What's the smallest insurance-approved stove you know of?

First of all, I don't actually know what it takes to be insurance approved. I'd assume UL listing, EPA certification, or something along those lines but I bet you guys can tell me what's necessary here.

Second, we installed a Woodstock Ideal Steel stove this year and we're finding that, in the temperature range that Ohio spends most of the winter in, it's very difficult to get the stove cold enough to not overheat the house. For instance, when it's 35-40F out, a stove top temp of 275F will send the whole house to 85F or more. It's pretty hard to get the stove to run with a lower STT than that. I'm sure it'll be awesome in the two weeks or so a year where we get temps in the single digits above or below zero. Granted, my wife loves it being 85F in the house right now, but I'm dying of heat stroke! We both really do like the heat from the wood (compared to our WaterFurnace) and the Ideal Steel is really nice so we don't regret the purchase

I'm not sure if we're joking or serious, but my wife and I have been talking about getting a second, VERY small stove for the temps between 35F and 50F. The furnace starts running at 60F and by 50F it's on frequently enough I'd like to be burning wood. Prior to the wood stove, we used kerosene space heaters. We could run a 10kBTU space heater once it got below 50F without overheating the house but the furnace would start coming on again once in a while around 42-43F. That gives me a pretty good guess about what BTU range we're looking for

That means we're probably looking from something with a maximum output in the 12kBTU to 16kBTU range for a tiny wood stove. Once the heating demand rises above that, we can handle it with the Ideal Steel running as cold as possible in no-flame-happy-cat mode.

I've seen the Cubic Mini woodstoves and they amuse the heck out of both of us, but they're not certified or tested by any 3rd party so I can't imagine our home insurance liking that. Does anyone know of something about that size that's more likely to make the insurance happy? We do not want a pellet stove. Real wood stoves only.

 

How many sqft are heating? Insulation?
I get by fine with a Keystone as my only source of heat. I heat 1536sqft of well insulated/tight house in AR. My stove mostly coasts between loads. Maybe you just need more practice stretching the loads out.?

 

1400sqf on the two main floors plus 800sqf of unfinished half-walk-out basement below. House has 5.5" of EPS, so about R-22 for the roof, walls, and foundation. I'm not sure if there's any under-slab insulation or not. House is moderately tight at 3.5 ACH50. Real problem envelope-wise is that there's waaay too much glass.

Oh, absolutely I need more practice running the stove! However, I suspect that's not the only thing going on here because, as I said above, even in the low 30s, a stove top temp in the mid to high 200s will overheat the house. Reading reports from the many IS owners here on FHC, pretty much no one reports running a STT that cold. That makes me think it's not solely a matter of turning the stove down farther.

 

Is the problem moving the heat? Stove room hot while the rest of the house is cool?
I'm not familiar with ESP. Foam insulation is great in general.

 

Above 40 degrees and I have to open a window or door in the stove area. That's much easier and cheaper than getting a smaller stove
It was mid 30's yesterday, and I still had a window open midday when I was getting solar gain thru the windows and back door.

 

We have two problems with opening a window: 1) we live next to an interstate so it's NOISY outisde 2) You let in cold air from outside, the house and stove warm the air, and the relative humidity drops because of that. Leave the windows and doors open 2-3 days in a row and we end up with the humidity in the teens, which is uncomfortable!

FWIW, I don't want to replace the IS, we're just considering adding a tiny shoulder season stove to it.

 

I have a Jotul CF 3b, which is as small a "real" stove as I would want to go. It will take 16-17 inch wood so you wouldn't need two different lengths, one length for the IS and another for the small stove. Jotul actually does make a smaller stove, the F100, however I'm quite sure you can get something similar for much cheaper.

 

williaty I was just thinking about this again... granted my home is different.. but before you go this route have you tried some lower btu wood? I can keep my stove top down while still engaging cat by burning junk pine and willow that's easy to get..

 

I thought the softwoods burnt hotter but for a much shorter time?

Good news is last night was hovering right at 20F and a 320-340 STT didn't overheat the house. I'll have to check the logs from the temp sensors later, but it looks like it kept the stove >300F for about 6-7 hours and >200F for ~20 hours. That actually worked out pretty well because it burnt hotter overnight during the coldest time while starting to taper off about dawn and it's kept the house warm all day. I'm burning down the coals now from lighting it around 8pm yesterday.

 

I do not want to speak for everyone.. but my experience with the IS.. yes they softwoods burn faster but less BTU per stick... Gets cat up too temp quick.. shut it down... less btus. in wood.. less heat..
my shoulder season.. 40s day 20 at night roughly .. half pine.. half popular loaded.. soon as cat is at temp shut it down.. (I go all way off with air over 15 munutes.. I got good draft) 15 hour later when I go to pick up my little girl from bus stop... STT is about 125 just a few coals and ash in firebox.. then as we go farther into winter I open air up more earlier to get more heat ... heck only dry wood I got is birch, soft maple, cherry and pine.. we been as low as 20.. try it if you got dry junkwood...

 

Backwoods Savage oh temp now is 29 degrees.. got 6 inches of snow left.. I was referring to my shoulder season and because OP is from ohio.. I feel I need to describe it.. I haven't been above 35 since Sunday when it started to snow. Lake Champlain is 15 miles wide (2 miles west of me) and lake temp is still 40s so I haven't gone much below 20 at night but once that heat sink freezes it's game on til March .. But with the Ideal steel I am winning.. I don't get lake effect like great Lakes but it does extend shoulder season for me.. I am not seeing anything in forecast highs that has 40 in it but some of the rain to sleet to snow after thankgiving!

 

williaty I'd try doing smaller loads as Backwoods Savage suggested. I also live in ohio and I have a 3.0 cu ft stove heating 2500 sq ft. This time of year if I load it up I will heat us out of the house at 80+F. Until we get temps in the 20-30's F outside I do half to 3/4 loads 1-2 times a day. It is a lot of restarting but it does the job while keeping us comfortable and using less wood. I look at shoulder season as a less serious time to start playing around with the stove until the real heating season kicks in. Once we get into January and the real cold sets in its 2-3 full loads a day cranking out as much heat as possible! Enjoy the easy season

 

As already stated, loading less wood is one of the ways to regulate temp...also using the lower BTU woods for less heat...and then letting the house cool more before re-loading.

To get a good clean burning "small" fire going stack the wood in loosely, like as in log cabin style for one.

We do exactly as you are considering, a small stove in the fireplace for the "shoulder" season, and then the wood furnace when it gets colder...it works out really well.

That said, we have a couple year old 1.2 CF "EPA" type stove for sale ("rated" to heat 1200 SF) PM me if you are interested in hearing about it.

 

Ok Backwoods Savage now I have half the house size he has. I may burn myself out of my house with my stove. Im hoarding all kinds of wood here now Im thinking "is this even a good idea to put in a stove??"

Right now it is about 80 degrees, soon to be 90 then 95 this Sunday. So while I dont mind heat in general but Im putting this in perspective as if I have a stove going full bore here, this is incidentally what I will be feeling inside. Even worse, it may be uncomfortable. Small fires now at best and Im somewhat worried if it really may be too much.

 

Old topic but interesting. Some of the European/Scandinavian stoves such as the Morso brand are designed with small fireboxes to heat a single room or a small cabin for a few hours. Also, Pacific Energy makes a 1.2 cubic ft fire box. These might work for your needs.
Wood Burning Stove
Pacific Energy :: NEO 1.2 Heritage

 

Ive already bought the stove...but there may be a good trade off here and worth the questions. I have a tiny house 730 sf then garage is close to 300. House insulation is ok but the drafts are clearly there, the garage is Not insulated but accessible from house. Now my climate takes us to below 30's winter but that was at the cold snap and lowest was 15 for about 2 days and then its between 30-45 on a given night. The thought I have given is leaving the garage door ajar for this as I can limit my opening a window which would likely increase the drafts but by too much as the stove will be den centralized. The temp gets down...the air chills pretty hard when the moisture is involved. This winter was a lot of freezing rain and coldest in awhile. Not sure about this year yet but a two pay period within a month for electricity being 300! Bucks, that can kiss my azz. I was already having firewood for the pit split and stacked even before I joined this party last summer. Now thats grown to epic proportions by my standards. Im just glad to have the assortment of firewood, just in the event that I make my home bigger might make this more comfortable( long story short). Im figuring that fires will likely be kept small unless the temp really drops!