage for November with my bill vs the energy report from the smart the thermostats. Going by my bill when I remove my normal usage for hot water,lights, washer drier etc heating came in at 1440 kwh for heat for the month, divide by 30 = 48 kwh per day divide by 24 = 2 kwh per hour x 3412 = 6824 btu per hour average for the whole house per day for November. The exterior walls are 8" and fully insulated, I have not looked in the attic but assume it is insulated at least to R40 or more.

Yeah that's insanely low.

If it were me I think I'd be looking at a very small non-cat to fill that role, with the understanding that it would have to be relit often.

 

[stoveliker]

That's the issue; the op started with expressing hope to not have to do cold starts. Low and slow cat stove with a large turn down seems the best then. But even those put out more than needed.

Small noncats will mean restarting when arriving home.

If indeed the op is ok with being warmer, then I still would suggest that a BK is best. And given the slightly better turn down of the 20 box (and that it'll be running low most of the time anyway, so reloading won't be frequent even for the smaller box), I'd suggest to choose from the 20 series.

If put downstairs, a 30 box,but then a good"get the heat upstairs"-plan needs to be in place. And downstairs will then be quite a bit warmer than it is now.

 

[EbS-P]

Yeah that's insanely low.

If it were me I think I'd be looking at a very small non-cat to fill that role, with the understanding that it would have to be relit often.

I don’t mine cold starts. Time from starting to load Top down lighting with fat wood to getting full secondary lighting off can be 10 minutes.

If you miss the stove and want to see fire when you want to I think a smaller non cat would be good.

Thinking of ways to increase you heating load in the basement if you go with a BK down there. I would think a heatpump hot water heater might be worth looking into. My quick math says to heat 50 gallons of water a day you need about 1000 btus. Chimney is already there. Insulated liner. Cheap hot water. Warm basement just add some vents with fire dampers. And buy some tank tops and flip flops for basement attire.

 

[ManitobaSky]

I don’t mine cold starts. Time from starting to load Top down lighting with fat wood to getting full secondary lighting off can be 10 minutes.

If you miss the stove and want to see fire when you want to I think a smaller non cat would be good.

Thinking of ways to increase you heating load in the basement if you go with a BK down there. I would think a heatpump hot water heater might be worth looking into. My quick math says to heat 50 gallons of water a day you need about 1000 btus. Chimney is already there. Insulated liner. Cheap hot water. Warm basement just add some vents with fire dampers. And buy some tank tops and flip flops for basement attire.

The basement chimney is no longer in place, it was condemned and removed to get insurance. Placement of that chimney was next too useless in my opinion anyway. Only a single door into the basement from the mud room and then a single door from the utility room into the finished area would make moving warm air around difficult at best even with cutting up the floors for vents.

 

[ManitobaSky]

At this point I’m turning the thermostats up and takings them off the schedule and seeing what the usage looks like at say 75f. If I get close to low burn numbers for the BK I’ll look at a 20 box and light it at night when I get home and then just set her low and relight the next night, maybe take an other look at smaller non-cat stove also since it give way more choice in the style department.

 

[ManitobaSky]

Well I’m calling time of death on putting in a wood stove. I just can’t justify the cost of install and the extra home insurance premium vs what would be saved. I going to look into a small LP stove at some point just for backup heat in the event of a power outage. Thanks everyone for your time and input.