Hey guys,
To give you a little background we moved into out current house in Oct or 2008, the house was built int 2005. We have a full two story brick chimney with 2 flues. Downstairs in the finished basement we have a Big E pellet stove that pipes into the chimney via a 4" pipe. Upstairs we have a one of those fireplace systems that has the metal back and sides and four vents in the masonry work on the sides. There are two fans to suck in the cold air and blow it out the top vents. We have found that we simply love having a nice fire in the fireplace and we can get the living room over 80 degrees with a roaring fire. The room is probably 15"x18" with 9" ceilings and a cieling fan.
Last winter we started thinking about taking something we love (the fire) and using it to also help heat the house at least to some degree. We currently have a two zone (upstairs and downstairs) gas system and that doesn't cost us an arm and a leg to heat with the current nat gas prices and insullation in the house
We have 2.5 acres with lots of hardwood trees so we have plenty of free wood.
Our fireplace opening is 35" wide and 28" at the top of the arch. The sides at the start of the arch at approx 23". The hearth is 22" deep.
Our chimney has rain caps that are made out of 1-2" think stone that slopes to the side. They are fixed in place with mortar and not removeable. They are approx 12 inches above the chimney top.
This all begs the following questions.
1) Can you install a liner from the bottom since the caps are fixed in place?
2) Can liner be installed without the metal cap since we already have the stone rain guards?
3) Is an insert or hearth stove the way to go? The insert would have to be smallish due to the fireplace opening size.
4) It seems like a rear exhausting hearth stove is needed due to the height issues of the fireplace opening.
5) Can we just run a liner up part way into the flue since we have the rain cap issues?
6) Is this all worth it? With stoves costing $500-$2,500, liners costing $500-$700 and someplaces asking $750 for the install the break even seems many years out.
Thanks for the help as I am driving myself crazy with this!
To give you a little background we moved into out current house in Oct or 2008, the house was built int 2005. We have a full two story brick chimney with 2 flues. Downstairs in the finished basement we have a Big E pellet stove that pipes into the chimney via a 4" pipe. Upstairs we have a one of those fireplace systems that has the metal back and sides and four vents in the masonry work on the sides. There are two fans to suck in the cold air and blow it out the top vents. We have found that we simply love having a nice fire in the fireplace and we can get the living room over 80 degrees with a roaring fire. The room is probably 15"x18" with 9" ceilings and a cieling fan.
Last winter we started thinking about taking something we love (the fire) and using it to also help heat the house at least to some degree. We currently have a two zone (upstairs and downstairs) gas system and that doesn't cost us an arm and a leg to heat with the current nat gas prices and insullation in the house
We have 2.5 acres with lots of hardwood trees so we have plenty of free wood.
Our fireplace opening is 35" wide and 28" at the top of the arch. The sides at the start of the arch at approx 23". The hearth is 22" deep.
Our chimney has rain caps that are made out of 1-2" think stone that slopes to the side. They are fixed in place with mortar and not removeable. They are approx 12 inches above the chimney top.
This all begs the following questions.
1) Can you install a liner from the bottom since the caps are fixed in place?
2) Can liner be installed without the metal cap since we already have the stone rain guards?
3) Is an insert or hearth stove the way to go? The insert would have to be smallish due to the fireplace opening size.
4) It seems like a rear exhausting hearth stove is needed due to the height issues of the fireplace opening.
5) Can we just run a liner up part way into the flue since we have the rain cap issues?
6) Is this all worth it? With stoves costing $500-$2,500, liners costing $500-$700 and someplaces asking $750 for the install the break even seems many years out.
Thanks for the help as I am driving myself crazy with this!