Questions about using wood stove as primary heat

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This was a complete knock down. Everything is brand new including the foundation. My father in law and I are building it. With the sheet rock and plaster there it’s 7’ 8”. The jotul does ok. It’s really hard to say there is no door going down to the basement yet and we designed a in-law so there is a seperate stair case that goes into the garage from the basement and there isn’t a door there and the garage isn’t insulated so the cold air just comes up the stairs.

Can you put some 6mil plastic in front of the open are to stop the cold air intrusion, just temporarily untill you get some doors up.. it should help out some..
 
Nice build!!, I primarily heat with a BK princess for the past 5 seasons, I also have hot water baseboard as my central heating in a house that has poorer insulation / air sealing then yours.
I can keep the place in the low 70's in the dead of winter. When temps dip into the single digits and lower I just cycle all zones of the hot water baseboard twice a day for 15 min, never had an issue with pipes freezing.
Since you have a programmable t-stat there might be an option to automatically cycle the system or manually do it from a smart phone. Also you can mix in a anti-freeze into the water to keep your loops from freezing up if you wish. (the new stuff isn't as bad as the old stuff)
Chances are and I'm taking a wild guess but the majority of your piping is pex tubing which is way more forgiving if it freezes.
Good luck with the new place and the stove.
One other thing, since your still in construction mode, install a outside air kit, this will help your stove immensely since your air sealing
 
Besides all the other openings you have to cold air. That open chase in back of the stove is sending most of the stoves output straight up. The open floor plan will help a lot with the intense heat from the stove.
 
i was originally looking at the princess but the stove place i went to recommended the ashford 30 over the princess.

Is this installed yet? The Ashford 30 is a great stove, I have two in this house, but the Princess is considered one of the best wood heaters ever made. If that’s the one you like...

If it was me, I'd go back and change the order to a King or at least a Princess.

If you can tolerate the look of the princess, it has better performance specs and less user problems than any of the 30 series stoves.

I have no horse in this race, I really don’t care. But Princess, Princess, Princess, Princess... and this is your reply?

We already ran a 6” pipe and the king would be too big for me.
 
Thank you guys. We thought about the plastic but we go in and out of the basement to get things and use both entrances. Also the stove gets the house to about 45 to 50 when working hard it’s fine but when the wife is just watching it’s cool but she just sits next to it. We’re almost done with the cold weather here anyways but thanks for the idea. We did do that going up stairs while I was painting he was down stairs cutting the window box’s so we wanted to keep the saw dust down stairs. What is a air kit? Also the duck to the right of my stove is a return for the heat so it will really circulate the heat well.
 
Thank you guys. We thought about the plastic but we go in and out of the basement to get things and use both entrances. Also the stove gets the house to about 45 to 50 when working hard it’s fine but when the wife is just watching it’s cool but she just sits next to it. We’re almost done with the cold weather here anyways but thanks for the idea. We did do that going up stairs while I was painting he was down stairs cutting the window box’s so we wanted to keep the saw dust down stairs. What is a air kit? Also the duck to the right of my stove is a return for the heat so it will really circulate the heat well.
The Oslo puts out some serious heat and is a more radiant heater than the Ashford. I am wondering if the Ashford will work if the house needs that much heat. However this may just be a case of the house being allowed to get too cold overnight. It takes a lot of BTUs to raise the temp say 10-15º because the stove is not just heating the air, but also the entire mass of the house. Have you ever used the Oslo to bring the temp up to say 65º and keep it there for 24 hrs.? Are you burning fully seasoned cord wood in the Oslo or just construction scraps?
 
Yeah the wood I’m burning is dry split wood. But the thing is when we get in the house it’s below 30 I can’t tell you what it is because the thermostat only says low lol. Also the stove is cold when I start it so it takes several hours to get the heat up. I’m sure the Oslo would do fine that why I bought it but I don’t like that it doesn’t have a long burn time. I want to be able to stock it when I go to bed and then when I wake up have it still going enough to restart it with the coal. On low the stove won’t do that. The most I think I got was 7 hours of burn time with some dry cherry. Also the basement door is open and there is a door in the basement that leads to the garage which is not insulated so a lot of cold air comes up from there. I just want a stove that will give me the 10-12 hour burn time atleast and heat the house well . I just want to keep the oil bill down and Utilitize the wood to its fullest potential.
 
Bring the house up to temperature, say 60º and leave it there for a few days so that the mass of the house equalizes in temperature. Then heat it with the Oslo. If the Oslo can't do it then the Ashford won't either. Burn times are going to be short with any stove because you are pushing it for maximum BTUs. That dramatically increases fuel consumption and shortens burn times. The Oslo is capable of an 8-10 hr. burn time, but not when pushed hard.
 
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That last sentence is key. The Oslo is only good for 8-10 hours max. The ashford can burn a load in 8-10 or you can turn it down so that it burns for 30 hours and anything in between. Obviously, the lower setting gets longer burns because of lower output so it’s a trade off.

It’s very nice to wake up to a stove with a belly full of coals. Flexibility to burn low and slow or hot and fast. You could turn down the ashford overnight to guarantee a long sleep and then crank it up in the morning.

I would try the Oslo. You own it already and it is pretty. If you find that you would like longer burn times and a constant lower output with less apparent heat cycles then you can upgrade later.
 
You’ve got a big a$$ dent in your chimney just above the tee. I would replace that pipe section.
 
Yeah I’m gonna replace it I also need to add another 2’ up top for the draft. I’m surprised it got dented it’s triple walled.
 
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Also I ran the Oslo while we got plastered there was a bullet heater in there and it was at 60 in the house and that’s when I got my longest burn.
 
Also I ran the Oslo while we got plastered there was a bullet heater in there and it was at 60 in the house and that’s when I got my longest burn.

Been too long since I’ve been properly plastered! My ceiling in my 1963 house, also with the low below 8’ ceilings, has that same swirl/scallop treatment on the ceiling. I hope it becomes stylish again so liked that photo.
 
The most I think I got was 7 hours of burn time with some dry cherry.
The Oslo is capable of an 8-10 hr. burn time
Yeah, need to try it with some White Ash or better yet, Oak. Cherry is a medium-output wood and burns up relatively quickly. Oak takes a couple or three years split and stacked to get really dry, though.
 
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I would try the Oslo. You own it already and it is pretty. If you find that you would like longer burn times and a constant lower output with less apparent heat cycles then you can upgrade later.
So would I but it sounds like he's already purchase the Ashford based on the opening post.
 
So would I but it sounds like he's already purchase the Ashford based on the opening post.
It's hard to think that just the Ashford couldn't heat 2400' of tight, well-insulated construction. Nothing saying he couldn't be a two-stove, cat/non-cat guy for a while, like you would think a worldly, eclectic moderator would be. ;)
 
We built a new house a few seasons ago, in southern Ontario. We are heating 6200sqft with no issue. The 3100main floor with the stove stays remarkably even at 75 and the 3100 finished basement runs 70. The stove is a 3 cubic foot firebox with a outside air kit and it's rating was 3000sqft. We run the furnace on med/low to spin the air. There is no door on the centre staircase, so we hung a curtain to help keep the heat downstairs.
I'm thinking with a new house you should be able to heat it with a stove with no issue. We are not pushing our stove really hard to achieve this. 3 loads a day...when you wake up, when you get home from work, when you go to bed. Ash has been our fuel, since it's all dead. We do have a heat distribution pipe that allows you pump the hot air to the basement. We use this on medium 90% of the time, when it's really cold we run the main fan and basement fan both on medium. Works extremely well and beyond my original expectations. Our Northstar windows are set in r 38 walls, a r60 attic and r 26 basement walls
 
Our Northstar windows are set in r 38 walls, a r60 attic and r 26 basement walls
That there is a very big difference.

ri spec, is this standard 2x4 walls at R15 or is there additional insulation?
 
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That there is a very big difference. ri spec, is this standard 2x4 walls at R15 or is there additional insulation?


Ontario building code is 2x6 wall with minimum r5 styrofoam on outside, giving a minum total of R27. I went with R10 styrofoam on outside with wall cavity full of blown densepacked cellulose of R27, giving me r37 plus I covered stud wall with o.s.b. before the styrofoam which is r1. R60 attic is code minimum. Basement wall is 2x4 wall studded 2" away from concrete wall then filled with densepacked cellulose, joist ends are foamed to r32. Code here is basement minimum of r20 and joist ends r30. Hrv or erv are mandatory as well. Mine is unplugged as I have no high moisture issue thus far. I think it's from kids,dogs and wood opening the doors enough.
 
My speked furnace with the mandatory heat loss calculations for permit called for a 55 thousand btu propane furnace. I have it set at 18 celcius and it never comes on. As thermostat is constantly reading 22 in a hallway. This makes me very happy to go back to the bush and cut some wood.

Another note....insulation in my home cost 27thousand installed
 
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This is not a like comparison to the OP's house. If one insulates a building well enough it can be heated by the occupants, lighting and refrigerator heat.
 
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This is not a like comparison to the OP's house. If one insulates a building well enough it can be heated by the occupants, lighting and refrigerator heat.

One should insulate this well always. It pays for it's self and makes a comfortable space.
 
Should. The owner should prefer that and pay more but the contractor should not do extra work unless it is profitable.