Feels like I got a brand new stove.

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karl

Minister of Fire
Apr 9, 2007
1,058
Huntington, West Virginia
Ok. It's only been a little over an hour, so this may be a bit premature.

I picked up my rock wool from Slowe's and installed it above, behind, and beside my insert. I have a metal block off plate already.

The house was 65 degrees, outside is 45, and the stove was about 100 from a fire last night. Not good draft weather at all.

I put some kindling in the stove, a little bark, and some sizzle and burn pieces of wood, I'm trying to get rid of before cleaning the liner and switching to the good stuff.


The stove lit off well on the bark. I heard the other stuff starting to sizzle a bit. I had good flames and the temps were coming up. I closed the door. Everything is going well. I start shutting the air down. I get it to about an inch open, and I say what the heck I'm going to shut it all the way down and see what happens. Normally, my Summit won't burn well all the way closed. The fire died down. I had some flashes of flame as the EBT starting moving around, but the secondaries didn't stall out.

It's been over an hour, the stove is running along at 500 and the secondaries are just beginning to die out. It's a nice peaceful burn on so so wood with less than stellar draft conditions. Not bad for a half a milk crate of scrap wood.

I have the blower on a pretty low setting, so hopefully as it gets colder and the draft gets better, I can turn it up and get more heat, while still letting this thing run on the EBT.
 
So what you are saying is you basically wrapped the walls of the original fireplace? I guess instead of heating the firebrick of the fireplace wall, now you are bouncing that heat off the rock wool and keeping the stove environment a lot warmer. Keep us posted when you get a little futher in the season with a full load. I have a lot of rock wool left over and looking for ideas.
 
Curious... how did you secure the rock wool against the walls of the fireplace? I'm afaid if I just lean it against the wall, it may tip and lean into the side of the stove.
 
stejus said:
Curious... how did you secure the rock wool against the walls of the fireplace? I'm afaid if I just lean it against the wall, it may tip and lean into the side of the stove.

If you have a stove in the fireplace then that could be a problem. I have an insert. It has a metal convection jacket that surrounds the stove part. I have the insulation sandwiched between the the fireplace wall and the convection jacket. It's packed in there pretty tightly. This still leaves 3 to 6 inches of air gap around the stove it's self with blower air moving through it. In the back of the stove there is a gap. I did this for two reasons. First rockwool doesn't bend like fiberglass, so I would have to had removed the insert to get it in there tightly. Second, I need space for the combustion air to come in through the OAK, and would have had to remove the insert to trim around that closely.
 
I thought I would give an update. It's NOT like a brand new stove, but it still is very good. A noticeable improvement.

Today was the first day it was cold enough to add wood the when there were still coals in the stove. I didn't have any problems with it over heating, so I put the surround back on it. I had left it off for a week just in case things started getting too hot. I would be able to pull the insulation out quickly.

Here is what I have noticed. It heats up quicker from cold. The blower turns on much sooner. Also, other than today, I have built fires and let them die out over night. The blower is still running in the morning, where as in the past on partial loads it would be cycling or completely off.

It's definitely worth the $40.00 I spent on insulation, and I have over half the bundle left over. If I can't find a use for it around here. I'll put it up for sale to any forum members around me; $20.00, case of beer, good sob story, etc.

I would recommend anybody with an insert look into doing this. If you're going from r-1, which is probably what a metal block off plate is, to r-30, you're reducing your heat loss by a factory of 30. Say you have 20 square feet exposed. That would be the top, sides, and back. A 50 degree temperature delta. It truly is probably much more than that. Then you're getting and extra 966 btus and hour out of the stove.
 
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