Where to install?

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jjmelt

Member
Jun 24, 2008
31
southern NY
Hey guys I'm new here so be nice.
I was about to purchase a pacific energy insert. Unfortunitly I can't fit a big enough one to try and heat the whole house. My goal is a wood boiler but that will have to wait foir $$. Untill then I was going with the insert. But then I was considering getting a bigger stove that can do the whole house and place it in the garage and have a fan set up to blow the hot air under the house into the crawl space. Then the heat will rise up into the house. Instulation is on foundation walls not in the floor system
Or I may be able to get a duct from the garage into the A/C duct work and have that send the heat around the house.
What do you think??
Why can't I use the same flue as the oil boiler? Have seen this on many old houses I have worked on. They have never had a problem.
 
Welcome jj. Well you've thrown out some pain points and hot spots that there are a lot of posts here to read about. Rather than asking a boat load of questions, can you describe the house, the floorplan, the sq ftg to be heated, etc.? It would also help to know the fireplace opening dimensions and depth.

Generally, using ductwork through an unheated space is ineffective. The warmed air moving through the ducts loses too much temperature to be effective at heat transfer. But if we have a clearer understanding of the house and your options, perhaps there still is a good solution.

As to sharing the flue between an oil furnace and a wood stove, the answer is a definite no. If you have seen home set up this way, they are in flagrant code violation.
 
Unless your local Authority Having Jurisdiction (building inspector, fire Marshal, whomever it may be) has a different requirement, you are not permitted to install a solid fuel burning appliance in any garage, per NFPA 211. Woodstoves are space heaters. They do a terrific job of heating the space in which they're installed. Trying to move that heat to remote locations is very inefficient and frustrating. Rick
 
jjmelt said:
Hey guys I'm new here so be nice.
I was about to purchase a pacific energy insert. Unfortunitly I can't fit a big enough one to try and heat the whole house. My goal is a wood boiler but that will have to wait foir $$. Untill then I was going with the insert. But then I was considering getting a bigger stove that can do the whole house and place it in the garage and have a fan set up to blow the hot air under the house into the crawl space. Then the heat will rise up into the house. Instulation is on foundation walls not in the floor system
Or I may be able to get a duct from the garage into the A/C duct work and have that send the heat around the house.
What do you think??
Why can't I use the same flue as the oil boiler? Have seen this on many old houses I have worked on. They have never had a problem.
Click to expand...

Why the heck don't you put a stove in the main room? They're attractive as heck and don't take up all that much space. It makes no sense to me to put the stove that far away from the area you want to heat, and I can't imagine trying to pump the heated air so far will work at all.
 
Thanks for the reply
house is about 2500 sf two story. Kinda like a colonial. Did a renovation 15 years ago so windowas are all new and insulation is r-19 all around. The fireplace is in the dinning room so I can't have it protrud into the room very much. The room is central to the house and the top of the fireplace wall is open to the stairwell so I hope most of the heat will travel up. Fireplace is 30" wide x 25"tall x 18" deep at the top. The biggest unit I can fit inside is the SE Pacific insert.

Having a bigger unit in garage keeps the mess down and eiaser to load and more heat etc.
 
Try it out, from the sounds of the installation location you may get decent heat distribution with the assistance of a mall fan or two. Search on "moving air" for tips.

FWIW, wood burners are not allowed to be installed in garages, Sounds like perhaps another code violation.
 
BeGreen said:
...you may get decent heat distribution with the assistance of a mall fan or two.
Click to expand...

Even the legendary PE inserts can't heat a mall. :lol:
 
LOL :) Make that a "s"mall fan or two. Mall fans might be a diminishing breed the way our economy is going.
 
Thanks
I'm going to keep it simple for now. and see how it goes. Hope to get unit next weekend. Is $1,400 a good price for the PE Pacific insert. The unit is 5/8" to big I was going to get a peice of angle iron and attach it to the front of the brick that will keep the unit out about 1/2" then it should fit because of the way the unit is shaped. Anyone see a problem with that?
Otherwise I have to step it down to the vista. I would like the biggest possible.
thanks
 
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