New Woodstove For The Yurt

[Jafo]

Back at the yurt tonight.. Probably going to be too warm for a fire. 65 degrees out right now. Got the windows open (covers) and the place looks great.

[chana]

Funny, i came to the forum to ask opinions about whether the Woodstock Progressive is overkill for my 30ft yurt to be in the Catskills. My fiancé likes it warm in the winter, upwards of 70 (i'll be sweltering) so i wasn't sure the Ideal would be enough BTUs, with rooms sectioned off.
We are planning to put up a

Shelter Designs

yurt with the arctic and reflectix insulations.
So what do you think? Good choice or too much of a stove?
Chana

[Jafo]

From what I understand, the progressive has a bit higher output. I think the Ideal Steel is perfect for my yurt, but I do not have any sectioned off rooms so I can't speak to that. I am thinking you would be fine with either stove. I do think the IS is smaller and not has heavy but you may want to check with the company to be sure about that. It is certainly cheaper in price.

[chana]

Yep. i think we will be glad for the extra BTUs some of the time, and rather not most of the time. But for the some i think we will spring for the heftier model. Plus the likelihood of a longer burn, albeit slight… That's huge.
Brad and Chana

[Jafo]

Just keep in mind that that IDEAL is 700+ pounds. The progress will be heavier. Not sure what kind of floor you have. Some people have weak floors, some don't.

[chana]

have to build nice sturdy platform as my piano is an old beast. We'll keep the stove in mind too when we build. Thanks!

[Jafo]

Well I have used it so far with temps as low as in the 20's. So far, I can only seem to get about 6 hours max out of it before I have to add more wood. I was really hoping for 8 hours. Yurts just get cold quickly.

Once the stove top falls below 300 degrees, it begins to cool down in the yurt. I am still tinkering with it to see what I can do to stretch two more hours out of it heh.

[hierony]

How sealed up is your outside air intake? I'd be tempted to put some light

insulation

around the pipe and seal it well where it comes out of the floor.

What have you tried so far to get longer burns out of it? How hot will the stovetop get with a full firebox & open damper? Have you considered putting stone/brick on the stove to hold more heat when you aren't using it to cook?

Best of luck!

[Jafo]

The air intake is sealed with silicone, it is air tight. I have tried different configurations of small/large splits. I have adjusted the intake to different levels. If I fully fired up the firebox wide open, it could easily get up to 450-500 degrees. They specifically say you shouldn't do that in the stove manual.

The entire firebox is lined with soapstone as is part of the outside.

[Bob Rowlands]

Off topic comments. The simplest low tech way to 'store' heat from a fire is in thermal mass. I convinced that's the reason behind the massive multi sided Victorian and earlier era masonry fireplaces centrally located in the two storey home. Heat all that masonry up and it radiates into the home for hours. This idea predates all modern type furnaces heaters boilers radiators forced air etc. The fire can be quite low and burning unregulated in an inefficient open fireplace and the heat just keeps radiating into the room even after the fire has turned to coals. wood stoves are WAY more efficient but have a fraction of the mass. My wife and I have been on anniversary several times, sat by such a fireplace and even unstoked the warmth radiating into the room is absolutely wonderful when it is cold out.

Mass walls in sunrooms and of course the concrete slab operate on a similar principle.