Finding Oslo Sweet Spot

[thundar]

So we installed our Oslo 500 in October, and I love it. This past weekend in Ohio was cold, with highs
in the 20s yesterday and lows in the teens. Last night, the house was up to 77 degrees before bed. I loaded, let it get up to 450, and gradually closed it down. We are burning white ash right now. When I woke up this morning, there were plenty of coals, but the house was 66 degrees. Our house is well insulated, and about 1800 feet on the main floor. I think I'm learning it's better to get the stove up to about 500-550 before closing it down. I had a Jotul sales rep at Lehman's tell me that's better, too. The ash is very well seasoned, and I know it won't burn as hot as hickory/white oak/black locust, but it seems like when I shut it down around 400-450, the stove cools down too quickly. Thoughts?

 

[Elle]

I'll be interested in some answers as well. I am new wood burner finding my groove with the oslo. I can tell you that I let my stove get much hotter before shutting the air down. When it gets up to 550 or so I start shutting it down in hopes that it settles in and burns around 600 or so. I can burn about ten hours or a little more with that. Now, how long there is "useable" heat...not sure. I got to bed and it's usually 10 degrees or more cooler when I get up. Stove top is usually about 150-200 degrees... so I don't feel I can really complain though cause I throw some splits in and the fire is going again before I get my shoes on, so.... Would love to get a bit more useable heat out of it though...especially for these next cold nights.

 

[thundar]

Yeah, I've been getting great burn times (8-10 hours). It just seems like if I let it get a little hotter (500-550), it stays hotter longer. Like you, I don't have any real
complaints, just trying to find that best combination.

 

[ColdNH]

Ill be interested in this thread as well. It seems like I need an act of congress to get my Oslo up to 500-600 degrees. I dont think I would even be able to do that on a daily basis. It seems like my stove likes to run between 375-475. Which obviously isnt that impressive.

Went to bed last night at 11pm stove room was at 75 and stove was loaded up with wood and cruising almost at 500. woke up 6:30 and the stove was warm to the touch and the stove room was 61.. Cant say im that impressed. Granted it was 13 degrees with a whipping wind all last night and I am burning sugar maple not oak. Guess i cant complain. But I would love how to learn how to run this stove better because I cant say im proud to own an Oslo at this point..

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

My burn times have slipped a bit in the last year or so. For now I'm blaming it on the door seals, they probably need to be redone. I have a short warmup coming wednesday so I may do it then. If you guys are getting short, cooler overnights, your preparation methods may need some tweaking.
My overnights are all red or white oak. I start my set up about 20 mins before walking up to bed. On a nice bed of coals I will fully reload the stove with oak and open the air. I get to 500 fairly quick and then let it stay for about 10 mins. Right after that I shut it down on the air and leave it for the night. Because I still have a somewhat drafty (first flr) home I get wakeup temps in the low to mid 60's. I'm ok with that considering my circumstances. However, the Oslo sets me up with a nice ash bed and decent sized coals for a restart. I'm happy with it's performance so far. Just have to replace the door seals and I'm good to go again.

 

[Jags]

For the record, I don't ever shut down the primary till the stove top is over 500F. This is the point that the secondary burn tubes get active (on my stove) and the stove pipe probe will hit about 800F. I strive for this on every load. I try to adjust the stove so that I have extracted the vast majority of the heat by morning, but still have plenty of coals for a reload. I don't want to see nothing but ash, but I also don't want to see a 5" thick bed of coals.

 

[thundar]

Considering I'm burning white ash and bradford pear, I'm not disappointed with the Oslo at all. I just haven't got to my "good stuff"
yet....I try to stack my wood so I get to the oak in the dead of winter. But I am going to make sure I let it get to 500 all the time, like previously
mentioned, it just seems like it needs to get to there to get the secondary burn going. Plus, the Jotul manual does say it burns best between
400-600. So that's what I'm going to do.
On a side note, in the extended stretches of cold (highs below 38 for a week or more), I still plan on using my Clayton whole house wood furnace
this winter. I just want to use it much less with the addition of our Oslo. The Clayton is in the basement, and does a super job keeping the
whole house at a constant temperature, but it uses twice as much wood as the Oslo. Even though I have plenty of cold-air returns in the
room with the Oslo, I'm not having as much success as I thought I would using my HVAC fan to move warm air to the basement. At any rate,
I'm very happy, because that crazy heat pump is NOT RUNNING this winter , and I LOVE being able to heat with wood during shoulder
season now.

 

[logger]

I will usually light a fire then close the air to 3/4 open immediatley. My stove will still quickly reach 550-650 and thats when I'll shut her to half, then 1/4 after about 10 min. No matter what, your stove top tempature is going to go down over night so you should be expecting a small decrease in room tempatures, perfectly normal. If its that cold out, I will get up once overnight to stuff her full again and that usually will keep the house at an even temp instead of dropping.
ColdNH,
It was about 12 degrees out here when I went to bed last night, so Im used to cold temps now and again. If you're room is 75 before bed, then 61 less than 8 hours later, Id think you either have a drafty house or need a bigger stove for the area you're heating (how much sq ft do you heat?). Our Oslo is our sole source of heat for our 2000 sq ft and Ive never experienced a temp change as much as yours.

 

[Jags]

You wouldn't be the first chap that was disappointed trying to use the furnace fan to distribute stove heat. It is rare that I have heard of this actually working, for whatever that is worth.

 

[logger]

Especially down to a basement.

 

[thundar]

Yeah, I wasn't expecting miracles with moving warm air DOWN. I can keep the downstairs at about 65 when the main floor is in the mid 70s, but that's
about the best I can do. More than half of the basement is finished (including my man cave), or it wouldn't be an issue. Either way, I'm pleased, I will
just use the Clayton when we get long extended cold periods and I want to keep the downstairs warm.

 

[ColdNH]

I will usually light a fire then close the air to 3/4 open immediatley. My stove will still quickly reach 550-650 and thats when I'll shut her to half, then 1/4 after about 10 min. No matter what, your stove top tempature is going to go down over night so you should be expecting a small decrease in room tempatures, perfectly normal. If its that cold out, I will get up once overnight to stuff her full again and that usually will keep the house at an even temp instead of dropping.
ColdNH,
It was about 12 degrees out here when I went to bed last night, so Im used to cold temps now and again. If you're room is 75 before bed, then 61 less than 8 hours later, Id think you either have a drafty house or need a bigger stove for the area you're heating (how much sq ft do you heat?). Our Oslo is our sole source of heat for our 2000 sq ft and Ive never experienced a temp change as much as yours.

House is roughly 2100 sq feet, (full dormer cape with a bump out/ on the first floor that holds the kitchen/half bath. The room the stove is in is the entire back of the house, (north side of the house) has 2 sets of french doors (Tripple pane glass) and large bay window (single pane with storm windows) all the other windows in the house are Single pane with storms. definitly not the best but they are not the worst either (not very drafty for the most part)

I have a good system of fans which creates a loop of air flow on the first floor. Only the stove room had a huge 14 degree drop in temp. the other rooms only dropped around 4-5 degrees. I think im losing alot of heat out the glass in that room.

 

[Elle]

Ill be interested in this thread as well. It seems like I need an act of congress to get my Oslo up to 500-600 degrees. I dont think I would even be able to do that on a daily basis. It seems like my stove likes to run between 375-475. Which obviously isnt that impressive.

Went to bed last night at 11pm stove room was at 75 and stove was loaded up with wood and cruising almost at 500. woke up 6:30 and the stove was warm to the touch and the stove room was 61.. Cant say im that impressed. Granted it was 13 degrees with a whipping wind all last night and I am burning sugar maple not oak. Guess i cant complain. But I would love how to learn how to run this stove better because I cant say im proud to own an Oslo at this point..

I know part of my issue is the house. It's an old one. I've sealed and insulated pretty good over the last few years but have a bit more to do so I'm sure that will help a little bit at least. I used to have a hard time getting the stove up to 600...seemed like no matter how much wood I put in there it wouldn't make it... but then I realized it was the uglies and punky stuff I was using...so that def made a difference. With the good wood now I have no trouble getting it up to temp.

Edit to add...more of my issue is the lack of thermal mass I have in the house. I'm renovating so most of my stuff is in the shed..hardly have any furniture and such. Putting 2 liter bottles around the hearth to add some TM Hopefully that might make a wee bit of a difference but the air flowing thru the house is likely the main culprit.

 

[jdp1152]

You wouldn't be the first chap that was disappointed trying to use the furnace fan to distribute stove heat. It is rare that I have heard of this actually working, for whatever that is worth.

I can do it with success on warmer nights with the humidistat driving the fan. Freezing or below is a wasted venture even with insulated ducts

 

[Jags]

I can do it with success on warmer nights with the humidistat driving the fan. Freezing or below is a wasted venture even with insulated ducts

I will fess up to using the fan on occasion, but that is usually to dump heat and get the air all stirred up again.