Advice on Jotul stove size

[Tuthmose]

I could use an experienced opinion here. We are installing a second woodstove in the family room I’m building in the basement, and I’m on the fence about the size I should aim for. I’ve done all the on-line BTU calculators, but I feel the install situation is more complicated than those can capture. Real-life user advice would be helpful.

• Stove is mainly to keep family room comfy in winter. It won’t be lit until after school, and will be allowed to die overnight. Whatever heat it adds to the house above is a bonus.
• We are going cast iron, rather than soapstone, for the quicker heat-up time because of this anticipated use pattern. We want a Jotul (unless convinced otherwise…)
• Basement is 1450 square feet, but it is divided in half as in the image below. We really only care about heating the finished family room, but must compensate for the heatsink effect of the work-room/storage area in the unfinished side: the wall between is uninsulated drywall-on-studs.

• Basement has insulated pre-cast high-pressure concrete walls, with a concrete floor. It is set into a hillside: the back of the family room and the entire workshop is below-grade, the front walls and part of the family room side wall is above. There is no door at the base of the stairs, so heat will rise freely up that staircase; there is an interior-grade door at the top.
• House above is two floors with a cathedral ceiling main room, heated by a Woodstock soapstone stove and electric heatpump. That central heat does put out into the basement too, but only via too small vents (it is currently very cold in winter down there)
• Climate is Northwest Virginia. However, we are 2000 ft up a mountain, so it is probably one climate zone colder than you’d expect.

As I said, we are going with cast-iron for quick heat-up times. We really would like a Jotul. So…. F3? F400? F500 seems too big, but am I wrong? We don’t want to be cold, but we also don’t want to turn the room into the 9th ring of hell. If anybody with one of these stoves can give share their experience, I’d appreciate it!



Thanks,

-Ron

 

[Simonkenton]

You are talking about a 700 square foot room.
I am in a similar climate zone, I am on top of a mountain in North Carolina.
My Jotul Oslo is in a 500 square foot room but it has a 22 foot cathedral ceiling.
Also, at one end of the room, a 4 foot wide doorway with no door, seven feet high, so hot air can leave the room and run down the hallway into the rest of the house.

The Jotul is just right for my house but I think it is too big for yours.

 

[Bad LP]

IMO you can run smaller fires in a larger stove but running a smaller stove hard isn't good.

I run smaller fires in my Rockland insert often to avoid getting blown out of the LR in the shoulder seasons.

 

[Tuthmose]

You are talking about a 700 square foot room.
I am in a similar climate zone, I am on top of a mountain in North Carolina.
My Jotul Oslo is in a 500 square foot room but it has a 22 foot cathedral ceiling.
Also, at one end of the room, a 4 foot wide doorway with no door, seven feet high, so hot air can leave the room and run down the hallway into the rest of the house.

The Jotul is just right for my house but I think it is too big for yours.

I was pretty much of that mind - I do think the 500 Oslo would be too big. Figured I could be wrong, though, given my lack of experience with those stoves.

My concern about the room size is that it really *isn't* a 700 square foot space, though. The whole basement gets cold as a freezer by November, and that unfinished side will be sucking the heat out of the finished side like a thermal vampire, both through the drywall, in the contiguous space above the drop ceiling, and through the air vent I am required to have in the wall between sections. At the same time, there *is* a wall. So I'm not sure how to calculate that. Figure I'm heating *half* of the other side, and call it 1050 square feet? I also want enough stove to get that family room up to comfy temps quickly when the kids and I get home from school, but I don't want to roast us out. Not so simple.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I have a Jotul F600 as our main woodstove upstairs and a Woodstock Classic downstairs. Our downstairs is somewhat similar to your set up regarding part of the space below grade sunk into a hillside while the other side is at grade level. The downstairs is partially finished, but no insulation on the cinder block walls. I don't think you would have a problem with overheating things with a Jotul Oslo. As others have said, you can always burn smaller fires during times you don't need as much heat. With too small a stove you are going to be loading it every couple of hours to get any heat out if it with your setup.

 

[jotul8e2]

To keep creosote build up to a minimum you want to get each load up to full operating temperature (stove top in the 450 - 500 deg range). Your plan seems to be to burn two, maybe three loads of an evening. For that I believe a F400 would be about right. The Oslo would likely make the space unbearable for two or more hours on each load.

 

[Simonkenton]

When I was building my addition I asked advice here on what size Jotul. The room is 20 x 24 with 22 foot cathedral ceiling.
Most guys said the Oslo was too large.
This in the NC mountains.
But, as I said on the forum, I had a 4 foot wide doorway at the end, with no door, one step up so the heat is rising a little, the doorway 7 feet high, running down a 5 foot wide hallway, the next doorway also 7 x 4 and 7 foot high, and another step up, so the heat will rise a little more, and then running into the original house.

Well I thought the Oslo would be OK so I went with it. But, I also figured if it was just too hot and it blew me out of the room, I would just sell it and get the next smaller model.
As it turned out the Oslo worked well for me.

 

[begreen]

The common wall to the workshop shouldn't be a big issue with the door closed. More heat will likely go up the stairs to the main floor.

A mid-sized stove in the 1.6-2.0 cu ft range should get the job done. In cast iron there are many choices from the Jotul F400, Hearthstone Shelburne, Hampton H300, or a the bit smaller Morso 2110. In steel there are many more. I wouldn't only consider cast iron. Steel stoves heat up just as fast if not a little faster. If you like the cast iron look but want the durability of a steel stove look at the Enviro Boston 1200 or PE Alderlea T4 or T5, or Jotul F45.

 

[stovelark]

x2 with BG....

 

[RSNovi]

I currently have an F500 in a basement and we live in Michigan. The space we heat is 500 square feet. I can easily get it to 100 degrees in the house with just one hot burn. Way too big.

 

[xman23]

After getting the house walls heated up in my well insulated house, most of the time I can't run my stove very hot without overheating the house. With good wood and a bed of coals I run the Oslo <300 without any issues.
A cold Oslo doesn't produce much heat for a few full rippin reloads. It's got a lot of internal insulated cast iron burn plates. I assume that's to keep the firebox hot. I've run a steel stove that produced heat quicker than my Oslo.
I think it would be fine and maybe you can get the stove to heat the floor above.