Kozy Heat Z42 punching above its weight

[KC2004]

We are in the process of finishing our basement and installed a Kozy Heat Z42. I wanted to be able to push air up to the main floor to help regulate the basement if it gets too warm or be able to heat the house if necessary. Temp outside has been -10 to -2 (live in the Kansas City area) and the fireplace is keeping the entire house warm . The fan is an AC Infinity S6 which can move around 400cfm. It’s operating temp rating is up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and the air coming through the blower stays between 110 - 120 degrees out of the vent. It definitely makes a little howling noise when cranked up to the maximum speed but it’s doing a nice job. House is around 3200 square feet on the 1st and 2nd floor with an additional 1200 in the basement. Definitely pushing out more BTU’s than specs show with the higher CFM fan attached. We also have the blower kit installed for the basement which does a nice job. Still finishing up drywall and the hearth so outlet in the unit is not live and have an extension cord setup. Not running both fans at the same time since they counter act each other.


I wanted to pass this along to anyone considering the Kozy Heat Z42. We originally wanted the Pacific Energy FP-30 but could not get it to fit in the space we have with the chimney constraints. This one seems to be about perfect for our needs though.

 

[begreen]

If the fireplace is heating 4400 sq ft at -5 degrees then it is definitely performing well and the house is very well insulated.

 

[KC2004]

If the fireplace is heating 4400 sq ft at -5 degrees then it is definitely performing well and the house is very well insulated.

We did upgrade our insulation when we built the house and the cost savings over the past 8 years due to extra insulation has far outweighed the original added cost. This home costs less to heat and cool than our first home which was 1800 square feet.

One thing I will say, the Z42 does not appear to be the most efficient at burning logs compared to what I read about the FP-30. Loading them N/S does appear to work best and I believe this is due to how the bottom air intake lines up with the logs. If you lay logs E/W orientation without something under them, the air flow can be blocked from sending air below the logs.

 

[begreen]

That's not uncommon in an E/W loader.

 

[KC2004]

Here are updated pictures of our project. Looking forward to the upcoming woodburning season after stocking up on our wood supply for the Winter a couple weeks ago. System is automated with smart switches and thermostats in the basement to be able to turn on the blower to the upstairs when the basement reaches a certain temperature and route air to the main floor of the house. A nice added benefit of adding the heat duct with blower to the upstairs is if the fireplace starts to overfire, you can crank up the variable speed blower kit and cool it down quickly. Glad to be winding down the basement project! Did 95% of the work myself (other than drywall) in the basement including all the stone work.

 

[begreen]

It looks great. That will be a favorite spot this winter.

 

[Rob_Red]

Love the space! Modern yet it feels earthy.

How did you upgrade your insulation?

 

[KC2004]

Love the space! Modern yet it feels earthy.

How did you upgrade your insulation?

Our builder had an upgraded insulation package we selected which included thicker walls/blown in insulation in the walls as well additional insulation in the attic. House stays very comfortable year round. Only thing I think was a waste in their upgraded package was temperature controlled electric roof vents. They do help suck hot air out of the attic on hot days but the power used to do so probably offsets any energy savings but it was all included in the package

 

[armanidog]

That 3 legged thing with the long fur-is that a pet or a stool?
Nice fireplace and heater.
What I did for the holidays was mount a nice looking board on the wall next to the stove area. It has square cut nails about 10 inches apart so we can hang stockings, etc.

 

[KC2004]

That 3 legged thing with the long fur-is that a pet or a stool?
Nice fireplace and heater.
What I did for the holidays was mount a nice looking board on the wall next to the stove area. It has square cut nails about 10 inches apart so we can hang stockings, etc.

Ha! Ask my wife on the furry thing. We’re waiting on a leather chair and ottoman that is back ordered until May 2022 at the moment. It’s a placeholder she put there. Doesn’t need to be put outside for bathroom breaks in the winter so I guess it can stay.

Nice idea on the stockings. We have another gas fireplace above this one upstairs that stockings have hung on in the past. Not sure if we’ll move the tree down here this Winter for Christmas yet or not. Would definitely be a nice space to open Christmas gifts in.

 

[Grizzerbear]

I like the wood storage being built in. That looks great.

 

[KC2004]

I built a golf simulator/theater room adjacent/open to the hearth room. All set for Winter.

 

[AlwaysStacking]

System is automated with smart switches and thermostats in the basement to be able to turn on the blower to the upstairs when the basement reaches a certain temperature and route air to the main floor of the house.

If you were open to sharing a little more detail about this I would be interested in hearing about it.

 

[KC2004]

If you were open to sharing a little more detail about this I would be interested in hearing about it.

Sure, I have our whole house lighting and fans automated using Lutron Caseta wireless smart switches. The Caseta system has a hub which is compatible with Apple HomeKit as well as Google and Alexa home automation systems. We use Apple HomeKit to control automations (Need an iPad, HomePods or Apple TV to act as the Home Hub. We use HomePods and Apple TV ) I put the secondary blower fan kit I installed which pushes air up to the main floor on a Caseta fan control switch which can be turned on and off when triggered by a sensor, manually or by voice (Siri/HomeKit in our setup) . We also have a Hue hub that connects to the HomeKit system which pulls in their motion detector sensors which also have temp sensors built in. Once the temp sensor in the Hue motion sensor reaches a certain point, I have an automation which can turn the blower on to pull air up to the main floor. Does that make sense?

I hooked up the main fireplace blower fan kit to a Caseta fan switch as well so I can ask Siri to turn that fan on or off or also have it turn off automatically if the other blower fan kicks on to pull the air upstairs. Lots of ways to play with the automations once you set the system up. This will be the first season of use for the fireplace other than the brief test burns this past winter while the basement was being finished so I’m curious how well it will work. I can see building in some automations for night time burns to decrease or increase fan speeds based on temps.

Lutron Caseta from all of my research is one of the best/most reliable ways to automate lighting and fans. We haven’t had any problems for the 3 years we’ve been using the system now. Great feature is they act like a regular switch if needed and if you lose WiFi/internet for some reason, the system/automations still work because it’s operating on a local hub not dependent on a cloud based system or internet.

 

[AlwaysStacking]

Interesting configuration, thanks for the details

 

[ltrains3532]

@KC2004 Looks great. I have a Kozy Heat Z42 as well. Mine is on the main level, and I have contemplated using the knockouts for the air ducts to get some heat into my basement. I had a few questions about your setup.
1. Reading your post it looks like you used your own ductwork and inline fan (AC Infinity S6) instead of the one sold by Kozy Heat, is that correct?
2. It looks like the AC Infinity S6 has to be plugged in and can be controlled by a remote to turn the fan on when wanting to move air upstairs?
3. Do you notice losing any heat through the air duct knockouts upstairs when you don't have the AC Infinity S6 turned on?
4. Do you run the AC Infinity S6 fan at the same time as the blower on the fireplace downstairs?

Thanks for any answers you can provide.

 

[KC2004]

@KC2004 Looks great. I have a Kozy Heat Z42 as well. Mine is on the main level, and I have contemplated using the knockouts for the air ducts to get some heat into my basement. I had a few questions about your setup.
1. Reading your post it looks like you used your own ductwork and inline fan (AC Infinity S6) instead of the one sold by Kozy Heat, is that correct?
2. It looks like the AC Infinity S6 has to be plugged in and can be controlled by a remote to turn the fan on when wanting to move air upstairs?
3. Do you notice losing any heat through the air duct knockouts upstairs when you don't have the AC Infinity S6 turned on?
4. Do you run the AC Infinity S6 fan at the same time as the blower on the fireplace downstairs?

Thanks for any answers you can provide.

1. Correct, I created my own duct system after the installers talked me out of using the manufacturers system. They said they don’t perform all that well.

2. The S6 comes with a wall plug but I hardwired the fan to a smart switch (Lutron Caseta) so I could control the power via switch or automations if I wanted to. The remote that comes with it controls the fan speed which I set manually. Thankfully, the S6 remote remembers which speed it was on when power is disconnected so when I switch the power back on, the fan speed goes back to where it was last set. The wire on the AC Infinity fan speed control is pretty long so I was able to run it to a 3 gang box on the wall close to the fireplace. Below are some pictures of the switches and a few zoomed out pictures so you can see the distance away from where the s6 was installed. If I were to do it over, I would just use a regular Lutron Caseta on off switch to control the power to the AC Infinity fan and the main blower kit inside the unit. The Caseta Fan switches are only used to turn power on and off to the blower and not to control fan speed. I set the built in fan kit speed on the reostat control inside the fireplace and control the fan speed of the AC Infinity with the included black remote. You can see the picture from Apple’s HomeKit how the blowers show up on my phone. It’s very convenient to be able to control the fans remotely.

3. Minimal heat comes up through the vent when the fan is not on. I would guess if you are sending air down you would not notice any heat coming out of a vent unless the fan was turned on since hot air rises. I’m impressed that when you turn the main blower kit on it doesn’t send air upstairs but sends it out the top vent on the fireplace as designed. The setup works really well. We just had a fire last night and watched a movie downstairs where the fireplace is located. Once the basement was warm and cozy, I redirected the air to the main floor and it kept the basement from getting too warm and it warmed the main part of the house up to 72 degrees (thermostat set at 71)

4. If running both at the same time, the AC Infinity fan is more powerful than the blower kit fans so it can take over and redirect all the heat if turned up too much. I find setting it at the 2nd or 3rd speed setting (out of 8 speeds) will still allow the built in fan kit to move some air into the room where the fireplace is. I did just install the duct fan silencer this weekend between the upstairs vent and S6 fan. It reduced the noise considerably and I would recommend it.

 

[ltrains3532]

@KC2004 Thank you for all of the information. I've been pretty impressed with my Kozy Heat Z42 as well. I didn't have many options based on the size of my opening. I'm hesitant to use the heat duct option because I'm trying to get heat from the main level to the basement. I've been told not to go against mother nature (heat rises). I hope I could over come this since the run is so short to the basement (probably 10 ft.), and I would use a powerful fan like the AC Infinity.

 

[KC2004]

@KC2004 Thank you for all of the information. I've been pretty impressed with my Kozy Heat Z42 as well. I didn't have many options based on the size of my opening. I'm hesitant to use the heat duct option because I'm trying to get heat from the main level to the basement. I've been told not to go against mother nature (heat rises). I hope I could over come this since the run is so short to the basement (probably 10 ft.), and I would use a powerful fan like the AC Infinity.

If you’re able to close off the basement with a door, then I would think it will work well. Make sure you are able to service the duct fan if needed. That’s the only challenge compared to the manufacturer’s duct kit. The nice thing is these AC infinity fans are really quiet until you pass the 4th speed setting and then it’s mostly air/wind noise. With the short run, I would look at installing the silencer AC infinity makes. It made a decent difference in the noise after I installed it.

 

[Wi2016]

What type of flexible vent are you using? I also have a z42 this is our second year with it really like it. Also what adapter did you use on the top of the stove ?

 

[KC2004]

@Wi2016

I’m using the AC Infinity heavy duty 6” flexible duct. Flexible Duct

I just used a 6” duct splice collar like the one pictured off the top of the stove on both of the outlets. I used a 6” round T adapter to connect the two flexible lines into one. I did have to crimp the T adapter ends slightly on my own to get the flexible duct work to slide on and then I used duct clamps and foil tape to ensure the flexible duct stays secure.

One thing I added after the fact that isn’t shown in these pictures is the in-line muffler AC infinity sells and I placed it between the fan the the floor vent. When the fan is run on the higher speeds the amount of air it’s pushing causes a bit of wind howling sound and I wanted to reduce the noise. Not an issue on the lower speeds. Now I can run the fan on high and it’s not an unpleasant sound so the in-line muffler did a good job of changing the sound and reducing the noise. In our application it was worth it but may not be needed if the fan is located far enough away from the vent

 

[KC2004]

Nice secondaries going this morning. Love this fireplace . It’s getting a workout the next few days as this cold snap moves through

 

[Jlenz136]

Nice secondaries going this morning. Love this fireplace . It’s getting a workout the next few days as this cold snap moves through

View attachment 288885

Secondaries look great! Is your glass staying nice and clean while burning? We are building next year and we are looking into this unit along with the heat & glo pioneer and Osborn Stratford. So far we are leaning toward the z42

 

[Jlenz136]

I built a golf simulator/theater room adjacent/open to the hearth room. All set for Winter.

View attachment 282778

How tall are your ceilings for your golf sim?

 

[ltrains3532]

Nice secondaries going this morning. Love this fireplace . It’s getting a workout the next few days as this cold snap moves through

View attachment 288885

Nice. So I think I am finally going to use duct punchouts on my Kozy Heat. I've got to kids with bedrooms in the basement and would really like to get some heat down there. I had a few further questions for you.
1. Is there a reason you used both duct punchouts and tied them together with flex duct versus having 2 separate runs?
2. I'm assuming you have only one supply vent going upstairs from your Kozy heat is that correct?
3. Is everything still working well? Would you do it again.

Thanks for any insight.