Hello,
2nd post here.
Background, I have just moved into an 1800 Sq Ft home in WI.
Most of the homes here are set up on city natural gas lines. My home is one of the last ones in the neighborhood still set up on fuel oil. I received usage history for the last two years from the oil company, and the previous owner had burned about 950+ gallons of oil per winter. That's about $3300 per winter!
That cost initially made me reconsider how much overtime I was putting in.
However a few points calmed me down:
1. Older folks tend to heat the home to high heaven...I am younger and currently comfy at around 60 degrees. 70 would be more than awesome especially during the winter months. This is relevant because I figure they must have been running this old fuel oil furnace around the clock to maintain their desired temps and consequently ran up such a fuel bill.
2. The chimney was likely open at this time, I.E. no damper currently installed. There is currently no critter cap on the chimney so I think the damper likely rusted shut so they removed it at some point.
The heat the furnace puts out is going up the chimney!
My idea was to put an insert in, and save on oil this first winter (or two) , and later convert the furnace to natural gas as a backup.
I read a bunch on here (great forum very helpful) and eventually settled on a Neo 2.5. It looks modern and has a nice flush front face, which keeps the footprint in the living room small.
From what I read it should heat the first floor and possibly a bit of the second nicely and may be capable of 8-9 hour burn times.
I have a full masonry (basement to the roof) chimney, with fire bricks in nice condition.
I am having the neo 2.5 professionally installed. Last Saturday the installer came and install was running smoothly.
Fire bricks were hammer chiseled out, the ash dump was filled with insulation, I helped get the chimney liner up on the roof with the installer.
However when the 30 ft x 5.5" liner was wrestled down the chimney, the installer made it about 3/4 of the way down and then got stuck on something.
I believe its either extra mortar or where the chimney meets the fire place there is a section that angles into the fire place. This seems to be more narrow than the main chimney flue.
The installer decided to put the install on hold and order 30 ft x 5" uninsulated liner.
I currently have a Neo 2.5 in my living room which is nice to look at but not actually moved into the fire place yet. It was freshly built (July 2014), but I am nervous about the decision to go with uninsulated 5.0 liner. I understand that represents a significant drop in volume.
What other options do I have (if any)? I read in the manual PE provides, that in Canada 6" liner is required.
Being in Wisconsin, our altitude is low, so will 30' ft of chimney offset the narrow flue size and allow for enough draft? Since I can't run a lab test, is installing it the only way to know?
I called PE and left two voice-mails..and then realized its Thanksgiving day in Canada.
I look forward to your comments. If you need any more info, let me know!
2nd post here.
Background, I have just moved into an 1800 Sq Ft home in WI.
Most of the homes here are set up on city natural gas lines. My home is one of the last ones in the neighborhood still set up on fuel oil. I received usage history for the last two years from the oil company, and the previous owner had burned about 950+ gallons of oil per winter. That's about $3300 per winter!
That cost initially made me reconsider how much overtime I was putting in.
However a few points calmed me down:
1. Older folks tend to heat the home to high heaven...I am younger and currently comfy at around 60 degrees. 70 would be more than awesome especially during the winter months. This is relevant because I figure they must have been running this old fuel oil furnace around the clock to maintain their desired temps and consequently ran up such a fuel bill.
2. The chimney was likely open at this time, I.E. no damper currently installed. There is currently no critter cap on the chimney so I think the damper likely rusted shut so they removed it at some point.
The heat the furnace puts out is going up the chimney!
My idea was to put an insert in, and save on oil this first winter (or two) , and later convert the furnace to natural gas as a backup.
I read a bunch on here (great forum very helpful) and eventually settled on a Neo 2.5. It looks modern and has a nice flush front face, which keeps the footprint in the living room small.
From what I read it should heat the first floor and possibly a bit of the second nicely and may be capable of 8-9 hour burn times.
I have a full masonry (basement to the roof) chimney, with fire bricks in nice condition.
I am having the neo 2.5 professionally installed. Last Saturday the installer came and install was running smoothly.
Fire bricks were hammer chiseled out, the ash dump was filled with insulation, I helped get the chimney liner up on the roof with the installer.
However when the 30 ft x 5.5" liner was wrestled down the chimney, the installer made it about 3/4 of the way down and then got stuck on something.
I believe its either extra mortar or where the chimney meets the fire place there is a section that angles into the fire place. This seems to be more narrow than the main chimney flue.
The installer decided to put the install on hold and order 30 ft x 5" uninsulated liner.
I currently have a Neo 2.5 in my living room which is nice to look at but not actually moved into the fire place yet. It was freshly built (July 2014), but I am nervous about the decision to go with uninsulated 5.0 liner. I understand that represents a significant drop in volume.
What other options do I have (if any)? I read in the manual PE provides, that in Canada 6" liner is required.
Being in Wisconsin, our altitude is low, so will 30' ft of chimney offset the narrow flue size and allow for enough draft? Since I can't run a lab test, is installing it the only way to know?
I called PE and left two voice-mails..and then realized its Thanksgiving day in Canada.
I look forward to your comments. If you need any more info, let me know!
