I'm not worried about operation of stove too much. I plan to have it 15 feet from me in the corner of the living room where I am 90% of time. Since I work from home, I don't have a problem playing with the stove every 4 hours. Though, would prefer if it could be big enough to burn for at least 6-8 hours for the night.Hoytman wrote: ↑Sat. Apr. 25, 2020 11:15 pmI think this list needs some pictures. Why?
Don’t know about y’all, but I’m seeing some red flags in some of the OP’s posts that have me scratching my head. Can’t be real specific as of yet because I’d want to read through this thread again.
One thing I question is: How many square feet is the house, how many cubic feet of air space? That means ceiling height needs addressed.
Two... house wrap will help with wind.
Three... wall and attic insulation needs. He checked...to see if it exists.
Four...any air leak tests for the house you can do will help. Someone addressed these already, but you should do them IF you want that place warm. Someone mentioned a “Manual J” or something along that line. Do it!!! Your electric provider can provide you names of people to perform these tests.
Five...don’t think I’ve heard anything specific about chimneys, if they exist, and if they do, please mention their condition and material construction as well as chimney height, location inside or outside the house, how high in relation to the roof, clearance to obstacles, etc.
Six...not all plastic siding is the same. You get what you pay for, be it from a box store, builder supply, or reputable siding contractor in your area. Cedar wood is an option. Research pros and cons of cedar or redwood (harder to find and expensive), pros and cons of various plastic/vinyl sidings, then pros and cons of the best vinyl siding you can afford versus the wood.
Did I mention wall and plenty of attic insulation and calling your electric provider to do a heat loss survey for you? Well worth what little it costs.
Here’s a partial list of companies that make big stoves.
-Hitzer...82, 50-93, 354, 983 free standing ... will burn coal or wood and a big stoves. Not sure if they’re big enough, but it’s a start on research. Coal stoves that burn anthracite, bituminous. A couple can burn wood. You can ask around here to see which ones will burn wood. $$$$
-Legacy coal stoves...Mark III, SF 250 $$$$
Large wood stoves...
-Woodstock Soapstone Hybrid Progress...$$$$
Kuma Sequioa...$$$$
-Hearthstone...$$$$
-Quadrafire...$$$$
Lopi $$$$
Regency $$$$
England Stove Works: Summer’s Heat NC30 $$$
Drolet HT 2000/3000 $$$
The above wood stove companies all make decent EPA stoves many of which will meet new May 2020 regulations right now. Heating homes from 2000sq.ft to 3000 sq.ft.
IF...big if...if your home is bigger than 2000sq.ft. and is insulated well, you could look into some of the much older non-EPA stoves, that are built like Sherman tanks and were made to put out a lot of heat. Fisher stoves are the stoves to look for. There were some companies that tried to copy them that may serve you well...these are wood stoves. They might eat more wood, but less chance of something going wrong than modern EPA wood stoves, in my opinion, and with good dry wood seasoned for two years or more, these old stoves, again my opinion are just as easy to operate and without catalytic converters to replace, or secondary air tubes to replace.
Plenty of good old wood stoves left that will be around another 100 years or more.
You have lots of research to do. Ask questions. Lots of helpful people here.
Regarding EPA regs - does it mean those companies just discontinue current offerings each year ? So I can only get the better older stove if it's still somewhere in some store (it shipped to last year) ?
As much as I'm concerned about environment, I'm not going to freeze to death to save the planet. Screw that. This is not California. We've had -48 few months ago and the number of weeks below -30 is substantial.
So, it's safe to say, I do not care about EPA. I've been freezing whole bloody winter...
As for chimneys - I can't use the current one. It's on the other side of the house. No way to get there.
I plan on just building some simpler chimney that will be, perhaps 3 feet above the ceiling, or as high as it will prove practical during building it.
Ceiling height - I can almost reach it - I need about half foot to touch it.