Fireview in very small room ok?

[Ravenvalor]

Hello fellow hearthlings: I have been thoroughly enjoying reading all of your reviews, remarks and tips on this interesting website. I have been investigating wood stoves for a few weeks and am excited about the wood stove concept (lifestyle). The submitted pictures and letters are all inspiring to would be wood stove enthusiasts like myself. The main reason that I am writing this evening is to seek your help in a little space issue I am currently dealing with. We have a 1400 sq ft home and would like to put our stove in our narrow livingroom/ The proposed location would be right next to our desk where my wife spends a considerable amount of her productive day at the computer playing the latest version of Tetris. My question is, will a 55,000 BTU Soapstone woodstove keep her away from her beloved computer?
Thanks, Jim.

 

[BrotherBart]

No but it puts her in a damned good spot to reload the stove when it needs it.

 

[Todd]

How close? Mine is 7' from my computer and I can sit there for hours while the stove is burning. If she gets too warm she can always wear less clothing. ;-P

 

[Ravenvalor]

The distance between the stove and her desk will be approximately 24".

 

[Todd]

Wow, that's close. Maybe you can fabricate a heat shield to reflect the radiant heat away from the desk. Or move the desk and computer to another room?

 

[begreen]

That's much too close. First I would consider a smaller Woodstock stove, maybe the Palladian or Keystone? Second, move the computer desk further away. Third, pay more attention to your wife. Wasting away playing Tetris is a sad fate. Life's too short!

(Like I can talk considering the hours I spend on Hearth.com )

 

[Ravenvalor]

Thank you all for the great tips. I will look into each and every one of them. Especially the one about paying attention to my wife.

Last night I started to think about putting the stove in the dining room. It is closer to the end of the house and not in the center, however there are less walls for the heat to go around in order to get into the rest of the house. In other words it is a straight shot for the heat passage.

Jim

 

[Wet1]

I think I'd leave it in the center of the house and find another place for the desk. Then again, you could leave the desk there as doing so would certainly force your wife to find something else to do with her time.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Even across the room- a good heat source like that puts me to sleep.

A nice dinner... then I wake up with half a beer still on the table and my little dog trying to clean off my plate.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

With all due respect, on page 7 of the Fireview manual, it requires 18" clearance to an unprotected combustible wall. Therefore it seems to me that 24" to a desk would pose no problem. However, it still would be a very small problem to make a heat shield for the desk.

Naturally one has to ask which side of the stove the computer would be on. If on the side where the door is, then it would be too close for sure. On the other side, no problem. We have a combustible surface at 26" and have no problem with it; on the opposite side as the loading door.

Also, sitting that close to the stove would not be uncomfortable for some folks but too warm for others. Myself, it is very nice! I love that heat from the soapstone in the winter! (And yes, I stoke the stove until the clothing starts coming off!)

Also, for your size home, I'd think the Fireview would be excellent.

 

[jpl1nh]

One of the Beautiful things about the Woodstock Soapstones is that they don't feel hot from close by, just pleasantly warm. I agree with Dennis that you probably would be quite comfortable 2-3 feet from the side of the stove. It's much warmer directly in front of the glass but the soapstone sides are just ..nice! It would be good to see a floor plan of your house to see how likely it is for the stove to effectively get heat to all the parts of your home. In your climate, Be Green might be right about the Keystone or Palladian being a better choice, especially if the chances of you heating the far corners of the home are slim due to hallways and walls, etc. It is possible to run the Fireview at a very low temp though since it's a cat stove so it could definately work too. The dining room might be an option if there is easier acess to more open area that the stove could heat.

 

[begreen]

I wasn't as concerned about the distance to combustibles as much as the heat potentially shortening the life of the computer's cpu, power supply and graphics card cooling fans. Your wife may actually like the warmth if she's prone to be chilly. In general, computers don't like to be excessively hot. So if the case is only 110 degrees, that is still over what is recommended operational temp. It may not keep a person away from the computer, but I would add an additional foot or two away from the computer, maybe by moving to the other side of the desk?

 

[Ravenvalor]

Hi Folks:

These tips are all great. I will try to publish my house schematic to this forum. Does anyone have any tips on this procedure?

 

[begreen]

Here a link on tips for ya:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewannounce/27_2/

 

[Ravenvalor]

Okay, We made some measurements and rearranged the furniture a little. It looks like the desk will be 3' from the front corner of the stove. There will be heat from the glass but at least the stove will not be pointing directly at her. While we were at it we measured the distance from the couch to the front of the stove and found it to be 4'. The reply from "jpl1nh" about me adjusting the temperature down sounded like a good idea. Can I turn it down while we are in the livingroom and turn it up when we hit the hay? Or does the stove need to run at only one temperature in order to operate best?
Also, If I keep the stove in the livingroom I can install a passive vent from the livingroom wall above the stove into the hallway. Shouldn't this allow warm air to travel directly into the back of the house where the bedrooms are?
We are going to scan a schematic of our house tomorrow and post it to this forum.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[BrotherBart]

Just to get on record here. 3' away ain't gonna work I don't care what that stove is made of. 36" is the default clearance from unlisted stoves to keep stuff from catching on fire. And four feet for the couch won't work either. There is a bunch of radiant heat out the front glass of a reburn EPA stove. A good thing if you aren't the couch in front of it or anybody sitting on it.

As far as turning it down, these things aren't electric heaters. Once you get them kicking in clean burn territory they are going. You don't do ten or even one hundred degree surface temp fine tuning.

Aside from that I have no opinion.

 

[Todd]

3' will be fine, heck I stack 1 weeks worth of firewood 18" from mine and have a couch 4' away catty corner to the stove front. The radiant heat just isn't as strong from a soapstone as a steel stove. As long as your within the stoves tested clearances I don't see why there would be a problem.

 

[Ravenvalor]

Is the front of the stove somewhat pointing toward the couch? Can you adjust the temperature of the stove?
Thanks
Jim

 

[chad3]

My wife will sit in the sunroom about 5 feet in front of the Jotul Oslo and be very happy reading. Our house is about 1400sf and I'm a bit warm sometimes, but the house is usually about 75 with that room VERY HOT (sometimes it buries the 90 thermostat). Be careful if you want to spend a lot of time in that room.
Just my opinion for what it's worth.

 

[Ravenvalor]

Thanks, I am told that a soapstone will not produce that type of heat.

 

[begreen]

Well, you probably already know that this design is not to conducive to woodstove heating the house. However, just supposing the useless hallway was eliminated or at least opened up on the LR side. Then the stove can become a nice home heater. This may be a load bearing wall, but if so, it could be opened with a large carrying beam or posts with large openings in the LR. Besides dramatically improving heat circulation, just think about how it would increase the spaciousness of the living room.

 

[Todd]

Is the front of the stove somewhat pointing toward the couch? Can you adjust the temperature of the stove?
Thanks
Jim

Yes, the end of my couch sits 4' away from the front of the stove and it just gets warm not hot. The only way to adjust the temp of the stove is by the the air control and amount of wood in the stove. But once that soapstone gets hot, say 600 degrees, it takes a long time to come down. It will take you some time to understand how this stove operates.

I agree with Begreen that your house isn't the perfect situation for whole house heating. The more open the better and I'd also cosider placing the stove in your livingroom instead of the office since it's more centrally located.

 

[Ravenvalor]

BeGreen:

Remove the wall for the hallway, what a great idea. It would be nice to have a spacious living room. I will have to look into it, thanks.

Jim

 

[Wet1]

Thanks, I am told that a soapstone will not produce that type of heat.

There are a few people who will tell you soapstone stoves are the next coming and can do no wrong. A soapstone stove is just like any other stove, they get hot. The only major difference is they take longer to get up to temp and they take longer to cool down with the added mass.
Also keep in mind the stone does not cover the entire stove, so even if you actually believe the stone doesn't get hot, the exposed metal areas certainly will!

And yes, I would consider knocking down at least one of those two walls, if not both (assuming they are not load bearing).

 

[Wet1]

After looking at the layout a little more, I think I'd remove the hallway wall in the LR, although it looks like it's probably load bearing. If it is load bearing, remove part of it or do an arch.

I'd also remove the existing doorways at the DR and install large archways in the center of both walls (going from the DR into the kitchen and DR into the LR). I think this would be the most functional and still preserve the nice layout... It would certainly allow the heat to move around much better and the arches would really open those rooms up.