Woodstock progressive or ideal steel

wheelin1, the reason JA600L is asking if basement wall are insulated is it is almost impossible to heat up insulated concrete. Also, the Woodstock stoves which are fantastic like seasoned firewood moisture content (MC) of 20% or below.. I see that you are new and I am new enough I just trying to help explain not question your intelligence in any way.. I assume you could sell your insert which you said was new and with your geothermal you would only need stove for ambiance or when temperature drops below 10 degrees. With that being said I guess you geographic location comes into play.. I know of wheeling WV and PA there may be more. I know where I live 3 cord is nothing.. I think your on the right track if that helps.. until you get to the fabled 3 years ahead I would recommend a moisture meter, after the stove, so you know what your burning.. good luck

 

Napoleon make great stoves and inserts. We heated out 1800 square foot home with a 1400 wood (mid sized) stove for nearly 20 years and it is now in my garage/workshop. when it was loaded up it was good for about 6 hours of serious heat. The insert takes up less room and is great from a decor perspective. Each home is different and we sure are too. Visual appeal is critical for many, especially our soul mates. I am guessing your homes is really nice. Wolf Steel who make Napoleon products are a good outfit and have been around a long time. I've been to both their factory and warehouse/showroom. the people and service were good. Up here in cold, barren Canada they sell a ton of stoves along with Pacific Energy. Good luck. Keep us posted as you progress.

 

I'm gonna add that if you have the stove stuffed away in the basement that you might want to skip the cat stoves and go with the tried and true nc30. Lots of bang for the buck and it will put out a lot of heat.

 

Had the oak for 2 years, used for bonfire nights, half of the walls are insulated right now, plan on a cold air duct over the stove. My father has about 3 cords stored in a wood shed, he quit burning some years back and gave it to me, I actually bought the wood for him from a friend of mine that was selling wood to pay for his sons college.

 

Cold air duct over the stove?

 

Cold air duct to pick up hot air and move it throughout my house my geothermal unit has a merv 13 filter system and runs all the time even when the units off, it has a ECM motor. I figure close most ducts off and use the one over the stove.

 

We were going to build a sunroom with a masonry chimney and put the 1402 in it but we never got the room built and wanted a off grid way to heat so we took a closer look and figured out a way to build a 6 inch chimney to our rec room that we are working on so that's why we changed our minds, how much wood do you think we would use for a winter of heating I see people saying 3 to 7 cords.

 

I guess depends which Wheelin your in Ohio or below I would bet you would be safe with 4 cord.

What I love about my IS hybrid, is the low end control, 3/4 full of junk popular with 20 degree night and 40 days house is stays 70 plus for 18 hours. my wife likes color combinations and how we can modify it over time. Also the ease of the ash pan. real easy to get ash out leave coals in and load stove on hot coal to get quick fire. If your going to Woodstock factory ask them, IS has bigger firebox, PH has higher by per hour but maybe fewer hours. PH is a side loader I have corner install so besides being cheaper IS loaded Easier in my situation..

 

Good to hear that 4 cords was a good number for the northern panhandle of West Virginia. Planning on stocking more wood for sure and good to know three years ahead is the goal

 

I'm not 100% familiar with this stuff but I think that you aren't supposed to put ducts over your stove.

 

Amen to that thought! sounds as if where 'wheelin1' lives the geothermal covers most the heating needs in winter so something easy to fire up and use on occasion and when desired is an important consideration. The insert may be nice if the owner wants to relax and watch the flames roll around and enjoy some radiant heat. Since its a large home the additional heat will find its way up. Only the owner can really weigh all the possibilities and decide what is best for their needs. Keep us posted and how you arrived at your decision.

 

What's your time frame? The new stove woodstock is working on might be a good option depending on how much space you are heating but it's probably a year from market.

 

Probably next year as we are still working on the room in the basement, it is 1000 sq feet and is taking a bunch of time and resources, working on the wood pile too.

 

The room is 1000sqft but you want to use the heat for upstairs as well right?

 

The house is easy to heat and we would heat with the stove most of the time but we do have a good system to fall back on, goal is zero bills and that will be easy to obtain for us we just have to get rid of 4 months of heating as the rest is taken care of with geothermal and solar system.

 

The main component of having a good wood stove is to be able to live in the house without electric God forbidden we have too.

 

I must confess I am a bit envious. If I were 40 years younger my goal would be geothermal and solar panels in a grid tied set up. But this is your post and it's interesting. If your goal is back up when (not if) electricity goes kaput for a few days or weeks then there are many ways to go. We just use a generator with a double ended male 12 g cord that goes into an outside outlet and energizes one side of a 200 amp panel. The main is turned off when the generator is in use. We had to use it for 36 hours over Christmas day this past week. This is a cheap and dirty way to function somewhat. Even better is a panel connected UPS that will carry you for a few hours and then a generator wired into your panel. These options involve some bucks. Just as an aside there is a little gizmo sold on Amazon that is a battery powered pump with a hose and shower head that goes into a container of hot water from the wood stove. We have one and it was under $40 if I recall correctly. It can sit in a tub or shower and it sure is handy when no water is running. We pump lake water and buy bottled water for drinking. We were without water for 3 weeks this past winter when the line finally froze up after a month of 20-30 below zero. Hauling 5 gallon jugs is no fun but kept me humble. A wood stove is a reliable source of heat no matter what. Water can be an issue for a variety of reasons. A well with gravity feed is bullet proof. A couple neighbors here have such a set up as we're on a long hillside and their wells are above their homes. Ice wind and fire can knock out most any municipal systems of water and electricity. We're not doomsday wackos by any stretch but we've learned to take steps to ensure we have what we need in extended emergencies. Some of these thoughts may be helpful ... maybe just entertainment ... but I throw them out. Others may think about their own situation and take a few extra measures. A 3 or 4 KV generator and the little shower gizmo can be had for $500 or less.

 

We have a generator that is good and is dependable 7000 watts and a manual transfer switch, and the geothermal with a soft starter we wanted a stove or fireplace for our basement room project, my wife grew up with only wood heat and loves fireplaces so I came up with the idea of heating with wood efficiently and having a backup for a month long winter power outage is now a need after we survived 3 weeks with an outage a few years back.