My stove is too hot!

[csahl]

Good morning,
I discovered this site a week ago and am gobbling up as much info as I can. I am in a quandry about my Jotul Rangeley as it is getting my house way too hot. I am in a new home that is about 1850sq ft, one level and with super insulation (as in air tight). The Rangeley seems to take a while to get a good fire, but once it gets going it really gets going, and I end up opening windows after a couple of hours. We have had a cold winter in the North Carolina mountains, but you wouldn't know it inside my house. I don't feel like I am overfueling with too much wood and after the fire gets established I turn the air supply all the way down. I can try splitting my wood into smaller pieces if that is the answer- most pieces now measure about 16 - 18 inches in diameter.

Went and talked to the place where I bought the stove, and they are willing to do a trade in. Their suggestions are the Jotul F 400 Castine or the Jotul F45 Greenville. They have another customer who may be trading in a Hearthstone Heritage because it is not big enough for their home. All three stoves run at about 55,000 btu's as compared to the Rangeley at 83,000 but I understand from reading info at this site to ignore those figures and concentrate on the size of the firebox. The fireboxes of the 3 options are considerably smaller than my Rangeley, so now I'm concerned that if I downsize too much I will have the opposite problem. The Oslo is the next size down from the Rangeley, but then I wonder if it's worth the trouble. Anyway, I would appreciate any input. I'm hooked on wood fires, but not infernos! And thanks in advance for your patience with a newcomer.

 

[begreen]

You are not the first person with this dilemma. The Rangeley can put out some serious heat. Tell us a bit about the house? How insulated is it? How large an area are you trying to heat. Is the floor plan open or is the stove in a room that is somewhat closed off from others?

 

[NH_Wood]

I'd rather have a stove that's too big than too small. Have you experimented with add less wood and perhaps increasing the amount of time between loads? P.S. This is a good problem to have - or at least better than a 'my house is too cold' post! Cheers!

 

[begreen]

New homes can be very energy efficient. In addition to the house specs are you trying to heat 24/7 with the stove or more nights and weekends as a supplement? Do you know the size of your primary heating system?

 

[Nick Mystic]

Welcome csahl. I live about 35 miles east of you in Marion, NC, so I am familiar with the temperatures you've had this winter. As you describe your home I think you should be able to learn how to burn your Jotul Rangeley with some practice. We have a 2300 sq. ft. home with about 1400 sq. ft. on the main level where we heat with a Jotul F 600. It is a log home, so the insulation and tightness aren't up to the standards you describe having in your home. However, once you learn how to moderate your fires you should be fine. I wouldn't jump to any decisions on swapping stoves until you think you've mastered the use of your current stove. That way you might save yourself some work and expense. You mentioned burning wood that was 16" to 18" in diameter. I take it you mean in length since you couldn't fit rounds of that diameter into any stove I'm familiar with! Generally, smaller splits are going to burn faster and hotter, so you probably want to go the other direction and try burning just a couple 6" on a side splits to see what sort of temperatures you get out of the stove. Good Luck.

 

[WarmBluthner]

I was thinking the same with our Oslo,

For us its a question of discipline. Now we let the house cool to 64 during daytime, load the stove with kindling at 5 pm and half full with oak, that's about 10-15 lbls of wood in total.

This is enough to get the stove up to temperature and burn with nice secondaries for 2,5 hours. Then the wood is reduced to coal. The room is a nice 72 by then. The heat of the coals is enough to maintain this temperature for three hours more. If it gets frosty in the night I might reload at 10 pm but it 's a waste of wood unless it's really cold.

Temperature outside is 41, the house is well insulated. On paper the stove is way to large but we love it! You just have to accept that a functional stove doesn 't always gives a fireshow.


On paper our stove is too large but we love it!

 

[csahl]

Thanks for so many quick replies, I'll try to address the questions asked. My house is a new one story home with an open floor plan. The living/eating/kitchen area is approx 26'x32' with vaulted ceilings. The master bedroom is on a north wall and tends to be quite a bit cooler than the rest of the house but that's fine with me. There is a separate vent/fan to draw heat from the living room into the master bathroom/bedroom and I can get a little extra heat that way. The insulation is super tight as in air tight. The south wall of the living area has triple glazed windows giving me a 2 degree solar gain on a sunny day. I have a geothermal heat pump running from my well but I don't really know its size. As for the wood... I should have said the average circumference is 16-18", top to bottom about 6". Burning just two of these splits can give me intense heat. I've tried waiting as long as I can between loads (if you want to call 2 pieces of wood a load!), but creosote starts sooting the glass so I figure the fire isn't hot enough. My wood is primarily oak that has seasoned about 18 months. I don't have a gadget to measure the moisture content. The wood has been undercover in a 3 walled wood shed, but last summer was really wet here so maybe the wood hasn't seasoned enough? But is that an issue if the fires get so hot? The temp in the house rarely drops below 66 degrees, and if I start a fire in the early morning, it gets up to 75 degrees by mid afternoon on a sunny day. I agree that too much heat is preferable to too little heat, but I'm not sure what else I can do to moderate the fire.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good morning,
I discovered this site a week ago and am gobbling up as much info as I can. I am in a quandry about my Jotul Rangeley as it is getting my house way too hot. I am in a new home that is about 1850sq ft, one level and with super insulation (as in air tight). The Rangeley seems to take a while to get a good fire, but once it gets going it really gets going, and I end up opening windows after a couple of hours. We have had a cold winter in the North Carolina mountains, but you wouldn't know it inside my house. I don't feel like I am overfueling with too much wood and after the fire gets established I turn the air supply all the way down. I can try splitting my wood into smaller pieces if that is the answer- most pieces now measure about 16 - 18 inches in diameter.

Went and talked to the place where I bought the stove, and they are willing to do a trade in. Their suggestions are the Jotul F 400 Castine or the Jotul F45 Greenville. They have another customer who may be trading in a Hearthstone Heritage because it is not big enough for their home. All three stoves run at about 55,000 btu's as compared to the Rangeley at 83,000 but I understand from reading info at this site to ignore those figures and concentrate on the size of the firebox. The fireboxes of the 3 options are considerably smaller than my Rangeley, so now I'm concerned that if I downsize too much I will have the opposite problem. The Oslo is the next size down from the Rangeley, but then I wonder if it's worth the trouble. Anyway, I would appreciate any input. I'm hooked on wood fires, but not infernos! And thanks in advance for your patience with a newcomer.

Welcome to the forum csahl.

I can't add much to the advice already given but I do question the wood you are burning. A 16-18" diameter says you are probably burning rounds. For sure they need to be split. Aiming for a 6" split would give you better options on regulating the fire. Even if the stove is larger than you needed, you can still burn smaller fires and using smaller splits or rounds will allow you to do that.

 

[mikey]

I think unless you're using a stove for your primary heat a small stove is better, fires up to temp.quick burns and cleaner. over night burns are dirty and waste wood. Sometimes the ford f250 looks good but the 150 is more practical. The jotul 602 is great as is the f100 nordic, that is what I have works great just slide your chair closer.

 

[begreen]

I would switch to the F45 or the Castine. The Heritage might work as well. So would a small cat stove like a Woodstock Keystone. You may find that you still need to build partial fires in milder weather. When you find it's starting to get warm, let the fire go out. Some super insulated houses often don't need supplemental heating until the outside temps dip into the 30s or lower on a sunny day.

See if you can find out the heat pump output rating for a better sense of the heat loss in the house.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I think unless you're using a stove for your primary heat a small stove is better, fires up to temp.quick burns and cleaner. over night burns are dirty and waste wood. Sometimes the ford f250 looks good but the 150 is more practical. The jotul 602 is great as is the f100 nordic, that is what I have works great just slide your chair closer.

There is no reason other than poor fuel why a stove would burn dirty and waste wood. Overnight burns should be no problem and there are many of us out there who heat totally or near totally with wood. We have no furnace so depend upon our wood stove. It does not burn dirty and we do not waste any wood.

 

[Kosmik]

Less wood = less BTUs total

It's like extended mags. You don't always need to use it all, but it's nice to know it's there.

 

[Kosmik]

There is no reason other than poor fuel why a stove would burn dirty and waste wood. Overnight burns should be no problem

Yeah if I get something dry in there is a few coals in white ash in the morning.
Most of the stuff I'm stuck with leaves a few big dirty charred pieces, so been trying to not to do overnights too much this year..
But no reason not to just sweep out the ash and throw those chars under the kindling.

 

[mikey]

I was referring to people who don't use wood as there primary source of heat and let it smolder through the night. It is about far more than the quality of the wood.

 

[Woodstuck]

I have a 1200sq ft house in NJ that I plan to greatly enlarge so I bought a progress hybrid. It took from Oct. until recently for me to effectively keep the house between 70-75 using it as my only heat source. With practice I think what you want to do can be done. Experiment with different things like smaller lengths and using fans to pull air out of colder rooms to cool the whole house down. I burn lengths as short as 12" and during the day when the house is left unattended for 12 plus hours I will keep the bedroom doors shut so they get very cold and use a fan to pull air out of them when I get home. That easily drops the house temp 5 degrees quickly. Either way a large stove is way more versatile than a small one.

 

[Matt93eg]

I'd rather have a stove that's too big than too small. Have you experimented with add less wood and perhaps increasing the amount of time between loads? P.S. This is a good problem to have - or at least better than a 'my house is too cold' post! Cheers!

I agree, this is a much better problem than the alternative which is having super hurt feelings because your stove can't heat what you need it to.

 

[Gasass]

I have a 1200sq ft house in NJ that I plan to greatly enlarge so I bought a progress hybrid. It took from Oct. until recently for me to effectively keep the house between 70-75 using it as my only heat source. With practice I think what you want to do can be done. Experiment with different things like smaller lengths and using fans to pull air out of colder rooms to cool the whole house down. I burn lengths as short as 12" and during the day when the house is left unattended for 12 plus hours I will keep the bedroom doors shut so they get very cold and use a fan to pull air out of them when I get home. That easily drops the house temp 5 degrees quickly. Either way a large stove is way more versatile than a small one.

Good to hear you got that thing up and running, Walt!

 

[Sunfish]

csahl, I'm in the same boat, bought too large a stove for our 1200 sq feet, average insulation here, good doors & windows. Wood stove is our main heat. I just burn one or two sticks at a time and add more wood when it colder. Still a pain most of the time. Love the Jotul 118cb, had it for 6 years, but plan to get a smaller Jotul and move this one out to the shop. The 118 would be perfect for 1800-2000 sq feet... I'd trade if I were you, but don't go too small.

 

[Soundchasm]

Might you consider making the firebox smaller by adding extra firebricks in there? My basement stove has a monstrous firebox, and I easily put three bricks standing up on either side. Won't take a 24" split anymore, and I have the illusion that the new fire size is closer to how I want to run that thing, which is NOT "full-out".

Did you mean 16-18" length, and 6" diameter for your splits?