So I've been researching woodstoves for awhile now and i'm at a point where I don't know how to proceed:
I want a stove that has the following qualities:
1) Non-Catalytic
2) Can heat a 2400 square foot home from the lowest of 3 floors (very open floorplan)...doesn't need to heat farthest floors to warm...just "tolerable" since they are only sleeping levels
3) Can be used for cooking (boil water, make a meal, etc...not baking)
4) Requires the least amount of maintenance possible
5) Is as durable as possible (least amount of stuff to break)
So far I've been directed to Lopi, Jotul, Quadrafire (which look oddly like Lopi), Napoleon, and Pacific Energy.
I really like the "look" of the Napoleon 1150p Gourmet (has a real cooktop, etc)...but I know the tops of the bi-level lopi stoves, etc can be used as well.
Any suggestions? This has been a yearlong search and my real focus is on reliability more than anything...
I posted this in the survival forum to stress the "for emergency" usage aspect as well/perhaps someone else here may find useful. If it's the wrong spot- feel free to move.
When you size for the open floor plan house, up-size your stove a little. My stove (Hearthstone Shelburne) is rated at 50kBTUs, enough to heat 1800 sq feet, and it heats my 1700 sq foot house just "OK." It takes a while to bring it up from cold when I get home (55 when I get home, up to 68-ish degrees), and has a hard time keeping the place warm while maintaining a safe burn rate for 8 hrs while we're asleep. Non-catalytic is DEFINITELY the way to go. They start out burning just as cleanly, but as they age, the catalyst needs to be replaced eventually to keep it from clogging...the EPA-rated non-cat stoves don't have anything to replace, and they stay just about as efficient as when new.
I have a non-cat Dutchwest stove and have not been very happy with their "everburn" system. Non-cat stoves uses a reburner ceramic that forces the smoke to pass thru it. If you don't have a good bed of coals it does not work...when it does not work your burn times suffer greatly. You may need to spend some time mucking with it because its a bit finicky YMMV....they have been refining the technology.
Something I learned by accident this past season may be of interest to all. During the ice storm I collected assloads of firewood in the form of down branches etc. I had a 1+ cords of 1-2 inch rounds which I thougt were going to be used for daytime/weekend burns and fire starting. It turns out that I got outstanding nighttime burns using the small rounds. My theory is that as the small rounds burn down, they produce a nice coal bed that collapses in front of my reburner throat and keeps it running in "everburn" mode longer. From now on all my firewood will be no larger than 4 inches...with my current stove anyway.
EDIT: make sure you get the blower option...it makes a huge difference!
The low burn mode works great for me with EXACTLY the right airflow...hard to do, since the full open to full closed adjustment is about 1" of lever throw, and it sticks. Mine seems to work best if I can get a good bed of coals and then drop a few large chunks of wood on and bring them up to temp before closing the air control down for the night.
Any thoughts on pellet stove vs woodstove? How much would it cost to heat a 2 story house(2k sf) with a pellet stove per winter? It seems that it is about 300$ per ton of pellets. How many tons would I need? Also, any suggestions for stove type? This is on my list of things to buy next year.
I would run a pellet stove as an alternative to propane or electric (cheaper than both), but not as a truly highly available setup. Pellets are tougher than oil (or diesel, or kerosene, or propane) to store, the stoves require power to run, and you can't burn (many) alternative fuels in them.
The best way for you to figure out what other sources of heat are going to cost is to figure out how much you've spent on heat, and break it down to BTUs that you've required in the past. I found that for me, heating primarily with wood, keeping the basement from freezing with the propane, and running an electric space heater in the bathroom while in the shower ended up providing the best balance of convenience, comfort, and price. Now, if I could only get the windows replaced, I'd be down to 1 1/2 cords of wood per year, and HALF the propane.
![[rolleyes]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/042.gif "Roll Eyes [rolleyes]")
A woodstove runs without power and burns anything, pellet stove burns pellets and nothing else (well maybe corn). If you want the convenience of pellets with a woodstove look at envi blocks or bio bricks....basically big pellets. I personally like knowing that I can heat my house no matter what...I can understand those that want to "set it and forget it"....woodstoves are kinda messy although less so, if you use the blocks.
EDIT: I have used these folks for blocks, they sell pellets and corn too:
http://www.pelletsdirect.com/09-10%20Early%20Buy%20Pricing.htm
At the risk of sidetracking the thread, I'm going to mention wood/coal stoves because most people just don't consider them. Coal typically costs less than pellets and I can get a 24 hour burn without reloading. And if the SHTF and coal is nowhere to be found, it just as happily burns wood.
BIG agreement here on the woodstoves over pellet. If you insist on prepackaged fuel, at least run the bio/envi/whatever blocks.
