EPA stove recommendation

I like the buy as big as you can afford. Or the big stove that can be dialed back for low btu long burns.

 

I looked at the ht2000 when deciding 2 years ago seemed like a quality stove but I didn't see anyone on Hearth using one so I went with the Englander nc30. The 30 was about $400 less than the ht2000. If I were buying a stove right now I would consider a Blaze King or the Woodstock Ideal Steel, but for less than half the money the nc30 is hard to beat.

I'm heating 3000 sqft in Maine, including 800 sqft of unfinished but insulated basement entirely with an Englander nc30 in my basement. The house is a 2003 built modular colonial with average/code insulation and windows. I spent a lot of time and effort sealing everything I could from basement to attic, particularly the rim in the basement. A blower door test confirmed the house is very "tight". My house does get a lot of solar gain. I do have to push the stove pretty hard in extreme/long cold or time of little solar gain.

You're starting from scratch with new construction, make it tight and don't skimp on the insulation, insulate at least the walls of the basement or you're wasting your time trying to heat from the basement.

 

Very impressive Dave, just goes to show you some people would be better off investing money in their house then buying the biggest baddest wood stove they can find.
Good advice on the new construction, will pay for itself many time over even if he ends up selling the house.

 

does it come with the optional conveyor belt for wood feed? 130K BTU is pretty impressive until you note that @8.5Kbtu per lb or stopred potential to "release" 130KBTU/HR the stove would have to consume roughly 15.3LBS of wood per hour. so running at that amount of btu/hr for a 24 hour period the required amount of wood would be 367.2 lbs

as stated above , do not get captured by manufacturers BTU claims (note i AM a manufacturer and im telling you this)

 

I doubt you would ever try and maintain 130 k btus, if I wanted to run my wood stove at max btus I wonder how much wood it would consume in a 24 hour period.

 

You could give it a shot and let us know.

 

answer; A LOT

 

I think we are on the same page but not sure, you helped make my point, some sites state max btu's and average which is a better picture of what the stove can do.

 

I have a T6 that I heat close to 2400 sq feet with and it does great but my house layout seems to be fairly conducive to moving the heat efficiently. You may find it challenging to heat your whole house from the basement with a freestanding stove. Also the NC30 is probably the best bang for your buck stove out there and they have excellent customer service so I would keep that one on the top of your list as far as cheap freestanding stoves go.

 

I heat an upstairs 1900sqft house from the basement. My basement has family room that is 27ft by 27ft. I use a 3.3 cuft stove the drolet myriad.
There are some open vents in the floor to let heat rise into the center of the house. I used to heat it with a 2.1 cuft stove. I got the bigger stove to help with temps in the single digits and minus temps. 10 deg or higher that 2.0 heated fine. The 3.3 heats even better. My house is very well insulated with energy efficient windows. So that makes the house easier to heat. You have to burn 24/7 during cold spells and keep the heat up in the house at all times. Let the stove burn out during very cold days and its like heck getting the heat back up as your fighting the thermal mass of the house. My Myriad radiates heat exceptionally well as the fire brick only goes up the side walls little more than half way the rest of the way up everything is metal including a stainless steel baffle that allows the stove to radiate very well even with just colas in the stove the stove still puts out lot of heat. I like the design over more insulated firebox designs. The bypass damper for loading is a nice feature and makes things easier for getting the stove fired back up as you get more air flow with it open. Ok thats my 2 cents worth of advice.

 

Manufacturers BTU ratings: Agreed they are a MESS. They all seem to report the ratings differently which is a bummer for us.

Fire box size: I know you guys keep pushing that statement over and over, but in reality like it or not (and I know you don't), it really is not that accurate. Size does NOT always matter! My truck holds twice as much fuel as my Mini Cooper does. Does that mean the truck is faster and/or can go further on a tank of fuel? No. The reality is the truck is much slower, and has 1/2 the range while burning twice as much fuel! Similarly, there are some larger firebox stoves, that will not emit as much heat and/or burn as long as some smaller firebox stoves. Sorry, it's just fact because of design features, materials, efficiency....

That sounds like the best idea since it's "hidden away" down in a basement. Unless of course you (the OP) plans on finishing and using the basement for other purposes..... ?


Also, what is the basement made of ? Cement or block walls? Is it underground? I've read lots of comments on here that basements often suck tons of heat out into the walls and ground..... I would research that part, and/or finish and insulate the walls in basement.... Also, look closely at BURN times! The Enerzone 3.4 will only have a 6 or 8 hour burn time max from what I herd. I was also looking at that unit when I started shopping. Burn times will be very important....

Just something to think about.

Lastly, I heat about 80 or 90% of a 2300 ft2 house with a 2.8 fire box, and even worse my stove is on the TOP floor! It definitely can be done.

 

Manufacturers BTU ratings: Agreed they are a MESS. They all seem to report the ratings differently which is a bummer for us.

Fire box size: I know you guys keep pushing that statement over and over, but in reality like it or not (and I know you don't), it really is not that accurate. Size does NOT always matter! My truck holds twice as much fuel as my Mini Cooper does. Does that mean the truck is faster and/or can go further on a tank of fuel? No. The reality is the truck is much slower, and has 1/2 the range while burning twice as much fuel! Similarly, there are some larger firebox stoves, that will not emit as much heat and/or burn as long as some smaller firebox stoves. Sorry, it's just fact because of design features, materials, efficiency....

ive touched on this already in my book skeleton, the EPA rated BTU output is accurate model to model, thing is one has to look at what is actually going on (rather than dig out my example im going to create a quick simple one though the numbers may not be exact the idea will be plain in what im saying.)

take 2 stoves , both with 2 CF fireboxes, now say they will both hold an equal amount of wood , say 10 lbs to make the math easy. now, 10 lbs of wood contains roughly 8500 BTU of stored potential (heat) 85000 total
now stove "A" is rated at 42000 BTU/HR
stove "B" is rated at 21000 BTU/HR

both can be and would be correct if the EPA rating states such.

what this means is that stove A will consume that 10 lb charge of wood in 2 hours, stove B would consume the same 10 lb load in 4 hours

note im doing this "stupid simple" and using "input BTU ratings for the purpose of the example, as well as exaggerating to make the point.

what it boils down to is the fuel, and how fast a stove consumes it when it comes to BTU ratings

to me its simple but I work in the industry and am around it all the time

my advice is this, look at rated square footage and use a simple math equasion to determine what kind of burn time you will get as well as (and ex

 

While a stove can make a certain high btu, there are some challenges to maintaining that high output over an extended time. I have and like an NC30 that I burn as hard as safely possible intermittently. Here is what happens when I have a long day trying to keep it hot....

It fills up with coals and I can no longer keep the output high. See pic.

So what to do? If you are needing every bit of what the largest stoves are rated to put out then you need a wood furnace. Running at max output on any stove will be frustrating. I would much rather load 300# of wood per day than freeze and if you need 300# then you need 300#. Now find an appliance that can handle it.

 

Oh and for a house stove, if you must go stove, put in a BK King model and be happy.

 

Get a stove with a big ash pan and that problem disappears. I empty mine about every 2 weeks burning 24x7 at full blast.

 

I have an Osburn product which is made by SBI like Drolet. I think you would be happy with the HT2000. But is the additional .4 ft of firebox size worth the additional $ over a NC30? That would be for you to decide.

I have a drafty 200 year old farm house to heat. Don't skimp on insulation.

 

There were no ashes in that stove, all coals. An ash pan would not have made a difference, oh and I do believe that the stove does have an ash pan.