Insert for small home with long burn times

[pcormier]

My wife and I live in a 930 sq ft, single-story house. Our fireplace is located in the living room. Our bedroom and my office is down a short hallway. We would like to warm the house throughout the night, but not heat ourselves out of the living room where our fireplace is when it is running in the evenings. Local dealers sell Lopi, Napoleon and Regency inserts. We live in Colorado at 6,100 ft elevation where I assume, like combustion engines in automobiles, these wood inserts would be less efficient.

We are considering

1. Lopi Answer
2. Regency i1500
3. (broken link removed to https://www.napoleon.com/en/us/fireplaces/products/fireplace-remodeling/wood-inserts/s-series-inserts/s20i-s20i)

The answer is the most inexpensive, the Regency seems to have longer burn times but more maintenance to to the catalytic element. The Napoleon is a bit larger. We may also be able to enjoy a 26% tax credit on the Smaller Regency i1500, larger Lopi Medium Flush etc due to their HHR efficiency ratings.

Questions:

1. Can I run a larger medium-sized stove cooler, to get longer run times, but not cause problems with soot in the flue?
2. Will a catalyst stove like the small regency allow me to have noticeably longer burn times than something like the not catalytic Lopi Answer?
3. Will our high elevation create enough inefficiency that the Medium size stoves are a are a better choice for our small home?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[pcormier]

We ended up purchasing the Medium Flush Wood Nex-genfyre whatever from Lopi. Will follow up with our experience once its installed.

 

[BrianVA]

I recently bought the large flush model. I'd be interested to hear your impressions once you get it installed and operating.

 

[begreen]

With a single-story home at high altitude, be sure the liner exceeds the minimum required height of 15 ft.

 

[EbS-P]

Couple thoughts. My 1.7 cu ft does not have a long burn time. If I want coals at 6 or 7 am I better load it up at 11 to midnight then stay up to get the air set. I don’t see any reason the altitude would reduce efficiency. I’ve been shopping for a stove/insert for my 1000 sq ft basement the 2021 tax credit list doesn’t have a lot of choices. If I wanted to buy off that list it would probably be a Blaze King.

 

[rwhite]

My previous home had a Osburn 1600 insert. It was on the main floor which was about 1000 sqft. It would hold fire around 5-6 hours. If I loaded it up around 9-10 the heater was kicking on around 5 am. In my experience you won't get a small insert to do a whole lot better than that. If your home is really well insulated you may hold heat through the night but I think you will still be relighting every morning.

 

[avsmusic1]

We ended up purchasing the Medium Flush Wood Nex-genfyre whatever from Lopi. Will follow up with our experience once its installed.

You move fast my friend!
It's certainly a beautiful looking stove. Just an FYI - I'm not sure it qualifies for the tax credit. The older "hybrid-fyre" model had an HHV that was >75 but I don't think the new "NexGen" made it.

Travis Industries

www.travisindustries.com

 

[begreen]

Couple thoughts. My 1.7 cu ft does not have a long burn time. If I want coals at 6 or 7 am I better load it up at 11 to midnight then stay up to get the air set. I don’t see any reason the altitude would reduce efficiency.

Altitude affects draft, not efficiency unless the stove drafts poorly due to too short of a chimney.

 

[BrianVA]

I believe the Medium Flush does qualify for the 2021 tax credit. I see on the certificate they wrote hybrid fyre, but I think that is a typo, because they don't even manufacture the hybrid fyre anymore. It may be worth sending an email to Travis Industries.

https://www.travisindustries.com/docs/L_TC_Certificate_2021.pdf

 

[avsmusic1]

I believe the Medium Flush does qualify for the 2021 tax credit. I see on the certificate they wrote hybrid fyre, but I think that is a typo, because they don't even manufacture the hybrid fyre anymore. It may be worth sending an email to Travis Industries.

https://www.travisindustries.com/docs/L_TC_Certificate_2021.pdf

Yeah something is wonky there but the EPA site and the Lopi website both have the HHV listed at 72

 

[pcormier]

With a single-story home at high altitude, be sure the liner exceeds the minimum required height of 15 ft.

Thank you begreen... do you have a reference for this minimum so i can discuss it with my vendor?

 

[begreen]

The dealer should be familiar with this adjustment if they have many customers in the area. Some stove manuals point this out either with a caveat or with an actual chart.
Morso:
Local conditions like for example - roof constructions, large trees nearby and high altitude, may influence the chimney draft and height.
Quadrafire:
It is not recommended to use offsets and elbows at altitudes above 4000 feet above sea level and or when there are other factors that affect flue draft.

Enviro and VC had charts in their manuals. This is from the Enviro Kodiak manual which is an easy breathing stove.