Jotul Oslo or Castine... New to wood burning.

[bhoyle]

.My wife and I have narrowed it down to two stoves. We looked a Hearthstone and Morso stoves, but the two Jotuls met both the size and aesthetic criteria the best. I've spent endless hours researching both stoves, and need a nudge to pull the trigger.

our house was built in 2010 to the strict "Healthy Built/Green criteria." It would be considered Super insulated, and received as high a rating on overall "tightness" as possible. Were are the second owners, and I don't have the specific specs. The builder is our neighbor and if necessary I can retrieve the info. Overall Sq. Ft is 3000 Sq ft. 1500 upstairs and 1500 downstairs. We will be putting the stove upstairs in the main living area. Floor plan is open with it being divided fairly equal. The upstairs living area is 25ft x 25ft, and a hall way connects the bedrooms and bathrooms for the additional space upstairs. We live in Asheville, NC in the mountains about 3500 ft. above sea level. The house was built on the North side of the mountain, and receives almost constant westerly winds throughout the winter. I'm attaching pics, but a majority of the wall the stove will go on is all windows (which are all Low E). The chimney will be aprox. 15-18 ft, depending on the roof line, and the stove will vent from the top without any 45's or 90's. We plan on using double sided stove pipe to reduce clearances as much as possible.

I'm concerned the Oslo may be too much stove both size wise and heat output size, however I prefer the having the side loading door and the overall performance reviews I've read. The Castine seems to fit the space better (hearth much smaller and depth smaller), but I'm concerned about the airwash and my wife prefers the smaller size.

My wife loves the Ivory enamel and we plan on matching the stove pipe to the same color. I don't think I can with either, but since I'm new to wood burning, I wan't to make sure I have control.

Usage will be too supplement our heat pump during cold snaps (this will be primarily when it will be used 24 hours a day), enjoy the ambiance of a fire, and provided safety during power outages. We live outside the city, and this is fairly frequent. For reference, the smallest blue square, and the smaller large sq. are the hearth/stove measurements. The larger and larger are the Oslo. Thanks for any and all help. This site has been an invaluable reference.

 

[firefighterjake]

Normally with the size of the house I would have no hesitation in recommending the Oslo ... but given the super efficient home and plan to use this as supplemental heat I am less sure if this would be the way to go. Perhaps other folks in your area or with similar insulated and sized homes will chime in.

 

[begreen]

If I understand correctly, the stove will be heating about 1500 sq ft only (upstairs). Is that correct? If so the Castine should be more than sufficient for back up heat in a super insulated house in Asheville.

 

[Simonkenton]

Good luck with your Jotul. I am near Asheville, I am 5 miles west of Marshall, out in the wilderness. I will be installing a Jotul Oslo next year.
Good place to have a wood stove, especially with winters like the one we had last year.

 

[Nick Mystic]

Hi bhoyle, I live in Marion, NC, which is about 35 miles east of Asheville. We have a log home of a size similar to yours. We heat exclusively with wood and have a Woodstock Classic on our lower level and a Jotul F 600 on the main floor. Your house is much tighter than what our 20 year old log home is, but I still think the Oslo would be a better choice over the smaller Castine. We've had the big F 600 for a season and a half of burning now and I've never thought it was too much stove for the house. As it is frequently mentioned here at the forum: you can always build a smaller fire in a big stove for shoulder season. If you are going to all the expense of putting in a complete system it's not that much more expensive to go with the larger Oslo. It gives you the option of switching more to full time burning if you find you enjoy the experience. With the smaller Castine you would really have to be burning it hard and feeding it often for that size house when it gets down into the 20s.

 

[bhoyle]

Yeah, pricing out the two stoves with the install of the chimney, it's a small difference in price of stove compared to total cost. I agree the Castine would probably be plenty of stove, but the side loading and deeper firebox are good selling points for the Oslo. Also, after the winter we had last year, the option of being able to having longer burn times if necessary is appealing.

Begreen, you're correct, it's 1500 sq. ft upstairs, and basically the exact footprint downstairs. Previous to my research on this site, I had hope to move some heat downstairs, but that's not looking like its practical. While both are great stoves, I've had some hesitance with the Castine due to reviewers noting that it tends to puff smoke when opening. I may be over-weighting this as an issue, but in comparison I had a hard time finding any consistent complaints with the Oslo,

The builder of our house lives next door, and is very confident we can heat the house with a heater the size of Castine. The house was pressure tested and scored a 2.5 ACH50 (air changes per hour at 50 pascals). Overall, I'm glad I've finally narrowed it down to only two stoves, and it seems I can't go wring with either.

 

[begreen]

I'm concern that you may be idling the Oslo a lot of the time. That may end up being a sub-optimal experience with a good stove. The Castine has a shallower firebox. It may smoke spill if connected to a shorter chimney in a rear-exit flue. But vertically vented into a proper height flue it should be fine. I have to say I think there are other stoves that may be a better fit for this house. I would also look at the Blaze King Ashford if you are ok with a cat stove. It will provide more flexibility in heating temps and is thermostatically operated. Another stove to consider would be the Pacific Energy T5 and perhaps the Quadrafire explorer ll.

Personally I would wait until I had the heat loss calcs for the house. That will be a big help in honing in on an appropriate stove choice. In lieu of that I would get a cat stove that is happy to run at a lower output yet will have the reserves if you find you need them for extra cold days.

 

[bhoyle]

That Blaze King Ashford is solid stove. We don't have a dealer in the immediate area, so I haven't been able to see one in person. We also went through a couple days on the Hearthstone Shelburne or Manchester--both great looking stoves. Another major criteria is my wife liking to look at it. She loves having fires, but hasn't been excited about putting a large black metal box in the family room. The white enamel on the Jotuls has been very well received, especially with the stove paint painted to match.

Unfortunately, Vermont Castings aren't getting positive responses, because their Flexburn Encore would have been good fit.

 

[begreen]

I'm not a big fan of white stoves. That seems to be the weakest enamel color for longevity. But more important than the color, will the stove be well suited for the house and duty it is being asked to perform? Note that the Alderlea T5 is available in a unique, antique white. (broken link removed)

 

[RichVT]

When we bought our Castine, I remember the dealer saying that the white enamel had to be applied thicker than than the other colors in order to cover the black cast iron. I don't remember if that made it more durable or less (more prone to chipping). I think that keeping a white stove and pipe looking showroom clean is going to be a losing battle and will end up looking worse than a darker color once it gets the inevitable soot stains on it.

The Castine is considered one of the best looking stoves out there. The Oslo would give longer burn times but sounds like more stove than you need for the space.

We chose the Castine for it's smaller overall footprint and it's appearance.

 

[Bluerubi]

I just got an oslo last year and haven't been overly impressed with the heat output compared to the Jotul Firelight 12 it replaced. Comparable stove in footprint, but I could previously cook myself out of the basement where it's installed, and now it's barely shorts and t-shirt conditions. I love the way the oslo looks, and it's easier to use than the firelight, but not the heating beast I thought it would be.

As for stove color, I agree with begreen, but in a different context. I do a lot of thermal modeling, and one of the best ways to reduce IR heat transfer is to make a heat source shiny and/or white. Maybe their paint has a high emissivity, but to be safe it's hard to beat flat black for a coating.

 

[Simonkenton]

As I am sure you are aware, ideally you want to put the wood stove on the first floor; that way it will send heat upstairs by convection. It sounds like you have ruled out a first floor install.
You say you have a heat pump, but, it seems not possible to move the heat downstairs.
With the heat pump, you must have a return grate, or two, on the second floor. Could you not set your heat pump on "fan" with the wood stove running, and would the heat pump not draw the heat into the return and distribute it to the first floor?

We had a heat pump installed in a big rental house that we own, a 2,300 sq ft ranch style, on the south side of Asheville in the Oak Forest subdivision. That was 4 years ago and that thing has been a disaster for us, high electric bills and it doesn't heat the house well. This is a 1960 house, not energy efficient, though we did put 18 inches of fiberglass insulation into the attic four years ago.
When this heat pump goes out we will be installing a central gas furnace in this house.

 

[Nick Mystic]

The OP said he plans to put the stove upstairs.

 

[bhoyle]

RichVT-
That stove setup is great, and would definitely be wife approved in my household. We are looking to pull up some hardwood and put in a tile or stone hearth. The smaller Hearth requirements of the Castine is also a plus.

As for the Matte Black being easier to maintain, this seems contrary to what I've been reading. I had thought the Matte black aged faster, got dusty, and looked dated after a few years. Originally, we considered rear venting due to the wall of windows the stove sits on, but would rather top vent due to better functionality. We cleared some trees and view we opened up is fantastic, and we feared a black stove pipe would take away from the view--the white pipe/stove would be much less obstructive.

As for heating/burning, my assumption is during the winter we will start a fire in the evening and let it burn down overnight. If it's cold enough for the Aux heat on the heat pump to be on, I'll stoke the fire up in the morning and let it burn through the afterno repeating the process each day.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I have to chime in with the others who have pointed out how difficult it would be to keep a white stove looking new. Maybe some members who happen to have had first hand experience with a white or light color stove will chime in. As for the black stove pipe detracting from your view I doubt that would be a problem. The human brain does a good job of adapting to things in our visual field and after a short period of time we no longer notice them. I do agree that flat black stoves require more maintenance than porcelain stoves (I have both). Perhaps you can consider a dark porcelain finish to keep the maintenance down and still have an elegant looking stove. Our Jotul F 600 is the Majolica brown enamel and it looks great. They also make a blue/black enamel that a lot of people like.

 

[bhoyle]

We may in the future install a stove downstairs, and I agree it's a preferable location. A downstairs install is far more complex, expensive (chimney wise), and we won't enjoy the experience of the stove . This is our first winter in the house, and if utility merits it, we'll look at an additional large stove.

I had planned on running the heat pump fan constantly to circulate the stove heat--we are installing a "necessities" generator that should manage the fan in an outage. However, there seem to be mixed reviews on how well this works.

 

[Grisu]

Is there an easy way from outside into the living room? Carrying wood through half the house and maybe even up some stairs can get old very soon.

Take also a look at the Woodstock Keystone/Palladian or Fireview. Maybe they find the wife's approval and the catalytic burn technology will allow longer burn times with a more steady heat output. And for an airtight house, the addition of an outside air kit (OAK) to the stove is highly recommended to allow sufficient draft.

 

[Simonkenton]

Grisu is right! Carrying all that wood upstairs is going to get old. Can you do a first floor install?

 

[Nick Mystic]

The OP mentions that the upstairs is the main living area and I think most people here at the forum would endorse putting your woodstove in the main living area, rather than downstairs since moving heat up or down is often a challenge. We have stoves in both levels of our home and I could never heat the upstairs satisfactorily by only using my downstairs stove - I tried it when we first moved here. As for running the forced air fan on your heat pump to circulate the heated air from your stove I think you'll find out that doesn't often work well. The air just isn't hot enough to overcome the cold air ducts.

 

[bhoyle]

I should specify, upstairs is misleading, it's actually the main floor, and the bottom floor is actually below ground on one side--basically a finished basement built into the side of the mountain. I planned on having a main wood pile around back and second stack at our front door about 30ft from the stove location.

Definitely installing an OAK on the stove immediately, and additionally, putting a high wind chimney cap on. The house is situated between two ridges and the wind whips up through the valley between the ridges.

 

[bhoyle]

For conversation sake, does anyone have first hand experience with the Jotul White enamel? The Mrs. is set on it. Wood stoves seemed to be an exercise in compromise between form and function.

Originally, when we purchased the home and determined the location for a future stove, I was set on a Morso 7648 and then the Morso 3450. After researching I quickly learned those were expensive space heaters--not what we were looking for, and I knew in an outage I'd be kicking myself (also recutting splits to 10in).

 

[begreen]

Did you take a look at the PE Alderlea T5 in antique white? That cast iron is a jacket so it undergoes less heating and cooling than the direct metal of the Jotul. Otherwise I would be looking at the Woodstock Keystone or Palladian. But first, get the heat loss analysis done. If the house design is good with a thermal break between the interior studs and exterior of the house then it's not going to require a lot of heat.

 

[bhoyle]

Well darn... Search just got more complicated. That's a fine stove, and the clearances--5in with double wall--are great. I've had a great experience with our local Jotul deale. I'm not excited about switching stove brands, but that T5 is beautiful, and specs are within the range I was looking for.

As for the walls, we have Superior pre-fab walls on a concrete foundation. The heat loss should be very low. I don't have exact specs.

Begreen, will the stove construction on the PE affect the feel of the heat or output. Also, the Antique white is pictured but not listed as an option. I'm going to reach out to a dealer this week.

 

[Grisu]

Another link that clearly lists it as option: (broken link removed)

 

[begreen]

I saw the white T5 last spring at the HPBA show and Tom lists it on his website. Check with your local dealer for availability. The reason I suggest the T5 is that it will easily burn with a partial load of fuel, yet has a good long burn time with a full load. Its size is 2 cu ft. The cast iron jacket really softens and stores the heat for later release as the fire dies down. FWIW I had the Castine in blue black enamel before our current stove which is the big brother of the T5. No regrets, though I missed the beauty of the Castine a little at first.