advice on a new woodstove

OK I am a new member. I have been trying to supplement my oil furnace with wood for last 5 years and am looking to upgrade my woodstove. I live in northern Vermont and have not seen 32 degrees in a month! I currently have an englander nc13. My house is weird post and beam balloon construction basically a 20 x 20 raised ranch in front and a 20 x 40 colonial in back so that is a total of 5 floors with a center raised ranch type stairs to top it off the top 2 floors are 6 foot walls on 1 side and 17 feet on other. The stove is located in 20 x 20 living room with 5 huge windows and faces south west.
I have a corner install (so I need a front or top loader) from top of stove pipe goes up 3 feet through wall then 24 feet straight up of double wall stainless in a chase (plywood insulation board and siding) basically built hearth and chimney ran out of money and put in cheap box store stove got on clearance for 300. Oh thinking about woodstock ideal steel

 

The Ideal Steel is what I am running and it is working great.

If you want a cheap upgrade you could always move up to the NC 30.

I would recommend a cat or hybrid stove though.

Blaze King is another great option but now the price is going up.

 

The low slow over a long period of time burns of the ideal steal is a good choice for your house setup.

You wont run your self out of the 20 by 20 room and it will help get heat out to the other parts of the house keeping a constant heat out put over a long period of time.

The cat burns are nice for that.

The tube stoves have high peak heat curves and a larger stove will run you out of your family room. And when the heat dies off on the heat curve of the tube stoves the other ends of your house will cool off.

 

If you ever get to the Upper Valley and want to see an Ideal Steel in the flesh, we're in Bradford. You're welcome to take a look. We bought the Progress Hybrid this past year and we're very happy with both stoves. PM me if you're interested.

 

I thought about nc30 because a lot of people say they are good. What I do not like about mine. 1 you need to put wood in every 3 hours or it goes out. 2 the ash pan is worthless you need to let fire die to clean out ash and coals. I do this with a steel dust pan. To get living room to 60 degrees over outside Temps you need a 5 inch base of coals which always fall forward. I called woodstock and they said firebox is almost 4 inches below door a big plus for me

 

It sounds like your pushing a small stove way too hard. Whether you chose cat or non cat, I would aim for a 3cf firebox or bigger with the exception of the Progress Hybrid or Blaze King princess.

The Ideal Steel is a logical solution for you and will serve you well.

What kind of wood are you burning?

 

This year I had 90 percent sugar maple with a little mix and a cord of apple. I think your right about size but box store said 1800 square feet and that's about what I got. Never heated with wood before so I did good chimney and hearth and figured I would upgrade stove later after I knew what I liked and disliked about this one.

 

Welcome to FHC Canadian border VT . As some of the others have chimed in, I am also a WS IS owner.
You are in the right vicinity to the WS factory and as burndatwood offered, he is within reach too.
wildwest posted a link to the production IS thread that has been running since last fall. Plenty of info
on this stove and how they have been running since day one.
Glad to have you here.

 

Sq ft doesn't really justify multiple stories, or challenging layout. It's more or less an open floor plan layout as a stove is a space heater.

 

I agree and will add that the balloon frame and any dated issues may create some difficulty heating that house. Only reason I say that is I have a victorian farmhouse style balloon frame and on the really cold windy days I have work the IS hard to keep up. My house is a bit drafty.

 

A stove is a space heater essentially and that's usually forgotten. We all try our hardest to heat our whole houses with them. A well insulated house is the real answer to your problems. A bigger stove may or may not be, but it can only help.

 

Yes, totally agree with this too. There are times that my main heating system will kick in because the IS colled down too much overnite and I'm ok with that...my home has just as many cons as pros when it comes to it's age and constrution style

 

I can heat my whole house with mine. Really bitter days I mix in a little electric just to keep it comfortable or I fire up the old smoke dragon to help.

 

When it's zero degrees out with miserable winds nobody is going to go outside and complain about a little smoke. Not around here anyway.

 

Thanks for all the great advice. I expect my furnace to run. The house is reasonably well insulated built in mix 80 r 19 walls and r 38 ceilings need to seal more around where beams connect to framing. There is a 2 flue brick chimney goes center of house stove started there near kitchen but living room was so cold no one used it and insurance Co said hearth was too small. So in future I could put another stove in basement but with the nc13 it's all I can do keep it running

 

Oh and nother thought i am against pollution but have not seen 32 degrees in a month. Most night averaging 10 to 15 below. So today I am a fan of global warming.