I finally have the Pellet stove (Quadfire - Castille FP Insert) installed and running and has been for over a week.
Thanks to this forum and Many MANY searches and reading for hours I was able to draw up enough courage to rip out the beautiful (but very inefficient) Propane fireplace insert that came with the house and replace it with the Castille insert. So I:
1. Took out the custom corner mounted fireplace (all in one piece so I can reuse or sell if I choose to),
2. Installed dura-rock on the floor and back walls,
3. Removed the FP Thimble and installed a Pellet stove Thimble with the OAK
4. Did some resizing (cutting) of the marble surround to make the Castille look as if it was actually built into that FP.
I have not finished the surround installation yet because I was waiting to ensure there were no leaks and that the installation was good to go. so I will finish the marble surround install this weekend.
I had one neighbor who had a Pellet stove professionally installed last year come over a few weeks back and look at what I was working on before I finished the install and he was very impressed and actually said to me if I would've known what I know now I would've saved myself the $700 installation charge and done it myself.
It was a challenge to find pellets this late into the season and last week after buying 10 bags at $6.40 per bag from the local Hearth store who knew that the big box stores were out of stock. I was able to find a somewhat local Lowe's who had just received a truckload - so I bought a Ton of pellets from them at $224 after military discount. Lesson learned: Buy pellets earlier. but the reason why I waited so long was that I bought the Castille used and I wanted to make sure that it was functional before I spent money on pellets.
Anyways the house on the main level (Open floor plan but the insert is in the Family Room) has maintained 70 Degrees and the 2nd floor maintains a very comfortable 68-69 degrees with ceiling fans on each floor circulating on low and I have not heard the Heat pump/Fan turn on and if it does its on for a very short amount of time - hardly noticeable so my electric bill should be very low.
Pics are forthecoming - I just wanted to stop by real quick and give a shout out and a Thank You to all you guys.
Thanks to this forum and Many MANY searches and reading for hours I was able to draw up enough courage to rip out the beautiful (but very inefficient) Propane fireplace insert that came with the house and replace it with the Castille insert. So I:
1. Took out the custom corner mounted fireplace (all in one piece so I can reuse or sell if I choose to),
2. Installed dura-rock on the floor and back walls,
3. Removed the FP Thimble and installed a Pellet stove Thimble with the OAK
4. Did some resizing (cutting) of the marble surround to make the Castille look as if it was actually built into that FP.
I have not finished the surround installation yet because I was waiting to ensure there were no leaks and that the installation was good to go. so I will finish the marble surround install this weekend.
I had one neighbor who had a Pellet stove professionally installed last year come over a few weeks back and look at what I was working on before I finished the install and he was very impressed and actually said to me if I would've known what I know now I would've saved myself the $700 installation charge and done it myself.
It was a challenge to find pellets this late into the season and last week after buying 10 bags at $6.40 per bag from the local Hearth store who knew that the big box stores were out of stock. I was able to find a somewhat local Lowe's who had just received a truckload - so I bought a Ton of pellets from them at $224 after military discount. Lesson learned: Buy pellets earlier. but the reason why I waited so long was that I bought the Castille used and I wanted to make sure that it was functional before I spent money on pellets.
Anyways the house on the main level (Open floor plan but the insert is in the Family Room) has maintained 70 Degrees and the 2nd floor maintains a very comfortable 68-69 degrees with ceiling fans on each floor circulating on low and I have not heard the Heat pump/Fan turn on and if it does its on for a very short amount of time - hardly noticeable so my electric bill should be very low.
Pics are forthecoming - I just wanted to stop by real quick and give a shout out and a Thank You to all you guys.
The marble surround work sounds like a good challenge !
