Picking stove for temperate climate 1100sqft house

[mthoodfire]

I apologize for posting this mostly in duplicate, I had posted this under the SBI sub-forum but realized that most of my question isn't about the fact that I am looking at SBI stoves but more around sizing a wood stove for a given space/house. Hopefully I am not breaking any forum rules or etiquette by posting some of this in repeat.

I am looking for a wood stove for a small ~1100sqft "ranch" style cabin with 8' ceilings vacation cottage. It was built in early 2000's with standard insulation practices of the time, it has insulated ducts for the HVAC. Primary heat source is forced air with an 10k BTU electric furnace, but may add a heat pump in the future to have lower effort/cost climate control. The room the stove would be installed in is an "open concept" living room, dining room, and kitchen that is 600sqft (~55.7 sq meters) with 8' ceiling height.

The wood stove would be secondary heat, and for the time being to reduce the utility bill when we are there keeping the furnace at a lower temperature. We do have power outages that can last for a few days or longer, largely weather driven. The climate is more temperate rain forest and sits below the usual snow line of Mt Hood, so it is usually 29-44 degrees Fahrenheit (-2 to 7 Celsius)...occasionally it can get colder of course. Originally I had thought of going with a pellet stove, but have read a bit about maintenance/reliability and then they require electricity to function.

I am trying to pick between two Drolet stoves, but am open to other stoves with similar aesthetics of being far more "contemporary" than most stoves that I have found in the US market. While I do like the Osburn Matrix or Inspire 2000, I can't justify their price tag so I am looking at their peer Drolet Deco Alto which shares the same 2.4 ft³ firebox. I am also looking at the smaller Deco II and the Deco Nano.

Model	Firebox (ft³)	Max BTU	EPA Low BTU	EPA High BTU
Deco Alto	2.4	75,000	14,200	44,500
Deco Nano	1.55	45,000	12,124	26,700
Deco II	1.9	65,000	15,650	23,300

I don't want to oversize the stove to the point that it is too hot to enjoy it even when it isn't "needed", though being able to augment the expensive electric heat. The Deco Nano seems like it could be "too small", and the format isn't ideal. I worry the Alto would be too large, but the Deco II has a very long lead time...perhaps not even arriving until summer. All of the competitor options seem to be far most costly (e.g. BK Boxer 24.1, MF Fire Nova, Supreme Novo 18) and something we likely can't justify for our use.

Am I over thinking this and the Deco Alto would be perfectly ok running at the lowest burn rate for long periods of time, allowing the larger firebox to just lend to very long burn times? In all cases these all provide continuous output greater than the 10k BTU furnace that is heating the place now, we haven't lived in the place yet so we don't know if the 10k BTU truly keeps up during the cold spells or not. Aesthetically my wife has a preference for the Deco II's handle, but it seems that the handle could be interchangeable as the models use the same door latch part #s...and the handle isn't enough to force a "bad choice".

Any advice from all of the wise posters here is truly appreciated.

 

[kennyp2339]

2cu ft should be about perfect size for what your looking for, think on average 5-7hr burn time per load with that size fire box

 

[begreen]

Yes, the Deco II looks like a good fit.
Another stove like this is the Quadrafire Discovery II

PS: I deleted the original thread. Will move this to the appropriate forum once the stove has been selected.

 

[mthoodfire]

I had been hoping to get more feedback, I have a Deco II on order as I found someone that claims they can deliver it in January while Drolet is reporting April delivery at this point. Based on further research I think a re-burner is a better choice as it doesn't require someone to enable the catalyst and less worry that a short term renter does something dumb to cause issues for the cat.

We have a brand new standing seam roof, and I am being advised to avoid putting the chimney pipe through the roof due to the rather heavy (wet, not volume) snow being problematic at our location for roof penetrating chimneys causing buckling, perhaps snow splitters should be more common though? Add in that there is no attic access for the area it would be installed, so there would be a lot of drywall repair to create an access path to install the box. I am a fan of avoiding holes in a perfectly good roof, but I have also read about problematic wall exit/chimneys. I read about users like @Simonkenton having great luck with an exterior chimney and it gives me hope that a quality modern external chimney is fine.

The Deco II states minimum total chimney length including the stove pipe should be at least 12', I am guessing our total pipe length would be right around 12-14' (need to measure more when I'm a the cabin tomorrow). I would be using a stainless double wall 6" chimney pipe (DuraTech), and using 6" double wall stove pipe. Drolet's guide is to not use a 90 but to use two 45s, but I don't know if that is practical (and my wife would likely object to the aesthetics). I guess it is easy enough to replace the stove pipe if it doesn't work well with a 90.

Is there anything I should be looking out for on this? I need a chimney cap with an arrestor, we do get some crazy winds and I see some houses around us using directional wind deflector caps. We are surrounded by large Douglas fir and red cedars and a pole barn is relatively close by, so the wind is likely turbulent. I am not sure if I should consider something similar to the Vacu-Stack or a wind-directional cap, I will observe what other houses around us are using for caps.

 

[begreen]

The two 90º turns in the flue path will slow down draft. This will be like removing about 4 ft of system height. Using the 45s will help mitigate this a bit. Do it as the manual recommends and go up to 14-16' to compensate.
Is this a year-round cabin or one that gets used more on weekends and vacations? If it is a cold cabin and just average insulation then I would recommend going up a size in the stove unless the cabin's primary heating system is what will mostly be depended on.

 

[mthoodfire]

The two 90º turns in the flue path will slow down draft. This will be like removing about 4 ft of system height. Using the 45s will help mitigate this a bit. Do it as the manual recommends and go up to 14-16' to compensate.
Is this a year-round cabin or one that gets used more on weekends and vacations? If it is a cold cabin and just average insulation then I would recommend going up a size in the stove unless the cabin's primary heating system is what will mostly be depended on.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. It is a vacation property that would largely be used over weekends, it does have an electric furnace that would be used as the primary heat source to at least keep it "warm enough" and we may use the wood stove to make it actually comfortable. The wood stove would be primary heat source during any power outages though. Insulation wise it is "modern" to 2001 standards, it has R13 in the walls and R38 in the ceiling, and insulation under the floor as well (don't know exact R value).

Thanks for the info about the impact on flue length of using the 90s, very valid. Will have to see if the floor placement would accommodate 45s as I plan it out.

The furnace will eventually be replaced/augmented with a heat pump which may then resort the wood stove to being more for "atmosphere" and still for use during power outages. When it is setup as a short term rental I guess the usage pattern could change and the renters may not want the hassle of the wood stove at all, which is why we will eventually add a heat pump to reduce primary heat cost.

 

[begreen]

Based on those requirements, it will work out ok. Be sure to have dry, fully seasoned wood on hand.

 

[mthoodfire]

So the update is that the stove that they claimed would deliver in January delivered only 6 months late, today. Overall the timing likely worked out better, as it gave me time to all but finish the remodel of the room it was going into...just gotta replace some outlets in the room and hang some window shades.
I hadn't seen any photos of a Deco-II in a real house, so will share them as we get it installed. I think the size will work better than we had expected, it was a workout getting it into the house solo...but now that it is there we are going to test it on the other 2 possible locations to make sure we like the placement. Ended up ordering a 16-gauge metal ember protection to go under it which should be here any day now as well.

 

[joop]

once you start heating with wood you'll love it more than you think.warms the bones

 

[kborndale]

Do you have dry wood yet?

 

[joop]

do we ever lol.live and learn

 

[mthoodfire]

I have a random wood pile that the previous owners left that is surely several years old, am also working to get a cord of seasoned wood delivered before the fall rush. It is a vacation place, and we haven’t decided if we will furnish would to renters or not…so I’m guessing a cord should cut it for our use. Renters can buy bundles down the street.

 

[kborndale]

I have a random wood pile that the previous owners left that is surely several years old, am also working to get a cord of seasoned wood delivered before the fall rush. It is a vacation place, and we haven’t decided if we will furnish would to renters or not…so I’m guessing a cord should cut it for our use. Renters can buy bundles down the street.

Unfortunately the chance of you getting seasoned wood for this year is slim to none. That wood you get will be ready to burn for the winter of 24-25. Use the wood that was already there for this year. Every wood dealer says that their wood if fully seasoned and ready to burn but in reality that almost never is true.

 

[begreen]

I have a random wood pile that the previous owners left that is surely several years old, am also working to get a cord of seasoned wood delivered before the fall rush. It is a vacation place, and we haven’t decided if we will furnish would to renters or not…so I’m guessing a cord should cut it for our use. Renters can buy bundles down the street.

Renters and wood stoves can be a serious issue. Most don't know how to run a stove. If renting, clean the flue frequently and check the stove after each renter.