Can I get your thoughts on my first install

[redrig]

Hello all,

4 years ago I bought my first house, it has 2 fireplaces one upstairs and one downstairs. I have never had a fire in the fireplaces since there are no stove currently. I am going to be installing a Alpine woodburning stove downstairs and would appreciate any feedback on my install plans. Here
we go.

here she is, its a nice wellbuilt fireplace with a glassdoor and the seal is nice and tight.



It was born to be a "slammer" I have the side panels but will not be using them.


But I will be welding this to it once I know exactly where to weld it in place so that my liner connects to it hopefully without too many issues.


Here is where it gets a little unique, this fireplace is a positive pressure insert meaning that it draws air from outside. The folk that I bought it from had a nice 6 inch hole punched through thier garage to the back of the fireplace so that it could draw the air into this hole in the back of it. The 2 wires are for the snap switch.


I dont have the ability or desire to knock a 6 inch hole into the side of my house, plus this fireplace will be in the basement so that is not an option anyways, well without some serious digging.

So here is the blower that I plan on mounting outside on the chimney (about six feet above the top of the fireplace)


What my plan is to do, is chisel 1 brick out of the chimney , approx 3" x 8" and run 2 seperate 4" inch fresh air ducts down through my blockoff plate, I have built this to accomplish this, its made of sheet metal and has 2 four inch collars on it to run the fresh air lines.


I will then run those 2 lines through the blockoff plate and into a 6 inch "T" in the back of the fireplace, just a standard tee


So where I am now is I have the brick chiseled out and I have removed the damper , the plan is too cut the damper enough so that I can run my 6 inch insulated liner down to the top of the fireplace, my block off plate will have 3 holes in it, 1 for the liner and 2 for my 4 inch fresh air lines that I will run to the back of the insert to that tee.

I am planning on making the blockoff plate tomorrow, what are your thoughts on my plan thus far ?

 

[HotCoals]

You're using the blower for the stove's intake air??

 

[redrig]

basically these Alpines are doubles walled so that the outside intake air is pushed though that cavity and then forced into the room, plus there is now blower noise.

 

[redrig]

There are also tubes across the top that the blower air goes through, but they are not for secondary combustion if that is your question.

 

[HotCoals]

Ok..you had me nervous for a min!
Interesting stove. Cheers!

 

[HotCoals]

But the air will be really cold coming into the stove..don't seem the stove could warm the air enough before it enters the room?

 

[redrig]

Apparently the air is made to zig-zag throughout the stove , along the sides, across the tubes on the top before entering the room. I had that question too but I know a few peeps that have had these in the past and they say they really pump out the heat. Of course I will be putting a variable blower control on it so that its now always full blast.

Alpine still makes stoves using the same system, they are just nat gas now rather than wood burning and they have good reviews

 

[begreen]

I don't understand why one would want to heat outside air for interior use. Does it have a control so that one can reheat interior air? This is the way most stoves and inserts work.

 

[redrig]

It does not have a control to select where you draw the air from.

I can probably get a blower that just installs in the back and make an adapter for it, Do you think I should just go that route ? Rather than the outside air ?

 

[begreen]

I don't know this stove but if this air is just for the convection system then I would definitely want to route it to have the option of intaking from the home interior.

PS: I just checked on their gas fireplaces and see that they are establishing a positive pressure system to circulate heat. This is the same system as the FPX 36 elite. The best thing I think you can do is try it as designed, but understand that if you are taking 0 up to room heating temp it's going to take a lot more btus than taking 70 room air up to temp. One interesting option might be to duct the intake into the far end of the house. Theoretically that would help heat distribution.

 

[redrig]

Shoot, well I guess what I can do is get a regular blower that will move around the inside air.

 

[begreen]

Your plan might work, not trying to discourage you. I am just a little skeptical of the efficiency. If you chose to use room air, why not use the one you have already? How much room will there be on the back and the sides of the insert when it is in place? Would it be possible to remote locate the blower on the opposite side of the basement with an intake register to the floor above (hopefully to a common area or hallway)? Then duct the output to the face of the fireplace and into the chimney and down to the stove? Or is there room enough to run a round 4" duct alongside the insert at the floor level to the back of the insert?

 

[redrig]

Do you mean use the blower I have already , but installing that on the rear of the stove? I guess I could , just seems a little bulky but I am sure I would have plenty of room.

 

[redrig]

I just went and measured, and I wont have enough room to run anything along the sides of the insert. So any ducting will have to come from above, and unfortunately that would only be for outside air. I cant envision any place that the blower could go that would be indoors.

I can always just install it with the blower in the rear of the stove and make changes later.

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

Does your fireplace happen to have an ash door in the floor that leads outside? That would provide it with more than enough combustion air if you removed it and the outside door.

 

[Motor7]

My neighbor has a similar stove...big Sasquatch beast of a thing. Anyway, like yours it has a double wall, with a 1.5" space all the way around the firebox w/8" "exhaust" opening at the top. His intake opening & blower is underneath & he uses room air. So far it works great and he plans on hooking the exhaust side to some duct work to feed his registers(basement installation).

I agree with Hotcoals, I don't think you want outside air for the circulating air...it's going to cool down the stove way too much.

 

[Corey]

...not only that - any outside air you bring in is going to displace an equal volume of warm inside air. Plus cold outside air at ~50% relative humidity is then going to be warm inside air at 5% RH - in other words, your house will be a giant desiccator in the winter. The only reason I can see bringing in outside air in the winter is if your house is so tightly insulated you have indoor air quality issues. Even then it would normally be done through a heat exchanger and with a monster humidifier.

 

[redrig]

OK gentleman, you have sold me. I will not be hooking it up using outside air. I will just make an adapter so that I can hook the blower straight to the back of the stove.

Rockymtnhigh - Unfortuantely no , I do not have an ash pan. The only place where I could realistically mount this blower (other than the back of stove) would be outside and that is sounding more and more like a bad idea.

One other question on this. The blower motor itself is a Dayton brand, and on the motor it says "thermally protected" I am curious if that motor will have any issues being on the back of the stove, I wouldn't think so but figure I would ask. The motor itself will be sitting a few inches off of the back of the stove so it will not be touching it directly, will it hold up to the heat ?