Insert not heating room or house

Bio bricks are your friend this year. Also post a shameless beg on Craigslist for some seasoned wood - someone with a surplus may be willing to sell you some of theirs, or trade you some lighter weight stuff (maple, ash, birch) for some of your unseasoned oak. I found someone our second winter whose house was being foreclosed. They sold me their seasoned wood for a song, they were damned if they were going to let the bank put it in a dumpster.

mfglickman said:

Bio bricks are your friend this year. Also post a shameless beg on Craigslist for some seasoned wood - someone with a surplus may be willing to sell you some of theirs, or trade you some lighter weight stuff (maple, ash, birch) for some of your unseasoned oak. I found someone our second winter whose house was being foreclosed. They sold me their seasoned wood for a song, they were damned if they were going to let the bank put it in a dumpster.

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I've picked up a few cords that way too, foreclosures are down last couple years I haven't got any lately. But you make a good point, if you put some time into it you can usually dig up some seasoned wood somehow somewhere.

I have the same situation with my Jotul c350. I can only increase room temp about 2 degrees when it is at max temp.

I can feel radiant heat, but air temp isn't changed much. I wanted mine for only supplemental heat, but I thought it would throw way more heat. I can keep the thermostat set a couple degrees lower and burn the insert to make it comfortable.

I stuffed roxul around the liner. I can't put a block off plate without removing the stove because it is so tight. Also the liner was such a tight fit down the existing chimney I don't expect a lot if heat going up. This is all installed in a ZC fireplace.

RSNovi said:

I have the same situation with my Jotul c350. I can only increase room temp about 2 degrees when it is at max temp.

I can feel radiant heat, but air temp isn't changed much. I wanted mine for only supplemental heat, but I thought it would throw way more heat. I can keep the thermostat set a couple degrees lower and burn the insert to make it comfortable.

I stuffed roxul around the liner. I can't put a block off plate without removing the stove because it is so tight. Also the liner was such a tight fit down the existing chimney I don't expect a lot if heat going up. This is all installed in a ZC fireplace.

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You would be amazed at how much heat can go up along side that liner and be absorbed through the masonry and released the the great out doors. Insulation does not stop air flow as a block off plate does.

Great looking install, though. When it is ZC fireplace what kind of chimney do you have? And is there no warm air coming out with the blower?

Grisu said:

Great looking install, though. When it is ZC fireplace what kind of chimney do you have? And is there no warm air coming out with the blower?

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Thanks. I am definitely really happy with how it looks which takes a little sting away.

My existing chimney is an 8" triple wall air air cooled pipe. An insulated 6" liner was installed.

Hot air does blow out, but the fans don't seem to move all that much air. Standing right in front of the stove it is nice and warm.

Hogwildz said:

You would be amazed at how much heat can go up along side that liner and be absorbed through the masonry and released the the great out doors. Insulation does not stop air flow as a block off plate does.

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I agree that my setup might not be ideal. I think I would have to pull the liner up to be able to pull the stove out based on what I saw when it was installed. That has stopped me from pulling it out and trying to make a plate.

Bulldogmoose said:

That's the exact same thing that's happening to me with my 350 insert... Wednesday should be the test hopefully the damper block off plate will do the trick... In the mean time I need to find some good dry wood

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Please report back after Wednesday.

Does anyone know what the heat penalty for an insert is ,over a regular wood stove?

Seasoned Oak said:

Does anyone know what teh heat penalty for an insert is ,over a regular wood stove?

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Why do you think there should be any? I my opinion there is almost none for an interior fireplace with block-off plate and insulation above it. A fireplace insert with exterior chimney will lose heat out the back but there will probably be a heat loss anyway even if you heat with your furnace. That is why stuffing insulation around your insert may help in that case.

Grisu said:

Why do you think there should be any? I my opinion there is almost none for an interior fireplace with block-off plate and insulation above it. A fireplace insert with exterior chimney will lose heat out the back but there will probably be a heat loss anyway even if you heat with your furnace. That is why stuffing insulation around your insert may help in that case.

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Reason i ask is,I dont hear members here saying that their very small wood stove wont even heat the room that its in. On of my stoves is very small and i can heat 4 rooms up from 40 Deg to 70 in a few hours and the place is only partially insulated so far. In the case of the insert all the heat you get from the 2 sides the back and the top is totally dependent on the fans so im thinking there some penalty there.

Seasoned Oak said:

Reason i ask is,I dont hear members here saying that their very small wood stove wont even heat the room that its in. On of my stoves is very small and i can heat 4 rooms up from 40 Deg to 70 in a few hours and the place is only partially insulated so far. In the case of the insert all the heat you get from the 2 sides the back and the top is totally dependent on the fans so im thinking there some penalty there.

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If the heat from the stove will not go out it will warm up the masonry which will slowly release it then. The question is only where to. The back of my interior fireplace gets nicely warm during the day to the point that I was checking if our radiator in the stairwell was turned on. If the back goes out to the yard, then you surely will have some heat loss. The other place the heat can go is up. For a stove with a stovepipe it will stay in the room. For an insert with a liner it can also go around the liner up the chimney IF there is no block-off plate. Hence, there is no "heating penalty" just because you have an insert. There is a penalty for letting the heat of it escape due to missing insulation or lack of air-sealing.

I actually love my insert in my interior fireplace. The masonry acts as a huge heat sink radiating the heat back into the room hours after the stove went cold (Take that, soapstone! ). On the other hand, I do not expect the insert to throw plenty of heat within an hour after lighting a fire although the blower kind of helps.

Grisu said:

If the heat from the stove will not go out it will warm up the masonry which will slowly release it then. The question is only where to. The back of my interior fireplace gets nicely warm during the day to the point that I was checking if our radiator in the stairwell was turned on. If the back goes out to the yard, then you surely will have some heat loss. The other place the heat can go is up. For a stove with a stovepipe it will stay in the room. For an insert with a liner it can also go around the liner up the chimney IF there is no block-off plate. Hence, there is no "heating penalty" just because you have an insert. There is a penalty for letting the heat of it escape due to missing insulation or lack of air-sealing.

I actually love my insert in my interior fireplace. The masonry acts as a huge heat sink radiating the heat back into the room hours after the stove went cold (Take that, soapstone! ). On the other hand, I do not expect the insert to throw plenty of heat within an hour after lighting a fire although the blower kind of helps.

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Mine does the same thing, all the stone in the fireplace heats up and radiates for quite a while. That's why I hate to let it go cold in the winter even if we have 1 warm day, takes a while to get the stone heated up again.

Bulldogmoose said:

They did not install a damper block off plate. My installer said because I have a full stainless steel chimney liner I did not need one because at the top of the chimney it is capped off .

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The first year of buring I had the same setup. When they installed the liner, it was too late in the season to insulate the liner. So, bascially, what was happening is a lot of the heat went right up the chimney because the clay tiles act as a heat sink. The next year they came back and blocked off the bottom and poured in insulation from the top. It made a big difference. Oh, I sure you know, good seasoned wood also makes a big difference. It took a while and some land clearing, but I have a three year seasoning area before I burn it. Start planning now so you can get you wood supply seasoned properly. You'll get there in due time.

Grisu said:

I actually love my insert in my interior fireplace. The masonry acts as a huge heat sink radiating the heat back into the room hours after the stove went cold (Take that, soapstone! ). On the other hand, I do not expect the insert to throw plenty of heat within an hour after lighting a fire although the blower kind of helps.

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I actually like the look of an insert much better than a regular wood stove. The harman and several other newer models are downright gorgeous.

I think it depends on the wood. Also,uncut, unsplit would not be same as cut, split, stacked for that amount of time. I think finding truly dry wood is hard. When I was looking this fall dealers all say it's seasoned, but if you asked specifics the best I could find was one year and some of that stuff dry while some is less dry mostly because it's mixed.

Bulldogmoose said:

I found tree company does 16 foot log length about year year and a half old 350 for 3 cords.. What do u think? Does that sound about right.. I don't mind splitting it myself I just wanna make sure it is seasoned which he said it was

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Unsplit wood does not really season. I had branches about 2 inch diameter, 18" to 20" long for two years in the woodstack and those were the ones still hissing. The larger splits around it burned just fine and came up 15% to 20% with the MM. However, it is easy to split hardwood delivered, $117 for a cord is not that bad. You just need to cut, split and stack it for a year or two before burning it. Does he maybe sell some "unseasoned" logs for even less? It would be at least a quick way to get you started before you can find some scrounged wood.

Bulldogmoose said:

Yeah Verrier is 375.. Billy's firewood has kiln dried for 350

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None of those craiglist guys panned out ?