Wood stove insert ???s

[NorthernBreeze]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about replacing my open fireplace with a wood stove insert but I have a few questions.

Can I use it as an open fireplace with the door open for ambiance or doesn't it work that way?

Does it actually help heat your home?
We have a multi level split and when we run the open fireplace it keeps the main level where the thermostat is warm enough so the forced air doesn't kick in but the other rooms in the house get cold. I doubt the heat from the wood stove finds its way around a chopped up house.

Any insight good or bad would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[Streblerm]

Some inserts can be used with the doors open but most are designed to be burned only with the doors closed.

Inserts do a much better job of heating mostly because you are burning with the door closed. The reason the rest of the house gets cold when burning the fireplace isn't for lack of heat but rather from cold air coming in. Fireplaces make heat but have very little control over the amount of air going up the chimney. Think of the fireplace like an open window with a fan sucking air out. That air has to be replaced, and it is, by outside air coming in through every crack and crevice in your home.

An insert gives you much more control of the air going up the chimney or even better, some pull combustion air from outside.

 

[anlrolfe]

Whatever you put in, insert or freestanding, go with a direct flue connection. Either use an accessory adapter on the back of your stove and short piece of flex liner fit snug into the flue and sealed w/ mineral wool or into a flue liner. Depending on your damper size and height a blanking plate w/ round adapter can be fabricated. When it's a sealed/closed system It will draw better and less heat loss. If you vent into a liner it will stay cleaner because the liner will run hotter. If you go with an insert DON'T get one with the blower on the backside, if it ever goes out it will be a PITA to replace. Most inserts with blowers are subject to potential damage if they're run w/o air flow making them all but useless in a power outage. I'd recommend installing a freestanding unit w/ blower accessory into the niche if space allows.

I agree w/ what @Streblerm about air flow, control and heat loss.

Ambience, get a stove with full view glass but many stoves have screen accessories.

A split level will be a little bit more challenging to heat. My guess is that the fireplace is in the far end of lower level. Here's the solution, turn on your furnace fan and use it to help distribute heat. It would be better if your t-stat had a "circulate" function kicking on short term every 10-minutes or so. This is also a helpful function if you have a whole house humidifier allowing it to work evenly. Your furnace fan will be much more efficient than lots of box fans or ceiling fans.

 

[unclemoustache]

Go with an insert. An open fireplace just sucks the air from the room up the chimney, while an insert captures much of the heat and pushes it back into the room. If you have a stove shop near you, stop in and ask them a bunch of questions and look at different models. Look at other brands as well. Different inserts do different things.

 

[longbowch]

An insert or a free standing stove are just room heaters. They are not meant to heat the whole house. If you want to hear the whole house you need something that connects to the duct work.

 

[084Amateur]

An insert or a free standing stove are just room heaters. They are not meant to heat the whole house. If you want to hear the whole house you need something that connects to the duct work.

I guess I'll have to stop heating my house with my insert and turn on the furnace. Good thing it's only been down to the mid teens or I'd be an ice berg.

 

[Brian55]

I guess I'll have to stop heating my house with my insert and turn on the furnace. Good thing it's only been down to the mid teens or I'd be an ice berg.

I guess I'll have to stop as well, it's been below zero several nights this month and yet somehow the house stays warm without anything connected to the duct work.

 

[Mustang71]

I like my wood furnace cause I can get it burning and an hour later my house is 4 degrees warmer. That being said if my house had a real fire place I'd definitely have an insert they work awesome. I'd have a wood stove too if there was a good spot to put it. I've been telling my parents to let me install an insert in their house for a long time they have always burned wood in the fire place and it heats the room but not the house. I've seen people heat the house with an insert.

 

[CrufflerJJ]

A few years ago, I FINALLY decided to have our useless-yet-pretty standard glass door fireplace replaced with a Quadrafire 2700i insert. Our home is a single story ranch type house with baseboard electric heat. Before the insert, the heating bills had gotten up to almost $500/month.

As suggested by prior posts, an insert CAN heat your entire house (depending on the size of your home & size of the insert). We use a floor fan to circulate air from the kitchen into the living room (where the insert is located), and could probably use another fan for better air flow. That being said, temps down to the teens/20's are no problem at all.

 

[Oldman47]

An insert or a stove has major advantages over a fireplace. First up is that it uses far less air from the room so you don't pull near as much outside air as you would with a fireplace, even if you don't get an outside air kit, OAK. Next up is that you can control the combustion rate to control stack temperatures and that lets you burn it clean, with very little creosote. A modern EPA stove will include the ability to use either secondary combustion or a catalyst to burn your "smoke" which is really unburned hydrocarbons. That means that you will get more heat from the same amount of wood and your neighbors should appreciate having to breathe less particulate from the smoke. If you go with a free-standing stove, try using a small fan in a doorway to an unheated room to return air to your stove. It works far better than trying to circulate the heat from the stove directly.

 

[ironman_gq]

We use an insert for supplemental heat at our cabin (not really a cabin). The unit has a blower built in which really helps circulate the heat, we keep the electric heat at 58 all winter and we can get the whole place up to 65-70 on the insert alone within 4-5 hours. It's a 3000 SF two story with a fairly open floor plan, don't let anyone tell you an insert can't make heat. Biggest improvement we made with the insert was installing an insulated flue liner and getting a good flex connection between the insert and the new liner.

 

[Mustang71]

That's y I want my parents to put an insert in they burn wood in the fire place and get one room 70 degrees I'm sure they could heat the whole downstairs with an insert and possibly the upstairs. They won't let me change the original 34 year old furnace either lol