New Jotul 500

My wife and neighbors don’t really care much about my new stove, so I figured I’d try here and just report how pleased I’m with my new Jotul 500.

I installed the stove Saturday before hurricane Sandy and lost power that Monday night (and gained about 50 cords of fallen trees). I have a generator- but told my family it would not run the furnaces- I figured a perfect test for the stove. For 13 days no heat other than the Jotul 500.

My house is large 4400 sq ft and I put the stove in the unfinished basement, making a total of 6400 sq ft of heated space. The outside temperatures were mostly in the low 40’s at night (2 nights dipping into the 30’s) and my house never got lower than 64 and that was only 1st thing in the morning on one occasion. With the outside in the low 40’s it appears I can easily keep the house at 68 (by keeping the stove provisioned), except 1st thing in morning, since I’m not getting up at 2:00 am to fill the stove.

My home is well insulated and added basement wall insulation just prior to the stove installation. I also added a blower fan to one of the supply trunks in my basement (only turned on after power came back), which does a great job of getting heat to the 1st floor. It did tend to suck a slight smokey odor from the stove, but I solved that by installing outside air (I read a lot of pro and cons on that. But when I built the house a lot effort went into making a tight house, many high efficiency furnaces now use outside air, so it made sense to me and works great.)
My goal is to reduce my oil consumption by 50% so far I’m well ahead of that.

Wow, what a great testimonial.

I can't comment about the wife, but the neighbors are probably just jealous

when I'm or my son is around about 600, 3/4 throttle. when I get up in the morning its 200, then open it up for about 45min, until we all leave. If it hits the high 40's or above outside (and overnight)1/4 throttle. We burn 24/7, appear to be using about 7 cu ft per 24hrs. I'm surprised by the lack of ashes.

one just emailed and asked if he could borrow my splitter. I told him 12/1/12 for 6hrs. then need it back

Sounds like alot of us! your at the right place!

Good to hear your success with heating a house that large, I think ill be alright heating my 2k sq foot house this winter

I am envious of your insulation.

Welcome DMbekus
Good grief that is an amazing amount of space to heat with an oslo ! You should send that to Jotul and get paid to sponsor them .

Pete

I, too, am envious of your insulation.

I LOVED having my Fireview going for the 4 days we were without power. No running water but we could make soup, and coffee, and be warm.

Welcome DM you certainly found a home in this forum! The Oslo is a beautiful wood burner and it's amazing you can heat that much space with any stove! Enjoy all your free wood!

Ray

Well it has not been in the 30's during the day or 20's (& lower) at night yet, so more remains to be seen. I have yet find any 'free wood' at least when I'm the one cutting/splitting/stacking/hauling/loading and cleaning. My house is tight, I built it that way, and have a fair amount of insulation in walls & attic. Plus I manage the air movement pretty well. House furnace does come on in the morning 1st thing (my wife insists on 68 when she gets up, but I have furnace thermostat drop to 62 till we get home and we have so far been able to keep the furnace not calling for heat rest of day & all night.