Hello all, I have been a long time lurker on this site and just now posting my first thread! I've been in the process of renovating my new home which isn't so new after all it's a 1800s farm house at 2800sqft it's now well insulated with new doors and windows. It's a two story home with a interior chimney on the first floor. The past 3 years I have owned the home I have relied on oil and a jotul series 8 for heat. Now that the house is done I can commit more time towards trying to heat primarily with wood. The interior chimney is 28ft tall with a 6inch liner. I have been researching for a few weeks for a new wood burner and I just can't find the one that jumps out at me. I need a rear exhaust 6inch flu that will handle 2800sqft in a hard upstate ny winter i know my options are limited to begin with trying to find a stove large enough with a 6inch flu but now throwing in rear exhausting I'm hitting road blocks
Replacing my old jotul 8 looking for a new primary heat source
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Greetings. The Jotul F600 is large and rear vented and there are some other options, but I am wondering why the stove needs to be rear-vented. Is it venting into a fireplace chimney with a liner? The reason I ask is to understand if there is a lintel height constraint. Pics are always welcome.
Yes your 100% correct it is vented thru a fire place. I'm certain I could punch thru above the mantle with a thimble and tie in that way as a last option, I have done some research on the f600 I like what the stove had to offer I'm just worried it's a little under gunned with a 2.97 cubic foot fire box and a 2200sqft heat rating I know my options are very limited
Ashful
Minister of Fire
There aren't many stoves on the market today, which will run a 6" pipe, with more firepower than the Jotul F600. It is a large stove. We more often hear the opposite from buyers of this model, it can roast you out of a small house.
How much of your total sq ft do you intend to carry on the stove? How is your heat zoned? Do you need it to carry the house 100% on the single coldest day of the decade, are you looking to find something that just carries 90-95% of your average heat load?
Thanks for the input about the f600 I'm hoping to find some owner input on it ,first hand experience. Would you happen to have any other advice on the f600 My house is on a 3 zone setup i have two down stairs zones and one zone upstairs for the bed rooms my stove is located in my living room which occupies one zone I have a stair case with a central location in the house which enters the same room as the stove, I would like to get a stove that would handle 90-95 % of the heat load for the house. My furnace is set up to only kick on when a thermostat calls it will not maintain internal temp for hot water due to the fact that i have a stand alone hot water heater. Thanks so much for the help
If the house is well insulated I suspect that the Woodstock stoves will provide maybe 90% of the heating. The boiler (furnace?) may come on during the coldest weather to supplement, but that's ok. Very cold snaps usually don't last for weeks, more like days.
I agree it's fine with me if it kicks on here and there on those cold.cold days I will read up on the Woodstock stoves today thanks
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I owned three Jotul Firelights (very large, very old house), but mine were the earlier Firelight 12 model. Same stove as the F600, actually sharing about 90% of the same castings, but with an updraft catalyst in place of the non-cat reburn system. They are beautiful and superbly-built stoves, but the F12 was one of the earliest catalytic stoves, and therefore had some issues around the design of the catalyst.
If you want to learn more about the F600, just post a new thread with that in the title, and you'll get plenty of input. There are many F600 burners regular to this forum.
Woodstock is a company that makes another great product, with a very unusual sales and service model: no dealers. No one here will say anything negative about the company, they really stand by their product. If you're the DIY sort, who doesn't mind not having local dealer expertise, then they're definitely worth considering. I like this business model, having previously been frustrated that Jotul always wants you to work thru a dealer, but I personally find the Woodstock stoves about as ugly as a stove can be. Just as many find beauty in them, and a haberdasher once told me, "you need to carry ties for folks with bad taste, too."
If you want to learn more about the F600, just post a new thread with that in the title, and you'll get plenty of input. There are many F600 burners regular to this forum.
Woodstock is a company that makes another great product, with a very unusual sales and service model: no dealers. No one here will say anything negative about the company, they really stand by their product. If you're the DIY sort, who doesn't mind not having local dealer expertise, then they're definitely worth considering. I like this business model, having previously been frustrated that Jotul always wants you to work thru a dealer, but I personally find the Woodstock stoves about as ugly as a stove can be. Just as many find beauty in them, and a haberdasher once told me, "you need to carry ties for folks with bad taste, too."
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Oh, and on heating and thermostats, you will find many here heating a house the size of yours entirely with a single stove. This is usually accomplished by those with newer houses and open floor plans, by placing the stove in a central first-floor living space, and allowing the bedrooms to be a bit cooler than the first floor. Heat rises, which helps move some upstairs, but most are also happy to have a slightly cooler bedroom.
In the case of your middle-age and mid-size house with modern insulation and replacement windows, this could work fairly well, on all but the coldest days. Assuming a typical four-square central hall Victorian floor plan, the divided rooms are going to create one very warm room where the stove sits, but the rest of the house might fair pretty well.
If you are able, a Outside Air Kit (OAK) will really reduce cold air draft into the house, and be the single biggest factor in how even your house feels. The lack of an OAK will force the stove to draw it's make-up air thru every distant crevice and leak in the house, causing distant rooms to get a constant supply of cold air thru their windows. The OAK relieves this situation, but assuming masonry construction (typical Victorian brick with air gap?), this is not entirely trivial.
On heating method, I used to battle to keep the house warm and even with multiple stoves running, and my family was frequently cold and unhappy. After a few years, I settled into just programming the t'stats (we have seven zones in the part of the house heated by the stoves) for the temperature we want the house to be, and then just keeping the stoves fed on a schedule that works for me (two loads per day in one stove, one load per day in the other). Using this method, I'm not using much more oil than when I was killing myself and freezing my family trying to heat without aid of the boiler, with far less work and frustration.
In the case of your middle-age and mid-size house with modern insulation and replacement windows, this could work fairly well, on all but the coldest days. Assuming a typical four-square central hall Victorian floor plan, the divided rooms are going to create one very warm room where the stove sits, but the rest of the house might fair pretty well.
If you are able, a Outside Air Kit (OAK) will really reduce cold air draft into the house, and be the single biggest factor in how even your house feels. The lack of an OAK will force the stove to draw it's make-up air thru every distant crevice and leak in the house, causing distant rooms to get a constant supply of cold air thru their windows. The OAK relieves this situation, but assuming masonry construction (typical Victorian brick with air gap?), this is not entirely trivial.
On heating method, I used to battle to keep the house warm and even with multiple stoves running, and my family was frequently cold and unhappy. After a few years, I settled into just programming the t'stats (we have seven zones in the part of the house heated by the stoves) for the temperature we want the house to be, and then just keeping the stoves fed on a schedule that works for me (two loads per day in one stove, one load per day in the other). Using this method, I'm not using much more oil than when I was killing myself and freezing my family trying to heat without aid of the boiler, with far less work and frustration.
Thank you for the recommendation I'm going to do some searching into the Woodstock stoves I'm curious to see what the availability of parts is.
That's a very good point you bring up about using a outside air kit. You hit the nail on the head with how the house is divided up I do have corner mounted fans in each enterance to the living room where the stove is to try to push the air out to other rooms it does a good job at circulating the heat around. Upstairs I have cathedral ceilings with a fan in every room that I can also help move the air around with. I am not sure how it is going to play out at all because the jotul 8 didn't put a dent in much of the houses heat besides the living room and kitchen. I'm going to try to rely on wood as much as possible due to having a free wood supply thru my father in law. I'm lucky enough to revive log lengths of good hardwood from his job sites
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Ashful
Minister of Fire
Wait... is your house uninsulated stone / masonry? Your comment about the Jotul 8 makes me think it might be. If that is the case, Jotuls and Woodstocks are not for you!
Woodstock stoves move almost the entirety of their heat via radiation, and Jotul isn't all that much different, in this regard. In an uninsulated masonry house, the exposed interior masonry (or more often plaster on masonry) will soak that heat up much faster than you can ever hope to produce it. The only way to efficiently heat such a house is by convection, directly heating the air within. This, along with some issues surrounding the F12 catalyst design, is why I switched from Jotul Firelights to Blaze King Ashfords.
Woodstock stoves move almost the entirety of their heat via radiation, and Jotul isn't all that much different, in this regard. In an uninsulated masonry house, the exposed interior masonry (or more often plaster on masonry) will soak that heat up much faster than you can ever hope to produce it. The only way to efficiently heat such a house is by convection, directly heating the air within. This, along with some issues surrounding the F12 catalyst design, is why I switched from Jotul Firelights to Blaze King Ashfords.
Its a colonial has updated insulation when I gutted the home everything was replaced with sheet rock and new insulation. All of the plasture is gone. It has new windows and doors as well
They sell direct to the customer. Give them a call and ask for Lorin. She'll be able to answer your questions.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
What a shame to have lost all that history and architectural detal! But good news for your stove selection.
Yes it was a shame I tried to save as much detail as I could. The old owners were not to kind to the house to put it in nice terms. Now I'm making a 180 in my thinking I almost feel that a convection style stove would help me evenly heat the house better then a radiant style stove. Theory behind it is trying to get enough hit air to circulate thru the entire home being my floor plan is not very ope. I do have long haul ways that a good deal of air should flow thru .Looks of the stove are not as important to me as is the performance I can get warm.air to circulate the house using ceiling fans and naturally warm air rises up the stairs any input on going convection ?
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Well, keep in mind a radiant stove will primarily heat the objects with direct line-of-sight to the stove, and it is those objects which will cooperate with the stove to heat the air which carries heat to other rooms. In other words, ignoring the small amount of heat conducted directly thru your interior partition wall studs, the only way you're getting heat from the room with the stove to the rest of the house is by convection. So, a convective stove may still work well.
The problem to which I was referring in post #14, where a radiant stove will simply not work, is unique to uninsulated masonry houses. I believe you have the freedom to go either way, in your case, although some may make better arguments for one over the other.
I think I'm leaning towards a convection stove to try to get the air moving thru out the house I am unfamiliar with a stove that is designed to be a convection heater ive burned my entire life with big non cat wood eaters. I've been looking into the osburn 2400 but with a top exhaust I can not clear the lintle. Do we have any recommendations for convection stoves? Also how similar are they operating to a radiant stove I understand how they work just looking for differences burning among the two. Thanks again for the help
Convection can be facilitated by fans as well. If looking for a stove with a blower, maybe look at the Buck insert line? They have cat and non-cat options.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Any cast-clad steel stove (PE T5, PE T6, BK Ashford, etc.) will be a good convective heater. Unfortunately, the BK Ashford is top vent only, begreen can comment on the PE's. There are also many steel stoves without the cast cladding, which have convection decks. These heat off the sides and front via radiation, and off the top via convection, possibly the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, many find them not as attractive as a cast or cast-clad stove.
If convection is the goal might as well go for an insert that projects out onto the hearth. Take a look at the PE Summit and the Enviro Kodiak or Boston 1700. In cat, Blaze King has the Sirocco and Ashford 25 or the Princess insert.
Well I spent a good deal of this morning looking at the PE summit I think I'm heading toward that direction I like everything it has to offer when I get home today I'll bust out the tape measure to make sure she will fit
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