exterior air or chimney route

[philinak]

Chimney route/exterior air

I built a very tight 1700sf ICF home last year. Frost protected shallow foundation/slab with radiant heat. Since we have cheap clean hydro I heat with an electric boiler and it is very reasonable…about $100/month during our coldest months for heat. Since I’m 100% electric I bought a Jotul Nordic wood stove for emergency backup. I also love the aesthetics and comfort of wood heat.

Here are my problems. The house is very tight so I planned to install an exterior air kit, however the ideal place to install the stove is on an interior wall near the peak of the roof. There is no way to route the air kit to this location out of sight…i.e. a three inch pipe will have to run approx 15 feet through my living room. Is there any other solution to getting exterior air to this location? I could put a vent in a wall or open a window when using the wood stove but then I’d have a cold draft and putting a hole in my wall would defeat the purpose of having a tight home.

The only place I have to install the wood stove on an exterior wall is about 15 feet from the peak of a steep metal roof. With the snow loads and type of snow we get it would be very difficult to prevent the chimney getting ripped off several times/year if I go vertically through the roof. Is it possible to run my chimney at a slight angle to make up about 10 horizontal feet in my attic?

Any ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated

 

[begreen]

What is under the living room floor? Can the fresh air pipe be run through the crawlspace or basement?

 

[philinak]

slab on grade so I can't go through the floor.

I can get away with running the chimney at 20 degrees for 15 feet (in the attic)...will it still draft or is my only option to run the chimney vertical.

 

[philinak]

oh yeah,

the overall height of the chimney will be about 25 feet.

 

[begreen]

Hmm, the slab is a bummer. Maybe put in a raised floor?

Can it be done with the flue at an angle? Probably not, unless you compromise and can work with a 30 deg angle pipe. 30 deg is the maximum angle for a class A elbow. That's not going to give you a tremendous offset. According to Simpson's chart for class A a 38.75" offset needs a 76" rise.