Hi fellow stove and fireplace enthusiasms!
Long time lurker, it's now time for me to post on this great forum.
A little bit of background first. I had a Pacific Energy FP25 installed in my (now sold) cottage few years ago, I really enjoyed the heat output of this unit! Well built, but with few annoyances:
- burned wood too quick, fixed by blocking two-third of the OAK (outside air kit)
- east-west wood configuration can be stressful sometimes when fully loading the box, always a risk of a log rolling in the glass
- the door was mis-aligned from factory, fixed it myself
- an electrical wire was pinched between two metal plate from factory, shorting the circuit, this one took a while to diagnosis, fixed by the dealer
- the Pacific Energy heat distribution system is noisy and cheap, but was really efficient in heating the basement (once installed correctly, more on that later)!
Now I have a new bigger house being built, and decided to go with the FP30. It's been delivered few days ago and will be installed tomorrow. What a beast!
A first observation, something I've read here also: it is damn hard to find a qualified professional to install the heat distribution system. It's true now, and it was true few years ago for my FP25.
At the time, the fireplace dealer installed the Pacific Energy heat distribution system for the FP25 with soft duct, with the vent outlet in the basement ceiling, and the heat output was poor at best. The soft duct seemed to pulsate when trying to push hot air downward, resulting in very little air flow. The outlet in the ceiling was a poor decision also, hot air stayed there, leaving the rest of the basement cold. Moreover, they didn't want to touch the electrical part if it, neither my electrician (what I wanted was too custom for them). I ended up removing all the system and re-doing it myself, with solid duct, venting at 2-3 feet from the floor, with the electrical setup I wanted (one switch to activate either the fireplace fan or the heat distribution fan).
Now for the new house, the fireplace dealer (a different dealer) didn't want to install it, told me to ask the HVAC guy, who didn't want to touch this. Good chance also it would have been installed wrong again, so I do it myself this time! Since the Pacific Energy kit was cheap, I opted for something else. SBI (the company behind Valcourt, Osbourn, Drolet and other brands), sell a better kit (VA4460 Forced Air Distribution Kit), with a superb fan that is a lot quieter and efficient than the Pacific Energy kit. The dealer accepted to sell me the kit and approved my installation with the FP30. Great!
I have installed the fan and duct already, but here's the question I have for you folks: there are two parts from the Pacific Energy heat distribution kit that needs to be installed on the FP30: an adapter (part #1, WODC.9128) and a backflow damper (#3, WODC.7940).
Obviously I don't have those, and they're not sold separately. I know other guys here have installed their own custom heat transfer system, what have you done for the connection to the FP30? For the others, what would you do? Is the backflow damper really needed? Could it be installed somewhere else in the duct?
Thanks!
Long time lurker, it's now time for me to post on this great forum.
A little bit of background first. I had a Pacific Energy FP25 installed in my (now sold) cottage few years ago, I really enjoyed the heat output of this unit! Well built, but with few annoyances:
- burned wood too quick, fixed by blocking two-third of the OAK (outside air kit)
- east-west wood configuration can be stressful sometimes when fully loading the box, always a risk of a log rolling in the glass
- the door was mis-aligned from factory, fixed it myself
- an electrical wire was pinched between two metal plate from factory, shorting the circuit, this one took a while to diagnosis, fixed by the dealer
- the Pacific Energy heat distribution system is noisy and cheap, but was really efficient in heating the basement (once installed correctly, more on that later)!
Now I have a new bigger house being built, and decided to go with the FP30. It's been delivered few days ago and will be installed tomorrow. What a beast!
A first observation, something I've read here also: it is damn hard to find a qualified professional to install the heat distribution system. It's true now, and it was true few years ago for my FP25.
At the time, the fireplace dealer installed the Pacific Energy heat distribution system for the FP25 with soft duct, with the vent outlet in the basement ceiling, and the heat output was poor at best. The soft duct seemed to pulsate when trying to push hot air downward, resulting in very little air flow. The outlet in the ceiling was a poor decision also, hot air stayed there, leaving the rest of the basement cold. Moreover, they didn't want to touch the electrical part if it, neither my electrician (what I wanted was too custom for them). I ended up removing all the system and re-doing it myself, with solid duct, venting at 2-3 feet from the floor, with the electrical setup I wanted (one switch to activate either the fireplace fan or the heat distribution fan).
Now for the new house, the fireplace dealer (a different dealer) didn't want to install it, told me to ask the HVAC guy, who didn't want to touch this. Good chance also it would have been installed wrong again, so I do it myself this time! Since the Pacific Energy kit was cheap, I opted for something else. SBI (the company behind Valcourt, Osbourn, Drolet and other brands), sell a better kit (VA4460 Forced Air Distribution Kit), with a superb fan that is a lot quieter and efficient than the Pacific Energy kit. The dealer accepted to sell me the kit and approved my installation with the FP30. Great!
I have installed the fan and duct already, but here's the question I have for you folks: there are two parts from the Pacific Energy heat distribution kit that needs to be installed on the FP30: an adapter (part #1, WODC.9128) and a backflow damper (#3, WODC.7940).
Obviously I don't have those, and they're not sold separately. I know other guys here have installed their own custom heat transfer system, what have you done for the connection to the FP30? For the others, what would you do? Is the backflow damper really needed? Could it be installed somewhere else in the duct?
Thanks!