Ok, a few guys (friends of my husband) came out today to price out the installation of my Napoleon insert. There were a couple of issues that came out of it. One owns 2 pellet stoves in his own home and both are certified chimney guys to give you some background.
1.) They both felt that I needed to have fresh air. They thought the vents in the flashing surrounding would only supply enough air to keep the blowers going. They discussed the option of putting the fresh air vent through to the basement, but then thought that would draw too much air from the furnace which is directly below the fireplace. So, they determined that it would probably be best to drill a hole in the back of the fireplace with a small vent outside. My concern with this is what happens if I ever decide to remove the insert and not replace it? Would my fireplace not be usable unless that is patched?
2.) My living room is rather small and has larger than average opening to the kitchen (but not huge), at the far end of the room. The guy with 2 pellets stoves said that he believed it would become very hot in that room to the point where it will chase us out of that room. Do you agree with that statement? Will it be too hot? That room is where we probably spend the most time at home, other than the kitchen. He actually said we would have been better off getting a freestanding stove on the basement. We figured we would be heating wasted space down there and the warmth would not make it to the main floor. He said we would could have put small vents in the rooms, but I thought that was against most fire codes? He also said (it wouldn't look pretty), but we could install the insert in the basment?
Anyway, after all that, I just don't know what to do now? I could even sell this if we decided it wasn't going to work out as I got it cheap enought that I probably could even make a small profit. What would you do? TIA
1.) They both felt that I needed to have fresh air. They thought the vents in the flashing surrounding would only supply enough air to keep the blowers going. They discussed the option of putting the fresh air vent through to the basement, but then thought that would draw too much air from the furnace which is directly below the fireplace. So, they determined that it would probably be best to drill a hole in the back of the fireplace with a small vent outside. My concern with this is what happens if I ever decide to remove the insert and not replace it? Would my fireplace not be usable unless that is patched?
2.) My living room is rather small and has larger than average opening to the kitchen (but not huge), at the far end of the room. The guy with 2 pellets stoves said that he believed it would become very hot in that room to the point where it will chase us out of that room. Do you agree with that statement? Will it be too hot? That room is where we probably spend the most time at home, other than the kitchen. He actually said we would have been better off getting a freestanding stove on the basement. We figured we would be heating wasted space down there and the warmth would not make it to the main floor. He said we would could have put small vents in the rooms, but I thought that was against most fire codes? He also said (it wouldn't look pretty), but we could install the insert in the basment?
Anyway, after all that, I just don't know what to do now? I could even sell this if we decided it wasn't going to work out as I got it cheap enought that I probably could even make a small profit. What would you do? TIA
But in my readings of this forum I have read several people who were very disappointed with the heat output of their pellet stove, but I don't recall reading about anyone who thought their pellet stove was too large. My stove is in a big room (750 sq') and I have a 5' wide doorway into the kitchen that is 24' away from the stove. Without the use of a fan the kitchen stays within 2-3 degrees of the room where the stove is. If you use a fan as Zeta suggested, I think you'll do just fine.
