New 2 sided Supreme Duet

[Chum Stains]

Sounds like we are getting simular burns! Wish i could get a little more heat out of it come morning time also! and it sounds like doing your HVAC system from scratch and incorporating the duet is the way to go! just make sure that you are not blocking too many return air vents for your HVAC unit, because in doing so you may notice whistling from starving your unit from air, and also shorten the life of your unit.. make sure you also are changing your filter regular when running it this winter.. what kind of primary heat did you end up going with where your house?

 

[Abby]

Does anyone on this thread know of anyone who has used the Supreme Duet on an exterior wall? I would like to hear from someone before I decide if that's a good idea.

 

[begreen]

There may be issues we haven't thought of. Have you called or emailed the company?

 

[Waterwheel13]

Thank you very much to the OP for posting pics of his project. Just purchased a house which had a cavern between living and dining room. Sellers told us they built the place with intensions to build a stone fireplace later but never got to finish. They moved due to old age. So now we are obsessed with finishing it. Your pics give us great inspiration!

 

[Abby]

I posted about a month ago that we were using the DUET. We too are only getting about 4-5 hours of burn before we have just enough coals to start again. I have contacted Supreme about this and they were in the lab working on some stuff. I told them that i would conitnue to tinker with my air control but it is still not giving me a good burn to trust it over night. BUT, we love the fireplace. We are a 3400+ sq ft reverse story and a half. we have the two hot air vent in the fireplace cabinet. Unfortunatey thought we did not leave enough room around the firebox to put two hot air systems in. We just have one. it dumps air into the basement in a rec room area. I have not tested the output for actual temperature but it is very warm air. We have a rec room/pool table area and two bedrooms downstairs. Between that and blocking the majority of the cold air returns we are actually keeping the house very comfortable on single digit nights. We have now burned through about 2 cords of wood (hackleberry being my favorite). If I would have planned better I would be extremely satisfied if I would have had the two hot air systems installed. I am including some pictures of our install and the one family member that can't get enough of the fire!
View attachment 152757 View attachment 152756 View attachment 152758 View attachment 152759 View attachment 152760 View attachment 152761

Thanks for sharing your pics. Your installation is similar to what I plan. May I ask what size are the duct holes that I see in the photo just above the mantel? It looks like you put rectangular vent covers over the round ducts...how does that attach?

 

[Dreamboater]

Gorgeous setup here! Considering this in new construction. For those that paid for unit and install would anyone mind commenting on price for this type of setup?

 

[nal51511]

Then there is inline-fan's in the duct work, with temp sensors on each side that are linked to thermostats for 2 of the bedrooms upstairs.. so when the thermostats call upstairs and the fireplace is hot enough it will pump heat upstairs.. if its not hot, it will not allow the fans to come on, so you wont get cold air pumping upstairs..

can you elaborate a little on this system? sounds very interesting.

 

[Chum Stains]

can you elaborate a little on this system? sounds very interesting.

sorry for not getting back to you right away, i just seen this..It is a separate system/fans then the fans that are on the bottom of the fireplace unit.. I installed (2) other fans/inducer's on each side of the unit with 6'' duct's that are ducted up to the 2nd floor bed rooms, there are thermostates in each bedroom that are wired to temp sensors in the ducts near the inducer fans by the fireplace.. when the fireplace heats up and the thermostates in the bedrooms are calling it allows the fans to turn on and blows hot air into the upstairs! when the fireplace cools down they automatically turn off.. So far it has been working great getting on average 100-130 degree air out of the vents upstairs during a normal burn .. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions..

 

[WV woods]

I am reading all the posts on the Duet, all sounds and looks great. It's been a year since last post, just would like to hear how the two sided duet is performing after being good and broke in by now.

 

[Chum Stains]

So far so good, one thing for sure is if you don't have real good seasoned wood <15% . It's not worth lighting a fire, but with some good wood, and the way i designed the ducts to pump air upstairs, i have been able to heat my 2400sq house with substandard insulation with downstairs temp at 72, and upstairs temp at 68. With outside temps down to about 25. Once it gets down below that my boiler will start kicking on for the zone opposite of the fireplace downstairs. But all and all. Pretty happy, if I had to find 1 con. It would be that I wish I could get more then 5-6hr Burns out of it. But if I throw some big rounds in there at 10pm, I will have just enough co as long to get it going again at 5am.

 

[WV woods]

Thanks, how well does glass stay clean and do you smoke up house much during fire start or re-charge.

 

[Chum Stains]

Glass stays Crystal clear on both sides as long as your feeding it very dry seasoned wood and burn it hot.. if you have unseasoned wet wood it will turn black, but once burning hot enough it will clear up.

As far as smoke goes in the house. I usually will start my fires with alot of small dry splits and crack the door for about 5min or so until it gets goin good and then close the door and not open it again reload, that for me works great and I get no smoke in the house. once ready to reload I open the door slowly, rake coals flat and reload and usually don't open again to next reload.. no smoke in the house unless you open it in the beginning of a load cycle or if you are burning unseasoned wood when you open the door you will get some.. I really can't stress enough that if having really seasoned wood is key with this fireplace, it's not even worth trying to burn anything above 15% you will be wasting you time and the fireplace will not work like it should.

 

[WV woods]

15% moisture doesn't come easy, especially for mostly oak in my neck of the woods. I have not used the high efficiency systems before and that low moisture content appears to me common theme. As much as I like this stove, I don't have the storage or time to hold firewood for 3-4 years prior to burning. I appreciate all the help from this forum.

 

[WV woods]

How many cords of wood do you burn per year on average in the duet?

 

[Chum Stains]

On average I have burned 2-3 cord a year through it.. the 1st season I learned the hard way with wet wood.. now I have about 5-6 cord always stacked and drying.. this year I'm burning mostly white oak, beach, and iron wood that has been split and stacked for about a year and a half and the stove is putting out an incredible amount of heat!

 

[mellow]

I would look into building a Solar Wood Kiln, I am pressed for space on my city lot and that is what I am building this year, some of these guys are drying wood to 15-20% in 6-8 summer months. Now the question would be could that be done with Red Oak.

 

[ted184]

We are in the middle of building a new house and had a duet installed. We wanted the Opus and then found out Supreme no longer ships it to the US due to new EPA regulations that started in 2016. Your pictures were a big inspiration and we have a set up that will be very similar with the added blower kits, controls, A/V cabinet and storage built ins along side it, etc. I was going to ask some questions a while back but didn't bother signing up as I doubted you were still following this. I'm glad to see I was wrong!

I have a couple of weeks before drywall goes up and I no longer have access to anything. We were originally planning on running one of the auxiliary blower kits to a small loft area on the 2nd floor, but recently decided against it. Right now both kits will just dump into the basement and we can reroute them to other first floor areas or somewhere else in the basement later as the basement will not be finished.

So I ask, how happy are you with the the auxiliary blowers? Did you use the included controls and how exactly did you wire the extra blower? My kits came with thermostats, but the duet itself was wired slightly different than the diagrams in the manual. I do not have the terminals that are shown in the manual, which is going to make tying into the thermodisc used for the main blowers rather difficult. I was thinking it would be easier to possibly add a second thermodisk for the added blowers, but I'm not sure where it would be easiest to mount it. My plan was then to turn these on with a switch that then runs through the added thermodisk and each individual auxiliary blower. Can you explain in a little more detail your control system, what was included with your kits, and what you added on?

Thanks!

 

[Chum Stains]

I'm glad that I could be an inspiration for your project! You'll definitely have to post some pics so we can see!

As far as the controls go on my unit.. I used the variable speed control that came with the Supreme duet for the 2 main fans at the bottom that kick on automatically once the stoves starts heating up, that fan blows heat out both my custom made wrought iron grates on the first floor.. as far as the controls for my second-floor bedrooms and blowers.. That is pretty much all custom and I did not purchase anything from Supreme to do it.. I pretty much just used heavy insulated smoke pipe with adapters attached at yhe punch outs on the side of the stove.. They run up about 3 foot from the stove and I have attached inline 6 inch 275 CFM blowers that I ran roughly 15 feet of insulated 6 inch round duct through an addict Eve and punched through into bedrooms with side wall discharge registers. My control system for that is all 120volt.. I bought Ranco electronic temperature control for each side, the temperature sensor for the Ranco is attached inside the duct work at the booster fans location 3 foot above the fireplace.. from there the feed for the temperature sensor and the booster fan run to the bedroom 120 volt thermostat.. When the upstairs thermostat is calling for Heat and the temperature sensor in the duct is above the desired preset temperature (73 at the fan at fireplace) it will turn on the the fireplace booster fan and will allow the fan to send warm air upstairs.. If the upstairs warms up to the desired temperature at the thermostat upstairs the fan will shut off and Supply more heat out of the downstairs through the Integral Supreme supplied fans. The downstairs Supreme fans and stock control act as its own system.. And then each bedroom fan acts and thermostat act as its own system.. Everything is independent of itself.. hope that wasn't confusing to you.
One thing that I have been messing around with and learning is that if I run the downstairs Supreme fans on low, I can get a lot more heat upstairs.. The upstairs fans are rated for a 180d degrees . The most I have seen at the fans via the temperature sensor bulb has been 130 degrees. Once the inline duct fans start getting that hot I can turn the downstairs Supreme fan on high and it pulls it off pretty quickly.. attached is a picture of the setup in my side closet with the Supreme variable speed fan control, and one of the Ranco temperature sensor that is linked to the 6-inch inline Duct Fan.. Also the 120volt Honeywell thermostat in the bedrooms.. I'm a mechanical contractor by trade and found this system to be far better than the one supplied and sold by Supreme.. Unsure of how their system with remote Dcuts operate but would like to know..

 

[ted184]

The supreme kit comes with a squirrel cage type blower, adapters to connect it to 5" duct, adapter to connect the fireplace to the 5" duct, and a generic thermostat in Celcius! I like the blower supplied by Supreme. It seems like it's good quality, although I have to send one back as either the squirrel cage or the motor shaft is bent. I can't quite tell but it rubs the housing. I've been so busy with the build that I haven't had a chance to contact my dealer about that yet, but I don't anticipate an issue. Overall your setup is probably better, buct with the ease of not having to put parts together and the quality blower I think the Supreme kit is still probably pretty good for those of us not in the HVAC industry.

The biggest pain is going to be setting up some controls for it. I have a switch box in the built in shelves for this just as you do. I'll put in my own speed control for the main fans. I'm going to use a wifi capable switch instead of the one supplied by Supreme. I'll have a separate manual switch for my auxiliary blowers. At this point, I don't think I am going to even use a thermostat for them. They are going into an unfinished basement more to dump off excess heat than anything. When I finish the basement or decide where I want them to permanently go, I'll add some 24V control and the thermostats.

Was the terminal box on your duet wired as indicated in the manual? That right now is my biggest complaint about the unit. The manual indicates some terminals should be there that would make wiring much easier as it shows a hot wire going through the thermodisk and back to the box. My terminal box just has three wires. I'm guessing the included blowers are 24V as each has a small transformer next to it. Both neutral wires from the main blower transformer come back to the box, but the hot wire goes to the thermodisk and then splits and goes straight to the hot side of each transformer. I am going to have to splice into the switched side of the thermodisk for the auxiliary blowers.

 

[SCNMMom]

Hi -- new here....but looking into a double sided wood stove setup. Would this one work for occasional fires as well (as opposed to being a primary heat source)? We have a double sided fireplace but the prior owners really didn't do it right- they added a chimney fan to help the draw but did little more. (House is a 1959 ranch with an addition -- fireplace straddles the addition.) We've had chimney specialists look at it and open up the damper (remove the old one and open up the opening completely). But still there is smoke coming in. We think the only option left is a wood stove or insert but would love to maintain the double sided if we can. Thoughts?

 

[ted184]

There's absolutely no reason why you couldn't use it on an occasional basis only. It's probably a little overkill if you are just looking for ambience though. I don't plan to use mine as a primary heat source, but we will use it fairly regularly.

 

[cranberry]

Hello folks,
New member here.

This thread has been an inspiration - my hat is off to Chum Stains!

I am about to embark on the Duet installation project in the house I bought recently.

What is the longest distance from the fireplace have people run the hot air ducts?
Did anyone go longer than 25ft? Would there be any problems with that?

I want to run it to a bedroom (on the same floor as the fireplace), but farther away than
25ft. The ducts will go through the crawl space.

Now thinking about using the hot air system provided by Supreme, possibly with a longer
duct.

ted184, how's your build going? Any interesting info/experience to share?

 

[begreen]

30 ft is the limit according to Supreme. Running the ducts through the crawlspace will be lossy if the space is outdoor ventilated. Go as high as possible on the duct insulation and be sure the crawlspace is rodent proof.

 

[cranberry]

Yes, I realize that. Unfortunately, there are no other options due to the way
the house is built. The ducts from the existing gas furnace go through the
crawlspace, too

 

[begreen]

Will the fireplace be in a large open area? If so, another option would be to install an insulated duct from the far bedroom with an outlet near the fireplace that has a quiet inline fan installed. This would pull air from the bedroom and blow it to the fireplace area. Warm air from the fireplace room would then travel through the house to the bedroom. This has worked for long houses like some ranches and can nicely even out the heat in the house.