My answer to the Wood Insert

[kipper]

Well, before you get carried away I know there is still alot of heat going up the chimney but I made this for about 100 bucks and it works really well. This is the prototype, the next one will have 6 tubes with air flowing through all of the tubes.Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think !!!!

TIA

Kip.

 

[Locoweed]

Will that plastic hose melt from a hot fire?

 

[chowdozer]

A heatilator! Good job, better than an empty fireplace.

 

[kipper]

There is no plastic pipe. It is exhaust flex. Thanks for the compliment. Anyone ever built one fo these before?

Kip.

 

[pacman]

nice

Nice job . A man does what a man thinks of .

 

[WidowMaker]

Well, before you get carried away I know there is still alot of heat going up the chimney but I made this for about 100 bucks and it works really well. This is the prototype, the next one will have 6 tubes with air flowing through all of the tubes.Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think !!!!

TIA

Kip.

====

Build yourself a log manifold for the lower pipes and attach you fan to the manifold and blow air thru all 3 pipes....

WidowMaker

 

[kipper]

Good point on the numbers !! I still have roughly $750.00 cash in my pocket from the Insert, no smoke in my house, no liner to buy and install and easier to start a fire.

The job at my mom's went very good, I have split about two cord of wood so far and am working the pile at my own pace. I have about 100 pics to sort through and resize so I can post them here. I have found that splitting the wood is very theraputical even with the splitter !!

Widowmaker,

I had thought about that, as well as moving the two outer tubes closer to the middle pipe and making the manifold then. At that point I will probably add another tube on each end to support the logs. I figure with them closer together it will reduce some of the heat getting out.

 

[chowdozer]

There is no plastic pipe. It is exhaust flex. Thanks for the compliment. Anyone ever built one fo these before?

Kip.

In the 70's those were for sale all over the place. Treeco's right, they're not terribly efficient, but... run whatcha brung!

If you can incorporate one of those glass door type fireplace fronts into your design, you'll up the efficiency a bit. Watch on Craigslist and you may find one for free.

I never liked burning in an open fireplace, even with a screen.

 

[Mike Van]

To get any kind of efficiency out of that wood, fisrt you need some bricks & mortar, to close off most of that fireplace & make it a clean out. Higher up the wall, put in a thimble, use that 750.00 and buy a stove. You won't have to listen to that fan running wasting electricity anymore. Even a junky stove only has a few square inches [if that] of draft opening, where as that fireplace damper has about 48. Fireplaces for home heating were invented back in the middle ages, they haven't changed much either. A not too deep high back Rumford type will heat a room, but theres still a ton of heat going up the chimney. Kind of blunt, but you asked what we thought.

 

[magiriano]

Heating and cooking with firewood.

Our 4 room / 50 m2 cabin is heated with only one woodstove placed in the middle and encased in the walls.Basically the smoke from the stove spirals inside the walls untill it gets up the chimney almost completely cold.
The feeding gate of the stove stays completely closed most times,with the lower communicating gate opened just 1/2'' whenever we need a quick hot fire.It`s 20 degrees C below outside and 22+ inside with about 2 milk crates of wood/day .The little door to the left side is what we call the Pizza oven and is great for baking/cooking or roasts.Once the wood is fastly burned,all gates get closed and the fire will last for 8-9 hrs of course with a log or two every 3-4 hrs to sustain the fire.Although they cannot be seen,the stove contains +400 heat retaining bricks laid into 15-20 meters of tunnels and mortared with clay (like pottery clay) which get heated up by the smoke going thru on the way to the chimney.The fireplace will keep warm 2-3 days after the fire inside is completely estinguished.The hot plate we use it to cook on or make toast on or off the direct fire by taking the circles off. Since there is no running water available yet I didn`t bother to run a pipeline thru so I can get hot water at no cost, however is doable.
Sorry to rain on your parade,but the particular fireplace you got I think is for looks only and since it communicates directly with the chimney you`ll probably retain more heat inside your house if you have a glass window on it.Besides running an electric fan so close to the wood fire gives you a great chance for carbon monoxide poisoning.
I now learned a lot about woodstoves and chimneys and I make my own, they`re lots of books out there about how to do it properly, air intake/ exhaust ratios,spiraling the smoke so you`ll get the maximum amount of heat etc. Heat is not only on the flame itself but also in the smoke so what you wanna do is capture the maximum amount of it .
My advice to you is just stop that nonsense before you or somebody will die in your sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning since carbon monoxide doesn`t rise up the chimney but stays low,exactly at the flame level,where your pipes and electric fan are with great chances to be blown inside the house instead of going up the chimney.

No offence intended to you but I`d suggest you do some more research before you put your life and the lives of others at such a risk. And you did asked for our opinions

http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture151wm3.jpg

http://img229.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture150wa5.jpg

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4560/picture152oq2.jpg

 

[magiriano]

heat efficient wood stove

This is another wood burning stove that does not have a cooking plate .As you can see from the picture the air intake is minimal,and the heat has to go thru many meters of heat retaining brick tunnels.Also,for this stove to work,the door cannot be larger than the chimney, the chimney would have to rise at least 1.5 - 2 meters abot the roof top. The lower gate(door) opens to the compartment where the ashes fall from the fireplace thru a grill.During the wood burning this is the only gate that will be kept open for a fast,hot fire.After all wood wa rapidly burned all gates get closed,there will be fire for another 8 hrs.
It needs one bucket of firewood in the evening,and one in the morning to keep a 4x4x3m room 20 degrees Celsius warm in the winter.

 

[Log Splitter]

Well, before you get carried away I know there is still alot of heat going up the chimney but I made this for about 100 bucks and it works really well. This is the prototype, the next one will have 6 tubes with air flowing through all of the tubes.Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think !!!!

TIA

Kip.

I built one of those back in the early 80s. If I had to go back to it I'd sell my saws and splitter and use the money to pay the utility company for more natural gas to heat with.

At least buy yourself a CO detector. When the fire burns down and the draft is not strong, there is a good chance your blower will pull CO off the coals.

 

[rb_in_va]

I have about 100 pics to sort through and resize so I can post them here.

Kipper, here is a FREE resizing tool someone directed me to awhile back. Makes resizing large batches of pics very easy!

http://arboristsite.com/showpost.php?p=672208&postcount=21

 

[zopi]

It's a fireplace with zoomie headers...

 

[kipper]

Zoomie headers I knew there would be a motor head out there !!!

How's the Banks working for you on the Cummins? I have a Bully Dog on my 06.

 

[kd460]

Dude! your gonna burn your freakin house down. That blower (I assume it's a blower) is too close, what kind of "tape" is holding the flex hose to the "blower"?

I'm sure your insurance adjuster would love to see that. Like mentioned before, you just took a giant step backwards in efficiency and safety. Your just waisting your time and $$. Even units manufactered to do what your doing didn't work out so well.

If your really confident in that setup, then run it by the group over here:

http://www.**********/econtent/index.php/forums/

Also ask your local inspector to take a look at it. I'm sure he will give you a thumbs up too!

I'm not trying to bust your chops, but, man, that ain't no good! Your family is at risk. KD

 

[MrGriz]

I'm sure I missed something somewhere along the line, but you actually took an insert out of the fireplace to make that contraption and you think you're somehow ahead?:jawdrop:

For starters, can I have anything of value left after the fire? The point about the high risk of CO poisoning is also a very real one.

If you want heat out of a fireplace, the only way to do it is by putting in an insert or a wood stove. Open fireplaces actually have a negative efficiency rating, meaning they suck heat out of your house rather than creating it. You feel warm immediately in front of the fire, but there is such a massive amount of combustion air being drawn from the house and blasted up the chimney that you are sucking heat from everywhere else. Try (carefully) running that thing with a thermometer in the farthest room from the fireplace. Take a reading before the fire and after it has been going for a while. That should tell the story.

I'm not busting your chops, just pointing out the safety issues and inefficiency with that set up. You'll also burn a lot less wood with a modern insert or wood stove and keep the family warm and safe while you're doing it.

 

[Locoweed]

Had a friend who complained that his furnace could not keep up when he lit the fireplace.

 

[kipper]

I have decided to ditch all of it and buy some gas logs. They start right up, put off great heat and no mess !!! Anybody want to buy some good oak ???

 

[kd460]

Get a wood burning insert like you had before, or even a slightly better model. Get a chimney liner kit off of ebay and install it per the manuals instructions. With a block off plate. I'm not telling you to pull permits and such. But I am saying to install it per the manufacturer's instructions. Do it right and you will sleep well at night.

I have a wood burning insert in a prefab fireplace. Played the fireplace game for a year or two. It did not do anything to save me $$ with my heat bill.

My heat bill was $27 bucks last month and that included the gas to heat hot water, cooking, and I keep my garage at 45 to 50 degrees with it's own gas furnace. I live in Michigan and we are having a healthy good old fashioned winter this year, so my point is, it will be money well spent and you will recieve a return on your investement.

Glad you pulled that out of there. It was a disaster looking for place to happen. KD