This stove I purchased (jotul F3) is awesome as far as looks, ease of use and cleaning but for some reason I thought this would be all I need to keep my heat pump from running all of the time. I have a 1700 sq. ft. house and here's my two problems. This heats only about a quarter of my house( the heat never makes it to the back of the house so I've set up a fan in front of it and point it to the rear of the house. I also run my ceiling fan in the room on reverse.) Problem two is to get any real heat from the stove the air valve must be left half to full open meaning burn time is only 1.5 hours. I've wound up turning it to low before bed and get up every 3 hours to find my heat pump running and having just enough hot coals to start another fire. I really wish I would have bought the F 500 but didn't due to my fireplace and hearth size. Live and learn I guess. Any help on how to get a longer burn and how to get more heat to back of house would be worth its weight in gold at this point. I love this stove even though its to small for my house and if I can somehow sell this one for another it will for sure be another jotul, thanks for reading.
I need help with my new jotul F3
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If you have good dry wood and are using fairly large splits in the lil stove about the best heating time you will get is four hours. As to getting heat to the rest of the house put a box fan on the floor in back of the house blowing the cold air on the floor back toward the room where the stove is. The warm air will travel along the ceiling back to the back of the house to replace the cold air. Proven to work many, many times.
Get the stove top temp up to around 450 slowly turning the air down along the way in increments until you have the air 1/4 open. And then it is gonna be as good as it is gonna get.
Get the stove top temp up to around 450 slowly turning the air down along the way in increments until you have the air 1/4 open. And then it is gonna be as good as it is gonna get.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
In addition to what BroBart said, are you sure you're stuffing that stove as full as it can be? What I thought was "stuffing it full," when I started burning, was not anywhere close to what I consider a full stove today. Put otherwise, a mouse will have to exhale and suck in his gut, before climbing into a properly stuffed stove. In my case,the primary trouble was burning splits bucked 16" - 18" in length, in a stove designed to hold splits bucked to 22" length. No way to get the stove full, if your splits are too short, no matter how much Tetris you played in college.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Remember, this stove fits your location, and every BTU it puts out is one that the heat pump doesn't have to!
So long as the fuel you are using is well seasoned, there isn't much more you can do if another much larger unit will not fit in this spot.
As BB said, switch that fan around and see how you can dissipate the heat you are getting.
pen
So long as the fuel you are using is well seasoned, there isn't much more you can do if another much larger unit will not fit in this spot.
As BB said, switch that fan around and see how you can dissipate the heat you are getting.
pen
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Good point! When our outside temps dipped into single digits two weeks ago, and we were seeing daytime highs in the teens, my two stoves could not keep up. However, they were still putting BTU's into the house, making the furnace run a lot less than it would otherwise. In the case of a heat pump, he has the added benefit of the system helping to distribute his BTU's.
Thanks for the advice. I've got my fan now in back of house to see what happens. Yes when I load the stove I may have an inch or two on the sides, but bottom to top is full. I live in North Carolina but I live in an old farm house. The power bill last month was 300 with the stove running!
OK, It sounds like the worst problem here is that you are trying to heat a leaky sieve. If you are in central NC, that is tolerable. If you live in the hills where it is 20 deg. colder, that is not going to work. The house needs tightening up and some insulation. In lieu of that you'll need a larger stove and more wood. Long term I think reducing heat loss is your better bet. It will also make the place easier to cool in the summer.
Jon1270
Minister of Fire
When I read this, I thought your wood must not be dry. What kind of wood do you have, where did you get it, how long has it been cut, split and stacked? Do you have a moisture meter?
Ashful
Minister of Fire
You CAN heat a leaky sieve! It just takes a hell of a lot of wood, and maybe 2-3 big stoves.
Jon may be onto something. At 1/2 open with good wood, most stoves would overfire. What does your stove top temperature stabilize at with the air control at 50%? Tell us about your wood supply.
Jon may be onto something. At 1/2 open with good wood, most stoves would overfire. What does your stove top temperature stabilize at with the air control at 50%? Tell us about your wood supply.
Could be the wood and could also be the flue if it is short. We had to run the F3CB with more air when it was cold out. 2-3 hr. fires with a 550-650F stove top were normal. In milder weather we could go about 4 hrs between refills and stove temps were more like 500F. This was burning NW softwood.
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