Jotul F400 vs. F500 in a 1500sf Cape Cod style home.

As the title states I trying to decide on a wood stove for my 1500sf home and I think I've narrowed it down to a F400 or F500. My house is a 15 y/o Cape Cod style two story home located in coastal Rhode Island. My current heat is provided by forced hot water baseboard fired by natural gas. The home is insulated and has decent windows. My first floor has a nice open floor plan that wraps around a center staircase. I intend to put the stove in the eating area of the large kitchen. Due too the lack of a fireplace or masonry chimney I will be going through the wall and up the side of my house with the double wall chimney pipe. My local dealer showed me both of the stoves mentioned and I'm unsure of what I need. I do not intend to solely heat with wood unless forced to do so during a crisis. I will mostly heat with wood as a secondary heat source. I like the F500 Oslo because of it's larger firebox and side load door but wonder if it's overkill for my application. I like the F400 Castine for it's smaller overall footprint and it's obviously cheaper.

BTW I've been learning much by reading hear, both good (for me) and bad (for her). My wife can't understand why I have cut and split over a cord and a half of wood considering I have no stove. I did expalin the whole seasoning process to her and how a cord and a half is not a lot of wood. She looked concerned. Then she was a little shaky with the new Huskee 22ton splitter that I purchased. Heck, considering I divided the cost for the splitter with another family member who burns wood I thought the $500 dollar investment was money well spent on my part. She wasn't impressed. I really think the new saw may have put her over the top though. My old Husky 45 has been a steadfast saw for my needs. (did commercial landscaping as a side job and used the saw for jobs when needed) but between reading hear and on AS I felt a new 346XP would really up my firewood game some. Now I have a new 16" bar on the old 45 and an 18" on the 346XP. Did I mention I back up both saws with my dad's old 1976 vintage Homelite Super XL if needed. Wife thinks I'm totally freakin nuts. Wait till she finds out I ordered a Cant hook and chaps last night. I really think hearth.com should have a divorce section so we can gather to discuss our lost marriages to a good women because of a wood stove.

Cheers and thanks for any replies in advance.

Would the Oslo be too big in my house? I don't want to be driven out by heat.

Thanks for all the replies. I have the room for the Oslo so that's not an issue. However, I have to go through my wall with the pipe and up the side of the house because I don't think my daughter would like a stove pipe running through her bedroom. From what you all have said it sounds like the Oslo will draft better with the two 90* bends I will have to make. As for different stove manufacturers the dealer I trust like near me deals with Jotul and a good friend of mine is happy with his Jotul hence my reason for liking Jotul.

While I agree natural gas is much cheaper than oil I do like the idea of augmenting my heat with wood. My parent burned when I was young and my mother still burns today, though not always. As for wood I have been doing good scrounging. I'd say I've scrounged 3 cords in the last 5 months. Gave 1 1/2 cord to mom and kept the other for me. Hitting a downed maple this weekend and I have a lead on a downed oak for future use. Like I posted above I've used saws in the past albeit to mostly clear overgrowth for customers when I landscaped. I've always had a truck and now own a splitter so I'm in good shape with the required tools of the trade. Even if I don't put a stove in for me I still need to scrounge wood for mom so whats a little more scrounging.

Again thanks.

firefighterjake said:

Random thoughts . . .

1,800 square foot 1970s vintage Cape here in Maine. A little different situation, but here's the point. I sized the Oslo for my size house . . . some could even consider it one stove up in size for what I needed . . . but while the Oslo works great 98% of the time there are sometimes a few days in the dead of winter when I really think I could have even gone larger and been happy. On the flip side, in the fall and spring when I just need to take a chill out of the house it is rare that I over heat the place . . . what I am saying is . . .

1) Go up one size. You can always build a smaller fire in a larger firebox when you only need a small fire to take the chill out of the air, but when the winter winds are howling and you've lost power it's really hard to stuff more wood into a firebox that is already filled to capacity. A woodstove is much like a truck. You may not always need 8 cylinders, but when you need all that power you will sincerely appreciate it.

2) A large part of controlling the heat in a home -- both in terms of not getting the place too hot and in terms of not having a wide fluctuation in temps is learning how to load the woodstove. You control the heat by what and how much you load in the stove and how often you reload. In other words, in the Fall when it is chilly outside in the morning, but the temps are forecast to rise into the 50s or 60s you may just want to do a partial load in the firebox with your punks, chunks or uglies (no need to pack in every corner of the firebox) and you may only wish to use some of your "junk" wood (low in BTUs) . . . and you may not want to do a reload. In the winter however you may want to do a full load of your primo oak and reload more often.

So . . . what I am saying in my typically verbose way is . . . go with the Oslo.


P.S. I also suspect that you may become a convert to wood heat . . . cheap heat (well once the toys are paid off through the savings of heating with wood) is hard to beat . . . couple that with the view of the fire and the steady heat and you may well find that you are heating with wood more often than just on weekends and evenings.

Click to expand...

Thanks brother.