My house has a roof! And a new Oslo

[Nightskies]

Just finished up my first week of burning with my new Oslo. Having lots of fun tinkering with the stove and figuring out what works and what doesn't.

But what has surprised me the most are my early morning temps in the house. 65-67 in our bedroom (right above the stove room) and 65 in the living room (stove room) and surounding rooms. My 1829 2100sq ft (heated) maintance differed fixer-upper house is actually holding heat! And here I was expecting it to loose heat like it was missing part of the roof! LOL I guess there must be insulation in the walls somewhere. (I've already checked tha attic.) Stove top temps in the morning are 100 or so. Barely warmer than the room. It looks like we'll be able to heat our house with this stove and an auxillary electric heater in the kitchen once I get it humming. Yippee!

We bought the house in Feb 2011 and burned 60 gal/$200 of oil that first week with house temps at 55. (We didn't move it untill May because of work being done on the house. Sexy stuff like upgraded electrical system, redone plumbing, new roof) Man would it be nice to turn that oil boiler off. Now to convince my hubby we can do it with out freezing... He's conservative about things like that. I have to bite my tongue when he turns the heat up to 68 just before we get into bed. (But we're just going to get under the covers honey! throw on another blanket and cuddle up if you're cold!) Or course with the wood stove right under our bed, we are finding the temps in our room a nice comfy 68-69 without help from the boiler. (Thank you Jotul!)

Now I just have to work on being able to get the stove temps up consistantly and my burn time. Sometimes I struggle to get it to 400, others I get it up to 650 with out much trouble. (BTW- how hot it too hot for the Oslo?) My wood status is who knows. It came with the house, one cord c/s/s since Aug. 2010 MIN. (owner passed away July 2010, so I think it was probably c/s/s a while before that) Soon though we will have to buy some "seasoned" wood for the remainder of the year. And yes, we'll be buying some seasoned in the spring and stacking it for next year.

Any advice on getting longer burn times? I'm not getting more than 4 hours, usually 3 hours. And I define it by coals that can start a split and ST temps around 300. I supose I can just feed the stove when DS wakes up for his feeding, but zombie mommy doesn't always have that extra energy in her. A toddler and a baby really takes it out of a person!

Happy Oslo burner.

Oh and I do have before and after picts. The stove that came with the house was kind of scary to this novice wood burner. It turns out it was a coal stove too not a wood stove. I'll post when I have time... which with a toddler and a baby may be another year!

 

[Pallet Pete]

Welcome to the forum and the new stove! You will find that seasoned wood (2 years) will burn the best and give you better burn times. A lot of your burn time is based on the wood type as well If it is soft wood it will not burn as long as hard wood also the dryness will determine the coal bed. I do not have the same stove however someone will be along that can answer burn time and temp questions for you.

Good luck
Pete

 

[Blue Vomit]

Congrats on the Oslo. Do your research. Use the search function on this site and read everything you can about long burn times, overnight burning, etc. Pay special attention to the posts by others with the Oslo. A few of us are in our first years with the Oslo as well.
Good luck.

 

[Green Energy]

Welcome to the forum. There is a lot of info on Olso's here. It does take some time to get the feel of the stove. A couple tips on long burns, for the last load of the night, try to get larger sized splits in the back and lower tier middle of the stove. Typical rule of thumb is that larger splits burn longer and more under control and smaller splits burn faster and hotter. Pack the stove as tight and full as you can, but be careful not to hit or press against the burn tubes on top. Oak and denser wood types burn longer than lighter woods like maple.

Also, shut down the primary air sooner rather than latter, as long as you can maintain stable secondary flames (on the top off the burn tubes). This may keep your stove top temperatures from going above 450 F or 500 F, but it will give you a longer burn time. I would not expect stove top temps of 300 F for more than 6 or 7 hours at the most. But you should have enough coals even after 7 -8 hours to get the reload started.

It will take some time and experimenting, but over time you should get the hang of it. Enjoy!

 

[firefighterjake]

Welcome to hearth.com . . . and the Oslo Brotherhood (and Sisterhood -- can't forget Shari) . . .

Normal stovetop operating temps for the Oslo are something like 450-650 degrees F . . . overfiring temp is . . . who knows . . . I know some folks routinely go up to 700 degrees . . . I don't think I would want to go over 750 or so . . . but that's just me.

Seasoned wood . . . best to start looking now since you will soon discover that wood seller's ideas of seasoned wood may differ quite a bit . . . you will either want a moisture meter or be specific when you call by saying your stove needs well seasoned wood that has been cut, split and stacked for a year or so . . . and I would try to avoid oak for the first year.

If you have specific questions about the Oslo you can do a search . . . there are tons of threads on this popular stove.

I might suggest one good thread to start with is the top-down fire starting method . . . this may help you get consistently hot fires from a cold start.

For longer burn times . . . bigger wood helps, better quality wood in terms of species helps, a full firebox most definitely helps and airway management (i.e. knowing when and how far to turn down the air control).

If you have specific questions not answered in a search though feel free to post your questions here . . . hearth.com folks are for the most part pretty friendly.