To insulate the liner or not and best performance?

[Roxburyeric]

Sorry to bring this one up again but I'm always thinking. I'm really wondering how much better the Jotul C550 insert would/could burn if I insulated the SS liner. I burned all last year (1st yr. burner - last yr.) I have an outside brick chimney 25 ft +/- tall with a block off plate at the bottom and top. Draw has always been good (starts easy and no smoke in the house). I will say that in January last year when it was really cold the stove really cranked the heat with great secondary burn). How do you know when you are loosing the heat up the chimney? I did burn about 6 cords last year for a 2,500 sq ft. house. I also know that my wood wasn't as seasoned as it should have been. So will insulating the liner give me longer burns? or will I use less wood? and am I loosing a lot of heat up the chimney? So many questions - but how does a new guy really know if the stove is performing at its best? Thanks for your help.

 

[theheatelement]

If you already have a lower block off plate, you are not going to loose that much heat through the actual chimney. Will the liner get hot... YES!! but insulation is not going to retain all of that heat. I would worry more about how much cresote you got after last season.. the insulation will more or less keep the liner hotter and help burn that cresote... so thats what i would check first.

Sorry to bring this one up again but I'm always thinking. I'm really wondering how much better the Jotul C550 insert would/could burn if I insulated the SS liner. I burned all last year (1st yr. burner - last yr.) I have an outside brick chimney 25 ft +/- tall with a block off plate at the bottom and top. Draw has always been good (starts easy and no smoke in the house). I will say that in January last year when it was really cold the stove really cranked the heat with great secondary burn). How do you know when you are loosing the heat up the chimney? I did burn about 6 cords last year for a 2,500 sq ft. house. I also know that my wood wasn't as seasoned as it should have been. So will insulating the liner give me longer burns? or will I use less wood? and am I loosing a lot of heat up the chimney? So many questions - but how does a new guy really know if the stove is performing at its best? Thanks for your help.

 

[Roxburyeric]

Thanks for the reply. I had the chimney swept about a month ago (not too bad) - which is a whole story on its own for a later post (A chimney Sweep getting a bad rap - boy that will be a story no one has heard before - yeah right).