Need Some Fresh Advice Boys

[zogger]

Our setup is a free standing stove, connected to what was an old brick fireplace and chimney that had been closed up with more bricks, done before we moved here. Up about six foot or so they had made a 6" flue opening, we are connected to that.

I guess it would depend on what sort of fireplace and chimney you have, how you want to go and how handy you are. If it is possible you might could carve it out and re do it so a free standing stove could fit in the hearth area, or say half and half.

 

[haveawoody]

An new epa insert with an auto blower is pretty decent for heating a home.
Most stand alone stoves have auto blowers now also.
A similar sized free standing woodstove will be better but not all that much difference.

If it was me i would look for a real nice epa insert designed for heating more than viewing.
Check carefully on pricing though as you might find steel liners and repairs and new insert are more expensive than a free standing stove would be.

Don't let the hole make your decision, good advice all the time

 

[Fyrebug]

The reason a wood stove provides more heat than an insert is a stove radiates more heat from all sides. An insert radiates into the room from the front and glass. To improve efficiencies with insert, insulate with Roxul around the fire box and an insulated liner does not hurt either. With the blower the insert provides more heat by recuperating the hot air around the appliance and pushing it back into the room.

If you go the insert route make sure to use a 6" liner otherwise you will have no end of drafting problem. And frankly if you vent an EPA wood stove into an old chimney the same applies.

Finally if you can stand another recommendation for a wood Stove the Enerzone Solution 3.4 is the biggest non-cat stove on the market at 3.4 cu ft. It's a big 'un at 550 lbs. It comes standard with a blower, Ash pan and heat exchanger. 3/8" plate steel. Warranty on glass and burn tube is lifetime. On the glass even if you put your foot through it and sell for about $2,000 which is about $500 less than the brands you mention. We make this stove and this month there is a promo for a free door overlay ($300 gift!)

It's a favorite for Amish folks. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Bushmans]

I understand your inefficiency dilemna. This is my second season heating my house with a fireplace. Fortunatley I have a blower on it so that helps. My house is a bi-level and the fireplace is in the lower level. It will heat up the lower level just fine but getting heat up the stairs to the main level takes some time. I installed a bathroom vent fan above the fireplace in the ceiling downstairs and then ran some flexible dryer vent into the cold air return and snaked it through a couple feet to the upstairs cold air return grate. I attached it to the grate using small zip ties. You can't see anything but two small black lines and when I have the fireplace going and stick a digital thermometer into the grate it reads around 98 degrees. It isn't a lot of CFMs but it does the trick to help heat the upstairs. I usually kick the furnace on and warm the house up while the fireplace is getting going. I run the furnace about 20 minutes a day. The fan is wired to a switch on the wall and once the fireplace room is nice and toasty I kick on the vent fan and draw all the heat upstairs off the ceiling downstairs. Downside to the whole thing is I go through a ton of wood. Especially now as I am only burning cherr and ash. My oak and hickory isn't ready yet. I have been looking for the woodstove insert to maximize my efficiency but I just haen't saved enough bucks yet. Also my chimney is made of wood and drywall with a triple liner stovepipe running through the middle of it. Not sure if that is sufficient for a wood stove or not.

 

[sb47]

I haven’t read the whole thread but one thing to consider is safety with small children.
A wood stove gets very hot, and if you were to touch it at any time you would stick to it like a steak in an un greased pan.
As we all know, telling children to stay away is fine but they forget and horse around and you could have a very nasty burn accident at some point.

They are very efficient for heating and you can cook on them too.
I cant say witch one is better but they do work very well.

 

[Patrick62]

Safety sakes! oh please...

The world is a dangerous place...

I haven’t read the whole thread but one thing to consider is safety with small children.Here we go...
A wood stove gets very hot(I hope so...), and if you were to touch it at any time you would stick to it like a steak in an un greased pan.(nope. been there, done that. Try it yourself!)
As we all know, telling children to stay away is fine but they forget and horse around and you could have a very nasty burn accident at some point.Then the little rug rats won't do it again, now will they?

They are very efficient for heating and you can cook on them too.
I cant say witch one is better but they do work very well.

IMHO, this is called progress? I grew up with un grounded outlets, cars without air bags or seat belts, fireplaces that shot sparks. First you learn fear of unknown power, then you learn how it works and then what it could do to ya. I climbed trees, played in irrigation ditches, and found tools to be the most fun! How many 12 year old's today play with gun powder?? fun stuff.

 

[rtrsam]

The point has been made that a stove is more efficient than an insert because it's got six sides exposed to the room from which to radiate heat instead of just the front and top as an insert does.

I've got both, an old airtight insert and a freestanding stove; when I moved into this place (rental) 15 years ago, I knew the insert would never keep up(~2000 sq ft, no insulation, drafty doors and windows) so I had an old airtight stove installed.

About three years ago I replaced the old stove with a PE Summit. I was really concerned after the first year (installed the stove in March, so only a little burning time left) that it would not keep up with warming the house; it just didn't get hot like my old airtight stove. Then I installed a blower onto the PE stove and never looked back. I realised, basically the top of the stove is the only part that really gets hot in a modern EPA unit, so blowing this constant curtain of air across the hot top creates actually an enormous volume of hot, moving air in the house, hence the entire house is much warmer now with my new EPA stove than with my old airtight.

Considering this fact that the bulk of the heating from my stove is created by blowing air across the hot top, I have to believe that an insert of similar design (complete with blower) would be nearly as efficient at heating my house as the new stove is. It will still function if the power goes out, but less effectively. Also not to be discounted is the considerable warming of the room the stove is in from radiant heat from the glass door (if you get a glass door). Even though it takes the stove a long time to get hot, if the house is cold you can sit in front of the fire as it gets going and be warmed by the flames throuhg the door.

If your fireplace is big enough to facilitate a realistic sized insert, and you can deal with a blower to move air across the top of the thing, and assuming that the support for the insert (flue, etc) is in good condition, you very well might see similar heat from an insert as from a modern free standing stove.

Regards EPA stoves, it is very satisfying to go outside and see only heat waves rising form your pipe, virtually no smoke.

 

[sb47]

The world is a dangerous place...



IMHO, this is called progress? I grew up with un grounded outlets, cars without air bags or seat belts, fireplaces that shot sparks. First you learn fear of unknown power, then you learn how it works and then what it could do to ya. I climbed trees, played in irrigation ditches, and found tools to be the most fun! How many 12 year old's today play with gun powder?? fun stuff.

I’m not sure what you meant by your comment. I’m assuming you meant you did all that stuff growing up and you still survived. Maybe so, but I’ll bet you got hurt along the way! And how many times did you get into trouble when you got caught doing something you weren’t supposed to.

Just because you survived doesn’t mean everyone did.
The ER is full of kids that got hurt, by horsing around or doing something that weren’t supposed to.
My comment was just a heads up that a heater is more dangerous for kids than adults.

 

[haveawoody]

Patrick62,

LOL
If more 12 year olds were spending time playing with gunpowder i think it would be a blast

12 year olds now would just download an app called kaboom for the iphone and think they had used gunpowder.
Like hard work must have an app to download.

 

[boostnut]

"-My house is about 3600 square feet. How much stove/insert do I need to heat MOST of the home?"

I've got a mid sized Jotul insert (C450) and it does fine with 2000 sq feet. If I had 3600 I wouldn't even consider a stove or insert, I'd be looking at an add on furnace, especially if the ductwork was already in place. No matter how big the stove or insert you'll have a hard time heating the house uniformly with a single heat source that doesn't distribute like an add-on can.

 

[Patrick62]

Ahem...

I’m not sure what you meant by your comment. I’m assuming you meant you did all that stuff growing up and you still survived(and a lot more, I assure you). Maybe so, but I’ll bet you got hurt along the way(darn right I did)! And how many times did you get into trouble when you got caught doing something you weren’t supposed to.(Parents knew most of the time what I was doing)

Just because you survived doesn’t mean everyone did.(I know...)
The ER is full of kids that got hurt, by horsing around or doing something that weren’t supposed to.(according to the kids?)
My comment was just a heads up that a heater is more dangerous for kids than adults.

(depends on the adults...)

Been there, done that:
a black powder cannon that shoots tennis balls. Hot rod a ignition coil on the kitchen table and then rectify it to DC with a home made capacitor to blow sparks. Boiling water with 220V direct from the panel. Learning how to wrench on the car cause you broke it. knowing what goes boom, and what ignition sources are, and the relative risk this leads to things like mounting tires with acetylene. acetylene has a long history, we would inflate balloons with the stuff and launch trash cans 40 feet in the air.

One thing to think about. I did all this and much much more completely sobor.

My point is that it is silly to worry excessively about people including children getting hurt. Education is more valuable than simply saying "NO!". I am the guy who would ask "why?" I want to know why I can't fire up a magnetron tube (cause it will cook ya, dummy) for the fun of it. :hmm3grin2orange: