Looking for insert advice on this inverted corner stove of my (potential) house.

[Bster13]

Hello everyone.

Attached is a picture of an Oil-heated home's wood fireplace I am considering purchasing.

If I run with oil in this home, I am 75% sure I want to run a coal stove/insert or secondly a wood/pellet stove....but how the heck do I fit a coal stove in that two-sided opening and perhaps run a stove pipe out the chimney?

Or perhaps, do I just keep that fireplace cosmetic and install a coal stove elsewhere in the home? (I kind of like this location because it is centrally located.)

Any advice, down to a special insert that would work, or telling me to rebrick one side of the chimney, or whatever outside the box idea you have would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Bster13]

Little help for the newb?

 

[Stax]

If that fireplace is centrally located, then stay with that location. You have a very similar setup as I had. Check here...

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/74886/

You have the height that I didn't for a free standing stove. If I were you, I would demo underneath, the right side and extend the hearth. I would put a free stander in there.

 

[Stax]

That's a beautiful setup. Looks like it opens up to another room. I'd position it so half would go in each direction. You have a lot of possibilities with that. Keep us updated and ask a lot of questions.

 

[Bster13]

Ok, see what you did with closing off one side of your fireplace, that works.

So you guys are saying wall off the entire fireplace area, but just leave room for a stove pipe to pass through it up to the top of the chimney, and then extend the hearth and have a free stander there? Yes, that chimney/fireplace is centrally located (well at the center of an "L" shape), so reusing that space would be great for a radiating heat.

Other option is to leave that fireplace along for resale and then for times when I lose power and put a stoker coal stove in some place else with a power vent.

Then I'd have a low maintenance coal stove for regular use, and then if the power went out rock the traditional wood stove (since the stoker needs electricity to work) until the power comes on?

 

[Bster13]

Another thing... those nice big windows are going to be all over the house, with cathedral ceilings.... even if they are double paned......I will chew through Coal in the winter and electric (A/C) in the summer, no?

A small benefit is the open floor plan and radiating heat/cooling, eh?