Jotul choices

[mudhugger]

We raised our 20ft yurt this spring and will be

heating

part-time this winter (in NH.) I've found two old Jotuls - a #6 and 118. Would either of these be better/a horrible choice for starting out? We've heated solely on wood for our house for years, but I'm shaky on applying wood to the yurt. Thanks!

[mudhugger]

Maybe what I'm really asking is, how important is the seal on a stove for yurts? If these puppies are leaky will I be pulling in tons of cold air like in a stick built house? Does the radiant factor of the cast iron balance out the potential for burning through more wood? (so maybe can get by with less stoking since everything is closer to where the warmth is coming from) Not sure I'm making sense... I lean towards not thinking it's a big deal to have an expensive stove for part-time use.

[hierony]

Hello Mudhugger,

I don't have terribly much experience with wood stoves except for a winter spent in a house with a couple that used wood for

heating

. They basically burned all day and night. I woke up with an odd sort of headache frequently...

The fellow that runs

Suntime Yurts

in Washington state swears by Jotul stoves (see here). Poking around the Two Girls Farm webpage they have some recommendations. This thread has a lot of great info about people's heating experiences.

General point: get good

insulation

, seal up your yurt as much as possible (there has been one report of over-doing it, but in general it seems most yurts end up drafty), and experiment some with your heating system.

[mudhugger]

Thank you so much hierony-- these are great links. I decided to go with the jotul #6 and just see how it works. It was super affordable off Craigslist and is pretty adorable. Best way to figure something out it to do it.

[Jafo]

Not sure about the Jotul stoves, but many have an outdoor air kit (OAK). This allows you to run a duct outside and get your combustion air directly instead of drafting the yurt. Here's some pics of mine:

http://www.yurtforum.com/forums/yurt....html#post5185

If you don't have this, then the stove is forced to use the air inside as fuel. It will pull air through the walls to replace the air being put up the chimney.

Whatever stove you get, try to get one with a long burn time. Yurts do not need a large stove to be warmed, however, they do not hold heat very long once the heat source goes out. We had a small stove in my yurt and you had to load it at least once every 3 hours. That's not much fun when you are sleeping.

Most of the things in my yurt are secondhand and I got much of it for free or very cheap. The one thing I did NOT cheap out on was the wood stove. It can make or break you enjoyment in the winter time.

[Jafo]

This Jotul has that air kit btw:

Jøtul F 600 Firelight CB - Stoves - Products | Jøtul

[mudhugger]

Nice-- thanks Jafo! I must admit, I've stalked your woodstove thread before.

[Larzo]

I have a small jotul in my yurt. It works fine, but it is not a big stove and will not heat the yurt up so great at zero degrees.

I used a large cedar pole from a white cedar I cut down to hold the stovepipe in outside the wall of the yurt. I put cement blocks around the base, these are u shaped cement things used to construct chimneys and I held them together using heavy wires. I put ceramic porcelin fixtures along the cedar pole so that the stove pipe can never touch the wood

I put the porcelin in after this pic was taken I believe: