Wood Heater Info?

[southrngardngal]

DH and I are discussing buying a wood heater for our home. We have 947 sq.ft. to heat. Our home is mostly open except for our bathroom and bedroom. What I am wanting to know is what type of heater we need. How large to heat the amount of space we have. I would really love to have the cast iron (?) type that we can also use for stove when we need to do so.
Any help would be appreciated. I know there must be more questions that need answering so if you all think of anything that we need to consider please feel free to mention it.

We don't want one with an electric fan blower like I have seen in other homes. We want a strictly wood heating system.

Thank you.
Jan

[raymilosh]

With a reasonalby sized house with an open floor plan, your options are wide open. I Most stoves have a shiny tag on the back from the UL folks that lists important information about the stove, including how many square feet is will heat. would suggest you find a stove that is designed to heat a smaller house. If you want the stove to heat up quickly, get a not as heavy airtight one. If you're OK with it taking a while to get hot in exchange for giving off heat for a long time, get a heavier one.
Wood cookstoves in my opinion are the best overall...they heat up quickly for cooking, are very frugal with wood, can be found fairly inexpensively. Downsides include that it takes a long time for mine to get hot enough to begin heating the house and it can be difficult to get the fire to burn slowly enough that there are still coals left in the morning.

[Westwood]

From my years of experience, get a convection cabinet model like an Ashley. They have are airtight which makes regulation easier, have a thermostat, and most of all have an ASH DRAWER to remove ashes so you don't have to wait until the fire dies out to remove them. They're fast heating and can be damped down by the thermostat overnight.

[Alex]

Depends on where you are, what state, area. The interior of Alaska is colder than northern Montana. But Anchorage, on the coast is balmy by comparison. Then there's Florida.

The Ashely wood stove is excellent, it has an air inlet which is controlled by a thermostat.

However, my favorite is the Blaze King catalytic wood stove. It is 82.5% efficient. In Florida this might not be to important. In Montana or Fairbanks it will be.

Of course, here is our beloved stove (just skip this part for those who have seen this before):


Blaze King lots of models.

This pdf tells about the long burn and high-efficiency.

And here is the website. Select wood stoves and then catalytic models.

Good luck,

Alex


I wonder if I can get stock in this company? I have no connection or interest in the company.