Fireplace Choice

We are going to be building a house soon and we wanted a wood burning fireplace... my brother ended up putting in a buck stove insert into his fireplace and I really like how it has worked for him. But with building a new house I figured I would do it right from the start instead of retrofitting down the road. It is not my intent to use my fireplace for the majority of my heat but when I do use it, I actually want to get something out of it.

I stopped by a local fireplace dealer and he suggested the Kozy Heat Z42. Any opinions on the unit? Or any other suggestions. I don't have a specific budget but I don't want to spend to much either.

I've got the Z42. Put it in several years ago. I can say they make a great product. If you can, try to put this more in the center of the home and use the two ducts from the top to take heat off to other parts of the house. Often I get too much heat out of this so I'm trying to push the heat elsewhere. I couldn't use the ducts in my home. It burns very clean, I only clean my chimney once a year and that's with burning 4 cords of wood. One warning though, you must have fully seasoned wood for these newer fireplaces.

Do you have the single door or the double cast doors? I've heard conflicting information from a couple of dealers that I have visited regarding the single door not sealing very well. I'd rather have the single door but if its going to be problematic then I'm not going to bother and I'll do the double doors.

Unfortunately the layout of the house has the fireplace on the exterior wall. I still plan on doing the ducting kit to push heat the bedrooms (the master is on one side of the house and the two others are on the other side of the house.

Are you set on fireplace vs. insert vs. free-standing stove? That's the place to start, then choose your technology (non-EPA, non-cat EPA, or catalytic). If you want to use it for heating, the house size and layout play a large role, but it sounds like you want this more for occasional use (which sort of favors non-cat or even non-EPA technology).

If you want to get anything from the fire, make sure it IS EPA certified. It will give a great looking fireview, clean glass and long burns.
The Kozy is a great looking unit, it burns nice too. It doesn't get real long burn times though.
Another option is the Fireplace Extraordinaire. It's a more expensive option, but it get much better burn times and has a very quite blower. It has more of a fireplace feel to it, much more attractive to look at! http://www.fireplacex.com/ProductGuide/FuelTypeOverview.aspx?fueltype=wood&fueltab=0

We are really set on a fireplace (we don't want the stove taking up floor space) and with it being new construction, an insert doesn't make sense. I don't really see this being a primary sources for heat, but at the same time I can see myself using it quite a bit. Either way, I want to get real heat out of it, not just a pretty fire (but having a nice looking fire is nice too). So yes, whatever I do will be an EPA certified, but I will probably stay with non-cat.

I've wondered, what gives "long" burn times. Is it just the amount of wood that you can pack in? Or is it how it burns?

It's how it burns. It's all in the design of the fireplace. Cat units will get the longest burn times, like the Fireplace X. But if I just wanted an occasional fire, that would not be my first choice, unless I had an endless budget. The Z-42 seems to be the best choice here. It takes a 6" flue and it can fit into a much smaller area than alot of other units.

When you load a stove, you are packing with a relatively fixed number of BTU's. I say "relatively", because depending on how you burn, you can raise or lower the efficiency of the appliance, but that is all secondary. The primary factor is how much wood of a given species you put into the stove, and how quickly or slowly you allow it to burn. Cat stoves allow for a slower burn rate, while still maintaining a clean burn, which can provide longer burn times. This can be useful for those wanting long burn times in not-so-cold weather, but the advantage (mostly) goes away when things get cold, and you're running the stove above it's minimum setting.

For the most part, a stove of a given technology, material, and size will perform equally to another of the same. Manufacturers try to have us believe that one stove gives significantly longer burn time or more BTU's than another stove, of the same technology. Mostly, what you'll find is that they're finding half-truths in their measurements, by measuring under very unique circumstances where their particular design may excel.

This is all excepting Blaze King's magic alien technology. The laws of physics do not apply in their universe.