<font color="blue"> hope to have the heat rise up the stairwell into the upper level. Or maybe run the fan on the furnace and suck the heat through the registers. </font color>
Our stove will be located a good distance from the stairwell & we have forced hot water baseboard heat. So we lose twice.
I hope that it will make a dent in the heating bill. Even if it doesn't I'll be using up the wood I'm cutting. Plus there are those intangibles, like how romantic a real wood fire is [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd revive this one for a question.
I have two fireplaces. The one on the main floor is a through-the-wall design. It's in the middle of an eight foot sandstone wall that also houses the chimney for a fireplace in the basement. We use the main fireplace, but it's obviously not an economical heat source. I've thought about the possibility of trying o find an insert that would fit it, but I've never seen a through-the-wall insert. Anyway, it's more for entertainment than heat. The basement fireplace doesn't look like it's been used more than two or three times in the 50 year life of the house. Both chimney's are in good shape, though the one to the basement has quite a few mud daubers nests that would have to be cleaned out before use. Question: If I put a wood stove in the basement and vented through the existing chimney, how far up the chimney wiould I run the metal duct from the stove? Is there a commercial product (there must be) to close off the fireplace entrance and provide an opening for the metal duct? Would that closure need to be vented in some way so the duct/chimney from the stove would draw properly?
I put a woodstove in a fireplace a few eyars ago at another house. Here's what i did. For starters you have to cut some of the damper shelf away to fit a pipe up thru. I used all flexible pipe and ran it all the way to the top to get it to draft properly. At the top i fabricated a top cap to go over the masonary chimney with a hole in it to ecept the size pipe i used. 6" it was. Then put one of thos chimney toppers on and it hide the folds of the cap i fabricated. This worked real well. If you dont run the pipe all the way up and out 3-4" it may not draft properly, plus when you go to clean it crap will just fall along side the pipe and fall on the back of your stove at the top. before you know it you got liquid creasult running on top of your stove and a good chance of fire. The part of the pipe that went up thru the fireplace draft i contructed a cover for that also to close off the chimney to the stove. The first thing you want to do is get all the ash off the top of the fireplace shelf. Its just up inside the damper to the front of chimney. Most fireplaces have this shelf it is called. I pulled 5 -5 gallon pails of crap out of there. Where the gap aound the stove and fireplace opening is put a face plate on that. You can order them thru a woodstove dealer. They make them to fit anysize gap you need to cover. I made some nice oak molding for the top of it after it was in. Looked real sharp too.
Hope this helps ya
Larry
I have heated with wood for the past 20 years. The advice cautioning against hortizonal pipe runs is right on. Do't do it if you can possibly avoid it. You will be creating a smoky, poorly-drafting stove and a creosote-collecting maintenance problem for sure. Also, I have owned half a dozen stoves. I've had a Lopi brand stove for the last 9 years. I've never seen a better burning, cleaner burning, more efficient burning stove. Mine is just as good today as the day I bought it and it burns all night on a single loading. More important (to the wife anyway) is that it is easy to clean and doesn't smoke into the house, due to the unique damper by-pass system that you use when opening the door. Try one. I'm sure that you'll be very happy. They have a lifetime warrenty and are manufactured in the state of Washington. No, I don't sell them or work for them. I'm just enthusiastic, because I have seldom bought a product that I have been completely satisfied with, but that is true with Lopi.
They are installing the wood stove as I write. Hard parts are done, they managed to cut thru the wall of the house without hitting any of the electric wires that were running thru there. The hearthpad they made looks fantastic.
Watching the guys on their 40' ladder, I am glad that I am paying them to do it. I think I saw one guy do a hail mary before he climbed up with a 3' section of pipe. I would have thought they'd use scaffolding to put the chimmney up. I would have anyway!
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