Stove Size Guide

What Size Wood Burning Stove Do i Need?

What Size Wood Burning Stove Do i Need

Living in cold areas or places, where there is the winter season for most of the time of year, seems to be very fun because by thinking of cold or winters, the first thing that comes to our mind is snow, fashion jackets, and clothes, traveling without any tiredness because of extreme sun rays but it is not simple as we think. You must have realized this as you are looking for a perfect-sized wood-burning stove for your room or house so that you can always feel cozy and warm in the breezy winds of winter.

It is very important to consider your room for size and all the other factors related to heating room because if your room requires a big stove and you bought a small wood burning stove then your money might get wasted as it will not keep your room warm as you want it to. We came up with the solution for your problem as we researched all the things and penned them down in a way that it will be easier for you to understand them and apply them accordingly.

What Size Wood Burning Stove Do I Need?

There are several factors and things that you need to learn before buying a wood-burning stove for yourself and your house. Here, we discussed all these factors and things in detail so that all your concerns are cleared and all your confusion is solved.

We start this informational guide by considering the area and the size of the stove you need to be followed by some factors that you must be aware of to create a perfect environment of coziness and warmness in your house, room, or office.

Considering the area or place

Before buying the wood-burning stove, it is very important to consider all the factors of the area for where you are buying the stove. These factors include how to measure the size of the room and determine how much power you will need or require so you can buy according to the power a wood-burning stove can provide. We have penned down some of the very important and easy ways and tricks to calculate all the things. Let’s start with the measurements of the room or the place.

Measurements of the room

You need to carefully measure the area of your room because it is the first and most important step to determine how much power you need and which size of wood-burning stove will be suitable for you. If you do not know or are confused about how to measure the area of a room, here is a quick guide for your help that we made for you to understand everything easily.

To measure the area of the room carefully, first, you need to measure the length, width, and height of the room. Make sure that you measure these quantities from wall to wall so you can have the correct answer of the area. Measuring the area of the room is easy if your room is built in a simple shape or layout like square or rectangle. It is difficult to measure when you build your room in an irregular shape.

Do not worry because we have an easy solution for this problem too. You need to make a rough sketch of your room and then divide it virtually into different regular shapes that you can easily calculate. At last, all you need to do is multiply the length, width, and height and you will get the area of your room you have been struggling for. It looks difficult at first but when applying all things, you might find it as a fun activity.

Power required

You might be thinking about the difficulty of measuring how much power you require for your room but it is not as hard as you think because of a trick that we came forward with to save your day. For a general idea of power requirements, you will need to divide the area of the room that you measured by 14 and you will get the power in kilowatts that are required.

It will give you how much power you require so you can buy the wood-burning stove accordingly. But this does not end here because it was a general idea of finding the power requirements. To overcome the factors affecting the heat that we also mentioned below in detail, you will need different formulas.

For example, if your house is newly built or constructed with the addition of great insulation then you need to divide the area of the room by 25. The other state is that if you have average insulation and your house is also in a normal condition house then you need to use the general method of dividing the area by 14. The last condition of power requirement is that if your house is poorly insulated and is an old construction then you will divide the area by 10.

Size of the wood-burning stove

The last part of finding the correct size in this informational guide “what size wood burning stove do I need” is to check for all the sizes of stoves that are manufactured and deciding according to the power needed that you calculated above. The wood-burning stove is divided into four categories according to the sizes of the stove and how much power they are capable of providing.

Small

The first category of the wood-burning stove is a small-sized stove that comprises less than 500 square feet in area. It is capable of providing from 4 kilowatts to 6 kiloWatts. This must be suitable for one small room.

Medium

The next category you will see in this size guide is a medium-sized stove that comes with an area of 500 square feet to 1,000 square feet. The medium stove can provide you 7 kilowatts to 9 kilo Watts. Medium stoves are best for a bigger room that has a ventilation system.

Large

The large-sized stove comes at third position in wood-burning stove size and has an area of 1,000 square feet that can go up to 2,200 square feet. This stove will give you a power heat capacity of 10 kilowatts to 15 kilowatts.

Extra-large

The last category of the wood-burning stove is the extra-large size of stove that will take up the area of more than 2,200 square feet and will provide you with the heat power of 15 kilowatts to 20 kiloWatts. It will be good for a normal-sized house.

Confusion about size and power

If you are worried that you have bought a very big size of wood-burning stove than it was required because you measured the room later, there is no need to concern or worry as you can still use it by putting less wood on the stove according to the heat or power you need because the size is only to store a quantity of woods that needs to be burned. It is the quantity of wood that creates the heat or power and not the size of the stove.

There is no problem in buying a bigger stove than required because it can still give you the work you want from it but it can be a problem in terms of money because smaller stoves are cheaper than larger stoves.

There can also be a problem if you buy a small stove and your requirement is for a bigger one because you cannot put more wood on the stove than it can comprehend. So, you must always check for the area of your room, power or heat needed, and the size of the stove because it is better to take precautions before regretting later.

Factors to consider

Here is the list of factors that can affect the heat of a wood-burning stove with all the details of how they can affect the heat for your easy and convenient understanding.

Height of ceiling

The height of the ceiling matters the most while measuring for the size of the room because if the height is greater it will be difficult to make the room warm with the help of a wood-burning stove as warm air is heavier and will not go upwards so the room will not be fully warmed. Also, you will feel heat more if you are sitting close to the stove but it will not feel warm if you are away from it or in the other corner of the room.

Insulation of room

Insulation in your home can also affect the heat of the wood-burning stove. Many houses like old constructed buildings or houses come with poor insulation that lets the heat leak out of the room or house and it does not get heated up as expected. New houses have a good insulation system so they can get heated up with the stove as you want so before buying the stove make sure about the quality of insulation in your home so you do not have to regret it later.

Number of windows

One of the factors that can affect the heat of the wood-burning stove is the number of windows, vents, or openings in your house because they are responsible for most of the heat to pass through them and replace the room with cold air as science suggest this process is called diffusion, movement of higher concentration to lower concentration. You might be thinking that if your windows are dual pane or completely sealed then no heat can escape but this is wrong as there is still a chance of diffusion from a tiny hole in the seal.

The layout of the house

The layout of the house or place also matters in heating the house perfectly to make it warm, cozy, and comfortable. There are two types of layouts of the houses. One is open rooms and the other is called closed rooms. It is obvious that the smaller the room is the more quickly it will get heated up and also a small stove less power will be needed. The number of walls or how much smaller the size of the room is will tell us how effective a wood-burning stove can be.

Type of wood

The type of wood you are using in the wood-burning stove to heat the surroundings is also an effective factor in heat as different kinds of woods will produce different BTUs. BTU is a British thermal unit that is used to measure the quantity of heat produced by anything. Woods such as oak, maple, ash, and birch are most popular for burning as oak has the highest BTU in woods. Whereas pine and cedar should not be burned as they are harmful.

Conclusion

As we conclude this informational guide on What size wood burning stove do I need, we are glad that it was worth it and we are more than happy to solve your problem and concerns. At first, it seems to be a difficult task that you need to consider area, measurements of place, size of the stove as well as other affecting factors but once you get to know or understand all the things you will feel like it was not that hard as you thought.

For a quick revision so that you remember what and how you need to do, let us summarize all the things that we have discussed so far. We learned the importance of the room’s size before buying a perfect-sized stove then we came to know about a simple trick on how to determine the size of the stove. Last but not the least, we saw factors that can affect the heat of the stove. We wish you good luck.

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