Do I need a key damper?

[Itslay90]

When the temperatures was in the 20’s degrees . my stove did wonderful in getting my house up to temperature. Begreen I did everything you told me to do. Wait till the flue temperature gets to 300 degrees turn it down 50 or 60 percent. Depending on the weather .then start turning it down again once the flue temperature is at 350 degrees. Then once it gets to 350 again turn it down by 25 percent. The flue temperature will get to 350 degrees, and the inside of the stove will be in the 700’s and the stt will be 680’s. seems like when I pack up my stove does when it doesn’t even get the house up to temperature because I have to put the air control at the lowest setting. But when I loosely stack them that’s when it starts to heat my house. But I don’t get a longer burn. Is it me or is packing up the stove is only good for overnights or when I am not home ? I spoke. To Pacific energy. And they told me maybe I need to put in a key damper, because when the draft is strong that’s when your heat is getting sucked out the firebox and out the chimney, how so ? if my flue temperature is at 350 I really need some help.. thank you in advance. Btw. When my temps is in the 700’s stove doesn’t turn red. The temperature outside is 11-17 degrees. I know you’re going to say it’s the basement walls but I don’t think that’s the issues. And the reason I am saying that is because that’s where I have 4 vents in the floor and heat comes upstairs. Do you think I am turning down the air control too late ?

 

[begreen]

I thought this was asked and answered? With a very tall flue system the draft is going to be very strong during very cold weather. The stove is an easy breather. For this reason I am pretty sure one was recommended last year.

The lack of insulation on the basement walls is a heat loss issue, not a stove issue.

 

[Itslay90]

I thought this was asked and answered? With a very tall flue system the draft is going to be very strong during very cold weather. The stove is an easy breather. For this reason I am pretty sure one was recommended last year.

The lack of insulation on the basement walls is a heat loss issue, not a stove issue.

The other person told me I don’t need one, because I don’t have a tall chimney

 

[Wildflush]

If I loose stack my stove like I did this morning with smalller splits I got the desired high STT just shy of 700. Ended up closing air with good draft. A loose stack gives more surface area for the flames to go and quicker off gasing. Got 4 hours on that burn and got my downstairs temp up.

Now my reload was tighter E/W loading and with a large cherry split on top of my 3 medium splits. Used a little more air maybe a 10-15th open and STT was 600. Both lasted 4 hours and reloading at 250-300 STT.

I tend to get a cigar type burn when loading tightly E/W and I open up the air some.

 

[bholler]

The other person told me I don’t need one, because I don’t have a tall chimney

I seem to remember all of us here telling you that you need one. How tall is your chimney?

 

[Itslay90]

I seem to remember all of us here telling you that you need one. How tall is your chimney?

I was told no, I don’t need one. 17 ft and a half

 

[Itslay90]

If I loose stack my stove like I did this morning with smalller splits I got the desired high STT just shy of 700. Ended up closing air with good draft. A loose stack gives more surface area for the flames to go and quicker off gasing. Got 4 hours on that burn and got my downstairs temp up.

Now my reload was tighter E/W loading and with a large cherry split on top of my 3 medium splits. Used a little more air maybe a 10-15th open and STT was 600. Both lasted 4 hours and reloading at 250-300 STT.

I tend to get a cigar type burn when loading tightly E/W and I open up the air some.

How cold is it over there ? I think I’m going to start loading up my stove loosely, and see how it heats up.. seems like it does better

 

[Wildflush]

How cold is it over there ? I think I’m going to start loading up my stove loosely, and see how it heats up.. seems like it does better

It’s winter it’s cold. I only load loosely on cold starts. Not on reloads. I prefer to run at 550-600 STT’s.

 

[begreen]

The other person told me I don’t need one, because I don’t have a tall chimney

Refresh our memories. I thought this was a basement stove with a 25' flue system but could be mistaken.

 

[begreen]

Sorry, I missed the posting of 17.5 ft. flue height. The house is 2800 sq ft right? And about a third of the heat is heading out the basement walls. When it's 11º outside there is also a fair amount of heat loss upstairs, especially through the windows unless they have insulated curtains or shades over them. The procedure described sounds fine. Loosely loading will generate a bit more heat at the risk of overfiring and with a shorter burn time.

Bottom line is the house needs a lot more BTUs to put up with the heat loss. The solutions are to either insulate the basement walls, put in a much larger stove or furnace, or run the primary heating system together with the wood stove, or layer up and put up with a cooler house.

 

[Itslay90]

Sorry, I missed the posting of 17.5 ft. flue height. The house is 2800 sq ft right? And about a third of the heat is heading out the basement walls. When it's 11º outside there is also a fair amount of heat loss upstairs, especially through the windows unless they have insulated curtains or shades over them. The procedure described sounds fine. Loosely loading will generate a bit more heat at the risk of overfiring and with a shorter burn time.

Bottom line is the house needs a lot more BTUs to put up with the heat loss. The solutions are to either insulate the basement walls, put in a much larger stove or furnace, or run the primary heating system together with the wood stove, or layer up and put up with a cooler house.

Thank you, do you have any other stoves in mind ? I called Pacific energy. Again, they told me to try a key damper

 

[Itslay90]

Sorry, I missed the posting of 17.5 ft. flue height. The house is 2800 sq ft right? And about a third of the heat is heading out the basement walls. When it's 11º outside there is also a fair amount of heat loss upstairs, especially through the windows unless they have insulated curtains or shades over them. The procedure described sounds fine. Loosely loading will generate a bit more heat at the risk of overfiring and with a shorter burn time.

Bottom line is the house needs a lot more BTUs to put up with the heat loss. The solutions are to either insulate the basement walls, put in a much larger stove or furnace, or run the primary heating system together with the wood stove, or layer up and put up with a cooler house.

I don’t remember if I asked this before, but say if I insulted all the basement walls, won’t I see be losing heat thru the concrete floors ?

 

[weee123]

I don’t remember if I asked this before, but say if I insulted all the basement walls, won’t I see be losing heat thru the concrete floors ?

Not nearly as much as through the walls.

 

[Itslay90]

Not nearly as much as through the walls.

Okay, thank you.

 

[Itslay90]

Sorry, I missed the posting of 17.5 ft. flue height. The house is 2800 sq ft right? And about a third of the heat is heading out the basement walls. When it's 11º outside there is also a fair amount of heat loss upstairs, especially through the windows unless they have insulated curtains or shades over them. The procedure described sounds fine. Loosely loading will generate a bit more heat at the risk of overfiring and with a shorter burn time.

Bottom line is the house needs a lot more BTUs to put up with the heat loss. The solutions are to either insulate the basement walls, put in a much larger stove or furnace, or run the primary heating system together with the wood stove, or layer up and put up with a cooler house.

Okay thank you again, Pacific energy, told me yesterday to put in a damper to see will it help, and it didn’t. I’m going to Home Depot today so get foam board insulation for the basement walls, so I can fix this problem, when everything is done.. I will report back here to give you updates. I want to thank everyone that been helping me with this.

 

[Itslay90]

I thought this was asked and answered? With a very tall flue system the draft is going to be very strong during very cold weather. The stove is an easy breather. For this reason I am pretty sure one was recommended last year.

The lack of insulation on the basement walls is a heat loss issue, not a stove issue.

Okay. I insulated. The basement walls, so I’m going to be burning my wood stove all this weekend so Sunday I will let you know how the insulation is doing

 

[begreen]

Okay. I insulated. The basement walls, so I’m going to be burning my wood stove all this weekend so Sunday I will let you know how the insulation is doing

Great, what was used for insulation? How much?

 

[Hoytman]

Pictures or it didn’t happen.

Put the damper in and insulate the walls as instructed here. You’ve been given great advice, follow it to the letter and report back.

Cold air lays in the floor and heat rises…no way you’ll lose heat through the floor.

Stop listening to the idiots telling you that you don’t need a pipe damper. The pipe damper WILL help. Insulation will help more…the thicker the better.

 

[Itslay90]

Great, what was used for insulation? How much?

I used these, I did my whole basement walls

 

[Itslay90]

Pictures or it didn’t happen.

Put the damper in and insulate the walls as instructed here. You’ve been given great advice, follow it to the letter and report back.

Cold air lays in the floor and heat rises…no way you’ll lose heat through the floor.

Stop listening to the idiots telling you that you don’t need a pipe damper. The pipe damper WILL help. Insulation will help more…the thicker the better.

Thank you !

 

[stoveliker]

Heat can certainly be lost thru an uninsulated slab. But that job is larger and the walls will have a large effect. Well done.

Did you tape the seams? Foam edges?

Note that you should in principle cover these panels with a fire barrier like drywall, per code. Now you have a large and exposed collection of stuff in your basement that will give nasty gases when it burns.

Sorry - it never ends...

 

[Itslay90]

Heat can certainly be lost thru an uninsulated slab. But that job is larger and the walls will have a large effect. Well done.

Did you tape the seams? Foam edges?

Note that you should in principle cover these panels with a fire barrier like drywall, per code. Now you have a large and exposed collection of stuff in your basement that will give nasty gases when it burns.

Sorry - it never ends...

Yes I tape the seams, and for the slab I used great stuff that’s in a can I’m going to frame the basement in the summer.

 

[Itslay90]

Pictures or it didn’t happen.

Put the damper in and insulate the walls as instructed here. You’ve been given great advice, follow it to the letter and report back.

Cold air lays in the floor and heat rises…no way you’ll lose heat through the floor.

Stop listening to the idiots telling you that you don’t need a pipe damper. The pipe damper WILL help. Insulation will help more…the thicker the better.

Pacific energy told me to put a damper in the pipe, to see if that helps which I did

 

[stoveliker]

Yes I tape the seams, and for the slab I used great stuff that’s in a can I’m going to frame the basement in the summer.

Perfect!

 

[Itslay90]

I have a fan on the other side of the basement, blowing the cold air towards the stove. It seems like it rises the temperature a lil bit