Freestanding Stove in Fireplace

[madjalapeno]

Hi,

First posting, and I would like to try and get some advice on putting a stove into our fireplace.

First some background - We bought our house just over a year ago, and it's a Maine post & beam, with an open plan downstairs area of about 900 sq ft, and 2 bedrooms upstairs with cathedral ceilings. Additionally there is another bedroom over the garage, but we are not interested in heating that with the stove, and there is a door between the house and the connecting mud room. The insulation is average, but the post and beam construction means that there are gaps between the vertical posts and the plasterboard. I've done my best to seal them though. Windows (of which there are many) are single glazed.

We are in Southern NH, and it can get a bit chilly in winter. At the moment we used force hot water with base boards for heat, with a oil fired boiler in the basement (we get through a 150 gallons of oil every month). The fireplace does not give any heat, and the upstairs bedrooms do get cold. We also get power cuts from the snow, so would like another source of heat. Our property has about an acre of woodland on it, and I'm handy with a chainsaw.

Attached is a photograph of our fireplace, along with drawings showing the dimensions. I would like to put a freestanding stove into the fireplace, with about 4" sticking out beyond the wall so that I have 16" from the front edge of the hearth to the front of the door.

Possible stoves we are looking at include the Jotul F3 CB, as it will fit quite comfortably, and we do not like the look of the inserts, as the arch to the fireplace means the insert would be large. Another choice is the smaller Jotul F100.

What I would like information on is are we likely to have any problems with the heat being reflected back to the stove from the brick surround, and so get overheating of the stove. I was going to add some sort of Stirling engine powered fan on top of the stove to help spread the heat.

Has anyone done anything similar, and would they recommend it?

thanks

Mike

 

[begreen]

Is the intent to use the stove as an occasional heater, mostly nights and weekends. Or do you want to run it 24/7 as a primary source of heat? The F3CB will work ok for occasional use, but will not work for 24/7 burning; its firebox is too small.
An option might be to go to a larger, rear-exit stove out onto the hearth in front of the fireplace opening. The hearth would need to be extended at floor level, perhaps by adding a nice tile or stone border. But it looks like that would allow the next size larger Jotul, the F400, to be installed.

 

[benking]

I installed a Jotul F3CB in our fireplace this fall and its been working great as a primary heater. The downside is the firebox will not hold coals for a full 8 hrs except on rare occasions. I find I typically start two fires a day. One in the morning when I wake up at 5:30 and one when i get home in the evening at 4:45. The house drops to about 62 by morning or afternoon after the fire has gone out. When we're in the house we keep the stove cranking. We live in an 1800 sq ft cape with a not so open floor plan. Back rooms will often be in the low to mid 60s even with the stove going. When the stove goes out late at night or during the day the temps will often hit mid 50s (when outside temps are in the low digits). The bright side is that our living room is almost always 75 when we're home our oil consumption since November 1 stands at less than 50 gallons.

I choose the F3 due to its size. It fit in my fireplace without sticking out at all giving me the full 18" of hearth that is required. I looked at the smaller Jotul but it only takes 16" sticks. 18" is a big enough challange.

My advise to you is get the biggest stove that will fit in the fireplace. My choice was based on function and astechtics. I'm in Maine and many people told me I wouldn't be able to heat my house with an F3 but as we approach mid January we're doing fine so far. I also put in a full SS liner which makes for a great draft and makes starting frequent fires very easy.

I suspect not all small stoves crank like the Jotul does. I'm very impressed with the heat it kicks out. Another benifit I've found with a small stove is having all the brick from a fireplace / chimney. The brick stores the heat while the stove is burning and continues to radiate long after the coals go out. This I find helps a little stove make a much larger heating impact.

Good luck.

 

[madjalapeno]

We want to use the stove nights and weekends to cut down on oil use - so it won't be all the time.

As I cut my own wood the 16" should not be a problem, and I don't really want to rebuild the fireplace to fit a larger stove in.

I was looking to get it installed professionally by a local retailer (I don't fancy lugging 300lbs about) with a full height stainless steel liner as currently our chimney is 12" x 12"(we have a choice of 2 who sell Jotul).

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[computeruser]

Interesting thread. Same situation here, and that particular Jotul seems to make the most sense for my application - fireplace install in a 1100sqft 1930s bungalow for supplemental and emergency heat.

I would think that the bricks would absorb, rather than reflect, the heat. But maybe I'm wrong. I do know that adding a stainless steel fireback to my open fireplace has (a) increased the radiation of heat into the room noticeably, and (b) greatly reduced the temperature of the rear wall of the fireplace during burning (anecdotal - I can kinda almost hold my hand to the wall for a second, whereas I couldn't even come close to it before).

 

[begreen]

Well, then the F3 should work well for you madjalapeno. It's a nice little stove.

 

[unit40]

I've got two F3CB in my 2100 sq/ft house. It is a saltbox with a center chimney. One of my Jotuls is in the fireplace. It just fits perfectly. I can not believe how much heat gets stored in the mass of masonry from burning with this stove. The chimney will stay warm for days and still put out some heat. Even through the second floor wall you can feel it. On weekends, I light the freestanding unit down in the mancave and open the cellar door. Mancave, 90 deg. plus, first floor 75 plus, second floor, 65. When burning the fireplace installed stove, the livingroom is 80, rest of the first floor is 75 plus, second floor under 70. When I see people using their fireplaces as fireplaces, I get scared as though it will burn down the house. The F3CB is our primary heat source as electric is our other....judging by the price of oil and gas, electric doesn't sound as bad as it did years ago, but wood is the way to go.

 

[madjalapeno]

Thank you for the good advice - I'll get on the phone with the dealer tomorrow and add updates as we progress.

One other thing - I'm going to be getting the short leg kit as it will fit better in the space we have. Not sure if it makes any difference.

 

[swestall]

The further out the stove is the more effective the heat will be. As for the hearth extension; you can purchase a premaid 18 in x 48 inch extension to sit in front in many different types of stone/etc. If you are going to do this, you might want to consider setting it up for full time heat, just in case. (you know, for when the oil gets to $5.00 a gallon pretty soon)
Very nice looking brickwork....

 

[Kilted]

Have you looked at;

http://www.quadrafire.com/Products/Wood_Burning/Wood_Model.asp?f=7100fp

Brandy

 

[unit40]

I forgot to mention that I installed the short leg kit on mine.

 

[natinstl]

We're installing a Jotul Nordic just outside the fireplace, half in , half out. We didn't want it completely tucked in. We also like the F3CB, but for our small bungalow the Nordic is fine. We had a hearth that we add 2" onto so we could have it poke out a bit from the fireplace.

 

[Byron]

Is there an advantage/disadvantage to inserting a freestanding soapstone stove (for example, the Hearthstone Tribute) INSIDE a masonry fireplace vs. a cast-iron stove like a Jotul (Nordic QT or F3 CB)? I'm still trying to figure out what to do with my masonry fireplace. I just can't bring myself to take out the mantle (which is really pretty) and don't think I will like the look of a heat deflector (which I would need for clearance requirements for any of the inserts I like, as well as for a freestanding stove that sits part of the way outside of the fireplace).

 

[marky_mark896]

I've got two F3CB in my 2100 sq/ft house. It is a saltbox with a center chimney. One of my Jotuls is in the fireplace. It just fits perfectly. I can not believe how much heat gets stored in the mass of masonry from burning with this stove. The chimney will stay warm for days and still put out some heat. Even through the second floor wall you can feel it. On weekends, I light the freestanding unit down in the mancave and open the cellar door. Mancave, 90 deg. plus, first floor 75 plus, second floor, 65. When burning the fireplace installed stove, the livingroom is 80, rest of the first floor is 75 plus, second floor under 70. When I see people using their fireplaces as fireplaces, I get scared as though it will burn down the house. The F3CB is our primary heat source as electric is our other....judging by the price of oil and gas, electric doesn't sound as bad as it did years ago, but wood is the way to go.

Saltboxes seem to be a pretty efficient design to heat huh unit40? We have a 4000+ sqft saltbox, and I just installed a Lopi Freedom Bay insert in the livingroom fireplace and it is heating the whole thing to mid-upper 70's. I'm amazed that the heat gets everywhere in this house so easily. It seems to heat better with the furnace's blowers turned off. That really suprised me, because I was initially using the blower to circulate heat and it didn't heat as well. It was 3 outside this morning, and the whole house was 70 when I woke up, no furnace heat, all wood only.

 

[annette]

madjalapeno:

Definitely get the F3CB rather than the smaller model, a bigger firebox is always better! As stated above, go with the biggest one you can fit.

Also, you will save a lot of money if you can improve your windows. We've been making "interior storm windows" using 1x1 and 3m window insulating kits, and insulating foam tape on the perimeter for a snug fit into the windowframe. Since these are stored and reused, the money and time investment only has to happen once.

Good luck with your shopping, and make sure your liner people put in a damper blockoff plate!