Stove Recommendations

[Pinesmoke]

Begreen you're the man on this but with the old masonry chimney there, no heat shield on the back, tight clearance and instant thermal mass. Heat it hard and smile.

Just thinkin.

 

[Big Schoolhouse]

Nice place! The pictures are worth a thousand words. Makes sense now.

Thank you! We love it but it can definitely get cold when the temperatures get below freezing. Love our heat pump in the summer but winter can be rough especially as I get older. I don't appreciate cold weather nearly as much. I really think the Drolet Deco Alto might be the one. 26" deep will leave enough room for traffic flow and still provide enough heat to take the chill off. Even if I have to sit directly in that area I will appreciate the heat when it gets cold.

 

[begreen]

Yes, the larger Deco Alto looks like a good choice. The stove body depth is 21" with the ashlip and door handle projecting further out.
Was an insert in the fireplace considered as an alternative?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

That's a beautiful place. I'd love to see more pictures of the old schoolhouse if you don't mind sharing. Thanks for posting the pictures as they helped me understand your constraints.

Those photos do clarify why you don't want a deep stove, and I second the suggestion of making a cardboard template of the stove and putting it where it needs to go. Consider the hearth requirements and clearances, too, and live with it for a bit to see if you want to use that location. It looks good for convecting heat upstairs [perhaps even too good if you're wanting the heat to stay downstairs], but you want to have realistic expectations for using the space.

I saw that others commented on your twelve foot ceilings, but I thought I'd reiterate that those high ceilings give you the cubic footage equivalent of having eighteen hundred square feet just downstairs rather than the actual twelve hundred. The Drolet Deco Alto looks to be a good stove, and it's got a decent size to it. You'd still be pushing it hard during the cold of winter in an uninsulated space, but it would take the chill off and help out the heat pump.

[Edited: I had earlier confused the specs with the Deco Nano which looked definitely undersized for the space, so this message has been revised after I saw Begreen's comment about the Alto, and I double checked the specs for that one.]

 

[Big Schoolhouse]

Yes, the larger Deco Alto looks like a good choice. The stove body depth is 21" with the ashlip and door handle projecting further out.
Was an insert in the fireplace considered as an alternative?

I thought of that and there was actually an old stove in the fireplace when we bought the house. That chimney is not lined and for my first attempt I thought I would start by lining the easiest chimney. The fireplace would need some demo and more liner length so I opted for the easier route. After cleaning out 3 wheelbarrows full of creosote and debris from the center chimney I regretted that choice but its done now and the liner should be here tomorrow. I eventually want to line the fireplace chimney and keep it an open fireplace for the ambience of an open fire. Unless the stove on the center chimney does not provide what I'm hoping for in heat. If that happens I'll put the biggest insert possible in the fireplace and hope for the best.

 

[Big Schoolhouse]

That's a beautiful place. I'd love to see more pictures of the old schoolhouse if you don't mind sharing. Thanks for posting the pictures as they helped me understand your constraints.

Those photos do clarify why you don't want a deep stove, and I second the suggestion of making a cardboard template of the stove and putting it where it needs to go. Consider the hearth requirements and clearances, too, and live with it for a bit to see if you want to use that location. It looks good for convecting heat upstairs [perhaps even too good if you're wanting the heat to stay downstairs], but you want to have realistic expectations for using the space.

I saw that others commented on your twelve foot ceilings, but I thought I'd reiterate that those high ceilings give you the cubic footage equivalent of having eighteen hundred square feet just downstairs rather than the actual twelve hundred. The Drolet Deco Alto looks to be a good stove, and it's got a decent size to it, but according to Drolet's own website, they only rate it to heat thirteen hundred fifty square feet in Ohio. If you consider that that is assuming insulated space, and your space lacks insulation, you said, you'd need to know going into things that you would be getting an undersized stove.

An undersized stove may be the best solution for taking the chill off which you mentioned as a goal in the last post you made. Your earlier posts mentioned wanting to heat overnight or while you were away, so that's probably why earlier posters were pushing you to go larger. The size of the firebox does a lot to determine how long you can heat, but the harder you have to push the stove to heat an oversized space, the shorter the burn times will be. It won't be providing meaningful heat all night during a cold snap in the dead of winter, but it would add BTU's to the envelope with an overnight load and give your heat pump a break. The heat pump could then warm things in the morning hours till you get the stove stoked again.

Anything wrong with 2 wood stoves in the same space? Lol

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Anything wrong with 2 wood stoves in the same space? Lol

I just revised my earlier post because I had looked at the specs for the Deco Nano mistakenly. The Deco Alto is rated for more square footage, so it's not so undersized as my earlier message made out. I apologize for the confusion.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I've had two fireplace inserts in different houses, and I loved them both. I'm in a new home now and have a freestanding stove [right at the corner where the kitchen and dining room and living room all meet and next to a staircase, though not so open as yours], and I would pick the freestanding option if the space fit it. I would say there's nothing wrong with two stoves in the same area either, though. It gives more flexibility.

 

[stoveliker]

. I eventually want to line the fireplace chimney and keep it an open fireplace for the ambience of an open fire.

Be aware that an open fireplace needs a much larger flue cross section. Generally this means that terracotta flues are used as stainless steel would get really expensive.