First Wood Stove in a New (to me) Home

[dnanoodle]

Hi everyone. I just signed up for the forums here. It's nice to meet you.

I am about to purchase my first home, a house in Nagano, Japan, which is a mountainous area in the middle of the main island of the country. It starts getting chilly in Nov here and is full-on cold all the time from Dec through Apr. Japanese homes, I should say early for context, are poorly insulated across the board and we don't have air ducts connecting all the rooms for central heating. We heat only the rooms we use. I feel this info is important to know from the start.

I very much want to heat my home with a wood stove. I love how they look and how the heat feels. My new house will be pretty large (by Japanese standards) and has a pretty big living room. The whole house is 2000 sq ft. The living room where I'd put this stove is about 300 sq ft toward the back of the house. It's connected to the kitchen through a door and to another hallway which leads to other rooms.

I was all but decided on getting a VC Dauntless Flexburn because I absolutely love the VC aesthetics. But then I started reading more about stoves and so many people seem to hate new VC units. Since I have no experience with this stuff I am now considering a JØTUL F 500 ECO instead which seems simpler, easier to use and easier to maintain, on top of also having a somewhat similar aesthetic.

For reference, these are the brands available on one of the Japanese distributor's sites: https://www.triconote.com/products/

Could you kind and very knowledgeable folks please guide me with advice on things I should watch out for when choosing between these? Especially things that I might not have enough experience or knowledge to ask at this stage? And do you have tips in general or is there a good primer of info I can reference for getting my feed under me when it comes to wood stove ownership/use?

Thanks so much!

 

[all night moe]

Hi everyone. I just signed up for the forums here. It's nice to meet you.

I am about to purchase my first home, a house in Nagano, Japan, which is a mountainous area in the middle of the main island of the country. It starts getting chilly in Nov here and is full-on cold all the time from Dec through Apr. Japanese homes, I should say early for context, are poorly insulated across the board and we don't have air ducts connecting all the rooms for central heating. We heat only the rooms we use. I feel this info is important to know from the start.

I very much want to heat my home with a wood stove. I love how they look and how the heat feels. My new house will be pretty large (by Japanese standards) and has a pretty big living room. The whole house is 2000 sq ft. The living room where I'd put this stove is about 300 sq ft toward the back of the house. It's connected to the kitchen through a door and to another hallway which leads to other rooms.

I was all but decided on getting a VC Dauntless Flexburn because I absolutely love the VC aesthetics. But then I started reading more about stoves and so many people seem to hate new VC units. Since I have no experience with this stuff I am now considering a JØTUL F 500 ECO instead which seems simpler, easier to use and easier to maintain, on top of also having a somewhat similar aesthetic.

For reference, these are the brands available on one of the Japanese distributor's sites: https://www.triconote.com/products/

Could you kind and very knowledgeable folks please guide me with advice on things I should watch out for when choosing between these? Especially things that I might not have enough experience or knowledge to ask at this stage? And do you have tips in general or is there a good primer of info I can reference for getting my feed under me when it comes to wood stove ownership/use?

Thanks so much!

The layout of your home sounds challenging to distribute the heat. Drawings and/or pics would help us with some answers.
Draft and flue height is another important factor as well as, wood species and moisture content.

 

[dnanoodle]

The layout of your home sounds challenging to distribute the heat. Drawings and/or pics would help us with some answers.
Draft and flue height is another important factor as well as, wood species and moisture content.

First, thank you for the response. I agree that distributing the heat to the whole house seems difficult. Without much experience I can only guess that it's possible it can't be done. It seems like unless I make more major changes to the house I'd only be able to leave the doors open to the hallway or kitchen.

Here's a schematic of the house. In the top left corner you can find an area that will be sectioned off to put the stove (circled). The two rooms by the stove and the sunroom-ish area above it are all one open space (in red brackets). Below this one open space is a wall with two doors connecting into the hallway which connects the D-K (dining kitchen) and others.

Also, because I don't know a ton about firewood here I screen capped some info about what wood is used for firewood here. I've read about wanting 15-20% moisture content and I expect it's not too hard to get here because it's not terrible uncommon to find wood stoves in homes here, but I'm not sure.

None of this is installed yet, so I can give specific instructions if I need to ensure certain things are done in certain ways. There is a second floor above where the stove is planned so originally the idea was to make a hole in the wall behind the stove to send the flue up outside. But I also read that having a straight vertical flue is important, and so I realized I need to spend some time researching more before I move this forward. Still have plenty of time before locking things down with the house.

Please let me know if that helps or if there's more info I should share. And thanks again!

 

[kborndale]

Getting 15-20% wood is easy. Just have to split the wood, stack it somewhere it gets good sun and wind, and wait a year or two. Softwoods can be split in the spring and burned that winter. Hardwoods need a year or two depending on species. Some hardwood like oak takes 2-3 years to fully season.

Going straight up with your chimney is going to give you the best draft. This is especially important on shorter chimneys that are 15 foot and under. If the chimney is going to be 20+ feet than making a 90 and going up the side of the house is feasible as the chimney is high enough to make up the draft it lost from the 90 degree turn.

 

[EbS-P]

An F500 is too big for 300 sq ft that is poorly connected to the rest of the house. IMO

A many of those brands we don’t get many reports about on the forum. The F400 eco looks completely different than any F400 that’s been sold in the states. Couple thought.

from what I saw I liked the Morso (sized better than the jotul for 300sq ft). Make sure you know the clearances. The layoalmost shows the stove in an alcove. Is that the case? You need a moisture meter. Any wood that was split (excluding pine) this year won’t be dry enough to burn.

 

[begreen]

An F500 is too big for 300 sq ft that is poorly connected to the rest of the house. IMO

A many of those brands we don’t get many reports about on the forum. The F400 eco looks completely different than any F400 that’s been sold in the states. Couple thought.

from what I saw I liked the Morso (sized better than the jotul for 300sq ft). Make sure you know the clearances. The layoalmost shows the stove in an alcove. Is that the case? You need a moisture meter. Any wood that was split (excluding pine) this year won’t be dry enough to burn.

Agreed, the stove in this situation is a room heater only. For a larger stove it should be located more centrally in the most open area of the home.