Do I need wall protection?

[ckitch]

Got home from work today and the wife has the house real warm, and the stove cranking. I walk over check the STT and it's about 650 three medium splits to get through to the night load. I stand by the stove to warm up a bit and touch the wall it was quite warm, never really noticed it before. Check it with the IR and found one tiny spot at 180 and the rest 130-150. The wall is painted wood paneling and the clearances are exceeded at 17" on a corner install. Is this something to worry about? That was close to are average peak temp so it's probably been there twice a day since October. A google search says wood pyrolysis starts at 390F but just curios if this is unsafe?

 

[kennyp2339]

You can always add a wall shield (include the 1" air space gap behind it) but if the stove has peaked out and you measured 180 highest, if it were me I would not worry to much, but everyone is different, In my house its just my girl friend and I, I don't know how I would feel if I had kids living in the house

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Something like this

 

[begreen]

You can always add a wall shield (include the 1" air space gap behind it) but if the stove has peaked out and you measured 180 highest, if it were me I would not worry to much, but everyone is different, In my house its just my girl friend and I, I don't know how I would feel if I had kids living in the house

Don't let your girlfriend read this thread.

 

[Nick Mystic]

If I were in your situation I would go ahead and install the heat shield behind the stove. Picking up 180F temperature readings on painted wood paneling is hotter than I would be comfortable with. As other threads have talked about when wood gets repeatedly heated up and cooled back down at the temperatures you're talking about it changes the structure of the wood over time to the point where it can ignite at a much lower temperature than normal wood.

 

[Tenn Dave]

I contacted Woodstock about this type situation and this was their reply: "When stoves are tested for UL listing, the hearth and walls are allowed to get to 117°F above ambient temperatures. If ambient is 65° then the allowable temperature at the specified distance would be 182°F. If your stove is at minimum clearances, or even slightly beyond minimum, walls will be warm to the touch".

 

[begreen]

That guideline has always bugged me. For example, the ambient in the stove room with the stove burning is more likely to be 75F. What about the folks we read here that like to keep the room at 85F? Is 85F + 117F = 202F wall temp safe? I don't think so.

ckitch, I would think about some sort of shielding for peace of mind, even if the distance meets spec. In this case the shielding doesn't have to be full on NFPA 211 because the objective is not a clearance reduction. A layer of Durock Nex gen screwed to the studs with a tile covering will at least put some shielding on the wall. However, for maximum shielding the space behind the shield should be ventilated.

 

[BrotherBart]

That guideline has always bugged me.

Me too.

 

[kennyp2339]

What about thermal heating from sun light? A house painted a dark color like blue using clap board, when the sun shines on it gets very hot to the touch, almost to the point of burning your hands, but house don't catch fire from it.

 

[begreen]

After seeing what can happen over time with wood pyrolysis due to contact with 180-190F hot water heating pipes I like my wall temps to stay below that.

 

[begreen]

What about thermal heating from sun light? A house painted a dark color like blue using clap board, when the sun shines on it gets very hot to the touch, almost to the point of burning your hands, but house don't catch fire from it.

I'll bet the surface temp is below 180F. FWIW, this can sure can mess up vinyl siding, even if the sun is reflected from nearby windows.

PS: I just looked up a study done in the Netherlands on the effect of solar radiation on windows with dark trim. The hottest they recorded over 5 years was 45C over ambient of 30C, or 75C or 167F. Very hot to the touch. Moral of the story, people in hot climates should not have dark painted houses.

 

[kennyp2339]

True, I remember seeing pics of that here maybe 2 or 3 years ago.. Forg

 

[rideau]

A timely post for me. I was just thinking yesterday about this. In one spot only, behind the circular cast extension that sticks out the top center rear of the stove and houses the top flue exit, my wall gets warm to touch when the stovetop is in the 500 degree range. Nothing that I am worried about, but I got to thinking about twenty or thirty years of heating and began wondering if I should paint a tile painting to mount behind the stove. I might do a scene from the woods, forest floor . Figured probably mount on durock, spacers behind. Had progressed to thinking about how to mount the entire thing, when we got home from our walk and the thought process stopped. Am not familiar with durock, only know of it from reading here. How heavy is it? Could one hang a large tile painting mounted on it, with screws fastened to the durock, or is it like sheetrock, and one would need some kind of wooden frame?

 

[begreen]

Durock NexGen is fairly light due to the pumice beads in it. It could be metal framed to avoid combustibles or perhaps dressed with an L shaped tile edging?

 

[Highbeam]

Durock NexGen is fairly light due to the pumice beads in it. It could be metal framed to avoid combustibles or perhaps dressed with an L shaped tile edging?

On top of sheetrock you could use 1/4" durock. I can walk around indefinitely with a 3'x5' sheet of that clamped in one hand. It's light. The 1/2" thick stuff is still a one hander but It would get heavy after awhile.

 

[ckitch]

Thanks for the replies! The wife was already asking about doing some sort of stone up the walls in the corner before I noticed this, so I guess she gets what she wants again. Ill add it to the list of honeydo's for this old place.