My wife and I finally got a Jotul F 400 Castine this fall and have been very pleased with Jotul. At first we thought we would use it as a secondary heat source, but, after we finished the basement, added a 50 inch 1080P HDTV and some furniture (including a sleeper sofa), we have lived downstairs in our finished basement. We keep the furnance at 50 and it has only gone on a couple times and our bills have been so cheap.
Unfortunately, if it's really cold outside (we live in Upstate NY), we get the basement to 71 degrees (fireplace is right in front of our staircase), the basement room is about 750 square feet. The upstairs only gets to 58, sometimes 60 if we're burning all weekend (but during the week when we're both at work, upstairs stays at 54-56).
We're definitely cozy in the basement, no complaints there.....On super cold days, we're nice...if it's cold like 20-30's, sometimes we heat ourselves out. The room got up to 82-84 depending where you stood on that recent warm spell we had a couple weeks. It was not even comfortable.
Anywho, why I'm writing this.....we're thinking down the road when we have kids, we won't be able to sleep down there. Do blower kits and fans help bring the heat more upstairs? Would getting the Oslo be a better idea (or would we heat ourselves out of the room?) Any other suggestions to try to make a woodstove our primary source of heat? We live in a 1100 square feet ranch. Not the most open floor plan, our kitchen and living room upstairs is about 63, but hallway and bedrooms 55-60 with the Castine.
Any ideas, thoughts and suggestions would be great
Unfortunately, if it's really cold outside (we live in Upstate NY), we get the basement to 71 degrees (fireplace is right in front of our staircase), the basement room is about 750 square feet. The upstairs only gets to 58, sometimes 60 if we're burning all weekend (but during the week when we're both at work, upstairs stays at 54-56).
We're definitely cozy in the basement, no complaints there.....On super cold days, we're nice...if it's cold like 20-30's, sometimes we heat ourselves out. The room got up to 82-84 depending where you stood on that recent warm spell we had a couple weeks. It was not even comfortable.
Anywho, why I'm writing this.....we're thinking down the road when we have kids, we won't be able to sleep down there. Do blower kits and fans help bring the heat more upstairs? Would getting the Oslo be a better idea (or would we heat ourselves out of the room?) Any other suggestions to try to make a woodstove our primary source of heat? We live in a 1100 square feet ranch. Not the most open floor plan, our kitchen and living room upstairs is about 63, but hallway and bedrooms 55-60 with the Castine.
Any ideas, thoughts and suggestions would be great
