Wood stove in front of existing fireplace?

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They will all work fine with out the fans going but you will not get nearly as much heat off of them with out the fan. But if you are worried about not being able to use an insert if the power goes out it is not an issue. Many freestanders work much better with a fan running on them as well. All that being said a freestander in front of the fire box will generally give you more heat in the room than an insert
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why do you not want to run a fan if you get an insert? It would be a great mistake to buy an insert without a fan. The fan is what heats the room. Inserts are space heaters so be sure to know how much space you want and need to heat before buying or you could end up being sorry. Always go bigger with an insert and always burn dry wood under 20% MC in order to get good results..... Good luck and keep learning....

Thanks. I was just curious about inserts and radiant heat. We lose power a lot here in the winter which is one of the reasons I want to heat with wood. Not saying I wouldn't install the fan, but wouldn't want to have to rely on it in a power outage.

Looks like the Lopi & regency stick out of the hearth more. I will look at those locally as well as standalone woodstove for the front.
 
I don't have or use a fan with my stove but might try one for fun of it one of these days
 
The fan pictured here is 12vdc, I run it with 6v if when it's very cold and the stove has been running for a while. The reduced voltage is enough to get the air moving, and the
fan runs quietly. Looks primitive, but it's effective. As mentioned in this thread, the black shield reduces some heat to the mantel.


. DSCF1663.JPG
 
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why do you not want to run a fan if you get an insert?.

Jeez. Maybe he wants to be sure he has heat if the power goes out. Maybe he doesn't want the noise of the fan in an otherwise silent operation. I wouldn't want a blower if you paid me-- for both of those reasons. Each to his own, but to me, running an electric blower is completely contradictory to the whole esthetic of wood-burning. My house is so quiet with the wood stove, I get irritated when the freezer motor in the kitchen goes on.
 
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Jeez. Maybe he wants to be sure he has heat if the power goes out. Maybe he doesn't want the noise of the fan in an otherwise silent operation. I wouldn't want a blower if you paid me-- for both of those reasons. Each to his own, but to me, running an electric blower is completely contradictory to the whole esthetic of wood-burning. My house is so quiet with the wood stove, I get irritated when the freezer motor in the kitchen goes on.

Sitting here on the couch on a lazy Sunday afternoon next to the soapstone. As I'm reading your post I hear the refrigerator kick on. A new quite one nonetheless.
Do you realize thanks to you from now on that's going to annoy me :)
 
Sitting here on the couch on a lazy Sunday afternoon next to the soapstone. As I'm reading your post I hear the refrigerator kick on. A new quite one nonetheless.
Do you realize thanks to you from now on that's going to annoy me :)
Literally laughing out loud. Jo, I'm SO sorry!
 
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I don't have or use a fan with my stove but might try one for fun of it one of these days

Saw the close up of your stove (Excavator) in a previous post - never would have guessed it was a Vermont Castings like mine. I've never seen one that color,
Looks good!

I usually don't need to run the fan, when I do it is quiet since I'm running it on half the voltage. I happened to have it on hand, so as you said I tried it for the fun
of it. It's raised above the stove with aluminum foil underneath to keep it from overheating when not in use.
 
Yes!

before:

IMG_2218Large_zps3d310ee9.jpg



After:

IMG_20141123_170840804Large_zps0373a242.jpg



Good luck!
 
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The fan pictured here is 12vdc, I run it with 6v if when it's very cold and the stove has been running for a while. The reduced voltage is enough to get the air moving, and the
fan runs quietly. Looks primitive, but it's effective.
I've got the two-speed blower for my 2460. It's not as quiet as I'd like but I need it for that stove to heat the place to 70 when it gets cold out (mid-teens at night.) It wasn't cheap either, but pulls a lot of heat off the stove.
 
I've got the two-speed blower for my 2460

Having 2 speeds must be nice. This evening with the temp around 34 the fan wasn't necessary. 2 weeks ago tonight had no fan option - a pine tree down the street fell onto the electrical wires. The power was out until the next morning. Sure appreciated the stove, got close to 20 overnight and was able to use it to heat up a meal.
 
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