Introduction and Zero clearance install

[Clearcutter]

Hi All,

I've been lurking on here all summer and finally sat down to say hi and ask a few questions of course
this place has been a world of help for me and there doesn't seem to be a ton of Zero clearance install pictures so I thought I would post a few.

Quick history:
We bought our house 4 years ago and it had an old Blaze King sitting in the Garage that the previous owner had torn out of the living room and built a crapy corner mantel with an Electric fire place. Well we had a Huge Storm this winter and lost power for three and a half days....needless to say it sucked!
So I vowed never to be in that situation again with no back up heat. Especially since my job has me surrounded in an unlimited supply of free fire wood.

I started researching what I could put back in for wood heat. Rip the mantel out and put a stove back in? well the main floor is very chopped up so a stove would be OK but wouldnt get the heat over to the family room and other rooms on the other side of the house. We also really like the mantel and the Wife said we have to have somewhere to hang the stockings So we discovered Zero Clearance fireplaces, realized they would work perfect and we could duct heat to the other side of the house. PERFECT!

Ended up having to take down the old brick chimney that went up through the middle of the house (major pain) as it wouldnt work with ZC fireplace and it wasn't in the best of shape.

Ended up going with the Enerzone Solution 2.5ZC. We didnt have a ton of room to work with so I poured over all the manufacturers install manuals and found only a few that would work. the Enerzone won as it's made in Canada, fits perfect, approved for lots of different 6" Class A pipe and it was available in stock at a store in the next town.

I started the install myself as all the qoutes I got from the shops were RIDICULOUS. It's been about a month of weekends and after work but I'm just about done. the ducting in the crawl space took the longest.

The Fire inspector has been over twice now and likes everything and has given me the go ahead to cover it all up.

Here are a few pictures



So now I have a few questions before I close it up.

1 - since running it to test everything I have realized the Class A gets fairly warm, along with the ducting coming off the back I'm going to trap alot of heat into this cavity when I close it up. My question is if I put a Room to Room fan in the back wall up high (it would blow out above the kitchen cabinets) and a vent down low (it would be very close to the ducting going into the crawl space). I could use this trapped heat to warm the kitchen. Am I crazy?
Even if I din't use a fan I would think two vents would work with just convection?

Any help or ideas before I close it in would be great.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Wood Duck]

I think you may be on to something with the heat in that triangular space. It seems as though the back half of the fireplace will be releasing heat into that space and you should be able to use that heat somehow. I wonder if it is worthwhile to install some sort of door into that space. It isn't much useable space, but it would give access to the pipe and the back of the fireplace which might someday be beneficial.

 

[Clearcutter]

That cavity where the ducting goes through the floor is where the old chimney was. We plan to extend the pantry next year to utilize that space. then I was thinking I could ad a door at the back of the pantry like you said to be able to inspect everthing.

 

[Waulie]

You may not even need a fan. Where would the lower vent, um, vent to? Would that be the kitchen as well? If the air coming in the lower vent is significantly cooler, I'd think you'll get pretty good air transfer from natural convection. That whole area is kind of like one big chimney.

 

[Clearcutter]

So I ended up doing just that. Added a vent up high and an intake down low. The intake is in the hall and the vent is up high above the cabinets in the kitchen.



hope this Works

 

[begreen]

What size grilles did you use?

 

[FyreBug]

Nice install. Since we make this unit, there's a couple of things you could try. Keep in mind this is a permanent installation so before you close everything up you may want to maximize out the heat output. You might be surprised how much heat a ZC puts out.

If you look at your manual you'll see you have the option of installing a gravity kit to bring the extra heat in the same room or upstairs. You also have the option to install a 'heat dump' blower and push the heat to another room in the house. This is controlled by a thermostat and basically turns your fireplace into a small furnace.

Please post some pics so we can see the finished product.

 

[aansorge]

You will enjoy the enerzone. I have the same model and its performance and reliability have been good. I have the optional forced air kit and use it to blow air into the basement when desired. One thing that I don't like is the front grate; it captures ash and when you turn the blowers on, the ash gets sucked into the fan and into the room. This isn't good for the fans or the lungs so I actually cover 2/3rds of the opening with aluminum foil. You'll see what I mean after awhile.

 

[Clearcutter]

thanks guys,

It has a forced air kit off the back with the fan in the crawl space. I have been running it quite a bit and Yep it cranks the heat out!

aansorge, what size outside air kit did you use? I used 3" but was curious if 4" would help on startup.

begreen, I just used 6" x 14" grills on both the intake and the vent.

 

[begreen]

Keep us posted on how this works out. I would have gone about double the sq in size of the grilles but if it works that's great.

 

[Clearcutter]

Nice install. Since we make this unit, there's a couple of things you could try. Keep in mind this is a permanent installation so before you close everything up you may want to maximize out the heat output. You might be surprised how much heat a ZC puts out.

If you look at your manual you'll see you have the option of installing a gravity kit to bring the extra heat in the same room or upstairs. You also have the option to install a 'heat dump' blower and push the heat to another room in the house. This is controlled by a thermostat and basically turns your fireplace into a small furnace.

Please post some pics so we can see the finished product.

Not to sound like Im sucking up but the support I have gotten from you guys has been great. I send Eric an email with a ton of questions and he always gets back to me within a few hours.

 

[Clearcutter]

Keep us posted on how this works out. I would have gone about double the sq in size of the grilles but if it works that's great.

I was thinking the same thing when I got them home they will be easy to change out later if it works like I think it will.

 

[FyreBug]

Not to sound like Im sucking up but the support I have gotten from you guys has been great. I send Eric an email with a ton of questions and he always gets back to me within a few hours.

Thanks, I'll let Eric know. He's a great guy.

 

[FyreBug]

You will enjoy the enerzone. I have the same model and its performance and reliability have been good. I have the optional forced air kit and use it to blow air into the basement when desired. One thing that I don't like is the front grate; it captures ash and when you turn the blowers on, the ash gets sucked into the fan and into the room. This isn't good for the fans or the lungs so I actually cover 2/3rds of the opening with aluminum foil. You'll see what I mean after awhile.

Thanks, I'll pass on your comments on to engineering and quality improvement. We always look for input to improve the product.

 

[aansorge]

Here is a snapshot of mine with the aluminum foil.

 

[aansorge]

thanks guys,

It has a forced air kit off the back with the fan in the crawl space. I have been running it quite a bit and Yep it cranks the heat out!

aansorge, what size outside air kit did you use? I used 3" but was curious if 4" would help on startup.

begreen, I just used 6" x 14" grills on both the intake and the vent.

I didn't do the install and I don't know... Sorry.

 

[Clearcutter]

Here is a snapshot of mine with the aluminum foil.

thanks for the picture. I like the Mantel.
I'm wondering if you could use some kind of furnace filter that was fire proof behind the intake instead of the tin foil.