Corner Insert?

[Soundchasm]

Hello,
This is my first post. There's really nothing I can add to the knowledge already on this forum, but I've done my time helping out on other forums where I have some expertise. So I'm hoping for a little ying to go with the yang.

I've done a lot of general reading in this forum, and it helped me immensely with safety and temperatures with my old 70's Nashua in my basement. I can also heartily recommend the Kintrex IRT0421 thermometer. It eliminated all kinds of guessing and got me to run the stove hot enough to prevent so much creosote.

I'm going to put a wood stove in the upstairs soon. I want a recirculating unit. My fireplace has a corner, and none of my browsing has shown me any models with a faceplate and a "right-hand side", if that makes any sense. I'll try to add photos to this post.

We may have had a tornado here 5/25/11, and I've ended up with 5 cords of wood. One is seasoned oak, one is green sugar maple, and three are cherry. I plan on burning the cherry since carpenter ants had gotten to that tree, and half of it is very dry. I use 1.5 cords a year in the basement. The point of this paragraph is that the splits are inconsistent sizes, because a lot of it was cut in the heat of battle getting the trees off my house.

Some of the splits are big enough I'd worry about overfire putting them in the big Nashua. I'm assuming that new woodstoves have smaller fireboxes. Can anyone make any recommendations as to brands I might consider and if I'll need an electric splitter to halve some of the larger splits for a new stove?

So the two real questions I know of are-
1. Do any or all of the manufacturers address a corner installation?
2. Will I need to address these larger splits with a modern firebox?

Thanks in advance,
Greg

 

[Soundchasm]

Here are a few photos. Furniture clearance will be assured after the installation.
Thanks,
Greg

 

[Soundchasm]

Another shot.

 

[Dix]

Welcome to the forums, Greg. I love FP's like that


You're going to get alot of questions, but I'll start.


Is this a masonary fireplace/chimney? Do you know the measurements of the fire box & the chimney itself? How many SF are you trying to heat? Basic (verbal/typed) house layout?


The basement stove vents how?


My first thoughts

 

[Soundchasm]

Love your signature block, Pyro!

My belief is that the chimney is concrete block with the stone fascia, and is the red tile that sticks out the top the liner? I see concrete block up in the attic. I know the basement has double-walled stainless steel up to the exhaust. The chimney has three smokestacks. One is the basement, another is closed off from what surely was an oil heater, and the third is the upstairs pictured.

The brass frame is 56"x30"x29", so the hole must be a few inches smaller. Can't take that off to properly measure because I'll upset the wife's TV viewing. I've beaten the odds by living this long, and I don't want to jeopardize that streak...

The house is a ranch-type, maybe 2,000 SF upstairs. The main area around the fireplace is 400-600 SF. I don't need to heat all of it upstairs, but I'll surely be grateful to heat the main room (which has the thermostat) to keep the auxiliary heat from coming on all the time in the winter. We're all electric with a heat pump. I've insulated and replaced doors and some windows. But those zero degree months can be brutal $$.

Also, I've heard that new FPs can feed themselves with outside air. This is a stroke of genius. I crack a window in the basement to feed that stove.

Hope this is enough to get started.
Thanks,
Greg

 

[BrowningBAR]

We have someone with this exact same set up that is currently installing a Lopi Declaration. He had to brick up the left side of the fireplace.

You can see it here:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/74886/

 

[begreen]

How about bricking up that open end? For ideas, check out stax's posting on his fireplace/insert project.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/77515/
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/79695/

 

[begreen]

BBar and I are on the same line of thought here.

 

[Soundchasm]

Thank you BBar and BeGreen. Stax's project looks great. We went the opposite direction in uncovering the stone. It had a thick, healthy coating of white paint when we moved in. I'd be pretty hesitant to brick in the side. I'd never find matching stone to make it look right, either.

So far, my first impression is that these inserts are made to go in inserts!! It's not obvious that anyone has solved the corner issue with something other than a masonry solution. Hmmm. I'll have to call one of these factories and see what they say. Maybe if the front pattern were very plain then a corner might not be hard to match. At the moment, my wife is insisting on calling the side "the front"... Oy.

One of my other questions is answering itself. Seems like the larger the BTU rating, the longer the log length that will fit in the firebox. I'll have to check to see how many outliers are in the inventory.

Thanks.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Thank you BBar and BeGreen. Stax's project looks great. We went the opposite direction in uncovering the stone. It had a thick, healthy coating of white paint when we moved in. I'd be pretty hesitant to brick in the side. I'd never find matching stone to make it look right, either.

So far, my first impression is that these inserts are made to go in inserts!! It's not obvious that anyone has solved the corner issue with something other than a masonry solution. Hmmm. I'll have to call one of these factories and see what they say. Maybe if the front pattern were very plain then a corner might not be hard to match. At the moment, my wife is insisting on calling the side "the front"... Oy.

One of my other questions is answering itself. Seems like the larger the BTU rating, the longer the log length that will fit in the firebox. I'll have to check to see how many outliers are in the inventory.

Thanks.

Ignore BTU ratings. Focus on firebox size. BTU ratings are manipulated.

 

[Soundchasm]

I'll start looking at firebox sizes.

As far as the corner goes, I'm beginning to think that there will have to be some kind of "filling in" of the whole space, centering the stove, and doing an install as normal. Maybe the fill can be sheet metal, but I think that's the only concept that can work.

 

[begreen]

It looks like the constraint may be the height. That does not look like a very tall fireplace. How high is the opening?

 

[Soundchasm]

Length is 56", width (front to back)26", and 24" high. I think I'm measuring the right stuff, but I'll take as more careful look in the morning. Top seems to be running low. Maybe having less choices will allow a better solution. Crazy stuff like that can happen.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[begreen]

24" high is acceptable as long as there are no lower points to clear. Heating that area will be easy and with more heat to spare. How open is this room to the others on this floor?

 

[Soundchasm]

The fireplace is on the north wall of the house. The kitchen, DR, and LR are all open to the FP, and total about 625 SF. After that, there's a loooong hallway and all the other rooms are accessed from the hallway. There'd be no chance of directly heating the back bedrooms, but that's fine. I've got an electric blanket and the thermostat is set at 62 degrees at night.

 

[Stax]

Sound, as you can see I faced the same "penisula" issue as you are. Your title is a bit misleading...not really a corner fireplace. Otherwise I may have chimned in earlier. I'm glad BG and Brown got to you.

3 Options

1. Do what I did.
2. Demo up higher (24" probably prohibits a free standing unit) and ensure clearances for a free standing unit.
3. Enclose 3 sided fireplace with special glass and use as a traditional fireplace. My neighbor who has the same original setup did that.

Regardless what you do, it's gonna require more time, energy, hardwork and money than folks with traditional setups. Well worth it though. I felt the blowers for the first time in my life last night. What an experience...and it was 62 degrees out!

 

[Stax]

Some more thoughts...

If my fireplace wasn't built the way it was and my layout was different (lol, listening to myself) I would have put a free standing unit in there. I like inserts, but I love free standing units. More culture, more class, more looks...more heat. I apologize if I'm offending any insert owners.

P.S. That brick was painted when we moved in two years ago. I hate it. It will all be stone veneered this time next year.

 

[Stax]

Here ya go. Simplified a bit.

 

[glenlloyd]

It would seem to me that if the insert you select were a convertible model (both stove and insert) that there would be no problem with the exposed side as long as you take care to mind all the clearances. Find a stove / insert that fits your bill and call the mfgr to see if your unique application would be a problem.

 

[Soundchasm]

Stax,
Your solution turned out beautifully. Fido is going to want his bed close to that thing in January! Stone veneer will be the way to cover that paint. I stripped the paint off mine, and that was the most miserable job I've ever done. Wore out six wire brushes at a minimum, and the only strippers that worked were hideous. I wouldn't have survived the experience without a whole house fan.

Burning Chunk,
I hadn't considered that there might be a convertible unit. To give credit where credit is due, when I explained our dilemma to the wife, she thought about decorative wrought iron. I spoke with one dealer, and the covering or wrap around or whatever one might call it doesn't have to be airtight. If I can only get my imagination to work, the possibilities could be pretty cool. Maybe even a simple steel curtain could work to buy time.

I hope to be able to stop past a few dealers this week. I'd like to start another thread based on what brands are available in my area. As I read everyone's signature block, some popular brands are located a fur piece from my neck of the woods.

Thanks,
Greg