I am getting ready to purchase a wood burning stove for our new house. We are building a 2300 sqft home (2 story) in my 45ft x 75ft metal building. My building has R13 insulation around it and then the stud walls inside for the house have an R13. I have blown an R40 above the second floor of the house. I went overboard on the insulation to help heating cost. I have a brand new Carrier 5 ton heat pump with 20 KVA electric furnace inside. I want to install a wood burning stove in the house so I can burn wood off my property and save on the electric bill.

Does anyone have any suggestions on good, cheap, wood burning stoves? I don't need forced air, glass doors, etc. I just want a free standing wood stove that I can burn at least 24 inch logs in and not cost a fortune.

Any suggestions? Thanks for your time. JWB

 

Theres a lot of good ones out there. I have a "Wonder Stove" and am real happy with the amount of heat it puts out vs. the amount of wood I have to keep in it.

 

While I'm building my place, we're staying at moms 'cause it's close to my property and there's no rent She has a Vermont Castings:

http://www.vermontcastings.com/conte...ils.cfm?id=136

It's a dandy...I haven't heard the furnace kick on yet

My home is going to have radiant heat in the floors. One of these little darlings will heat my home, household water and my garage:

http://www.centralboiler.com/home.html


None of it's cheap, but I saw a stove locally that would heat 2500 sqft for about 2 grand.

 

We run a Hardy. Its a great stove. It heats the aids in the hot water for the house, heats the floors in our shop, and the hot water in our shop, was well as the furnace for the house. If you have any questions, etc, dont hesitate to ask away! Hardy Wood Stoves

 

We heat the house with wood too when it is below 30F. Above that and we run the heat pump. We have a Vermont stove also. I'm not telling you what to do, but cheap is never good idea with an airtight stove. You'll end up wasting wood & time, and maybe burn your house down. Get one big enough to heat a house that size.

http://www.vermontcastings.com/conte...ils.cfm?id=186

 

We have had that exact same Vermont Large stove now for over 15 years. It was one of the first EPA approved stoves. It is great. I would however get the extra large next time in order to burn even longer logs. This stove runs 24/7 in the winter and will keep a fire very well over night and also can keep embers most of the day if shut way down. An ash pan is a must for ease of cleaning.

 

I just cleaned the catalitic converter today and replaced the damper gasket. Good to go for another couple of years. They are a great stove. $1,500 new. Mine came with the house.

 

Try Northern tool, they have a website . I have one of the free standing models and have been very pleased with it. Usually 4 pieces of wood will last all night if I shut the damper down.I've owned it for 5 yrs and no problems.

 

Something else to consider...if you can still do this...
If your stove will be in the basement or the main floor and you want heat up to the top as well, a buddy of mine made a 2ft by 2ft square opening from the basement clear up to the ceiling. He ran single wall chimney pipe as far as he could before the ceiling. The radiant heat off of that chimney was impressive.
He also cleaned it every spring. It looked pretty cool like that. He had some real nice railings around the holes and it did not look out of place.

He claims he got much more heat value from the wood doing this.

Scotty
Not sure of the brand of stove but it was huge and top quality. He used a couple of ceiling fans to move the heat around the house.