Please Help - No Heat out of wood insert :(

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ryanm51981

ryanm51981

New Member
Sep 28, 2012
23
Im looking for some advice.....Two seasons ago I installed a Regency CI1200 wood instert (no blower) in my heatlialtor pre fab fireplace. Since I had a prefab , I was told my options were very limited as to what I could safely put in the fireplace..2200 bucks later it got installed. It looks great however it cannot pull my living room and kitchen area hotter then around 62 degrees on an average winter day. My fireplace would warm up this entire area and even my bedroom upstairs to about 75 degrees with only running it for about 7 hours. It says in the specs that the insert should heat about 1200 sq. The living room and kitchen are about 900 or so however there is cathederal ceilings in the living room . Ive read a few posts about back off plates and insulation....Is this something I should look into more?Im ready to bang my head against a wall lol...the salesmen told me that this would heat my house the same as the fireplace would only more safely and efficently.
My house is quite large , about 4000 sq of living space all together however all Im trying to heat with the insert like i said is about 900-1000 sq feet . Since the insert wasnt doing the job , I even put a wood stove up in my bedroom ( 900SQft) . The bedroom door leads out to the cathedral ceilings where the insert is. I can make the upstairs just about as hot as I want . I purchased two 14" high velocity fans to blow heat out of the bedroom and use a fan in reverse to try and pull heat down . Is there a better way to pull heat down?? If any way at all to defy the laws of physcics to get that heat downstairs. Please feel free to chime in and ask any questions...Im looking for any advice possible . Its quite frustrating to invest in the insert and feel no return on my money . It honestly feels as if there is always a window open in my house and its just not warming up .

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Looks like the problem is the high ceiling. Yeah maybe it's only 900 sq.ft. but how many cubic ft. is it?? You've got the right idea, having the ceiling fan blow up. Have you closed all the doors upstairs when you are trying to heat the lower level?

Wood stove in the sleeping quarters is unsafe, and a violation of code! !!!
 
Yes Ive tried both , leaving upstairs door closed and open. Im thinking maybe the wood Im trying to burn isnt fully seasoned however it gets my bedroom super warm . Its not directly in the bedroom where I sleep, my whole upstairs is a master sweet and has a living room attached......You can see in one of the pics..the upper right corner is where the bedroom door is. I pump 85 degree heat out of that room into that ceiling and it still doesnt make a difference.
 
Most fireplaces have pretty big flues, was a proper sized liner installed? if not and no block off plate you are losing most of the heat up the chimney
 
blades said:
Most fireplaces have pretty big flues, was a proper sized liner installed? if not and no block off plate you are losing most of the heat up the chimney
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if block off plate was installed. I know a double walled liner was dropped down......Can I stuff Roxul around the sides?
 
Well insulating and installing a block off plate could help subtantially based on recommendations and aecdotal reports. Another option would be to investigate replacing the stove with a freestanding stove and hearth just like you did upstairs. you could probably hawk the stove on craigslist and still use most of the current liner.
 
Undersized flush insert, with no blower! I don't know if there is much you can do. Besides insulating, I would see if you can get it to stick out more from your fireplace.If it can be safely done and still up to code. This will allow more heat into the room and less heat being absorbed by your fireplace brick. That will be your best shot at getting more heat out of it.
 
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My 2 cents is...first your wood second you need a blower.

I have a insert w/ blower in a ZC stove, it's in a cathedral ceiling room 25x25. I can notice a difference with my heat from the wood Ive stored in the garage that is over a year and half seasoned from the same wood I stored outside. With this cold winter I m using the wood from outside now and it needs more air to get it to burn like the stored garage wood, which Is causing me to losing heat and I ' m not getting the stove as hot with less wood like before. Dry wood is the key to these stoves.

Also try a floor fan since you don' t have one on the insert stove, place it behind the couch or in a doorway room outside of the insert room. Face it blowing towards the insert not away, see if that helps move some cold air out...Hope it helps.
 
Bud, I'm gonna agree with what I read here.....first from the pictures, it's looking like your trying to heat 1500 sqft because of the high ceilings (2 story ) so that leaves you trying to heat with an undersize unit. It may say 1200ft but the truth is it probably means 400ft, on top of it all you don't even have a blower, a blower is an essential part of moving the hot air from the insert to the room. Also you don't state where you live, how cold it is and the MC or type of wood you are using. According to your pics the room looks nice and cozy, I didn't see any windows, you have that in your favor if it is really well insulated? For example I'm heating only 550 sq ft with a MEDIUM size insert with a fan that I use all the time. Your trying to heat that monster space(due to cathedral ceiling) with a SMALL insert and no fan..... There was a thread last week we were talking about this issue and customers under buy the size unit that the really need in order to heat the space that they have, I used the word REFORM that was needed in how they rate inserts or at least give a WARNING sign when purchasing an insert.....
 
As indicated above a blower is essential for an insert. There are trade-offs in everything. With an insert you trade not having a stove sticking out into the room for needing a fan to get the heat out of the insert.

Add that most installers will not install a block-off plate so that most of the heat generated by your insert ends up going up the chimney and is lost to the chimney.
 
Ryan after re-reading your post, my advise on placing the floor fan was to move cold air around the house with your other ceiling fans,but if you want to see if you can bring the hot air down from the ceiling then place the fan blowing away from the stove, moving any cold air on the floor out of that room and dropping the hot air down.

The feeling of a window being open is your ZC stove they need air to cool them, I would not add or change that with the insert you put in...IMHO.
 
ryanm51981 said:
Yes Ive tried both , leaving upstairs door closed and open. Im thinking maybe the wood Im trying to burn isnt fully seasoned however it gets my bedroom super warm . Its not directly in the bedroom where I sleep, my whole upstairs is a master sweet and has a living room attached......You can see in one of the pics..the upper right corner is where the bedroom door is. I pump 85 degree heat out of that room into that ceiling and it still doesnt make a difference.
Click to expand...

I bought a very good moisture meter at Lowe's home improvement for under $25. Best investment I ever made. Oak that has been cut and split over a year, 23%. Cedar that I cut and split in November 15%. I would have burned the oak first. I used to look at color, checking in the end grains, etc. Now, I split a larger piece and measure. More heat, less gunk in the liner.

What convinced me to buy one is this. Have you ever seen kiln dried lumber with checks in the end grain? It is very dry, but no checks. The only way to tell is to measure a freshly split piece.

If I were you, I would start there.

Second, as an insert owner myself, you gotta have a blower.

Finally: good luck. I live in a two story house, and heat likes to go up. My stove is downstairs in the center of the house. That room is pretty warm, but every other room downstairs is cooler than what's upstairs.
 
Bigg_Redd said:
A flush mount with no blower? That pretty much makes your stove a decorative piece.
Click to expand...

Agreed. No blower on a flush insert is going to be more for show than go.

Also, wood stove in a bedroom?? How did this pass inspection and the insurance report?
 
begreen said:
Agreed. No blower on a flush insert is going to be more for show than go.

Also, wood stove in a bedroom?? How did this pass inspection and the insurance report?
Click to expand...
Then they shouldn't be selling these inserts saying that they are capable of heating 1200sq ft......
It's ridiculous......
 
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begreen said:
Also, wood stove in a bedroom?? How did this pass inspection and the insurance report?
Click to expand...

ryanm51981 said:
Its not directly in the bedroom where I sleep, my whole upstairs is a master sweet and has a living room attached......You can see in one of the pics..the upper right corner is where the bedroom door is.
Click to expand...

I suppose it isn't much different than having a stove in the living room of a small bungalow.
 
Most stove manuals explicitly warn against bedroom installations and most living rooms aren't closed off by doors. But in this case it may be code acceptable in that it is not in the sleeping area.
 
I don't think he can add a blower with that insert, it comes in two models, one with and one without, the one without being smaller, sounds like he went with the smaller one to fit into his fireplace. I read a little about that insert because I was thinking of getting that insert for my upstairs fireplace since it's a small opening. From what I read you should be getting more heat than you're getting, maybe try some roxul and block off plate to see if that helps, the wood could be a problem too, just because it burns well in one stove doesn't mean it will in another if its borderline seasoned. Buy some packages of kiln dried and see if that makes a difference.
 
Ram 1500 with an axe... said:
Then they shouldn't be selling these inserts saying that they are capable of heating 1200sq ft......
It's ridiculous......
Click to expand...

Which is exactly why I am beating around this forum for experience from actual owners before I plop my hard earned money down on an EPA certified new stove.

The BTU and square footage claims of some folks just don't match what you read on here, and it is ridiculous.

One of the reasons I am using this data

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...YGJCcBKZylA0d1g&bvm=bv.61965928,d.dmQ&cad=rja

as a key in my decision making. I know the manufacturer can play with these numbers some, but at least it gives a BTU range with the exact same load of wood (type, size, and moisture content) in every single stove. Now if it only came with burn times........
 
Just curious, are you an engineer?
 
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