From a VC Vigilant Parlor Stove to a Hearthstone Homestead

[donmattingly]

The Vigilant came with the house we bought 3 years ago. Good stove, got very hot but did not have the long burn past 6 hours that I was looking for. It wasn't the tightest stove and had a couple of cracks. The price was right on the Homestead so we made the switch. I guess my question is how much more efficient I can expect the Homestead to be? The salesperson who tried to talk me into a Jotel said I should expect to burn the same amount of wood. First year I burned 3 1/2 cords (mild winter) Second year I burned close to 5. Last year, long cold winter season I burned about 6.

 

[begreen]

Congratulations on the new stove.

It's a bit hard to answer the question without knowing how large a space is being heated and how leaky the house is. The Homestead will definitely be more efficient. However, if one is heating a sieve.. stove efficiency will help, but caulking and insulation may deliver results faster. FWIW, 4-5 cords/winter in New England is not unusual for an average sized home.

 

[Todd]

You will probably have about the same burn times, but the stove should stay warmer longer than the old VC. I use to get 5-8 hr burns with my old Homestead. I use to burn through 4 cords of Oak and Maple per season burning 24/7.

 

[donmattingly]

I was hoping to avoid a question about my leaky house. New windows, but old doors. A reasonable amount of insulation but I could always use more. Heating about 1800 square feet.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like caulking and good weatherstripping would be a big help. Old doors with a tight weatherseal can work ok. New windows, if not tightly caulked around their perimeter can leak as badly as the originals.

 

[Highbeam]

1800 SF with a homestead?Is that stove rated for that much area in your cold climate? I worry that you'll need to run that stove pretty hard to get the heat you need and by doing so will have a hard time getting long burns.

Unless the old VC was a smoke dragon, the new EPA non-cat stoves aren't spectacularly more efficient than the old EPA stoves. You will like the heat of the soapstone and you can't beat the looks.

 

[Todd]

I was heating 1800 sq ft with my Homestead and like Highbeam stated I had to run it pretty hard and that ment shorter burn times like every 4 hours on below zero days. I have pretty good insulation and newer windows and the stove was in a finished basement. You may want to ask the stove shop if they would let you upgrade to a larger stove before you fire that one up?

 

[mikepinto65]

Congrats on you new stove!
I too just upgraded away from my Vigilant and purchased a Jotul Oslo. The Vigilant was a good stove, decently long burns and lots of heat as you mentioned, but due to the lack of being tight I really didnt feel it to be the safest thing on the block.
Have fun learning the stove and I hope it brings you lots of warmth!

 

[donmattingly]

Thanks.
Is your stove heating Indian Ranch?

 

[mikepinto65]

Thanks.
Is your stove heating Indian Ranch?

LOL! How'd you know??
No mine heats Waterfront Mary's

 

[Wet1]

I agree with the others, you'll probably burn almost as much wood (3.5 to 5 cords), but I would expect fairly short burn times with that stove heating that big of an area. In fact, I don't think the Homestead will burn as long as your VC while putting out the same level of heat. The firebox in the Homestead is only 2 cu ft, far to small IMO to get good overnight (or all day) burns while providing enough heat for 1800 sq ft. If I were you, I'd return it for a larger stove, something around 3 cu ft should get you through the nights. A good deal on a stove isn't such a good deal if you have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed it or come home to a cold house every day and have to restart a fire... I don't think you're going to be happy with that stove.

 

[mikepinto65]

I agree with the others, you'll probably burn almost as much wood (3.5 to 5 cords), but I would expect fairly short burn times with that stove heating that big of an area. In fact, I don't think the Homestead will burn as long as your VC while putting out the same level of heat. The firebox in the Homestead is only 2 cu ft, far to small IMO to get good overnight (or all day) burns while providing enough heat for 1800 sq ft. If I were you, I'd return it for a larger stove, something around 3 cu ft should get you through the nights. A good deal on a stove isn't such a good deal if you have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed it or come home to a cold house every day and have to restart a fire... I don't think you're going to be happy with that stove.

Im hoping this will not be the case with my new Oslo, after measuring the firebox dimensions and dividing them by 1728, I am only getting a size of 2cf.
Does anyone think I will have to really push the stove to heat my house or should it do the trick?
Maybe the Firelight would have been a bit better, but i was advised by more than one person that the Oslo would best replicate the heat output of the Vigilant.
I never actually measured the inside firebox of the Vigilant but from doing rough estimates from the outside specs of the stove I think it may have been around 2.5-3.0 CF.

 

[Todd]

I agree with the others, you'll probably burn almost as much wood (3.5 to 5 cords), but I would expect fairly short burn times with that stove heating that big of an area. In fact, I don't think the Homestead will burn as long as your VC while putting out the same level of heat. The firebox in the Homestead is only 2 cu ft, far to small IMO to get good overnight (or all day) burns while providing enough heat for 1800 sq ft. If I were you, I'd return it for a larger stove, something around 3 cu ft should get you through the nights. A good deal on a stove isn't such a good deal if you have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed it or come home to a cold house every day and have to restart a fire... I don't think you're going to be happy with that stove.

I don't know how they got that 2.0 cu ft firebox measurement, when I measured mine it came up way short, I think it was closer to 1.6?

 

[Wet1]

I agree with the others, you'll probably burn almost as much wood (3.5 to 5 cords), but I would expect fairly short burn times with that stove heating that big of an area. In fact, I don't think the Homestead will burn as long as your VC while putting out the same level of heat. The firebox in the Homestead is only 2 cu ft, far to small IMO to get good overnight (or all day) burns while providing enough heat for 1800 sq ft. If I were you, I'd return it for a larger stove, something around 3 cu ft should get you through the nights. A good deal on a stove isn't such a good deal if you have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed it or come home to a cold house every day and have to restart a fire... I don't think you're going to be happy with that stove.

I don't know how they got that 2.0 cu ft firebox measurement, when I measured mine it came up way short, I think it was closer to 1.6?

In that case, I'd be RUSHING that stove back to the dealer if I were trying to heat 1800 sq ft

 

[Wet1]

Mike,

I dont know anything about the Jotul F 500. I'm sure it's an excellent stove, but I don't know how large the firebox is, or how large your house is for that matter.

I can tell you a 2.0 cu ft cat stove would be pushing it to be reliably heating a 1800 to 2000 sq ft home, so a 2.0 cu ft non-cat will be working very hard to heat the same area. If I had a place that was 1800 to 2000 sq ft, I'd be looking for at least a 2.5+ cu ft cat stove or a 3.0 cu ft non-cat. Anything smaller and there's a very good chance the stove will struggle to keep up unless you feed it every few hours. Then again, I like to sleep through the night AND wake up to a warm house.

As a general rule, the max sq footage ratings most manufactures give their stoves are pretty optimistic for marketing and competitive reasons, same is true with BTU ratings... so take them with a grain of salt.

 

[mikepinto65]

I have to be measuring the inside firebox wrong, i think the oslo must be around 2.5cf or a little larger.....especially to get all the positive feedback from member here and owner i've spoken with.
Wet, my house is 1600sqf and without getting into a rant about how my house is designed, the Vigilant kept it warm and cozy.

 

[Wet1]

Well, a stove can get great reviews (and that is supposably a great stove), but if it's not sized properly for the house it may not perform as expected.

At 1600 sq ft, I would think you'll probably be fine with your stove. You might want to talk to other F 500 owners and see how large of an area they are heating and see what they are getting for burn times. But like I said, my guess is you're probably going to be fine with the F 500. Best of luck with the new stove!

 

[Highbeam]

As a general rule, the max sq footage ratings most manufactures give their stoves are pretty optimistic for marketing and competitive reasons, same is true with BTU ratings... so take them with a grain of salt.

Also firebox sizes. I wouldn't measure it as I'm sure it will never be exactly the same as the literature. I think some brands include the unusable space above the baffle.

I heat 1700 SF with a heritage that is at least one size bigger than the homestead. My climate is moderate but with a long heating season. The heritage, if anything, is too small. It works quite well though and I am hpapy with it. Especially the side door, it's freaking great.

Actually, the problem with non-cat stoves is that they are either hot or they're cold and their burn times are just not ever that great despite having a larger firebox. The larger firebox just means more heat output at the low setting. The best you can hope for is that the heat output on the lowest setting will give you an overnight burn and will not cook you out of the house.

The homestead will have to be run at a setting higher than the lowest setting to heat 1800 SF in MA. This will correspond to shorter burn times and risk of overfire.

 

[donmattingly]

LOL! How’d you know??
No mine heats Waterfront Mary’s


I work with Indian Ranch through work.

 

[mikepinto65]

LOL! How’d you know??
No mine heats Waterfront Mary’s


I work with Indian Ranch through work.

Hows that? either you camp at indian ranch, are in a band that plays at indian ranch, or deliver beer to indian ranch....am i missing any other alternatives?

 

[firefighterjake]

I have to be measuring the inside firebox wrong, i think the oslo must be around 2.5cf or a little larger.....especially to get all the positive feedback from member here and owner i've spoken with.
Wet, my house is 1600sqf and without getting into a rant about how my house is designed, the Vigilant kept it warm and cozy.

Depending on insulation and the lay-out of your house I would suspect the Oslo will heat your house perfectly fine. I was figuring on heating about 1,200-1,400 square feet and the Oslo actually provides heat through most of my house (about 1,800 square feet) -- granted the downstairs master bedroom is a bit cooler (which I like) than the room where the stove is located. I will say however that our house does pretty well in terms of insulation. The only room where I ran supplemental heat was in our laundry room/boiler room since it was located the farthest from the stove and without the boiler running it did get a bit cooler.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

i have to agree, the Homestead might be a bit small for your sq footage in your climate. for 1200-1300 sqft the homestead has been great
in well insulated homes here in Nor Cal we see 1800-2200 from a homestead....(low winter temps here ave 25-35*)