One stove or two?

[Cord]

I have a three season cabin that we built ourselves. It’s off grid and does not have any heat or power. It’s a three season cabin and I’d like to add a wood stove to allow us to extend its usefulness. The cabin is open with a loft at one end. Although the cabin is not large, the ceilings are very high so there is a large volume of space. The cabin is a bit over 850sqft, but the ceiling peak is almost 30’. The wood stove will be installed in the far corner of the open space. This will result in the area under the loft being cold, but other than a ventless propane heater, I don’t have a solution for the problem.

I Purchased a Defiant Encore which is listed for 1,300-2,800 square feet. Theoretically it should be burning us out of the cabin... but I don’t believe it. The stove is listed as 56,000 btu which feels a bit low for the space volume. Before I start the installation, I’m wondering if I should install two stoves?

 

[Prof]

How well is the cabin insulated? If it is reasonably insulated with tight windows and doors, I can't imagine needing two stoves. The Encore would probably fit the bill nicely. I heated a drafty coal-company house that was over 100 yrs old with a similar stove in the basement. Granted the ceilings were not high, but the house was about 1200 sq ft and had no insulation in the walls. Worst case scenario, move up to a bigger stove, but I doubt you will need to.

 

[Cord]

The roof will be well insulated with 10” of batt for R-32. The wall have 4" of R-13 batt. Eventually we'll get to insulating the floor. Because of mice, I might not do batt.

 

[Woody Stover]

reasonably insulated with tight windows and doors, I can't imagine needing two stoves. The Encore would probably fit the bill nicely.

The roof will be well insulated with 10” of batt for R-32. The wall have 4" of R-13 batt

Agree with Prof..that stove should handle it. Wait..the cabin isn't at the North Pole, is it? Or on Neptune?
Is this a used stove? What model, 2550? I would read up in the various VC Owner's threads to get up to speed on these stoves. If it's new, operation and construction may be a little different than an older model, I don't know.
I usually look at the EPA numbers when trying to gauge the heat a stove will put out. The stoves that I have firsthand experience with, seem to compare pretty well with what the EPA numbers would predict. It take a bit of hunting to find the stoves sometimes, they can be buried and you'll have to plug different terms into the search. Use the advanced search, include out-of-production models.

 

[Geoff C]

I wouldn’t go through all the hastle of 2 stoves until you see how the one performs. worst case scenario if you are cold one year you have to spend $150 on a kerosene heater to get you through to the next year.

 

[begreen]

The loft will be a lot hotter unless there is some way of moving the hot air that will pool near the roof peak. A ceiling fan is almost a necessity for this design house and A frames. Under the loft, place a fan on the floor and point it toward the stove. Run on low speed.

 

[begreen]

I Purchased a Defiant Encore which is listed for 1,300-2,800 square feet. Theoretically it should be burning us out of the cabin... but I don’t believe it.

@Cord, is the cabin always heated or cold and just heated when occupied. It takes a lot of heat to warm up a cold building and its contents. Much more than to keep it at a constant temperature.

 

[Woody Stover]

Is the cabin always heated or cold and just heated when occupied. It takes a lot of heat to warm up a cold building and its contents.

Sounds like at this time, they are going there on weekends or whatever, and heating the place back up, since it's "off-grid." I guess it could have some provision for powering fans when they are there at least, to move heat from the loft (sleeping?) area. Or they could close the bedroom door or crack a window.
Where the cabin is (climate) will have a bearing on how it will need to be heated. Doesn't look to be Arctic, at least..

 

[begreen]

With no power I'd be tempted to use a sheet of poly plastic to reduce the ceiling height in the open area down to 9-10' in the winter. Otherwise, the heat is going to pocket at the peak. The stove is not the issue here unless it is being forced to burn poorly seasoned wood.

 

[Cord]

The cabin is in northern Wisconsin. Its not a full time home so the stove would need to bring it up from cold. It’s off grid so a ceiling fan would require running a generator. I have a single battery for some LED lights, but the woods is too dense for a full photovoltaic system.

 

[Woody Stover]

Might be able to use a fan downstairs to shoot air up the front wall, opposite end of the loft, and maybe it would get a circular pattern going to break up the stratification? Maybe with a PV panel and a battery, you can run a fan. I'd just experiment, and you'll probably find something that works.
When the OP chimes back in we may learn that he has some form of power available..

 

[begreen]

The cabin is in northern Wisconsin. Its not a full time home so the stove would need to bring it up from cold. It’s off grid so a ceiling fan would require running a generator. I have a single battery for some LED lights, but the woods is too dense for a full photovoltaic system.

It takes a large amount of heat to bring the temperature of all the mass of the interior up 30-40º. This means running the Defiant with a 650º stovetop many hours to do this. Not the stove's fault. It's a big heater.

 

[Woody Stover]

With no power I'd be tempted to use a sheet of poly plastic to reduce the ceiling height in the open area down to 9-10' in the winter. Otherwise, the heat is going to pocket at the peak. The stove is not the issue here unless it is being forced to burn poorly seasoned wood.

The cabin is in northern Wisconsin. Its not a full time home so the stove would need to bring it up from cold.

Seasoned wood shouldn't be a problem..there's a lot of Pine and Aspen in the northern part of the state. It's also good for short, hot fires in a secondary-burn stove. They do have about a month of shoulder season up there, before winter sets in again.
With the decent insulation, at least the heat will build down from the peak a bit faster..

 

[RandyBoBandy]

I have a defiant 1945 heating a similar sized log cabin with a loft. The only problem I have is getting heat to the main floor bedroom and bathroom. The loft is a sauna. Even when I open the sky lights.

 

[begreen]

I have a defiant 1945 heating a similar sized log cabin with a loft. The only problem I have is getting heat to the main floor bedroom and bathroom. The loft is a sauna. Even when I open the sky lights.

Yes, I had a friend with an A frame that had the same problem. He finally put in a ceiling fan and that made a nice improvement.

 

[Cord]

I have a defiant 1945 heating a similar sized log cabin with a loft. The only problem I have is getting heat to the main floor bedroom and bathroom. The loft is a sauna. Even when I open the sky lights.

I was anticipating the loft to be pretty hot by the time the lower level was comfortable. Not much that can be done about it either. With the one stove, what is the time needed to bring it up to a comfortable temperature from cold?

 

[begreen]

I was anticipating the loft to be pretty hot by the time the lower level was comfortable. Not much that can be done about it either. With the one stove, what is the time needed to bring it up to a comfortable temperature from cold?

You could tarp off the open area in winter to create a temporary ceiling.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Yes, I had a friend with an A frame that had the same problem. He finally put in a ceiling fan and that made a nice improvement.

Which direction worked best with the ceiling fan? I feel like I have the fan running counter clockwise. I’m also thinking of installing a room to room fan to try and move heat into the bedroom. The bedroom shares a wall with the main room.

 

[begreen]

Which direction worked best with the ceiling fan? I feel like I have the fan running counter clockwise. I’m also thinking of installing a room to room fan to try and move heat into the bedroom. The bedroom shares a wall with the main room.

Try it out and see.
Sorry, but I don't know. He has since passed and I can't ask.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

I was anticipating the loft to be pretty hot by the time the lower level was comfortable. Not much that can be done about it either. With the one stove, what is the time needed to bring it up to a comfortable temperature from cold?

My cabin is in northern Michigan right on the 45th parallel so it sees it’s far share of cold weather. I would say when it’s about 25-30 in the cabin it takes about 2-3 hours of the stove ripping to get the frigid cold out. Another couple of hours until you can take your coat off and a full day to where all the Logs are nice and heated up. Other than knocking the sub arctic temps out of the cabin I would say it’s to much stove for the square footage. However being a cat stove and just building smaller fires I’ve found a comfortable way to use the stove. Although I think the cat died. I’m hoping my back up for my Encore at the house fits. I’m going up on Thursday.

 

[FPX Dude]

Yeah,,, no fun sleeping up there in that loft either with it so hot. I usually found best results with the fan blowing down, so counter-clockwise.

 

[Poindexter]

I haven't done it, run two stoves. My emergency plan in case of major power failure is to dash to Lowes Depot and pick up an Englander non-cat paying cash while most of the folks in town are trying to figure out how to pump gas for their generators with no electricity,

The piping I need to hook whatever 6" outlet stove to my exisiting furnace chimney is in the garage.

Then I will be running two stoves, one upstairs and one downstairs to keep the pipes from freezing. Not looking forward to having to try it. Sounds like a total pain in the neck.

 

[Woody Stover]

Which direction worked best with the ceiling fan? I feel like I have the fan running counter clockwise. I’m also thinking of installing a room to room fan to try and move heat into the bedroom. The bedroom shares a wall with the main room.

As a rule, they say to have the ceiling fan blow upwards if it in the center of the ceiling. That makes sense, in that it would boost the natural convection loop that is happening...cold air falling down the vertical outer walls to the floor.
For the bedroom, I'd try a small 8" fan, on low, blowing cool air out the bottom of the doorway. Warmer air will flow in the top of the doorway to replace it.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Problem for me is the loft floor touches3-1/2 of the four exterior walls so the warm air does not come down the walls back into the main room.

 

[begreen]

Yes, although I have suggested reversing the ceiling fan for most situations, there are always exceptions. It may be better to have the fan blow down in your setup if the cooling of the air is too great when descending along the walls. I made this diagram a long time back to show how mixing the can help even out room temp. In your case the middle diagram may raise comfort for the core living area. The best way to find out is to test both ways for an hour at a time, with a thermometer.