Make up air for insert for masonry fireplace

[LumberjackAdam]

Hi all, I have been lurking around here for a while, and I just bought my first house which has a very nice masonry fireplace in it. The fireplace heats the living room and adjoining kitchen well, but has a prodigious appetite for firewood (it was my grandparents' house before they passed, so I have been supplying the wood for 2 years now).

I am looking at getting an insert for it, but this fireplace has a vent in the floor of the firebox that goes outside the house. The firebox, chimney, and the first foot or so of the floor vent are all firebrick, and the rest of the vent is cinderblock. I am almost positive it draws air from around the soffitts.

Here's my question: are there any wood-burning inserts that will take advantage of this vent? Or is there a way to (without re-engineering the whole thing) retrofit an insert to use it? I can supply pics if needed.

Thanks in advance,
Adam

 

[cowtown]

Hi all, I have been lurking around here for a while, and I just bought my first house which has a very nice masonry fireplace in it. The fireplace heats the living room and adjoining kitchen well, but has a prodigious appetite for firewood (it was my grandparents' house before they passed, so I have been supplying the wood for 2 years now).

I am looking at getting an insert for it, but this fireplace has a vent in the floor of the firebox that goes outside the house. The firebox, chimney, and the first foot or so of the floor vent are all firebrick, and the rest of the vent is cinderblock. I am almost positive it draws air from around the soffitts.

Here's my question: are there any wood-burning inserts that will take advantage of this vent? Or is there a way to (without re-engineering the whole thing) retrofit an insert to use it? I can supply pics if needed.

Thanks in advance,
Adam

Did you look at Pacific Energy? I am getting a T5 insert (Alderlea) for this very reason.

 

[northernontario]

There are inserts that provide a hookup for an outside air kit; the biggest problem is going to be adapting the two together. Ultimately, to get all the benefits of an OAK (provide outside air, not draw air from the house, not leak cold air into the house, not leak conditioned air outside), you need a tight seal from the stove's OAK right to the outside. Is it possible to find where that vent leads? Possibly the piping for an OAK could be fed through and properly sealed... but you will need to do some work to find out.