I see nothing wrong with the placement except that it might be to close to the hallway, and a obstruction to walk around. Does your furnace have a fan setting? if so you can turn it on to even out the heat in the house when you blast out the living room. I would condider a mid sized stove with a 1.8- 2.5 cubic foot firebox, that firebox size will heat approx 1000-1500 square feet and give you a burn time of 3-6 hours depending on the type of wood you have in your area. The larger the firebox, the longer the burn time. I would recommend a soapstone stove in this application, since the living room is small and it doesnt seem like to much of a open floor plan, the soapstone stove will moderate heat better then steel or cast iron. Hearthstone and Woodstock are the best ones on the market currenty. The woodstock is a catalytic stove and the heartstone are non cats. there is lots of debate on which is better, but one fact that cant be argued is that non cats are easier to use for the beginner wood burner, and are maintenance free. Check other threads here and at hearth.com for more info for cats vs non cats. In the hearthstone line i would look at the heratige or phoneix, the tribute doesnt have a long enough burn time. You can check them out at hearthstonestoves.com If you have celing fans, that will help alot with distrubition.
hope that helped.
MSG

Mountainstoveguy,
Thanks for your comments. The stove could possibly be moved to the right to reduce obstructing the hallway. Yes, there is a fan setting on the furnace and there are ceiling fans...both of which would be helpful with power but unhelpful if there is an outage, which is the reason for wanting a woodburner in the first place. I like the idea of a soapstone stove but how much heavier is that versus a common steel/cast iron stove? I'm sure the flooring in the home was built to code but no provision was made to accommodate anything unusually heavy. Any more thoughts? Thanks again, AZ.

You could likely get away with putting the stove on the far end of the house and using box fans to move air around. My aunt and uncle heat their 1,800 sq. foot ranch in Pennsylvania with a fireplace insert and they have no problems. The back bedroom does get a little cool in the coldest times, but they're not worried about that too much.

Depending on the insulation levels in your home you might even want to go up to a stove rated for 2,000 square foot.

kframe19,
Thanks for your comments. But as stated in the original post, I'm trying to determine if a wood stove will suit my purposes when there is NO ELECTRICITY. That is why I guessed that a central location for the stove would be better.

AZ

Interior location is always better, and not just for heating your home more evenly; the more of you chimney that's located indoors, the better draft and overall burning experience you will have; also prevents smelly downdrafts in the off-season or when not in use.

Yes, I saw where you're looking for the no electric option.

Still not that big of a deal given that you have a long central hall design.

Even when my aunt and uncle don't run the fans, the far end of their ranch doesn't turn into a deep freeze.

I still think you central location is better for heat distribution, just make shure you dont trip over it in the hall way. Better yet, knock down that wall between the living room and kitchen and have a nice central stove. (probably not practical)

I would be very careful about that hallway placement. Anyone who's had children or animals in the house knows that they choose the long, straight hallways to run back and forth in. Maybe you could move it to the wall dividing the living room and bedroom.

During an extended power outage it's doubtful that you could heat an entire house with a wood burning stove. These are really space heaters and without a way to move that air to another location you're only going to get radiant transfer which doesn't really work well unless your interior walls are made of metal. That's not to say that it won't warm a good portion of the house, but it all has to do with air currents and insulation. The amount of warm air that gets to your bedrooms through open doors may be offset by the amount of cold air that is leaking through your windows.

If the power goes out, gather the family in the warm rooms and laugh at your neighbors that are huddled under 4 layers of moth eaten blankets cursing under their breath and shaking their fists at the power company.

THAT'S MY HOUSE!!!
Our floorplan is the same except the kitchen and dining rooms are reversed.

My stove is in the upper right hand corner of the living room as per your drawing. But that's where your dining entrance is. If at all possible I would try to place it there anyway but use heat shields to place it closer to the wall.

Where you now want to place it is impractical as the stoves must be a certain distance from the wall according to the manufacturer. Some can be placed closer while others must have anywhere from 12 to 18 inches clearance. And you need 18 inches of non combustable surface protruding in FRONT of the stove.

I suggest you talk to your local stove shop and have him come out to have a look. He'll find the perfect spot for your stove. And he can find the right sized stove for your needs. We use our stove as a primary heat source and keep the oil bill low. And placing it where we did, the home stays warm while the bedrooms stay cool.

As far as your pipes freezing, if your ceawl space is insulated enough, it'll stay above freezing. Our temps were about what you described when we lived in PA and our crawl space never froze. Now we're in Vermont where the winters are colder and the stove is so nice! And we don't care if the power goes out because we have the stove to leep us warm. And sometimes the power goes out for a couple days at a time during a blizzard.

Talk to your stove shop. Take your drawing WITH DIMENSIONS and you'll get good advice. And if you don't like the local shop, go to another one. I got my stove in another state as I didn't like the local guy's attitude.