I am currently trying to decide which wood burning stove to purchase for my home. My home is a newly built well insulated open floor plan with 1881sqft. The main area is 23x30ft with 12ft vaulted ceilings with 8ft ceilings throughout the rest of the home. This stove will not be my sole source of heat as I do have a heat pump but if I could get a stove to heat the whole home it would be fine as long as the main area would not be too hot (below 77 degrees). The stoves we are currently interested in are the Jotul F500 oslo, Jotul F400 Castine, and the Hearthstone Shelburne. The stove will be placed in the lower left corner of the living room or along the utility room wall. I like the Oslo for the side loading option but am afraid it will overheat the main area. I am open to other stove suggestions but these are the stoves that my local dealer sells. If anyone can give me there insight it would be greatly appreciated. I have attached a rough floor plan of my home if that helps.
HELP MAKE MY DECISION
- Thread starter LostInTheWoods
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
- Status
my Oslo burns very fast,lights easy ,takes a while to get real hot and cools off when tamped down. Short burn times ,not even close to overnight
To reiterate an old adage I learned from this site: "You can build a small fire in a large stove, but you can't build a large fire in a small stove." I should have taken this to heart the first time I purchased a wood stove. I would recommend going bigger. You won't regret going bigger, but I promise you WILL regret going smaller.
Wallace
Member
My home is 2000sq' with a 20x30 living room with 12' vaulted ceilings. The F500 is in the corner. I haven't had a problem with the room getting to hot...although it would be easy to do on some days when only a small fire is needed to take the chill off. The rest of the house stays about 68-72 degrees as long as I am keeping wood in the stove on colder days.
Our Oslo is in a 12 x 20 foot room with seven foot ceilings ... stove has been running all day and we're at 74 degrees f ... I've had it in the high 70s and low 80s ... managing the heat and whether you want it cooler or warmer can be achieved by moving the heat out of the room with a well placed fan, frequency of reloads, how much wood you place in the stove and the type of wood ... i.e. small load of pine vs full load of oak and loading sooner or later will determine how warm it is in the room with the stove.
Smoked
Feeling the Heat
I agree with the others, you don't need to worry about overheating that space and you don't want to spend $xxx and be undersized. One of mine are in a 12x24 room with 8' ceilings and is fine. Just need to learn to build the right sized fire for the weather.
That is not normal for the Oslo: it's an easy overnight burner in normal circumstances.
Thank you all for your responses its greatly appreciated. This will be our first wood stove so we have some learning to do but we are looking forward to it. Hopefully within the next month we will purchase the stove and will post updates as progress takes place. Thanks again.
Late to the party, but go bigger, you won't regret it.
My only regret with the 13 is the smaller fire box / burn times. 4-6 hour max depending on firewood loaded, , draft, wind gusts.
Research, research, research.
Get your wood stash started, too !!
And, welcome to the forums
My only regret with the 13 is the smaller fire box / burn times. 4-6 hour max depending on firewood loaded, , draft, wind gusts.
Research, research, research.
Get your wood stash started, too !!
And, welcome to the forums
I'm sitting by mine right now. It's 35 degrees outside and 72 inside. I will say that when I go upstairs it will be 62 and uncomfortable. I have not found a way to move the heat upstairs. Overall I like mine but know it would never burn all night long.
Last edited by a moderator:
Just a note on heat distribution philosophy - often I have found that when you figure out how to move the cold air to the heat source, you have solved your problem of circulation... I often see people trying to move the warm air. That can also work, but moving the cold air works far better...
dj
I can't tell you how to set up your house, I don't know anything about it.
Your suggesting "Putting a box fan at the top of the stairs pointing down" sounds, actually, rather confrontational with my suggestion of trying to think about moving cold air. It does not feel that you are trying to listen to what I'm saying. But perhaps I misunderstand your intention. In that vein, I'll continue but clearly if your second response is of a similar intonation, I'll simply sign off this conversation. I am far too old to waste my time with that sort of nonsense.
Your stairs are likely where whatever rising heat is trying to go up, so putting a fan there blowing down is not logical. You should think heat flow and slow moving air circulation. Circulation is a key word. I've seen a house that was essentially a one story ranch, quite long with the wood stove on one end of the house. The kitchen was on the opposite end of the house with a rather convoluted set of interior walls so it always remained very cold. Almost no heat would get there from the wood stove. The owner put in a cold air return vent that went from one side of the kitchen, down into the basement, ran all the way back across the house to the wood stove where a register was put in to allow the cold air to come up to the woodstove. That return air system require a small high efficiency fan in the duct near the kitchen to push the cold air to the stove room. Once set up, the kitchen, and indeed the whole floor became nicely heated with a quite uniform heat distribution. I've seen two story houses with one of the back bedrooms that always was very cold. The owner of that house ran a cold air return duct down two stories, across the basement ceiling and out behind the stove in the room it sat in. That also solved that problem of heat distribution. I don't recall if they needed a fan or not, I don't think so.
The idea is to look at the layout of your living space. See where the heat source is located. Look at the layout of way the heat would naturally flow and aid that flow by putting in cold air returns that facilitate the heat convection to cover the areas you would like heated. Hot air doesn't move cold air well. Cold air is heavier. Cold air however moves hot air quite well. Much better than at first appears.
dj
I have a small fan at the top of my stairs blowing down, it seems to work great. It's angled down so the fan blows cold air from the upstairs down the stairs and warm air from the stove room goes right up. My main floor with the stove has been around 74 and the upstairs is around 68
Good to know. Lots of things can work. Some people have decent results by running their furnace fans also to circulate the air. But I've seen a lot more cases when that doesn't really work than those where it does work. Glad your setup is working great!
dj
RE: Moving the heat upstairs.
A large part of this will involve experimentation . . . using a fan to move the cool air towards the woodstove where it will be heated and then flow outwards in a natural pattern to move into the space now vacated by the cool air. Learning where to place the fan for the ideal movement (and realizing that depending on the layout of your home not all spaces will receive a lot of heat) is part of the process.
In my case, I have the fan on the floor in the doorway to our hall and stairs to the second floor. Most of the first floor is quite comfortable (the exception being a mudroom/boiler room/bathroom located on the far side of the house and the masterbedroom/bathroom right off the hall next to the fan -- it seems as though the heat moves up the stairs rather than moves into the bedroom . . . but for me that is fine as I use an electric blanket when it gets really, really cold in the winter.
A large part of this will involve experimentation . . . using a fan to move the cool air towards the woodstove where it will be heated and then flow outwards in a natural pattern to move into the space now vacated by the cool air. Learning where to place the fan for the ideal movement (and realizing that depending on the layout of your home not all spaces will receive a lot of heat) is part of the process.
In my case, I have the fan on the floor in the doorway to our hall and stairs to the second floor. Most of the first floor is quite comfortable (the exception being a mudroom/boiler room/bathroom located on the far side of the house and the masterbedroom/bathroom right off the hall next to the fan -- it seems as though the heat moves up the stairs rather than moves into the bedroom . . . but for me that is fine as I use an electric blanket when it gets really, really cold in the winter.
Thanks everyone for your replies. Stopped by the dealer today and got a quote for the oslo in matte black. Do you feel this is a reasonable quote for full install? I plan to build the hearth myself. Also beings my home is new with a conditioned crawlspace do you feel i should look into getting an OAK? Thanks again
Last edited by a moderator:
Agreed with others recommendations- I purchased a home almost 3 years ago with the Jotul 3.....great little stove, but that's exactly what it was...little. I was continually frustrated fitting firewood into it. Constantly on the chop saw in January cutting wood down to size because it was one or two inches too long....grrrrrrrrrrr....I recently purchase the Oslo and moved the Jotul 3 into the basement for my work shop on its own flue. My blood pressure is much lower now. Get the Oslo, give yourself time to get used to it. You won't be disappointed.
CentralVAWoodHeat
Minister of Fire
Get the Oslo. Knowing the heating capabilities of my Castine, you'll want the bigger stove. Get ready to let your wood season a full three years though if you are going to cut it full length to fit the Oslo as it will take up to a two foot length split, if I remember correctly. This means you can functionally fit about a 22-23 inch split which will need a good amount of time to season and a good bit more energy to split. Might be time to invest in a hydraulic splitter as well.
Rearscreen
Minister of Fire
Gee for that price I'd save a few bucks and cords and consider the Woodstock Absolute hybrid side loader.
Yes exactly, most people need to understand that making room for the heat by removing the cold air like in a forced air system that uses return ducting whether it be heating or air conditioning will allow for the heat to disperse much more efficiently.... if those who have a forced air system are listening....run just the fan for a couple hours...you don't have to run it 24/7....just on occasion.
- Status
Similar threads
