Hi all,
I have been browsing this forum and have found it to be very helpful in giving ideas for the wood insert I'm looking to have installed next month. Here's some context of where we are at this point...
I had a professional come out to my home yesterday and inspect the existing fireplace and chimney. The existing chimney and terracotta liner were both found to be in good shape - no repairs required. The fireplace opening was also measured and found to be sufficient to fit either a Super (medium size) or Summit (large size) Pacific Energy wood insert. Given that our home is 1800+ square feet, either would be sufficient in the professional's opinion for the MAJORITY of the house (more on that later). After discussing burn times per load, I told him I was leaning toward getting the Summit but to price out both in his estimate.
We also discussed what to do with the blower electrical cord. We have basement space below the existing fireplace, and he said he would have no problem drilling out of the back of the fireplace to plug in the blower in an existing electrical outlet in the ceiling of the basement. I told him I would definitely be interested in that instead of running the blower fan cord to an outlet beside the insert. So that's almost certainly what we'll end up doing there.
We also discussed what to do about the current fireplace setup currently installed. It's a fireplace with a blower on it installed by the previous owner. It does very little to provide heat, and I certainly won't miss it being removed. However, the professional let me know that sometimes removing those leaves black lines and markings on the masonry behind it and that the standard size surround for the PE insert would not cover it all. He said sometimes it's possible to clean the markings off but that sometimes it's pretty stubborn and that people then go with an oversized surround. I am the kind of person to take a chance to clean it first before covering more stone than necessary and spending even more money. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle that?
Here comes the part that I'm most questioning and unsure of. Numerous Google searches have come up with NOTHING about this topic, so it must not come up a lot. Even the professional who suggested it said he has done similar things only a few times, with the last time being some years ago. Here it is... He suggested removing some brick from behind the existing fireplace and to put a vent into the room behind the fireplace. See, the room behind the chimney was an addition on the house, and there is only one doorway into this room from the original house. The concern he had was not nearly enough warm air getting into that room or the adjoining sunroom through just one door off of the kitchen. He also noted that warm air tends to have difficulty heating a room that is a step down from the main heated area - which is exactly the scenario here. He said the hot air from behind the stove through a vent would definitely heat the room and that he could possibly put a blower behind the stove to facilitate the movement of that hot air. He's looking into that possibility while coming up with his estimate(s). I should hear back today.
My idea was far less sophisticated. My air conditioning duct work was installed after the building of the house and was installed in the ceiling. This is typical when installing central AC in a rancher style house. My idea was to take advantage of this by using the central fan to move the warm air through the house, including those rooms behind the chimney and away from the main living area. The return for the system is in the ceiling maybe 20 feet away from the fireplace, so I figured this would do a fairly decent job of capturing the heat from the wood insert and moving it through the house.
He was less convinced. He was concerned that the room would never get up to a comfortable enough temperature with that method being the primary/only heat source (I want to get away from oil baseboard hot water) and that the air tends to cool rapidly when it travels through the attic. He said there is no way it would heat the room better than opening up the back of the fireplace and putting a vent in.
Does anyone have experience with getting heat from the BACK of a wood insert? What concerns, if any besides cost, should be taken into consideration with this kind of installation? Has anyone had success/failure with moving heat around the house using a central fan they could share?
I have been browsing this forum and have found it to be very helpful in giving ideas for the wood insert I'm looking to have installed next month. Here's some context of where we are at this point...
I had a professional come out to my home yesterday and inspect the existing fireplace and chimney. The existing chimney and terracotta liner were both found to be in good shape - no repairs required. The fireplace opening was also measured and found to be sufficient to fit either a Super (medium size) or Summit (large size) Pacific Energy wood insert. Given that our home is 1800+ square feet, either would be sufficient in the professional's opinion for the MAJORITY of the house (more on that later). After discussing burn times per load, I told him I was leaning toward getting the Summit but to price out both in his estimate.
We also discussed what to do with the blower electrical cord. We have basement space below the existing fireplace, and he said he would have no problem drilling out of the back of the fireplace to plug in the blower in an existing electrical outlet in the ceiling of the basement. I told him I would definitely be interested in that instead of running the blower fan cord to an outlet beside the insert. So that's almost certainly what we'll end up doing there.
We also discussed what to do about the current fireplace setup currently installed. It's a fireplace with a blower on it installed by the previous owner. It does very little to provide heat, and I certainly won't miss it being removed. However, the professional let me know that sometimes removing those leaves black lines and markings on the masonry behind it and that the standard size surround for the PE insert would not cover it all. He said sometimes it's possible to clean the markings off but that sometimes it's pretty stubborn and that people then go with an oversized surround. I am the kind of person to take a chance to clean it first before covering more stone than necessary and spending even more money. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle that?
Here comes the part that I'm most questioning and unsure of. Numerous Google searches have come up with NOTHING about this topic, so it must not come up a lot. Even the professional who suggested it said he has done similar things only a few times, with the last time being some years ago. Here it is... He suggested removing some brick from behind the existing fireplace and to put a vent into the room behind the fireplace. See, the room behind the chimney was an addition on the house, and there is only one doorway into this room from the original house. The concern he had was not nearly enough warm air getting into that room or the adjoining sunroom through just one door off of the kitchen. He also noted that warm air tends to have difficulty heating a room that is a step down from the main heated area - which is exactly the scenario here. He said the hot air from behind the stove through a vent would definitely heat the room and that he could possibly put a blower behind the stove to facilitate the movement of that hot air. He's looking into that possibility while coming up with his estimate(s). I should hear back today.
My idea was far less sophisticated. My air conditioning duct work was installed after the building of the house and was installed in the ceiling. This is typical when installing central AC in a rancher style house. My idea was to take advantage of this by using the central fan to move the warm air through the house, including those rooms behind the chimney and away from the main living area. The return for the system is in the ceiling maybe 20 feet away from the fireplace, so I figured this would do a fairly decent job of capturing the heat from the wood insert and moving it through the house.
He was less convinced. He was concerned that the room would never get up to a comfortable enough temperature with that method being the primary/only heat source (I want to get away from oil baseboard hot water) and that the air tends to cool rapidly when it travels through the attic. He said there is no way it would heat the room better than opening up the back of the fireplace and putting a vent in.
Does anyone have experience with getting heat from the BACK of a wood insert? What concerns, if any besides cost, should be taken into consideration with this kind of installation? Has anyone had success/failure with moving heat around the house using a central fan they could share?
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