Newbie question about Jotul F 118 v. Osburn

[klaw]

I am new to running a wood stove. I live in the Lakes Region of NH. Last year I put in an early '80s Osburn wood stove in the living room of our 2000sq NE style Cape home. The stove seemed to do a nice job of heating most of our living space. The stove sits in a Rumford fireplace and has a nice fireview and the pipe goes straight up through the chimney which causes it to have a strong draft.

I have an old F118 Jotul with a green enamel finish in excellent shape which sits in our basement. It is not currently hooked up, however, I could hook it up and run it in the basement or move it to the living room and run it there. The Jotul is bigger than the Osburn but the Osburn seemed to work well last year, however we would routinely wake up to a pretty chilly house until I got the stove running hot again (I think the stove is rated to heat 1600 square feet).

My questions: Should I leave well-enough alone and go with the Osburn or would I improve our heating situation by running the Jotul in the living room? Would running the Jotul in the basement improve the heat the heat in the rest of the living space enough to justify the wood it would consume to run or would it just make a warm basement (which we don't use other than to do laundry)?

I would welcome any suggestions or opinions. Thank you.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I am new to running a wood stove. I live in the Lakes Region of NH. Last year I put in an early '80s Osburn wood stove in the living room of our 2000sq NE style Cape home. The stove seemed to do a nice job of heating most of our living space. The stove sits in a Rumford fireplace and has a nice fireview and the pipe goes straight up through the chimney which causes it to have a strong draft.

I have an old F118 Jotul with a green enamel finish in excellent shape which sits in our basement. It is not currently hooked up, however, I could hook it up and run it in the basement or move it to the living room and run it there. The Jotul is bigger than the Osburn but the Osburn seemed to work well last year, however we would routinely wake up to a pretty chilly house until I got the stove running hot again (I think the stove is rated to heat 1600 square feet).

My questions: Should I leave well-enough alone and go with the Osburn or would I improve our heating situation by running the Jotul in the living room? Would running the Jotul in the basement improve the heat the heat in the rest of the living space enough to justify the wood it would consume to run or would it just make a warm basement (which we don't use other than to do laundry)?

I would welcome any suggestions or opinions. Thank you.

That's a tough call. But, if you have two stoves and aren't really happy with either you can always sell both and put that money towards a larger stove that would heat your house the way you would like it to and give you the over-night burn times you.

Apart from that I can't offer much info on the F118 as I have never used one. It is rated for up to 1,800sqft and 8 hour burn times which probably isn't much different than the Osburn you are using (from what you have mentioned).