Move insert into the room

[aquamagi]

Hi Guys: I'm new to the forum but a long time wood burner. My house has a nice Lopi 1740 wood stove fireplace insert with blower that sucks cold air from the bottom front of the unit and blows it under around and back over the top of the stove and out into the room. Prior owner had it installed professionally with stainless chimney insert for about $4600! to give her some heat during power outages. Everything works as planned.

BUT . . . . obviously . . . .the blower unit does NOT work during power outages. (Big surprise??)

The Stove sits with nearly 70 percent of the firebox inside the fireplace and only about 8 inches of the box out into the room.

It seemed to me that I would get substantially better performance (more heat) in the house per log burned if the ENTIRE stove were pulled out into the basement room with the back of the stove a full foot away from the wall.

I called the outfit that did the installation and asked if this was not the case. He gave a pretty fuzzy answer.

I want to withhold the answer I got from that "professional" until I hear from You guys. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[begreen]

It probably would not work all that great unless the convection jacket was cut back a bit a the top. There's also the issue that the insert is designed to sit on a totally non-combustible floor and the issue of venting the insert. One would be better off installing a rear vent, freestanding stove if the fireplace lintel is high enough.

One thing that will improve the output of the current insert if it is in an exterior wall fireplace, is an insulated block-off plate in the damper area and if there is some extra room, a layer of insulation behind the insert.

 

[aquamagi]

Thanks begreen: For responding and for being green. The stove now sits on a concrete hearth that sticks out about 13 inches from the wall. The hearth itself sits on a concrete floor so there is no combustable floor. My plan is to move the stove out fom where it is and put it on the floor in front of the hearth it now sits on. Then place a 90 deg. L in the vent in top back of stove with about 2 feet of straight pipe to the opening under the lintle or above the lintle through the fireplace wall and into the stainless chimney liner. That way I would expose 100%+/- of the ouside steel of the stove to the atmophere in the room as oposed to the apros. 25% the steel that now sticks into the room.

The chimney is not on outside. It runs right thru the center of the house. The main question is how much more heat percentage wise will I get than with the present set up?

 

[aquamagi]

Also stove would be about 8 inches lower than it is now. Sorry about the multiple posts. I'm just getting used to the system here.

 

[jatoxico]

I don't think you would gain as much as you might imagine since, as BG said the insert is jacketed so it's not like a free standing stove.

I have my insert pulled out about an 1 1/2" so the surround is not tight to the brick which lets some residual heat out. But I have a block off plate and I insulated the firebox and smoke shelf.

If your going to do anything I'd do that since it's very unlikely the installer added one, Possible but unlikely.

I also have battery backup but I have a flush unit which is much more dependent on the fans to get any heat out if it than yours is.

 

[blacktail]

The chimney is not on outside. It runs right thru the center of the house.

Any heat your insert is losing to the fireplace is just getting released into your house anyway isn't it?

 

[Squisher]

Most inserts would look hideous plunked on the floor in front of a fireplace.

And I agree with blacktail. Being an interior masonry chimney the difference is going to be negligible.

Up here I'd be surprised if you'd find a certified installer who would even consider doing it. Do inserts give clearances or any allowances for being installed like this? Don't they all pretty well list that they need to go into a code compliant fireplace opening? Would you treat it as a uncertified appliance?

 

[Beer Belly]

 

[kennyp2339]

hmmm here's something to think about, progress hybrid free standing unit in front of the fire place. The great thing about the progress is that it can crank out about 80,000 btu per hour on high, no blower attachment and you can either have the flue come out the rear and run horizontal (with a slight pitch) or out the top (vertical) Check out the stove online, lots of other good features like an ash pan with a slotted grate for easy clean up, front and side loading, 10-14 hour burn times, and the ability to dial the stove down for long low burns with minimal heat output for shoulder seasons.

 

[kennyp2339]

View attachment 218618

nice setup looks cozy

 

[jetsam]

Any heat your insert is losing to the fireplace is just getting released into your house anyway isn't it?

Interior fireplaces, yes; Exterior wall fireplaces, no.

 

[Jeremy8916]

I'm not sure on what the cost of what you are planning is, or whether you can do it youself, but have you considered a ups? (broken link removed) one like this should last for hours powering just a stove fan. You can get smaller and cheaper ones, or put something together that will fit depending on your average outage time. It all depends on your skill level I guess

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

 

[Squisher]

Interior fireplaces, yes; Exterior wall fireplaces, no.

The OP did specify it was an interior masonry fireplace. Centre of the house.

 

[jscs.moore]

Hi Guys: I'm new to the forum but a long time wood burner. My house has a nice Lopi 1740 wood stove fireplace insert with blower that sucks cold air from the bottom front of the unit and blows it under around and back over the top of the stove and out into the room. Prior owner had it installed professionally with stainless chimney insert for about $4600! to give her some heat during power outages. Everything works as planned.

BUT . . . . obviously . . . .the blower unit does NOT work during power outages. (Big surprise??)

The Stove sits with nearly 70 percent of the firebox inside the fireplace and only about 8 inches of the box out into the room.

It seemed to me that I would get substantially better performance (more heat) in the house per log burned if the ENTIRE stove were pulled out into the basement room with the back of the stove a full foot away from the wall.

I called the outfit that did the installation and asked if this was not the case. He gave a pretty fuzzy answer.

I want to withhold the answer I got from that "professional" until I hear from You guys. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

So one thing you could try during a power outage is removing the upper surround face plate. I have a block off plate with an exterior chimney so I would assume if you removed the upper surround (or even side surrounds)...the heat that is trapped around the insert would have to come out into the room more readily? I haven't actually tried this yet, but I think I have read some posts a while back about some insert owners trying this. Might be something that works during a power outage to release more heat into the living space?

 

[aquamagi]

Thanks guys for all the help. My setup looks almost identical to Beer Belly's. Jeremy's suggestion is way above my pay scale. I agree with blacktail. But what I'm looking for is less heat going up the chimney and more into the house. The flue goes up inside a brick chimney. The brick chimney is surrounded by a chase of 2x 4s and sheet rock spaced away from the bricks.

Any heat your insert is losing to the fireplace is just getting released into your house anyway isn't it?

That's true but there's a lot of heat, I believe/suspect, that is now going up the chase, heating the brick chimney, the air gap to the walls of the chase and the chase itself which is mostly inside a closet - and that heat does not heat the rooms I live in. Also the stove is in the furnished basement where we get the main heat any heat in the chase and brick chimney does not make the upstairs any warmer. We do get stove heat from the basement going up the stairwell. I like jscs's idea of an insulated blocker plate (which I take to mean a steel plate blocking off the fireplace chimney through which runs the exhaust pipe from the stove) please correct me if that's wrong. My surround plates are all insulated which leads me to believe that there is no blocker plate. Its too cold here now to do anything. Near West Point New York . but thanks for the suggestions. Modifications will have to wait till spring. I may try a new fan that runs on induction current from the hot stove -- no outside current. Anyone know where I can get one?

 

[kennyp2339]

I may try a new fan that runs on induction current from the hot stove

check camping / survival supply shops (online) there are a few induction power packs that have come out that will power a small fan, charge a cell phone and stuff. I saw a video on youtube that had an induction charger that the guy can off his cook stove, not sure if it worked or not but the technology seems to be improving all the time in this field.