Drolet Legend installation

[chris87654]

First wood stove installation for me - I've read much general and specific info.

Dropped off stove, vent pipe, and floor protector docs at city hall, filled out a permit application a few days ago - the inspector will be in Monday. I didn't need to submit a drawing/description of the installation.

Manual and sticker on back of the stove say single wall pipe can be 10" from the wall in USA. I contacted Drolet and they said this is only if I use approved shielding, which I'll do - their pipe (SP00370) and shield (SP00390). Pipe manual says with "approved shielding" single wall clearance can be reduced by 67% (think I read 50% elsewhere), which would be 6" - mine will be ~12" from the wall.
1) Should this be okay or might the inspector want proof of testing, etc? My neighbor said inspectors don't care about shielding.. that they go by non-shielded specs (though he may have meant wall shielding for stove clearance).

I'm using a basic floor protector (HY-C T2UL3648GT-1C) that will extend 10.25" on each side of door opening (USA spec is 8"), 19" from door opening/18" from glass (USA spec is 16"), and 3.75" from back of stove (USA spec is 0"). Drolet manual only says use Type 2 - has no r-value, thickness spec.
2) Should this be okay, or can local code be different?

The stove is placed in front of a 32" wide return duct (a 64" wide return is ~12 ft away in the hall) - both are near the ceiling. The manual says "The wood stove must not be hooked up to a hot air distribution system since an excessive accumulation of heat may occur" (not sure what this means), but there's much on inet about people wanting to pull wood stove heat into return ducts (effectiveness debatable). The Legend's fan only blows heat up from the back of the stove (there's a lip at top of rear heat shield that directs it slightly away from wall) so blown heat will go toward the return.
3) Is this stove too close to the return duct?

Concern is that the inspector will sign off the permit, but then say he doesn't like something when he checks it (even though it meets stove specs) and I'll have to change it. Replacing the SWP with double wall is easy, replacing the hearth pad would be wasted time/effort, but having to move stove placement would be bad (chimney pipe goes straight up - I don't want bends). I don't want to count on him saying "Well I'd like to see 'such and such', but it meets mfgr's USA spec so I'll pass it". I didn't see much about wood stove installation in local code (only that chimneys up side of house have to be supported, etc and covered to match house exterior).
4) Should I submit a drawing (take one when I pick up the permit), try to talk to the inspector, etc?

Any suggestions about this install will be appreciated.

I have questions about TV distance from stove, how far tree limbs should be from the chimney opening, and if local code might require a roof chase to cover the stainless steel chimney, but they're secondary.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. This is going to depend on how on the ball your inspector is on both fire and mechanical code. Mechanical code says that returns are to be a minimum of 10 ft from the stove. What is on the opposite side of the wall? Could the return above the stove be capped and then reopened on the opposite side of the wall?

Single-wall pipe needs to be 18" from wall or ceiling unless properly shielded. Then the distance goes down to 6" from the wall. Clearance reductions are for untested stoves. They need 36" clear in all directions. This can be reduced to 12" with a proper ventilated wall shield.

Your stove is tested for a rear wall clearance of 15" for single wall pipe and 6" for double-wall. With pipe shielding you should be able to use the double-wall clearance if the inspector approves. If not, and you want the clearance reduction, switch to double-wall connector pipe. This is what I'd put up. It's neater, gets less cobwebs, easier to clean, keeps the flue gases hotter and the chimney cleaner.

 

[chris87654]

Thank you for response - people with knowledge sometimes throw a wrench in my plans, but is fine if it stops me from burning the house down...

I hadn't heard of the 10' from return rule. A well-known local company's installer gave me a quote and he didn't mention the return distance - only said the stove should clear the electric receptacle (I had another idea [future mod] of putting 4' high heat shields about 10" from the sides, with a hood sticking out about 10" to catch heated air - assuming enough heat will still be radiated to overwarm the 12'x20' family room - main concern was too much heat for the studs/floor joists used for the air return).
I dug around to learn about the 10' distance - my first thoughts were pulling smoke into room if the furnace fan was on when reloading the stove, pulling embers into the return when reloading (doubtful, but could put aluminum window screen over return), causing chimney draft problems (less likely with fresh combustion air and two furnace vents in the same room), and maybe CO (will put detector in room for a while anyway). I didn't find any solid reason for the 10' rule, but found this article from home inspectors:
http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_...ction/35659-return-vent-above-wood-stove.html which had this link (Canadian publication) - see page 23 - note photo of wood stove with hood above it covered with a BIG X).
(broken link removed to http://www.cleanairplan.ca/documents/woodguide.pdf)

Here's the code:
SECTION M1602 - RETURN AIR
M1602.2 Prohibited sources. Outdoor and return air for a forced-air heating or cooling system shall not be taken from the following locations:
3. Rooms or spaces containing solid-fuel burning appliances, provided that return-air inlets are located not less than 10 feet (3048 mm) from the firebox of such appliances.

One person said "The quoted code applies only to spaces where that room serves as the source source of return air." I assume he means "sole" source, in which case I'd be okay (depending on inspector).
I don't expect to turn off the gas burner by using the wood stove, but figure any warmed air supplementing the gas burner helps. First thing would be to check rise of return air with the stove going.

Consensus of wood stove people is to move cold air to the stove room instead of pushing warm air out (makes sense). Problem with my returns is they're up high - they pull warm air from ceiling instead of cold air from floor, as if designed for summertime AC. Idea has always been to have returns high and low, with dampers to shut off one for each season. A wide return near floor in the stove room with smaller in hallway would do this (would have to open 2 more inside stove room wall to make it 64" wide), but I'd still want it close to the stove.

For now I'll cap the return by the stove for inspection, then uncap it and see how it goes with stove running. If there's any problem, I'll move the return (placed at floor level) to the other side of the room - this would be good anyway since there's a patio door over there (double pane vinyl but still colder). Then cut out the hall return 32" wide near floor and cover the 64" upper return in winter (this will pull cold air from floors in the bedrooms). I could also cut the upper part of the 31" passage from family room to ceiling level to let warm air go into the hall. There's really no other place I'd like to put the stove.

I'll use the SWP (assuming it passes inspection) because I already have the SBI single wall pipe (nice smooth laser welded 22 gauge), figuring the heat shield will help keep it warm - I got it before reading about keeping vent pipe hot with higher efficiency wood stoves and that radiated vent pipe heat may be negligible. Very true about a cleaner look and no spider webs (they appear even though I see no spiders).
Only problem with switching to DWP is I have a Supervent chimney adapter that sticks down ~3" from ceiling support, and will probably need a 6" long chimney-to-DWP adapter which would look sloppy up top (need to check it - reviews say DWP doesn't fit over Supervent). There's an older SS adapter on Amazon that should work (Selkirk-Metalbestos-256240) but now I see it has a "High quality, scratch resistant Black finish" which means they may be selling a Supervent.

I assume the hearth pad should meet USA specs, and that as long as the return issue is covered, it's better not to talk with inspector beforehand.

Still reading about retrofitting a variable speed blower to constantly circulate air. An Evergreen is about $300. I'm not ready to replace the furnace/AC unit yet. This house is fairly well insulated and only about 1600 sf.

Again, thank you for your help.