Efficiency Help

[kn8243]

Hello everyone! Hope this finds you well. Hoping that this forum can help me out. My parents have a wood stove (Jotul olso 500). That is centrally placed in our house. In hopes of being efficient we opted for a woodstove to replace the fireplace alternatively. For the most part it is efficient but I feel like we aren't taking full advantage of what the stove can offer. Other than extending the hearth further (not trying to do) and bringing the stove out away from the wall I'm puzzled at what we can do. I've pondered the idea of trying to create a steel plate to create a removable wall to help radiate the heat off. I know Jotul offers a heat shield but I'm still faced with the heat heading straight up and out our chimney. I'm clueless and figure I would ask here if anyone else has tackled anything similar. Many thanks for all your help and input.

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

Most important describe your wood(type cut split stack for how long)

Describe house layout, windows, insulation etc.

Pipe from stove all the way up?

What temp do you burn at?

 

[kn8243]

2 story cape cod. Anderson super storm windows. Primarily ash. 400f to 500f

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

I don't the jotul but you should be able to run hotter. What are burn times like? How long has the wood been cut, split, and stacked?

 

[aaron1]

Are you blocking off the area around your flue pipe with a plate or insulation? If not, you are losing a ton of heat up the chimney. That's the first priority. Then, you need to start burning the stove hotter. It looks like there's a black smudge on your window. that means you're not burning hot enough. you can go up to 600F. Your thermometer should be on one of the top corners, not the front left side. I use the front right corner and try to get her up to 600F when I burn. Ceiling fans help to get the air down from collecting up in your ceiling if that is a problem.

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . and echoing a bunch of what has already been said.

Thermometer should be on top . . . one of the four corners to get a truer measure of heat. You may wish to experiment to see which corner is consistently hotter as it varies from person to person.

If the chimney does not have a plate or insulation keeping room air from entering the existing chimney you may want to explore this . . . also assuming this has a liner.

Finally, try positioning the fan in an adjoining room pointing towards the stove . . . this helps establish an air current which in turn helps move the cool air towards the stove and hot air into the other areas of the house.

 

[begreen]

If you want to put a sheet metal plate to block off the entire fireplace opening, that would be fine. Alternatively you could block off the chimney around the flue liner at the lintel or damper level and pack the chimney with Roxul behind this plate.