Masonry Rumford or RSF Opel 2???

DWC · Aug 9, 2015

Hello All,

My first post…

We are building a new home in North Ontario and are putting in a fireplace. The home is two stories, with about 1800 sq ft on the main level and 900 sq ft on the second floor. The first floor ceilings are 9’.

We are looking at either building a masonry Rumford fireplace or buying and installing an RSF Opel 2. We love the ambiance of the Rumford, but we are not sure if it will heat our home. From the reviews I have read on this forum about the RSF Opel, it should heat our home. We will have a backup propane forced air furnace. Local laws do not allow us to hook the RSF into the furnace.

My questions:

1. Does anyone know how well a masonry Rumford fireplace would heat 2700 sq ft?

2. How would a masonry Rumford fireplace compare in heating capabilities with the RSF Opel 2?

3. My wife likes the look of the Opel 2, but does not like the front grill. Do you think the Opel 2 without the front grill and with the heat dump and the two gravity fed ducts heat our house?

4. Would a furnace cold air return near the ceiling in the room where the fireplace is located and with the furnace fan running help heat the rest of the house or should we just keep the furnace cold air returns at floor level?

5. How noisy is the RSF Opel fans?

Thank you all for your help,

Dave

bholler · Aug 9, 2015

DWC said:
1. Does anyone know how well a masonry Rumford fireplace would heat 2700 sq ft?

It will not rumfords are very good as far as open fireplaces go but they are still very inefficient heaters I dont know the Opel so i cant give you input on that but 2700 sq ft is allot to heat with one stove especially with 9'ceilings

begreen · Aug 9, 2015

DWC said:
1. Does anyone know how well a masonry Rumford fireplace would heat 2700 sq ft?

2. How would a masonry Rumford fireplace compare in heating capabilities with the RSF Opel 2?

3. My wife likes the look of the Opel 2, but does not like the front grill. Do you think the Opel 2 without the front grill and with the heat dump and the two gravity fed ducts heat our house?

4. Would a furnace cold air return near the ceiling in the room where the fireplace is located and with the furnace fan running help heat the rest of the house or should we just keep the furnace cold air returns at floor level?

5. How noisy is the RSF Opel fans?

1- Not too well unless it is stoked like a locomotive. as soon as the fire starts dying down it will start pulling heat out of the room and up the chimney. Wood consumption will be much higher with the open fireplace.

2 - The Opel 2 should out heat the Rumford significantly. It will deliver more heat into the space and will not lose major room heat up the chimney. It will also distribute the heat more evenly. If the house is well insulated with a thermal break on the exterior or with staggered stud construction, then it should heat well with the ZC fireplace, especially if the output of the fireplace is ducted to even out the heat. This will depend on the FP location and house design.

3 - Not sure what is meant by the grille. Do you mean the split door? If yes did you look at the single door Opel3? There are also many other nice ZC fireplaces on the market like the Kozy Z42 or BIS Traditions (Lennox Montecito), etc..

4 - The furnace cold air return should be at least 10 ft from the fireplace. It would be better to use the fireplace's fan system to circulate the heat. RSF offers several heat distribution options. http://www.icc-rsf.com/en/heat-distribution-options

5 - They are fairly quiet on low speed or you can remotely locate the blower in the basement to make it even quieter.

RSF Opel2

Screen Shot 2015-08-09 at 9.42.33 AM.png

RSF Opel3

Screen Shot 2015-08-09 at 9.46.54 AM.png

Grisu · Aug 9, 2015

Not sure what your local masons charge but in general an EPA-certified ZC fireplace should be quite a bit cheaper than a masonry fireplace/Rumford. And as BeGreen said, there are plenty other options available when you don't like the look of the Opel 2. Pacific Energy FP30, Napoleon NZ3000, and Valcourt FP9 would be some others from Canadian companies. FireplaceXtraordinaire Elite 36, Quadrafire 7100 are additional options. How well will the house be insulated? Your heating load will determine whether a fireplace can heat your home. A firebox size of 3 to 4 cu ft would probably be appropriate but having some more info would help.

Please be aware that you will need dry wood with an internal moisture content of less than 20%. While building the house, I suggest stacking several cords of split firewood in a sunny location perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction in a corner of the property. Don't rely on buying "seasoned" wood just before the winter. Chances are it has been split just a few weeks before delivery if not the day before.

DWC · Aug 9, 2015

Thank you everyone for the quick replies!

So the bottom line is a zero clearance fireplace is a better heater than masonry. I will take a look at the other suggested ZC fireplaces.

What I meant by the front grill on the RSF Opel is the black louver or grate on the front of the fireplace just above the door. You can optionally close this grate off and use two gravity fed ducts, but I am not sure if this option produces as much heat and what "penalty" there is to the design. The picture below shows the front of the fireplace with the black grate just above the door.

Since the house is brand new, it will be well insulated. The fireplace is on an inside wall and is located in the living room/kitchen area.

We are building on 20 acres with lots of hardwood around. I agree; the wood quality makes a huge difference! I have some maple that was split 3 years ago and stacked. I hope it is not getting too old.

Thanks!

Dave

SteveKG · Aug 9, 2015

We have a Rumford fireplace in our home, and I built it myself 25 yr. ago. So we have some experience. It does heat many times better than any "regular" fireplace I've experienced. Not even in the same class of heating.

However, it does not heat our 1100 sq. ft home. It can blast us out of the living room if we really get it going, but the heat won't be distributed throughout the house. The insert or a wood stove will be hugely better for heating the larger home. Also, if it matters to you, the wood stove uses a fraction of the wood the fireplace needs. We love the fireplace ambience, but we use it for fun and not as our main heat source.

I'm glad I built ours, but for heating we have a Woodstock Soapstone stove.

byQ · Aug 14, 2015

I pm'ed you a list of Masonry Heater builders in Ontario. Ontario is one of the best locations to find a skilled builder of these apex wood burners. Masonry heaters are the best way to burn firewood. They get very hot - up to 2000 F. This means the whole heater is like a large catalytic combuster. They burn on full blast once or twice a day for a couple of hours. They produce a better soothing type of heat - radiant heat. They use less firewood. Limitations? Some say cost. But the cost of a fancy fireplace isn't much different than a masonry heater. Others say they heat via radiant heat (like the sun) so they don't 'reach out' as far as convection heaters.

Masonry heaters are the greatest under utilized wood heating resource in North America (utilized in Europe though, especially Scandinavian countries, Germany, Russia and Austria).

bholler · Aug 15, 2015

byQ said:
Masonry heaters are the best way to burn firewood.

that is very debatable they are good heaters but when you factor in the cost of construction i dont know that they are the best at all

begreen · Aug 15, 2015

Masonry heaters are very good for 24/7 heating. They produce a wonderful steady heat using little wood. On the other note, they are slow to warm up, the fire view is short, about 2 hrs and once you get the mass warmed up the heat radiating mass can't be slowed down if the weather suddenly turns warm.

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Masonry Rumford or RSF Opel 2???

DWC

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bholler

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begreen

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Grisu

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DWC

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SteveKG

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byQ

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bholler

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