Greetings Hearth Forums,
I thought the community here might be interested in the stove project we are working on here.
more picts here:
http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/mdocod/woodstove/
I believe that the stove is a Fisher Honey Bear Insert type. We decided to convert it into a free standing unit and add an interesting baffle system in an attempt to improve the potential heating capability and efficiency. The stack outside is triple wall insulated stainless duravent and is roughly 20ft tall to reach a height of 2ft over the peak of the house. Through-wall thimble and stove pipe are also duravent brand. The stove is sitting on a pedestal assembled by stacking non-mortared pieces of red stone wall block.
The stove has been converted to support outside air supply via a 4" duct. We are finding out that 4" was probably more than necessary, however, what's done is done. The original dampers on the exhaust and intake have been removed in favor of using butterfly dampers close to the wall. (very cheesy one currently installed on the air-supply side right now, will probably worry about the exhaust damper later and upgrade the air supply damper to something better/custom at some point.) As you can see, the supply air runs through long ducts that wrap the length of the stove on either side, and are jointed together at the rear. The purpose of this is preheating the charge air, which as I understand should -theoretically- improve the completeness and cleanliness of the burn which should mean more heat and less smoke.
The custom exhaust baffle/heat-sink is made of 1/4" mild steel plate, and the air supply channels are made from 1/8" plate and angle. The round exhaust on top was a piece we found that seemed close enough to 6" to be made workable. All Metal used was collected from a metal scrapping yard, and was more than paid for by other scrap metal we dropped off there.
The results, well, I don't have any other wood heating experiences significant enough to compare to, however, we are easily heating a ~2500 sq/ft house with it right now without any trouble so far but the average temps outside have not been too terrible (~40-60F days, ~15-20F nights). The natural drafting characteristics in the house have proven to be very conducive to wood stove heating so far so we are very pleased. I think tonight will be night #4 with the stove installed.
Eric
I thought the community here might be interested in the stove project we are working on here.
more picts here:
http://s17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/mdocod/woodstove/
I believe that the stove is a Fisher Honey Bear Insert type. We decided to convert it into a free standing unit and add an interesting baffle system in an attempt to improve the potential heating capability and efficiency. The stack outside is triple wall insulated stainless duravent and is roughly 20ft tall to reach a height of 2ft over the peak of the house. Through-wall thimble and stove pipe are also duravent brand. The stove is sitting on a pedestal assembled by stacking non-mortared pieces of red stone wall block.
The stove has been converted to support outside air supply via a 4" duct. We are finding out that 4" was probably more than necessary, however, what's done is done. The original dampers on the exhaust and intake have been removed in favor of using butterfly dampers close to the wall. (very cheesy one currently installed on the air-supply side right now, will probably worry about the exhaust damper later and upgrade the air supply damper to something better/custom at some point.) As you can see, the supply air runs through long ducts that wrap the length of the stove on either side, and are jointed together at the rear. The purpose of this is preheating the charge air, which as I understand should -theoretically- improve the completeness and cleanliness of the burn which should mean more heat and less smoke.
The custom exhaust baffle/heat-sink is made of 1/4" mild steel plate, and the air supply channels are made from 1/8" plate and angle. The round exhaust on top was a piece we found that seemed close enough to 6" to be made workable. All Metal used was collected from a metal scrapping yard, and was more than paid for by other scrap metal we dropped off there.
The results, well, I don't have any other wood heating experiences significant enough to compare to, however, we are easily heating a ~2500 sq/ft house with it right now without any trouble so far but the average temps outside have not been too terrible (~40-60F days, ~15-20F nights). The natural drafting characteristics in the house have proven to be very conducive to wood stove heating so far so we are very pleased. I think tonight will be night #4 with the stove installed.
Eric