Hello everybody,
New here, although I do have a little prior wood heating experience. Most recently, last year I started supplementing my home heat here (all electric - yikes!) with a Better 'n Ben's insert found on Craigslist. The house is a hillside ranch with brick chimney on one end with upstairs-downstairs fireplaces. I put the stove into the downstairs fireplace, then did some mods on my cold-air return, so I use my regular furnace blower to `ove the heat around. Had the chimney cleaned too. Works pretty good. The electric furnace does come on to help out when the outside temp drops below about 25F, especially if I don't get up to load the stove in the middle of the night. But the wood costs me no cash, and I got more time than money these days. Plus I like the feel of the heat. I don't own the house so this is probably the extent of what I'm going to do as far as wood heat in the house - although if I came by another insert I might burn the upstairs fireplace too.
Now my friends want to build a sauna in the old barn out back. It is 250' from any other building. It is a sound wood frame structure, the floor being 2x6 plank over a 4x4 frame, walls plywood skin over 2x4 studs. It has water and electricity run to it.
I got my hands on a nice old stove, don't have the measurements right handy but approx 20" wide x 30" long x 24" tall, including approx. 2" legs. The flue comes out the top about 2/3 of the way to the back of the stove. It is double walled construction with a fan on the back to push hot air out through vents in the front. Nice and heavy little beast, 1/4" steel.
Now I need to build a sauna room and install the stove. I was thinking about building the enclosure in a corner of the barn, and placing the stove so that the rear of the stove would be inside the enclosure, with the front opening in an adjacent warm room, so the stove would go through a wall. I guess I could build a brick hearth around the thing, and I have lots of bricks, but I'm not a bricklayer, and not ready to get involved in that much construction if there's an easier way that's not too costly. Appreciate any suggestions on design and materials. I will definitely buy a triple-wall stack to put the chimney through the roof.
Thanks,
Ben
New here, although I do have a little prior wood heating experience. Most recently, last year I started supplementing my home heat here (all electric - yikes!) with a Better 'n Ben's insert found on Craigslist. The house is a hillside ranch with brick chimney on one end with upstairs-downstairs fireplaces. I put the stove into the downstairs fireplace, then did some mods on my cold-air return, so I use my regular furnace blower to `ove the heat around. Had the chimney cleaned too. Works pretty good. The electric furnace does come on to help out when the outside temp drops below about 25F, especially if I don't get up to load the stove in the middle of the night. But the wood costs me no cash, and I got more time than money these days. Plus I like the feel of the heat. I don't own the house so this is probably the extent of what I'm going to do as far as wood heat in the house - although if I came by another insert I might burn the upstairs fireplace too.
Now my friends want to build a sauna in the old barn out back. It is 250' from any other building. It is a sound wood frame structure, the floor being 2x6 plank over a 4x4 frame, walls plywood skin over 2x4 studs. It has water and electricity run to it.
I got my hands on a nice old stove, don't have the measurements right handy but approx 20" wide x 30" long x 24" tall, including approx. 2" legs. The flue comes out the top about 2/3 of the way to the back of the stove. It is double walled construction with a fan on the back to push hot air out through vents in the front. Nice and heavy little beast, 1/4" steel.
Now I need to build a sauna room and install the stove. I was thinking about building the enclosure in a corner of the barn, and placing the stove so that the rear of the stove would be inside the enclosure, with the front opening in an adjacent warm room, so the stove would go through a wall. I guess I could build a brick hearth around the thing, and I have lots of bricks, but I'm not a bricklayer, and not ready to get involved in that much construction if there's an easier way that's not too costly. Appreciate any suggestions on design and materials. I will definitely buy a triple-wall stack to put the chimney through the roof.
Thanks,
Ben
