Reality check please.

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Mike1776

Member
Oct 28, 2013
6
Mid MI
Long time occasional lurker here.

In our current house, I send my hard work with saw & splitting tools up the chimney of our open masonry fireplace.

Now it looks like we're finally moving ahead with our plan to build a new house. It will be a 2400 sq ft ranch with 10' ceilings throughout most of it. The main open space living area includes a 'great' room, eating area & kitchen and is approximately 24' x 30' with the fireplace along one of the short ends. On the back side of the wall with the fireplace, is the master suite. There will be a good sized ceiling fan in the 'great' room and another ceiling fan in the master suite.

We're strongly leaning towards the Pacific Energy FP30 Arch recommended by a friend and validated by the local fire place shop. Our goal is supplemental heat for the house & ambiance in the 'great' room. The house will be very tight as far as air infiltration. The FP30 will be installed with the fresh air inlet connected to the outside. My nagging concern is that heat output may chase me out of the house. Thinking about taking one of the warm air outlets into the master suite. Any constructive input from people with this or similar units would be welcome.
 
Congrats to your soon to be new home and kudos to your decision to put an efficient wood heater in there. If you have a heat-loss analysis for your new home that would help. That said the FP30 would most likely be able to heat a well-insulated home of 2400 sqft by itself. The question is if you can get the heat distributed. Ducting the unit to deliver the heat to other places in the house sounds like a good idea. Nevertheless, if less heat is desired then just burn less wood. There is no rule that you have to fill it up every time you load it or to reload it once the fire is down to coals.

The FP30 is a relatively new unit so you probably won't find many reviews. But its firebox is based on the one of the PE Summit stove/insert; reviews of those may give you an indication of how well the FP30 may heat your home.
 
It is highly doubtful the PE will heat you out of the house, unless you have it in a confined area.
Does the great room have vaulted ceiling?
 
The ceiling in the great room room is 10' on the blueprint, not vaulted. More like a big family room in my mind than a truly great room. Feeling better about our choice already.
 
This should work out ok. The firebox burns well with just a partial load of wood for those milder days. Be sure there is at least the PE recommended 15' chimney height and that you have an adequate supply of dried wood in advance. These stoves burn best with fully seasoned wood.

It would be great to hear how this works out for you and how it looks when done. Can you take some pictures as the fireplace goes in and of the completed installation and post them here?
 
I know nothing about your proposed stove, but excessive heat output can always be addressed by opening a window. If you are still designing your house, give thought to improving heat distribution. Big doorways,open transoms, no dropped soffits across the rooms, there are lots of ideas on this site. Most have found that trying to move cold air back into the stove room is much more successful that trying to move hot air out, but if the stove is designed for hot air ducts, use them, but be sure to insulate the ductwork well.

10x what he said about truly seasoned wood or else you'll be back here in January asking why it's so cold in your house.

TE
 
I'll try & take some pictures as it gets installed. No problem with the minimum chimney height. Sadly, I couldn't relocate my leftover 5 or so face cords of ash & elm due to regulations around moving firewood. If we stayed in the old house it was for winter '14/'15. One of my college buddies who lives just down the road was the beneficiary on that one. First winter will have minimum number of fires. We'll find some wood locally and probably just have fires on the weekends.

Our lot is 2 acres front to back of hardwoods (mostly hickory & oaks, some birch & maple). Probably 3/4 of an acre will come down for the house/barn/lawn area. I'm trying to save several of the bigger specimans for the local wildlife. Builder will set aside as much as I want of what they take down, in 8' lengths, towards the back of the cleared area. I'll get the saw out after deer season and start making rounds, splitting, stacking. I just hope it doesn't disappear during construction.
 
If you can get some ash get it now. Buy "seasoned" wood, stack so that the prevailing winds can blow through the stacks and put a tarp on the top only. Try to avoid oak and hickory unless it has been split and has had a couple years to dry.
 
Mike1776 said:
Long time occasional lurker here.

In our current house, I send my hard work with saw & splitting tools up the chimney of our open masonry fireplace.

Now it looks like we're finally moving ahead with our plan to build a new house. It will be a 2400 sq ft ranch with 10' ceilings throughout most of it. The main open space living area includes a 'great' room, eating area & kitchen and is approximately 24' x 30' with the fireplace along one of the short ends. On the back side of the wall with the fireplace, is the master suite. There will be a good sized ceiling fan in the 'great' room and another ceiling fan in the master suite.

We're strongly leaning towards the Pacific Energy FP30 Arch recommended by a friend and validated by the local fire place shop. Our goal is supplemental heat for the house & ambiance in the 'great' room. The house will be very tight as far as air infiltration. The FP30 will be installed with the fresh air inlet connected to the outside. My nagging concern is that heat output may chase me out of the house. Thinking about taking one of the warm air outlets into the master suite. Any constructive input from people with this or similar units would be welcome.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you got it handled
 
We looked at a house with a soapstone masonry heater (from Finland I think). Nice, but really dominated the space. Not for me at this time. We haven't signed the dotted line yet and a new listing just caught our eye. Be nice to move in in 2 months rather than 6 or 7. Too many decisions...
 
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