Sq footage listing on inserts
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I would go with the biggest insert you can fit in there. Mine is 2.3 ft3 firebox for 2000 ft2 for a 8 year old house and could always use more.
Yup. I am happy. That will take away stove size question. Now I can work on house with out other concerns.
The dealer is good man. Like I said before he was upset that it was not giving me what I wanted. Going to be a even swap.
This is why it's good to go over previous years' heating bills when trying to size a stove. They will give an indication of the heat loss of the house.
Right ,its not that hard to do. I use from 100 million to 125 million Btus a season,depending on the weather. On very cold days im sure i could use as much as 1 million in a single day. If i had oil heat that would be about 7 gallons of oil. Even with that ,that only equates to 40,000 Btus per hour for 24 hours and my stove is rated for about twice that.
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Ouch, about $28 a day to just stay warm, probably only at 68 if that. Got rid of my oil floor furnace right before the big rate increase, I would be crying having to spend that per day on those windy cold days.
Thats why i dont burn oil anymore,either coal or wood. With the coal its about $8 for 1M Btus. Wood is free.
One of my stoves is 2CU ft and its in a 600Sq ft Apt.,and it does a good job in the room its in,but no way would i try to do 1000-2000Sf with it.There is a world of difference with a 3CU ft stove. More heat out put for longer periods. Higher sustained heat output ect ect. THe smaller stove in a big space has you loading constantly trying to compensate.
Good to hear, Sully. I'm sure you'll see a big difference in the 2400.
A couple of things I do that i think really gets max heat output from the 2400:
I installed it as far out as I can to allow maximum mass in the room. There's like a five or six inch range, I brought it out as far into the room as possible. Another thing that seems to maximize heat output is pulling the surround off the fireplace about 3/4". This allows any heat that is trapped inside the masonry fireplace to pour out into the room. You can really feel the heat pouring out of that gap.
I hope that is helpful to you. Whether you do these things or not you'll see a big difference in heat output with the upgrade. Glad to hear you have a good dealer. Sounds like he provided a good install as well.
Charles1981
Minister of Fire
I wanted to purchase the defiant, but my dealer and installer both assured me it would be too much stove for my house just under 1900sq feet. Both my dealer and installer are running defiants and my installer actually runs an encore additionally as his house is 5000sq feet and he runs two stoves at once.
I don't think they lied to me. My Encore heats the house just fine so far even at 7 degrees outside. It is installed in the basement. It is rated to heat 1800 sq feet which my concern for it being undersized. I still wish sometimes I had the bigger fire box and more heat though but in now way am i disappointed i guess. But i was basically talked out of a more expensive stove and a more expensive 8 inch liner which at the time I took as "geeze these guys mus be really honest to steer me away from spending more money".
I think they still had my best interests in line, but I still think I would enjoy a bigger stove, but who knows maybe I couldn't have handled the heat.
I don't think they lied to me. My Encore heats the house just fine so far even at 7 degrees outside. It is installed in the basement. It is rated to heat 1800 sq feet which my concern for it being undersized. I still wish sometimes I had the bigger fire box and more heat though but in now way am i disappointed i guess. But i was basically talked out of a more expensive stove and a more expensive 8 inch liner which at the time I took as "geeze these guys mus be really honest to steer me away from spending more money".
I think they still had my best interests in line, but I still think I would enjoy a bigger stove, but who knows maybe I couldn't have handled the heat.
Yeah I'd recommend this dealer to people around here
21 inch log is also going to nice.
I have said before and I will say it again – for an insert, get the biggest get insert you can fit in the hole. You can make a smaller fire but you can’t build a bigger fire.
I have a 1200 sq. ft. house and my insert is way over the top for the insert I have. My house was built in the 1960’s and dad put the gas lines in about 6 inches of sand. (You know where is this is going to.) Last month my wife moved her car and parked it just where the lines were and then we smelled propane. To make a short story, now the cold front has arrived and the propane company says they cannot fix it for five days. No heat for the heater for five days. It will be in the low 40’s day times and lower 30’s at night for the next week.
Do I care? NOT. I am toasty and it is in the high 70’s in the house and it has three pieces of wood going and the blower is on low. It is at 36 outside and the windows are single pane drafty windows.
The moral is – get the biggest unit you can fit and forget the dealer. You have to live there and they don’t.
Your mileage my vary.
Robert
I have a 1200 sq. ft. house and my insert is way over the top for the insert I have. My house was built in the 1960’s and dad put the gas lines in about 6 inches of sand. (You know where is this is going to.) Last month my wife moved her car and parked it just where the lines were and then we smelled propane. To make a short story, now the cold front has arrived and the propane company says they cannot fix it for five days. No heat for the heater for five days. It will be in the low 40’s day times and lower 30’s at night for the next week.
Do I care? NOT. I am toasty and it is in the high 70’s in the house and it has three pieces of wood going and the blower is on low. It is at 36 outside and the windows are single pane drafty windows.
The moral is – get the biggest unit you can fit and forget the dealer. You have to live there and they don’t.
Your mileage my vary.
Robert
Something does not sound right there even with that size home. I have a 1.8cuft insert and heat a 1200 sq ft home and easily keep it over 80*f when it is below 0. If you are able to put in a bigger stove I would do it just for the fact you will get longer burn times.
If this helps, my dad once told me he paid $5,000.00 to build the house, total. There is a LOT of glass and the doors leak, the windows leak, it needs a 3 ton a/c to cool but it gets over 100 the extra half ton kicks in for a 3 1/2 ton house with 1200 sq ft. In the summers we it set at 78 days and 74 at nites. I put a new roof using tec-shield and that helps. I think the batts are 12R and I have put extra blown stuff in for the roof but it still costs over $350.00 a month to cool it and about half of that in the winter. Before I put the insert, I was paying over $2,000.00 a year for propane. Now I need to fill it one a season for the hot water. The state is going to knock it down for an overpass soon, and then I a hope to build with a green ICF house with an r value of 26 up deciding with type of blocks we use and building a solar/ passive house. I am looking at 2000 - 2500 sq ft house with Durisol blocks since I live in Houston area. Than that insert will be really over kill and I may need to get a smaller unit. I like the new Blaze King ones and the really say the burn times are great.
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Several times I have had no heat because my boiler was down, or plumbing was leaking etc, and had to rely exclusively on the insert. A few times it has been during very cold snaps for the area (single digit lows teens as a high). I have been very thankful for the extra firepower of the larger insert. I'm not saying this is the rule, I'm just saying for us it has worked out awesome.
An added bonus is being able to burn 22" EW and 20.5" NS. If I'm burning a small load I can easily get large 24" splits in diagonally. Also never have over coaling on super cold days. So I don't know that everyone needs to get the largest firebox possible, I'm just saying for us it has worked out awesome.
An added bonus is being able to burn 22" EW and 20.5" NS. If I'm burning a small load I can easily get large 24" splits in diagonally. Also never have over coaling on super cold days. So I don't know that everyone needs to get the largest firebox possible, I'm just saying for us it has worked out awesome.
Keep us posted .I would be interested to hear how the new stove performs for comparison purposes. A larger stove can also compensate to some extent, for less than ideal wood and less than ideal insulation levels as well as heat moreeffectively on colder days.
Well so far since new stove installed there is a huge difference. Generally stove room is warm ( hot ). Other rooms are about 71. That's perfect for us. This stove is a world of difference. I will also say that we do need to work on house. I have been in attic with foam sealing cracks for past few days. Also large hole. Seems when my steps were framed out they draped insulation over a big hole. Big as in the entire run of steps. I used ridged to build a box over it and foamed that up. Installing baffles and hopefully spraying in insulation today.
Wood wise, it's not the best. It works but not best. Stove also gets very hot. Hard to control actually. It will get to 800 with 4 splits. Will only stay there about half hour before dropping. Draft seems decreased as well. I know a 45 was used from top of stove to pipe. Had to be used. Seems like I get smoke in when door is all the way opened Every time no matter how hot.
The 2200 most likely would have done better with a better insulated/sealed home and with the ideally dry wood. Since that is not the case the 2400 is compensating very very well. Looking forward to using much better wood next season. It's stacked and drying now.
I'm still trying to figure out overnight burns. To be honest I don't think out wood is adequate enough to have the ideal overnight burn. Going off of my thermostat since the 2400 has been installed the longest heat ran was 45 min ( entire day) I can live with that........... Maybe get
It Down to 20 lol.
Sounds good. Any time you try to heat with an undersized stove, you find yourself loading it constantly trying to stay in that 2-4 hours peak output band 24/7. After awhile its not much fun anymore and turns you off to the whole idea.
Agree completely. I've now talked to three dealers about replacing my old VC and none have my confidence at all. I've been burning 30 years and know the regulations and after asking a few questions on specs, it was obvious they didn't know enough for my satisfaction.
Also liked Robert's story on HVAC. We built a large great room with a 24x16' window wall facing exactly south. My architect hired an HVAC engineer (not just any old dude) to calculate my heat loss/heat gain. It was so incredulously wrong that I refused to pay the invoice and told him to sue me. He wanted to build an ****** power plant in the non-existent basement to heat & cool my home. 30 years of living in it proved I was right and he was WAAAY WRONG. Yesterday the sun was out, it was 20 outside and inside it was 75+ with the stove off. When it's cloudy, a 2.5 kw baseboard heater does a great job of heating but my VC is that is supposed to be 4 times the heat output of my baseboard, can't keep up. BTW, we rarely need a/c in the summer. One large tree and a well designed overhang work wonders - for free.
That is my issue with BTU and sq. ft. ratings on stoves. My baseboard heater @ 100% efficiency provides a perfect comparison of BTUs. Personally, I think a lot of the stove brochures I've been reading a full of wood rot and too many dealers use them as "the law". The reality is that few of us use their stoves as the sole source for heat. Most stove owners put on a fire when they feel like it and it's convenient for them. It's a huge difference when your stove is your heat source. My my 2 cents.
Before I get slammed by any HVAC Engineers out there, I re-read my post and thought I should be a little more clear.
What the brochure states is a guideline only. Use common sense. If you are counting on using your stove as your major source of heat, go up a few notches on what is recommended. You know your home, your room layout and your living patterns. That makes a huge difference in how effective any single source of heat will be. Take a look at the whole picture. You know that better than any dealer.
What the brochure states is a guideline only. Use common sense. If you are counting on using your stove as your major source of heat, go up a few notches on what is recommended. You know your home, your room layout and your living patterns. That makes a huge difference in how effective any single source of heat will be. Take a look at the whole picture. You know that better than any dealer.
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