Wood stove size help

[savanna]

Hello everyone, I am looking for some advice on what size wood stove to get based on my cabin size. We are starting the build on our cabin next month. The cabin will be 28x36 gambrel style with half a loft and then the rest open above the family room kitchen. We are doing radiant floor heat under the concrete slab run by a boiler. Once framed in we are going to have sprayed insulation done, so it will be pretty well insulated.

So, roughly 1000 SQ ft with a really high ceiling due to gambrel style structure. I have done a ton of reading on different stove types and we are doing the wood stove for ambiance and supplemental heat. I have it narrowed down to two different stoves by the same company. The englander nc-30 or englander nc-13. The 30 is a big 3.5cf stove and the 13 is a 1.8cf size stove. I am going with one of those because there appear to be simple, very well reviewed stoves for a good price. They are available at home depot and I have 500 in gift cards to put down on either. So, is the smaller one all I need, run it at full load. Or get the bigger one, easier to load east west or north south, and run it at half strength but always have the option for longer burns if desired. The price is only a couple hundred bucks different so that's not a huge factor. I have never had a wood stove before. What are your thoughts? My plan was keep the floor heat set at like 55 or so and then once we get there fire up the stove and enjoy the heat. We are in western ny so it definately gets cold and crappy here. Thanks for the help.

 

[George]

I went with the larger Vermont casting defiant for my 1350 sq foot with an upstairs area in Colorado. You won't be sorry with the larger stove.

G

 

[Chainsaw]

I like larger stoves but they do take up more floor space. Take the size of the stove and add a minimum two to three feet around it and square footage used adds up. In our camp that still has a wood stove some amount of wood is also stored in the camp as the only dry wood at the lake is wood that is stored inside with the heat. Thus another ten sq. ft. or more of interior space is used up keeping wood dry for our smallish wood stove. The heat of the wood stove makes it worth it to us but just saying that there is "cost" in the form of space used up associated with a wood stove and more with a larger one than a smaller one.

 

[gasman]

Go with the larger stove. Wood doesn't need to be cut and split as small. Bigger pieces will last longer over night

 

[Doe Shooter]

55 gallon barrel stove. Like a ten cent drum, ya can't beat it. Been using them for 40 years.

 

[JDunham]

Go with the larger stove. Wood doesn't need to be cut and split as small. Bigger pieces will last longer over night

This would be my advice as well.

 

[TheOldOak]

Either one will heat the building, but I would go with the larger stove for the aforementioned reasons, takes larger chunks of wood which burn longer. I put my wood stove in a corner of the building so it doesn't take up much space. Works great. Make sure the wood stove has a flat top, nice to occasionally cook on or heat up water for coffee. Agreed on window in front, nothing better than watching the dancing flames with a cold one after a long day hunting. I bot mine on craigslist for $200. Might want to check that out, there isn't much that can go wrong on a well built wood stove.

 

[Beechnut]

The biggest "issue" I have with a woodstove is it being able to burn (i.e. have hot coals) slowly for hours while sleeping. Ours will burn for 6 to 7 hours and still have enough hot coals left to crank it back up. Perhaps the bigger stove would allow you to cram some nice oaks inside, damper it down so it'll burn for hours on end.

 

[swat1018]

Very true. When I heated with wood, the challenging part was keeping a good fire all night. I guess the biggger the better.