Hi
What a great forum. I’m a first time poster long time lurker looking for some stove advice. I have done extensive reading here about stove choices and am looking for some advice before I make my choice.
My house is a typical colonial, with 2200 sqft of living space. It is a high quality modular built is 2003 with typical construction and insulation set on full poured concrete foundation. I have spent a lot of time and $ the last year or two, sealing up seams from attic to basement, and a recent energy audit confirms the house is sufficiently “tight”. The basement is unfinished and not living space. I have added insulation to the basement walls down to the frost line and rim joist using 2” Dow Tuff-R, which if I remember is about R12. The basement walls below the frost line and the floor are un-insulated. The chimney a dual flue cement block clay lined interior chase up against the gable end of the house, running from the bottom of the basement to about 3’ above the peak of the roof about 35’ total. Unfortunately the layout of the house does not allow me to locate a stove in the living space. The stove location in the basement I realize is not optimal, but it is what I am stuck with. The flue thimble is 6”. There is a typical oil fired HWBB furnace on the other flue.
I buy green hardwood logs, buck and spilt it by hand (with a maul) myself. I have about 5 cords seasoned ready to go for this year and am currently working on next years supply. I build a “tent” over the stacked wood using small diameter scrap spruce logs as a frame for some 6mil poly sheeting. The tent sides extend away from the sides of the stack about a foot out and down so the rainwater doesn’t run down the side of the stack but still allows plenty of air to circulate under the tent.
My heating needs are mixed, my family is basically gone during the day M-F, out of the house first thing in the morning and home for a few hours in the evening before bed. I typically just maintain the house during the day in the high 50’s to low 60’s with a boost at the end of the day and then constant living temps in the upper 60’s low 70’s on the weekends. Last winter, which was very mild, I burned about 4.5 cords in an “All Nighter Moe”, and was able to basically maintain a fairly low house temp and then boost it with the oil furnace. I was really only ever able to heat the whole house with wood when the temps were milder, 30 or above.
I did not clean the chimney at all during the winter last year, my mistake. When I cleaned the chimney this summer I did not like the amount of creosote I pulled out, probably 10-15 gallons. There was about a 75% blockage at about 5-10’ down from the top of the chimney. So I sold the old All Nighter and now I need a stove. This stove is going to be in the basement so I really don’t care what it looks like. I want a quality basic large clean burning stove that will get me my most bang for the buck. I’m not committed to either a non-cat or a cat and would consider either.
The local stove shop points me to a Lopi Liberty, as a quality basic clean burning stove for the size of my house, for I think $2800. I can find at least two used Liberty’s that appear from pictures to be in decent shape within two hours of me, they are asking $1200. I see a lot of people here seem to be happy with Englander NC-30, which I can get at Home Depot for $900 with a blower, I have also looked into Drolet HT2000 at Lowes for about $1500 with no blower. And I can see a US Stove 2500 model at Tractor supply for $900, that one seems to be the lowest quality. I really don’t like the idea of using a reducer so I don’t look at 8” flue stoves. I realize that these are all non-cat stoves and very different burning than any stove I have used before, but I understand the basics of burning. It seems to me that these are all “about the same” so as long as the quality of the stove is good, price ends up being the determining factor. Even if the higher priced ones burn “better” and end up using less wood, it would have to be a lot less wood to make up the price difference. Cat stoves seem to be in an entirely different price range. Is there such a thing as a “basic” cat stove and do they burn that much less wood to warrant the price difference?
Dave
What a great forum. I’m a first time poster long time lurker looking for some stove advice. I have done extensive reading here about stove choices and am looking for some advice before I make my choice.
My house is a typical colonial, with 2200 sqft of living space. It is a high quality modular built is 2003 with typical construction and insulation set on full poured concrete foundation. I have spent a lot of time and $ the last year or two, sealing up seams from attic to basement, and a recent energy audit confirms the house is sufficiently “tight”. The basement is unfinished and not living space. I have added insulation to the basement walls down to the frost line and rim joist using 2” Dow Tuff-R, which if I remember is about R12. The basement walls below the frost line and the floor are un-insulated. The chimney a dual flue cement block clay lined interior chase up against the gable end of the house, running from the bottom of the basement to about 3’ above the peak of the roof about 35’ total. Unfortunately the layout of the house does not allow me to locate a stove in the living space. The stove location in the basement I realize is not optimal, but it is what I am stuck with. The flue thimble is 6”. There is a typical oil fired HWBB furnace on the other flue.
I buy green hardwood logs, buck and spilt it by hand (with a maul) myself. I have about 5 cords seasoned ready to go for this year and am currently working on next years supply. I build a “tent” over the stacked wood using small diameter scrap spruce logs as a frame for some 6mil poly sheeting. The tent sides extend away from the sides of the stack about a foot out and down so the rainwater doesn’t run down the side of the stack but still allows plenty of air to circulate under the tent.
My heating needs are mixed, my family is basically gone during the day M-F, out of the house first thing in the morning and home for a few hours in the evening before bed. I typically just maintain the house during the day in the high 50’s to low 60’s with a boost at the end of the day and then constant living temps in the upper 60’s low 70’s on the weekends. Last winter, which was very mild, I burned about 4.5 cords in an “All Nighter Moe”, and was able to basically maintain a fairly low house temp and then boost it with the oil furnace. I was really only ever able to heat the whole house with wood when the temps were milder, 30 or above.
I did not clean the chimney at all during the winter last year, my mistake. When I cleaned the chimney this summer I did not like the amount of creosote I pulled out, probably 10-15 gallons. There was about a 75% blockage at about 5-10’ down from the top of the chimney. So I sold the old All Nighter and now I need a stove. This stove is going to be in the basement so I really don’t care what it looks like. I want a quality basic large clean burning stove that will get me my most bang for the buck. I’m not committed to either a non-cat or a cat and would consider either.
The local stove shop points me to a Lopi Liberty, as a quality basic clean burning stove for the size of my house, for I think $2800. I can find at least two used Liberty’s that appear from pictures to be in decent shape within two hours of me, they are asking $1200. I see a lot of people here seem to be happy with Englander NC-30, which I can get at Home Depot for $900 with a blower, I have also looked into Drolet HT2000 at Lowes for about $1500 with no blower. And I can see a US Stove 2500 model at Tractor supply for $900, that one seems to be the lowest quality. I really don’t like the idea of using a reducer so I don’t look at 8” flue stoves. I realize that these are all non-cat stoves and very different burning than any stove I have used before, but I understand the basics of burning. It seems to me that these are all “about the same” so as long as the quality of the stove is good, price ends up being the determining factor. Even if the higher priced ones burn “better” and end up using less wood, it would have to be a lot less wood to make up the price difference. Cat stoves seem to be in an entirely different price range. Is there such a thing as a “basic” cat stove and do they burn that much less wood to warrant the price difference?
Dave
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